C-FLECNOE AND THE DUNCIAD.

The field which we have invaded is one obviously of a vast
comprehension. Taking it up, as we have rightly done, from Dryden, more
than a century and a half of our literature lies immediately and
necessarily within it. For the fountain of criticism once opened and
flowing, the criticism of a country continually reflects its literature,
as a river the banks which yield it a channel, and through which it
winds.

But the image falls short of the thing signified; for criticism is
retrospective without limit, as well as contemporaneous. Heaven only
knows whether it may not be endowed with a gift of prophecy; and for its
horizon--is this narrower than the world? We have undertaken a field
which seems limited, only because it stretches beyond sight. Let us
hope, however, that we shall find some art of striking our own road
through it, without being obliged to study, both in the reflection and
in the original, all the books of all nations and ages, criticising, as
we go along, both originals and criticisms. Every subject, said
Burke--we remember his remark, though not the very words--branches out
into infinitude. The point of view draws a horizon--the goal determines
a track. "The British Critics" themselves are a host,

"Innumerable as the stars of night,
Or stars of morning; dewdrops which the sun
Impearls on every leaf and every flower."

But discreet conscientious Oblivion has infolded under his loving
pinions nine hundred and ninety-nine in every thousand; while we think
of concerning ourselves with those only whose names occupy some notable
niche, pedestal, or other position, in the august house of the great
goddess, Fame. We desire to show the spirit and power of British
criticism, to display the characteristic working of the British
intellect in this department of intellectual activity. Therefore, among
known names, we shall dwell the most upon those writers whose works the
mind of the nation has the most frankly, cordially, and unreservedly
taken to itself, recognising them, as it were, for its own
productions--those writers whose reputation the country has the most
distinctly identified with her own renown.

We have taken hold upon two such names, Dryden and Pope. And tens of
thousands have experienced with us the pleasures that arise from a
renewed or new intimacy with powerful spirits. The acquaintance is not
speedily exhausted. It grows and unfolds itself. When you th