He is the English Horace, and
will as surely descend with honors to the latest posterity.
AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM,
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1709
[The title, _An Essay on Criticism_ hardly indicates all
that is included in the poem. It would have been impossible to
give a full and exact idea of the art of poetical criticism
without entering into the consideration of the art of poetry.
Accordingly Pope has interwoven the precepts of both throughout
the poem which might more properly have been styled an essay on
the Art of Criticism and of Poetry.]
* * * * *
PART I.
'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill
Appear in writing or in judging ill,
But of the two less dangerous is the offense
To tire our patience than mislead our sense
Some few in that but numbers err in this,
Ten censure wrong for one who writes amiss,
A fool might once himself alone expose,
Now one in verse makes many more in prose.
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