But when the milder beams of mercy play.— Wakefield.
[74] From the second couplet, apparently meant to be the converse of the first, one would suppose that he considered the understanding and imagination as the same faculty, else the counterpart is defective.—Warton.
The structure of the passage requires the interpretation put upon it by Warton, in which case the language is incorrect. The statement is not even true of the imagination proper, as the example of Milton would alone suffice to prove. His imagination was grand, and the numberless phrases he adopted from preceding writers evince that it was combined with a memory unusually tenacious.
[75] This position seems formed from the well-known maxim of Hippocrates, which is found at the entrance of his aphorisms, "Life is short, but art is long."—Wakefield.
The standard of excellence in any art or science, must always be that which is attained by the persons who follow it with the greatest success; and those who give themselves up to a particular pursuit will, with equal talents, eclipse the rivals who devote to it only fragments of time. For this reason men can rarely attain to the highest skill in more than one department, however many accomplishments they may possess in a minor degree. The native power to shine in various callings may exist, but the practice which can alone make perfect, is wanting.
[76] These are the words of Lord Shaftesbury in his Advice to an Author: "Frame taste by the just standard of nature." The principle is as old as poetry, and has been laid down by multitudes of writers; but the difficulty, as Bowles remarks, is to determine what is "nature," and what is "her just standard." "Nature" with Pope meant Homer.
[77] Roscommon's Essay:
Truth still is one: Truth is divinely bright;
No cloudy doubts obscure her native light.— Wakefield.
[78] Translation of Boileau's Art of Poetry by Sir William Soame and Dryden, canto i.
Love reason then, and let whate'er you write
Borrow from her its beauty, force, and light.