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But you who seek to give and merit fame, And justly bear a Critic's noble name, Be fure yourself and your own reach to know, How far your genius, taste, and learning go; Launch not beyond your depth, but be discreet, 50 And mark that point where sense and dulness

meet.

Nature to all things fix'd the limits fit,
And wifely curb'd proud man's pretending wit.
As on the land while here the ocean gains,
In other parts it leaves wide fandy plains;
Thus in the foul while memory prevails,
The folid pow'r of understanding fails;
Where beams of warm imagination play,
The memory's foft figures melt away.
One science only will one genius fit;

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So vaft is art, fo narrow human wit :

Not only bounded to peculiar arts,

But oft' in thofe confin'd to fingle parts.
Like Kings we lofe the conquefts gain'd before,
By vain ambition ftill to make them more:
Each might his fev'ral province well command,
Would all but ftoop to what they understand.
First follow Nature, and your judgment frame
By her juft standard, which is ftill the fame :
Unerring NATURE, ftill divinely bright,
One clear, unchang'd, and univerfal light,
Life, force, and beauty, muft to all impart,
At once the fource, and end, and teft of Art.

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Art from that fund each just supply provides;
Works without fhow, and without pomp prefides :
In fome fair body thus th' informing foul
With fpirits feeds, with vigour fills the whole,
Each motion guides, and ev'ry nerve fuftains;
Itself unfeen, but in th' effects remains.

Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profuse, 80
Want as much more, to turn it to its ufe ;
For wit and judgment often are at strife,

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Tho' meant each other's aid, like man and wife.
'Tis more to guide, than fpur the Muse's steed;
Reftrain his fury, than provoke his speed;
The winged courfer, like a gen'rous horse,
Shows moft true mettle when you check his course.
Thofe RULES of old difcover'd, not devis'd,
Are Nature ftill, but Nature methodiz'd;

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VER. 88. Thofe Rules of old, etc.] Cicero has, best of any one I know, explained what that is which reduces the wild and fcattered parts of human knowledge into arts." Nihil eft quod "ad artem redigi poffit, nifi ille prius, qui illa tenet, quorum

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artem inftituere vult, habeat illam fcientiam, ut ex iis rebus, 66 quarum ars nondum fit, artem efficere poffit.-Omnia fere, funt conclufa nunc artibus, difperfa et diffipata quondain "fuerunt, ut in Muficis, etc. Adhibita eft igitur ars quædam "extrinfecus ex alio genere quodam, quod fibi totum PHILOSO"PHI affumunt, quæ rem diffolutam divulfamque conglutinaret, et ratione quadam conftringeret." De Orat. 1. i. c. 41,2.

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VER. 80.

VARIATIONS.

There are whom Heav'n has bleft with ftore of wit,
Yet want as much again to manage it.

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Nature, like Liberty, is but reftrain'd

By the fame Laws which firft herself ordain'd.

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Hear how learn'd Greece her useful rules indites, When to reprefs, and when indulge our flights: High on Parnaffus' top her fons fhe show'd, And pointed out those arduous paths they trod; 95 Held from afar, aloft, th' immortal prize, And urg'd the reft by equal fteps to rife. Juft 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,

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And taught the world with Reason to admire.
Then Criticism the Muses handmaid prov'd,
To drefs her charms, and make her more belov'd:
But following wits from that intention ftray'd, 104
Who could not win the miftrefs, woo'd the maid;
Against the Poets their own arms they turn'd,
Sure to hate moft the men from whom they learn'd.
So modern 'Pothecaries, taught the art
By Doctors bills to play the Doctor's part,
Bold in the practice of mistaken rules,
Prefcribe, apply, and call their mafters fools.
Some on the leaves of ancient authors prey,
Nor time nor moths e'er fpoil'd fo much as they :

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VER. 98. Just precepts]" Nec enim artibus editis factum "eft ut argumenta inveniremus, fed dicta funt omnia antequam "præciperentur; mox ea fcriptores obfervata et collecta edi"derunt." Quintil.

Some drily plain, without invention's aid,
Write dull receipts how poems may be made. 115
These leave the fenfe, their learning to display,
And thofe explain the meaning quite away.

You then whofe judgment the right courfe would fteer,

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Know well each ANCIENT's proper character;
His Fable, Subject, scope in ev'ry page;
Religion, Country, genius of his Age:
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 your maxims
bring,

And trace the Mufes upward to their spring.
Still with itself compar'd, his text perufe ;
And let your comment be the Mantuan Mufe.

VARIATIONS.

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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 these been known, without a Name
Had dy'd, and Perault ne'er been damn'd to fame;
The fenfe of found Antiquity had reign'd,
And facred Homer yet been unprophan'd.
None e'er had thought his comprehensive mind
To modern cuftoms, modern rules confin'd;
Who for all ages writ, and all mankind.

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When firft young Maro in his boundless mind 130 A work t' outlaft immortal Rome defign'd,

Perhaps he feem'd above the Critic's law, *

And but from Nature's fountains scorn'd to draw :
But when t' examine ev'ry part he came,
Nature and Homer were, he found, the fame. 135
Convinc'd, amaz'd, he checks the bold design :
And rules as strict his labour'd work confine,
As if the Stagirite 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.
Mufic resembles Poetry, in each

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

VER.

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R. 130. When first young Maro, etc.] Virg. Eclog. 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 first to imitate Theocritus on rural subjects, and afterwards to copy Homer in Heroic poetry.

VER. 130.

VARIATIONS.

When firft young Maro fung of Kings and Wars,
Ere warning Phoebus touch'd his trembling ears,

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