Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/113
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ESSAY on CRITICISM.
77
But as the slightest sketch, if justly trac'd,
Is by ill colouring but the more disgrac'd,
So by false learning is good sense defac'd:
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.
In search of wit these lose their common sense,
And then turn Critics in their own defence:
Those hate as rivals all that write; and others
But envy wits, as eunuchs envy lovers.
All such have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side:
If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spight,
There are, who judge still worse than he can write.
Some have at first for Wits, then Poets past,
Turn'd Critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last.
Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.
Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle,
As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile;
Is by ill colouring but the more disgrac'd,
So by false learning is good sense defac'd:
Some are bewilder'd in the maze of schools,
And some made coxcombs nature meant but fools.
In search of wit these lose their common sense,
And then turn Critics in their own defence:
Those hate as rivals all that write; and others
But envy wits, as eunuchs envy lovers.
All such have still an itching to deride,
And fain would be upon the laughing side:
If Mævius scribble in Apollo's spight,
There are, who judge still worse than he can write.
Some have at first for Wits, then Poets past,
Turn'd Critics next, and prov'd plain fools at last.
Some neither can for Wits nor Critics pass,
As heavy mules are neither horse nor ass.
Those half-learn'd witlings, num'rous in our isle,
As half-form'd insects on the banks of Nile;
Unfinish'd