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Something there is more needful than Expence,
And fomething previous ev'nto Tafte---itis Senfe:
Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heavin,
And tho' no Science, fairly worth the feven:
A Light, which in yourself you must perceive; 45
Jones and Le Nôtre have it not to give,

To build, to plant, whatever you intend,
To rear the Column, or the Arch to bend,

COMMENTARY.

fame in Building and Planting, that the SUBLIME is in Painting and Poetry; and, confequently, the qualities neceffary for the attainment of both must have the fame relation.

1. The first and fundamental, he fhews (from 38 to 47) to be SENSE:

Good Senfe, which only is the gift of Heav'n,

And, tho' no Science, fairly worth the feven.

And for that reafon; not only as it is the foundation and parent of them all, and the conftant regulator and director of their operations, or, as the poet better exprefles it, of every art the ful; but likewife as it alone can, in cafe of need, very often fupply the offices of every one of them.

VER. 47. To build to plant, &c.]. 2. The next quality, for dignity and ufe, is TASTE, and but the next: For, as the poet truly obferves, there is fomething previous ev'n to Tafte―'tis

NOTES.

foreign and difcordant Manners in public buildings; here he turns to the ftill greater abfurdity of taking their models from a difcordant Climate, in their private: which folly, he fuppofes, may be more cafily redrefled, as men will be fooner brought to feel for themfelves than to fee for the public.

VER. 46. Inigo Jones the celebrated Architect, and M. Le Netre, the defigner of the best Gardens of France. P.

To fwell the Terras, or to fink the Grot;
In all, let Nature never be forgot.

50

But treat the Goddess like a modest fair,
Nor over-dress, nor leave her wholly bare;
Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,
Where half the skill is decently to hide.
He gains all points, who pleasingly confounds, 55
Surprizes, varies, and conceals the Bounds.

COMMENTARY.

Senfe; and this in the order of things: For Senfe is a tafte and true conception of Nature; and Tafte is a fenfe or true conception of beautiful Nature; but we must first know the Effences of things, before we can judge truly of their Qualities. The bu finefs of Tafe, therefore, in the purfuit of Magnificence, is, as the poet fhews us (from 46 to 65) 1. (to 51) To catch or lay hold on Nature, where the appears moft in her charms. 2. (to 57) To adorn her, when taken, as best suits her dignity and quality; that is, to drefs her in the light and modest habit of a virgin, not load her with the gaudy ornaments of a prostitute. This rule obferved, will prevent a tranfgreffion in the following, which is, not to let all its beauties be seen at once,

NOTES.

VER. 53. Let not each beauty ev'ry where be spy'd,] For when the fame beauty obtrudes itself upon you over and over; when it meets you full at whatever place you stop, or to whatever point you turn, then Nature loses her proper charms of a modest fair; and you begin to hate and nauseate her as a prostitute.

VER. 54. Where half the fkill is decently to hide] If the poet was right in comparing the true drefs of Nature to that of a modeft fair, it is a plain confequence, that one half of the de figner's art muft be, decently to hide; as the other half is gracefully to discover.

VOL. III.

U

Confult the Genius of the Place in all;
That tells the Waters or to rife, or fall;

Or helps th'ambitious Hill the heav'ns to scale,
Or fcoops in circling theatres the Vale;

60

Calls in the Country, catches op'ning glades, Joins willing woods, and varies fhades from shades; Now breaks, or now directs, th' intending Lines; Paints as you plant, and, as you work, defigns.

COMMENTARY.

but in fucceffion; for that advantage is infeparable from a graceful and well-drefled perfon. 3. (to y 65) To take care that the ornaments be well fuited to that part, which it is your purpofe to adorn; and, as in dreffing out a modest Fair (which is the poet's own comparifon) the colours are proportioned to her complexion; the stuff, to the enbonpoint of her person; and the fashion, to her air and fhape; fo in ornamenting a villa, the rife or fall of waters fhould correfpond to its acclivities or declivities; the artificial hills or vales to its cover or expofure; and the manner of calling in the country, to the difpofition of its aspect. But again, as in the illustration, whatever be the variety in colour, ftuff, or fashion, they muft ftill be fo fuited with refpect to one another, as to produce an agreement and harmony in their affemblage; fo woods, waters, mountains, vales, and vistas must, amidít all their diverfity, be fo disposed with a relation to each other, as to create a perfect fymmetry refulting from the whole; and this, the Genius of the place, when reli

NOTES.

