If Mævius fcribble in Apollo's fpight, There are who judge ftill worse than he can write. 35 To tell 'em, would a hundred tongues require, 45 Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, 50 5$ And mark that point where sense and dulness meet. бо 65 70 Firft follow Nature, and your judgment frame With spirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole, Are Nature fill, but Nature methodiz'd: 8 85 VER. 88. Thofe rules of old, etc.] Cicero has, beft of any one I know, explained what that is which reduces the wild and fcattered parts of human knowledge into art."Nihil eft quod ad 66 artem redigi poffit, nifi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum "artem inftituere vult, habeat illam fcientiam, ut ex iis rebus, quarum ars nondum fit, aitem efficere poffit.-Omnia fere, quæ "funt conclufa nunc artibus, difperfa et diffipata quondam fuerunt, << ut in Muficis, etc. Adhibita eft igitur ars quædam extrinfecus <r ex alio genere quodam, quod fibi totum PHILOSOPHI affumunt, "quæ rem diffolutam divulfamque conglutinaret, et ratione qua"dam conftringeret." De Orat. l. i. c. 41, 2. VARIATIONS. VER. So. There are whom Heav'n has bleft with ftore of wit, Nature, like Liberty, is but reftrain'd By the fame laws which first herself ordain'd. 90 Hear how learn'd Greece her ufeful rules indites, And pointed out thofe arduous paths they trod : 95. Just precepts thus from great examples giv'n, She drew from them what they deriv'd from Heav'n. The gen'rous Critic fann'd the Poet's fire, 100 And taught the world with reafon to admire. By Doctors bills to play the Doctor's part, [10 115 - You then whofe judgment the right courfe would fteer, Know well each ANCIENT's proper character: VER. 98. Juft precepts] "Nec enim artibus editis factum eft "ut argumenta inveniremus, fed dicta funt omnia antequam præciperentur: mox ea fcriptores obfervata et collecta ediderunt." Quintil. + 120 His Fable, Subject, fcope in ev'ry page; And trace the Mufes upward to their spring. 125 When first young Maro in his boundless mind 130 A work t' outlast immortal Rome defign'd, Perhaps he feem'd above the Critic's law, 'And but from Nature's fountains fcorn'd to draw: VARIATIONS. VER. 123. Cavil you may, but never criticize.] The Author after this verfe originally inferted the following, which he has however omitted in all the editions: Zoilus, had thefe been known, without a Name VER. 130. When firft young Maro fung of Kings and Wars IMITATION S. VER. 130. When firft young Maro, etc.] Virg. Ecl. vi. Cum canerem reges et prælia, Cynthius aurem Vellit. It is a tradition preferved by Servius, that Virgil began with writing a poem of the Alban and Roman affairs: which he found above his years, and defcended firft to imitate Theocritus on rural subVests, and afterwards to copy Homer in Heroic poetry. But when t'examine ev'ry part he came, Some beauties yet no precepts can declare, 135 140 145 Are nameless graces which no methods teach, Th' intent propos'd, that License is a rule. 150 VER. 146. If, where the rules, etc.] "Neque enim rogationibus plebifve fcitis fancta funt ifta præcepta, fed hoc, quicquid eft, "Utilitas excogitavit. Non negabo autem fic utile effe plerum66 que; verum fi eadem illa nobis aliud fuadebit Utilitas, hanc, "relictis magiftrorum autoritatibus, fequemur." Quintil. lib. ii. cap. 13. VER. 150. Thus Pegafus, etc.] He first defcribes the fublime flight of a Poet, foaring above all vulgar bounds, to snatch a grace directly, which lies beyond the reach of a common adventurer. And afterwards, the effect of that grace upon the true Critic: whom it penetrates with an equal rapidity; going the nearest way to his beart, without paffing through his Judgment. By which is not meant that it could not ftand the test of Judgment; but that, as it was a beauty uncommon, and above rule, and the Judgment habituated to determine only by rule, it makes its direct application to the heart; which once gained, foon opens and enlarges the Judgment, whofe concurrence (it being now fet above forms) is eafily procured. That this is the Poet's fublime conception appears from the concluding words: and all its end at once attains. For Poetry doth not attain all its end, till it hath gained the Judyment as well as Heart. |