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, 55 60 So vaft is art, fo narrow human wit : Not only bounded to peculiar arts, But oft' in thofe confin'd to fingle parts. 65 70 76 Art from that fund each just supply provides; Some, to whom Heav'n in wit has been profuse, 80 85 Tho' meant each other's aid, like man and wife. 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 quæ 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. 66 VER. 80. VARIATIONS. There are whom Heav'n has bleft with ftore of wit, Nature, like Liberty, is but reftrain'd By the fame Laws which firft herself ordain'd. 90 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, 100 And taught the world with Reason to admire. 110 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, You then whofe judgment the right courfe would fteer, I 20 Know well each ANCIENT's proper character; And trace the Mufes upward to their spring. VARIATIONS. 125 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 } 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 : Some beauties yet no Precepts can declare, Are nameless graces which no methods teach, VER. 140 145 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, |