THE following Treatise on the Art of Sinking in Poetry, is probably entirely the work of Pope. It was intended as a portion of the greater work of Martinus Scriblerus, and may be considered as the immediate precursor of the Dunciad. It was first published in the miscellanies of Pope and Swift in 1727, and gave great offence to the numerous authors whose writings are quoted as instances of the Bathos; who uniting together produced a volume called the Popiad, and a collection of Essays, Letters, &c. forming three volumes, the particulars of which are stated by Pope as a vindication for the severity which he exercised in return. Of the circumstances attending its publication, a more particular account may be found in the Life of Pope prefixed to this Edition, chap. vii. . 103 107 109 V. Of the true Genius for the Profund, and by what it is constituted . XI. The Figures continued: Of the magni- fying and diminishing Figures . 148 MARTINUS SCRIBLERUS ΠΕΡΙ ΒΑΘΟΥΣ: CHAP. I. Ir hath been long (my dear countrymen) the subject of my concern and surprize, that whereas numberless poets, critics, and orators have compiled and digested the art of ancient poesy, there hath not risen among us one person so public-spirited, as to perform the like for the modern. Although Martinus] The learned Mr. Upton has made an ingenious remark on the title of this piece: ""Tis pleasant enough to consider how the change of a single letter has often led learned commentators into mistakes; and a П, being accidentally altered into a B, in a Greek rhetorician, gave occasion to one of the best pieces of satire that was ever written in the English language, viz. ПEPI BA☺OYɛ; a treatise concerning the Art of Sinking in Poetry. The blunder I mean is in the second section of Longinus: ΕΙ ΕΣΤΙΝ ΥΨΟΥΣ ΤΙΣ Η ΒΑΘΟΥΣ ΤΕΧΝΗ, instead of ПА OrΣ; a most ridiculous blunder, which has occasioned as ridiculous criticisms." Observations on Shakespeare, p. 256. M. De Larchet, the translator of Herodotus, gave a French translation also of this Life of Scriblerus. It is easy to imagine that the humour has evaporated in a French translation. The blunder relating to the word яal, reminds one of a most egregious mistake of Rapin the critic, whose knowledge of Greek has been much questioned. Relating a story of Euphranor the painter, he says, "Apion has related it." Having read the story in Eustathius; who says, aw sypa; which meant, that Euphranor, hearing a description of Jupiter read in Homer, "went away and painted it." Warton. it is universally known, that our every-way industrious moderns, both in the weight of their writings, and in the velocity of their judgments, do so infinitely excel the said ancients. Nevertheless, too true it is, that while a plain and direct road is paved to their foç or sublime, no tract has been yet chalked out, to arrive at our Báboc or profund. The Latins, as they came between the Greeks and us, made use of the word altitudo, which implies equally height and depth. Wherefore, considering with no small grief, how many promising geniuses of this age are wandering (as I may say) in the dark without a guide, I have undertaken this arduous but necessary task, to lead them as it were by the hand, and step by step, the gentle down-hill way to the Bathos; the bottom, the end, the central point, the non plus ultru, of true modern poesy! When I consider (my dear countrymen) the extent, fertility, and populousness of our Lowlands of Parnassus, the flourishing state of our trade, and the plenty of our manufacture, there are two reflections which administer great occasion of surprize the one, that all dignities and honours should be bestowed upon the exceeding few meagre inhabitants of the top of the mountain; the other, that our own nation should have arrived to that pitch of greatness it now possesses, without any regular system of laws. As to the first, it is with great pleasure I have observed of late the gradual decay of delicacy and refinement among mankind, |