ical, tends continually to its
second phasis, of a science grounding an art. And it is to be hoped, that
something towards this profounder constitution has been attained, and that
we, in following down our critics, shall follow out some part of such a
progress. In the mean time, let us not rate our predecessors too low,
merely upon the showing of their own modesty. Do not believe that
Aristotle could propound a rule, through which a principle did not gleam
out. And, in sooth, when this Essay sprang from the brain of Pope,--were
not, possibly, the papers lying in the desk of Addison, in which he began,
for our literature, the deliberate and express examination into the
Philosophy of Criticism, within the domain of the beautiful in Art and
Nature?

Addison, in a commendatory critique in the _Spectator_, said, that the
observations in the Essay "follow one another without that methodical
regularity that would have been requisite in a prose writer." And Warton,
in opposition to Warburton, who asserted that it was a regular piece,
written on a regular and consistent plan, has spoken scornfully of the
Bishop's Commentary, and concluded in his usual forcible-feeble way, that
Pope had no plan in the poem at all. Roscoe spiritedly rates Warton for
assuming to know Pope's mind better than Pope himself, who gave the
Commentary his _imprimatur_. It may occasionally refine rather too
ingeniously, but on the whole it is elucidatory, and Roscoe did well to
give it entire in his edition of Pope. The Essay is in one book, but
divided into three principal parts or numbers; and Warburton in a few
words tells its plan:--"The rest gives the rules for the study of the art
of criticism; the second exposes the causes of wrong judgment; and the
third marks out the morals of the critic." And Roscoe says, with equal
truth, that "a certain degree of order and succession prevails, which
leads the reader through the most important topics connected with the
subject; thereby uniting the charm of variety with the regularity of art."
Adding finely, that "poetry abhors nothing so much as the _appearance_ of
formality and restraint."

An excellent feature of the Essay, giving it practical worth, and
interesting as native to the character of the writer, is the strenuous
requisition to the poet himself, that he shall within his own soul, and
for his own use of his own art, accomplish himself in criticism. It is
recorded that Walsh, "the muses' judge and fr