Part 25

In a deep vision's intellectual scene;

and Mrs. Singer's Vision:

No wild uncouth chimeras intervene To break the perfect intellectual scene.--WAKEFIELD.]

Full in the midst of this created space, Betwixt heav'n, earth, and skies, there stands a place Confining on all three.--WAKEFIELD.]

And earth self-balanced on her center hung.--WAKEFIELD.]

And intermingled temples rise between.]

Tho beheld I fields and plains, And now hills, and now mountains, Now valeys, and now forestes, And now unnethes great bestes, Now riveres, now citees, Now townes, and now great trees, Now shippes sayling in the sea.--POPE.

Dennis objected to Pope's version that "if the whole creation was open to his eyes" he must be too high "to discern such minute objects as ships and trees." But the imagination in dreams conjures up appearances which are beyond the compass of the waking powers, and it is therefore strictly natural to represent events as passing in visions, which would be unnatural in actual life. Added to this, Pope had before him Ovid's description of the house of Fame, which is endued with the property of enabling the beholder to distinguish the smallest objects however remote:

Unde quod est usquam, quamvis regionibus absit, Inspicitur.

Or as Sandys translates it,

Where all that's done, though far removed, appears.]

Confused and chiding, like the hollow roar Of tides, receding from th' insulted shore; Or like the broken thunder heard from far When Jove at distance drives the rolling war.

This is more poetically expressed than the same image in our author. Dryden's lines are superior to the original.--WARTON.

Pope copied Dryden's translation of Ovid, and for this reason did not quote the parallel passage from Chaucer's second book of the House of Fame, where the eagle, when they come within hearing of the swell of indistinct voices, holds a colloquy with the poet on the phenomenon:

"And what sound is it like?" quoth he. "Peter! beating of the sea," Quoth I, "against the rockes hollow, When tempest doth the shippes swallow, Or elles like the last humbling After the clap of a thundring."

"Peter" is an exclamation; and the sense is, "By St. Peter it is like the beating of the sea against the hollow rocks." In Pope's poem no cause is assigned for the "wild promiscuous sound." In Chaucer it is produced by the confluence of the talk upon earth, every word of which is conveyed to the House of Fame.]

It stood upon so high a rock, Higher standeth none in Spayne-- What manner stone this rock was, For it was like a lymed glass, But that it shone full more clere; But of what congeled matere It was, I niste redily; But at the last espied I, And found that it was every dele, A rock of ice and not of stele.--POPE.

The temple of Fame is represented on a foundation of ice, to signify the brittle nature and precarious tenure, as well as the difficult attainment of that possession, according to the poet himself below, ver. 504:

So hard to gain, so easy to be lost.--WAKEFIELD.

Having complained that it was contrary to the laws of sight to suppose that a prospect in sleep could be extended beyond the ordinary range of mortal vision, Dennis proceeds to contend that for a rock to be sustained in the air was contrary to the eternal laws of gravitation, "which," says Pope sarcastically, in a manuscript note, "no dream ought to be." The cavil of Dennis was as false in science as in criticism, for it is not more contrary to the laws of gravitation for a rock to be suspended in space than for the earth itself.]

Smooth the descent, and easy is the way.]

Tho saw I all the hill y-grave With famous folkes names fele. That had been in muchel wele And her fames wide y-blow; But well unneth might I know Any letters for to rede Their names by, for, out of drede, They weren almost off-thawen so, That of the letters one or two Were molte away of every name, So unfamous was woxe their fame; But men said what may ever last.--POPE.]

Tho gan I in myne harte cast, That they were molte away for heate, And not away with stormes beate.--POPE.]

Not only is the comparison defective, but the fundamental idea is unfounded, for though excess of admiration may produce a temporary reaction, the opinion of the world oscillates back to the middle line, and no instance can be quoted of an author who has finally lost his due reputation because he had once been overpraised. Chaucer makes a different use of the image. In his poem the north side of the icy mountain bears the names of the ancients which were safe from injury. The sunny side bears the names of the moderns, and he perhaps intended to intimate his opinion that the reason why their fame was less durable than that of the Greeks and Romans was that they were a more luxurious race, and did not in the same degree "scorn delights, and live laborious days" for the sake of producing immortal works.]

For on that other side I sey Of that hill which northward ley, How it was written full of names Of folke, that had afore great fames, Of olde time, and yet they were As fresh as men had written hem there The self day, right or that houre That I upon hem gan to poure: But well I wiste what it made; It was conserved with the shade (All the writing that I sye) Of the castle that stoode on high, And stood eke in so cold a place, That heate might it not deface.--POPE.]

Stiff with eternal ice, and hid in snow, That fell a thousand centuries ago.]

Eternal house not built with mortal hands.]

The exterior of the Doric temples abounded in sculptured figures, which may be the reason that Pope supposes the order to have been "peculiarly sacred to heroes and worthies," but it may be doubted whether he had any good grounds for his assertion.]