Without all these at once before your eyes,
Cavil you may, but never criticize.
Be Homer's works your ftudy and delight,

Read them by day, and meditate by night,
Thence form your judgment, thence you notions.
And trace the mufes upward to their spring.
[bring,
Still with itself compar'd, his text peruse;
And let your comment be the Mantuan mufe.
* When first young Marofung of Kings and wars
E're warning Phoebus touch'd his trembling ears,
Perhaps he feem'd above the critic's law,

And but from nature's fountains fcorn'd to draw;
But when t' examine ev'ry part he came,
Nature and Homer were, he found, the fame:
Convinc'd, amaz'd, he checks the bold defign;
And rules as ftrict his labour'd works confine,
As if the fagyrite o'erlook'd each line.
Learn hence for ancient rules a just esteem;
To copy nature is to copy them.

Some beauties yet no precepts can declare,
For there's a happiness as well as care,

* Virgil, Eclog. 6, Cùm canerem Reges & prælia, Cynthius aurem

Vellit.

Mufic resembles poetry, in each

Are nameless graces which no methods teach,
And which a mafter-hand alone can reach.

If, where the rules not far enough extend,
(Since rules were made but to promote their end)
Some lucky licence anfwers to the full
Th' intent propos'd, that licence is a rule.
Thus Pegafus, a nearer way to take,
May boldly deviate from the common track.
Great wits fometimes may gloriously offend,
And rife to faults true critics dare not mend;
From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part,
And snatch a grace beyond the reach of art,
Which, without paffing thro' the judgment, gains
The heart, and all its end at once attains.
In profpects, thus, fome objects please our eyes,
Which out of nature's common order rife,
The shapeless rock, or hanging precipice.
But care in poety muft ftill be had,

It asks discretion ev'n in running mad:

↑ Neque tam fan&a funt ifta præcepta, fed hoc quicquid eft, utili tas excogitavit ; non negabo autem fic utile effe plerumque verùm fi eadem illa nobis aliud fuadebit utilitas, hanc relictis magiftrorum autoritatibus, fequemur. Quintil. lib. 2. cap. 13.

And

And tho' the ancients thus their rules invade,

(As Kings difpenfe with laws themselves have made) Moderns beware! or if you must offend

Against the precept, ne'er tranfgrefs its end;
Let it be feldom, and compell'd by need;
And have at least their precedent to plead :
The critic elfe proceeds without remorse,
Seizes your fame, and puts his laws in force.

I know there are, to whofe prefumptuous thoughts Those freer beauties, ev'n in them, feem faults. Some figures monftrous and mif-fhap'd appear, Confider'd fingly, or beheld too near,

Which, but proportion'd to their light, or place,
Due diftance reconciles to form and grace.
A prudent chief not alway muft display
His pow'rs in equal ranks, and fair array,
But with th' occafion and the place comply,
Conceal his force, nay feem fometimes to fly.
Those oft' are ftratagems which errors feem,
Nor is it Homer nods, but we that dream.

Still green with bays each ancient altar ftands,
Above the reach of facrilegious hands;
Secure from flames, from envy's fiercer rage,
Destructive war, and all-devouring age.

See,

See, from each clime the learn'd their incenfe bring
Hear, in all tongues confenting Peans ring!
In praise fo just let every voice be join'd,.
And fill the gen'ral chorus of mankind!
Hail, bards triumphant! born in happier days;
Immortal heirs of universal praise !

Whofe honours with increase of ages grow,
As ftreams roll down, enlarging as they flow!
Nations unborn your mighty names fhall found,.
And worlds applaud that muft not yet be found!.
Oh may fome spark of your celeftial fire,

The laft, the meaneft of your fons infpire,
(That on weak wings, from far, purfues your flights:
Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes).
To teach vain wits, a science little known,
Tadmire fuperior fenfe, and doubt their own!.

Of all the caufes which confpire to blind

Man's erring judgment, and mifguide the mind,.
What the weak head with ftrongest biass rules,
Is pride, the never-failing vice of fools.
Whatever nature has in worth deny’d,

She gives in large recruits of needful pride;
For as in bodies, thus in fouls, we find

What wants in blood and spirits, swell'd with wind::

Pride, where wit fails, steps in to our defence,
And fills up all the mighty void of fenfe!

If once right season drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with refiftless day;
Truft not yout felf; but your defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry friend-and ev'ry foe.
A little learning is a dang'rous thing;
Drink deep, or tafte not the Pierian spring;
There fhallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely fobers us again.

Fir'd at first fight with what the mufe imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor fee the lengths behind;
But more advanc'd, behold with ftrange furprize
New diftant fcenes of endless science rife!

So pleas'd at firft the tow'ring Alps we try,

Mount o'er the vales, and seem to tread the sky,
Th' eternal fnows appear already past,

And the first clouds and mountains feem the laft:
But thofe attain'd, we tremble to furvey
The growing labours of the lengthen'd way,
Th' increafing profpect tires our wand'ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise! *

A per