Note 120 — AN ESSAY ON CRITICISM.
Reading edition
Modeste, et circumspecto judicio de tantis viris pronunciandum est, ne (quod plerisque accidit) damnent quod non intelligunt. Ac si necesse est in alteram errare partem, omnia eorum legentibus placere, quam multa displicere maluerim. Quint.—Pope.
Lord Roscommon was not disposed to be so diffident in those excellent verses of his Essay:
For who, without a qualm, hath ever looked On holy garbage, though by Homer cooked? Whose railing heroes, and whose wounded gods, Make some suspect he snores as well as nods.—Wakefield.
Pope originally wrote in his manuscript,
Nor Homer nods so often as we dream,
which was followed by this couplet:
In sacred writ where difficulties rise, 'Tis safer far to fear than criticise.