VER. 57. Confult the Genius of the Place, &c. to defigns, 64.] The perfonalizing or rather deifying the Genius of the place, in order to be confulted as an Oracle, has produced one of the nobleft and most fublime defcriptions of Defign, that poetry could expreis. Where this Genius, while prefiding over

65

Still follow Senfe, of ev'ry Art the Soul,

Parts anfw'ring parts shall slide into a whole,

COMMENTARY.

giously confulted, will never fail to inform us of; who, as the poet fays,

Now breaks, and now directs, th' intending lines,

Paints as you plant, and, as you work, defigns. And this is a full and complete defcription of the office of Tafte. VER. 65. Still follow Senfe, &c.] But now when Good Senfe has led us up to Tate, our fondness for the elegancies of our new miftrefs, oftentimes occafions us to neglect the plainness and fimplicity of the old; we are but too apt to forfake our Guide, and to give ourselves up folely to Tafte. Our author's next rule therefore 3. is, Still to follow Senfe, and let it perpetually accompany us thro' all the works of Tafte.

Still follow Senfe, of ev'ry art the Soul.

That is, Good Senfe fhould never be a moment abfent from the works of Tafte, any more than the Soul from the Body; for just as the Soul animates and informs ev'ry air and feature of a beauteous body, fo Senfe gives life and vigout to all the productions of Tafte.

VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts, &c.] The particular advan

NOTES.

the work, is reprefented by little and little, as advancing from a fimple advifer, to a creator of all the beauties of improved Nature, in a variety of bold metaphors and allufions, all rifing one above another, till they complete the unity of the general

idea.

First the Genius of the place tel's the waters, or only fimply gives directions: Then he helps th' ambitious bill, or is a fellowlabourer: Then again he scoops the circling Theatre, or works alone, or in chief. Afterwards, rifing faft in our idea of dignity, he calls in the country, alluding to the orders of princes in their progrefs, when accuftemed to difplay all their state and magnificence: His character then grows facred, he joins wil ling woods, a metaphor taken from one of the offices of the

Spontaneous beauties all around advance,

Start cv'n from Difficulty, ftrike from Chance;

COMMENTARY.

tages of the union of Senfe with Tafte he then explains (from this verfe to 71) 1. That the beautiful parts which Taste has laid out and contrived, Senfe makes to anfwer one another, and to flide naturally, without violence, into a whole. 2. That many beauties will spontaneously offer themselves, fuggefted from the very neceffity which Senfe lays upon us, of conforming the parts to the whole, that no original invention of Tafte would

NOTES.

priesthood; till at length, he becomes a Divinity, and creates and prefides over the whole:

Now breaks, or now directs th' intending lines,

Paints as you plant, and, as you work, designs.

Much in the fame manner as the plastic Nature is supposed to do, in the work of human generation.

VER. 65. Still follow Senfe, &c.] The not obferving this rule, bewilder'd a late noble writer (diftinguished for his philofophy of Tafie) in the purfuit of the Grand and Magnificent in moral life; who, when Good Senfe had led him up to the To nanou, To Pέov, of ancient renown, difcharged his Guide; and, captivated with the delights of Tafte, refolved all into the elegancies of that idea: And now, Reafon, Morality, Religion, and the truth of things, were nothing elfe but TASTE; which, (that he might not be thought altogether to have deferted his fage conductrefs) he fometimes dignified with the name of the moral fenfe: And he fucceeded in the pursuit of Truth, accordingly.

VER. 66. Parts anfw'ring parts fhall flide into a whole,] i. e. fhall not be forced, but go of themselves; as if both the parts and whole were not of yours, but of Nature's making. The metaphor is taken from a piece of mechanifm finished by fome great mafter, where all the parts are fo previously fitted, as to be cafily put together by any ordinary workman: and each part flides into its place, as it were thro' a groove ready made for that purpose.

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