[53] Pope's Poetical Works, ed. Elwin, vol. i. p. 7.
[ [54] Dryden's Epilogue to All for Love:
This difference grows,
Betwixt our fools in verse, and yours in prose.
[55] An extravagant assertion. Those who can appreciate, are beyond comparison more numerous than those who can produce, a work of genius.
[56] Qui scribit artificiose, ab aliis commode scripta facile intelligere proterit. Cic. ad Herenn. lib. iv. De pictore, sculptore, fictore, nisi artifex, judicare non potest. Pliny.—Pope.
Poets and painters must appeal to the world at large. Wretched indeed would be their fate, if their merits were to be decided only by their rivals. It is on the general opinion of persons of taste that their individual estimation must ultimately rest, and if the public were excluded from judging, poets might write and painters paint for each other.—Roscoe.
The execution of a work and the appreciation of it when executed are separate operations, and all experience has shown that numbers pronounce justly upon literature, architecture, and pictures, though they may not be able to write like Shakespeare, design like Wren, or paint like Reynolds. Taste is acquired by studying good models as well as by emulating them. Pope, perhaps, copied Addison, Tatler, Oct. 19, 1710: "It is ridiculous for any man to criticise on the works of another who has not distinguished himself by his own performances."
[57] Omnes tacito quodam sensu, sine ulla arte aut ratione, quæ sint in artibus ac rationibus, recta et prava dijudicant. Cic. de Orat. lib. iii.—Pope.
[58] The phrase "more disgraced" implies that slight sketches "justly traced" are a disgrace at best, whereas they have often a high degree of merit.
[59] Plus sine doctrina prudentia, quam sine prudentia valet doctrina. Quint.—Pope.