Et, quamvis veteres pro tempore jura refigunt,
Et leges violare suas regalitèr audent,
175
Tu caveas, moneo, quisquis nunc scribis, & ipsam
Si legem frangas, memor ejus refpice finem.
Hoc femper tamen evites, nisi te gravis urget
Nodus, præmonstrantque authorum exempla priorum.
Ni facias, criticus totam implacabilis iram
180. Exercet, turpique notâ tibi nomen inurit.
Sed non me latuêre, quibus sua liberiores
Has veterum veneres vitio dementia vertit.
Et quædam tibi figna quidem monstrosa videntur,
Si
per se vel perpendas, propiorave lustres,
Quæ rectâ cum conftituas in luce locoque,
Formam conciliat distantia justa venustam.
Non aciem semper belli dux callidus artis
Instruit æquali serie ordinibusque decoris,
Sed se temporibusque locoque accomodat, agmen
Celando jam, jamque fugæ fimulachra ciendo.
Mentitur speciem erroris fæpe astus, & ipse
Somniat emunctus judex, non dormit Homerus.
Aspice, laurus adhuc antiquis vernat in aris,
Quas rabidæ violare manus non amplius audent;
Flammarum a rabie tutas, Stygiæque veneno
Invidiæ, Martisque minis & morsibus ævi.
Docta caterva, viden! fert ut fragrantia thura ;
Audin ut omnigenis resonant præconia linguis !
H
In praise fo just let ev'ry voice be join'd,
And fill the general chorus of mankind !
Hail, bards triumphant! born in happier days,
Immortal heirs of universal praise !
Whose honours with increase of ages grow,
As streams roll down enlarging as they flow !
Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound,
And worlds applaud that must not yet be found !
Oh! may fome spark of your celestial fire
The last, the meanest of
your
sons inspire, (That on weak wings from far pursues your flights, Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes) To teach vain wits a science little known, T'admire superior sense and doubt their own.
Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Man's erring judgment, and misguide the mind;
What the weak head with strongest bias 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 souls 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 sense !
If once right reason drives that cloud away,
Truth breaks upon us with resistless day;
Laudes usque adeo meritas vox quæque rependat,
Humanique fimul generis chorus omnis adesto.
Salvete, O vates ! nati melioribus annis,
Munus & immortale æternæ laudis adepti !
Queis juvenescit honos longo maturior ævo,
Ditior ut diffundit aquas, dum defluit amnis! 205
Vos populi mundique canent, sacra nomina, quos jam
Inventrix (fic diis visum est) non contigit ætas !
Pars aliqua, o utinam! facro scintillet ab igne
Illi, qui vestra est extrema & humillima proles !
(Qui longe sequitur vos debilioribus alis
Lector magnanimus, sed enim, sed scriptor inaudax)
Sic critici vani, me præcipiente, priores
Mirari, arbitrioque suo diffidere discant.
Omnibus ex causis, quæ animum corrumpere junctis Viribus, humanumque solent obtundere acumen, 215 Pingue caput solita est momento impellere summo Stultitiæ semper cognata superbia ; quantum Mentis nascenti fata invidere, profuso Tantum subsidio fastûs superaddere gaudent ; Nam veluti in membris, fic fæpe animabus, inanes Exundant vice + spirituum, vice sanguinis auræ Suppetias inopi venit alma superbia menti, Atque per immensum capitis se extendit inane ! Quod fi recta valet ratio hanc dispergere nubein Naturæ verique dies sincera refulget.
225 + Animalium scilicet.
Cui
Trust not yourself by 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 taste not the Pierian spring;
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again.
Fir'd at first sight with what the muse imparts,
In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts,
While from the bounded level of our mind,
Short views we take, nor see the lengths behind;
But more advanc’d, behold with strange furprize
New diftant scenes of endless science rise!
So pleas'd at first the tow’ring Alps we try,
Mount o'er the vales, and feem to tread the sky,
Th' eternal snows appear already past,
And the first clouds and mountains seem the last;
But those attain'd, we tremble to survey
The growing labour of the lengthen’d way,
Th’ increasing prospect tires our wond’ring eyes,
Hills peep o'er hills, and Alps on Alps arise !
+ A perfect judge will read cach work of wit With the same spirit that its author writ,
+ Diligenter legendum est, ac pene ad scribendi follicitudinem ; nec per partes modo scrutanda funt omnia; fed perlectus liber utique ex integro resumendus.
QUINTIL.
Survey
Cuicunque est animus penitus cognofcere culpas,
Nec fibi, nec fociis credat, verum omnibus aurem
Commodet, apponatque inimica opprobria lucro.
Ne musæ invigiles mediocritèr, aut fuge fontem Castalium omnino, aut haustu te prolue pleno: 230 Iftius laticis tibi mens abstemia torpet Ebria, sobrietasque redit revocata bibendo. Intuitu musæ primo, novitateque capta Aspirat doctrinæ ad culmina summa juventus Intrepida, & quoniam tunc mens est arcta, suoque 235 Omnia metitur modulo, malè lippa labores Ponè fecuturos oculis non aspicit æquis: Mox autem attonitæ jam jamque scientia menti Crebrefcit variata modis fine limite miris ! Sic ubi defertis conscendere vallibus Alpes
340 Aggredimur, nubesque humiles calcare videmur, Protinus æternas fuperâsse nives, & in ipso Invenisse viæ lætamur limine finem : His vero exactis tacito terrore stupemus Durum crescentem magis & magis usque laborem,
345 Jam longus tandem prospectus læsa fatigat Lumina, dum colles assurgunt undique fæti Collibus, impofitæque emergunt Alpibus Alpes.
Ingeniosa leget judex perfectus eâdem Quâ vates scripsit studiosus opuscula curâ,
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