* A perfect judge will read each work of wit With the fame spirit that its author writ, Survey the whole, nor feek flight fault to find; Where nature moves, and rapture, warms the mind; Nor lofe, for that malignant dull delight, The gen'rous pleasure to be charm'd with wit; That fhunning faults, one quiet tenour keep; But the joint force and full refult of all. Thus when we view fome well-proportion'd dome, (The world's juft wonder, and ev'n thine O Rome!) No fingle parts unequally furprize; All comes united to th' admiring eyes; No monstrous height, or breadth, or length appear; The whole at once is bold, and regular. *Diligenter legendum eft, ac pane ad fcribendi follicitudinem: Nec per partes modò fcrutanda funt omnia, fed perlellus liber utique ex integro refumendus. Quintil. Whoever Whoever thinks a faultlefs piece to see, Thinks what ne'er was, nor is, nor e'er fhall be. Since none; can compass more than they intend'; For not to know fome trifles, is a praise. Once on a time, La Mancha's Knight, they fay, The manners, paffions, unities, what not? All All which, exact to rule, were brought about, Were but a combate in the lists left out. "What! leave the combate out"? exclaims the (knight; Yes, or we must renounce the Stagyrite ; « Knights,squires, and steeds,must enter on the stage”. Thus critics, of lefs judgment than caprice, (As moft in manners) by a love to parts. And hide with ornaments their want of art. What oft' was thought, but ne'er fo well exprefs'd; * Naturam intueamur, hanc fequamur ; id facillimè accipiunt animi quod agnofcunt. Quintil. lib. 8. c. 3. Something Something, whose truth convinc'd at fight we find, Others for language all their care express, Its gaudy colours fpreads on ev'ry place; For diffrent ftyles with diff'rent fubjects fort, As feveral garbs with country, town, and court. * Some by old words to fame have made pretence: Ancients in phrafe, mere moderns in their fenfe! Thefe fparks with aukward vanity difplay And but fo mimic ancient wits at beft, As apes our granfires, in their doublets drest. Be not the first by whom the new are try'd, } But most by numbers judge a poet's fong, And smooth or rough, with them, is right or wrong: * Abolita & abrogata retinere, infolentiæ cujusdam eft, & frivela in parvis jactantia. Quintil. lib. 1. c. 6. Opus eft ut verba à vetustate repetita neque crebra fint, neque ma nifefta, quia nil eft odiofius affectatione, nec utique ab ultimis repetita temporibus. Oratio cujus fumma virtus eft perfpicuitas, quàm fit vitiofa, fi egeat interprete? Ergo ut novorum optima erunt maximè vetera ita veterum maximè nova. 1dem. + Ben Johnson's Every man in his humour. Quis populi fermo eft? Quis enim? nifi carmina molli Perfius, Sat. 1. In |