With how much eafe is a young Mufe betray'd! How nice the reputation of the maid! Your early, kind, paternal care appears, By chafte inftruction of her tender years. The first impreffion in her infant breast Will be the deepest, and should be the best. Let not aufterity breed fervile fear, No wanton found offend her virgin ear. Secure from foolish pride's affected state, And fpecious flattery's more pernicious bait, Habitual innocence adorns her thoughts, But your neglect must answer for her faults. Immodeft words admit of no defence;

For want of decency is want of sense.

What moderate fop would rake the Park or stews, Who among troops of faultless nymphs may choose? Variety of fuch is to be found;

Take then a fubject proper to expound :

But moral, great, and worth a poet's voice,
For men of fenfe defpife a trivial choice:
And fuch applause it must expect to meet,
As would fome painter bufy in a street,
Το copy bulls and bears, and every fign,
That calls the staring fots to nafty wine..

Yet 'tis not all to have a fubject good,
It muft delight us when 'tis understood.
He that brings fulfome objects to my view,
(As many old have done, and many new)
With nauseous images my fancy fills,
And all goes down like oxymel of fquills..

Inftruct

Instruct the listening world how Maro fings
Of useful fubjects and of lofty things.
These will such true, such bright ideas raise,
As merit gratitude, as well as praise :
But foul descriptions are offenfive ftill,
Either for being like, or being ill.

For who, without a qualm, hath ever look'd
On holy garbage, though by Homer cook'd?
Whofe railing heroes, and whofe wounded Gods,
Makes fome fufpect he fnores, as well as nods.
But I offend---Virgil begins to frown,
And Horace looks with indignation down ;
My blufhing Mufe with confcious fear retires,
And whom they like, implicitly admires.

On fure foundations let your fabric rise,
And with attractive majefty furprise,
Not by affected meretricious arts,
But ftrict harmonious fymmetry of parts;
Which through the whole infenfibly must pass,
With vital heat to animate the mafs :

A pure, an active, an aufpicious flame,

And bright as heaven, from whence the bleffing came; But few, oh few fouls, præordain'd by fate,

The race of Gods, have reach'd that envy'd height.

No Rebel-Titan's facrilegious crime,

By heaping hills on hills can hither climb:

The grizly ferryman of hell deny'd

Æneas entrance, till he knew his guide:
How justly then will impious mortals fall,

Whose pride would foar to heaven without a call!

Pride (of all others the most dangerous fault)
Proceeds from want of sense, or want of thought.
The men, who labour and digest things most,
Will be much apter to defpond than boast:
For if your author be profoundly good,
Twill cost you dear before he 's understood.
How many ages since has Virgil writ!
How few are they who understand him yet §
Approach his altars with religious fear,
No vulgar deity inhabits there :

Heaven shakes not more at Jove's imperial nod,
Than poets should before their Mantuan God.
Hail mighty Maro! may that facred name
Kindle my breast with thy celestial flame;

Sublime ideas and apt words infuse.

The Mufe inftruct my voice, and thou infpire the Mufe! What I have instanc'd only in the best,

Is, in proportion, true of all the rest.

Take pains the genuine meaning to explore,
There fweat, there ftrain, tug the laborious oar;
Search every comment that your care can find,
Some here, fome there, may hit the poet's mind;
Yet be not blindly guided by the throng;
The multitude is always in the wrong.

When things appear unnatural or hard,
Confult your author, with himself compar'd;
Who knows what bleffing Phoebus may bestow,
And future ages to your labour owe?
Such fecrets are not eafily found out,

But, once discover'd, leave no room for doubt.

T

Truth ftamps conviction in your ravish'd breast,
And peace and joy attend the glorious guest.
Truth ftill is one; truth is divinely bright,
No cloudy doubts obfcure her native light;
While in your thoughts you find the least debate,
You may confound, but never can translate.
Your ftyle will this through all difsguises show,
For none explain more clearly than they know..
He only proves he understands a text,
Whofe expofition leaves it unperplex'd.
They who too faithfully on names infist,
Rather create than diffipate the mist;
And grow unjust by being over-nice,
(For fuperftitious virtue turns to vice.)
Let Craffus's + ghost and Labienus tell
How twice in Parthian plains their legions fell..
Since Rome hath been fo jealous of her fame,
That few know Pacorus' or Monæfes' name..
Words in one language elegantly us’d,

Will hardly in another be excus'd..

And fome that Rome admir'd in Cæfar's time,
May neither fuit our genius nor our clime.

The genuine fenfe, intelligibly told,

Shews a tranflator both difcreet and bold,

Excursions are inexpiably bad;

And 'tis much fafer to leave out than add..
Abftrufe and mystic thoughts you must express
With painful care, but feeming easiness ;

For truth fhines brightest through the plaineft drefs.

+ Hor. 3, Od. vi.

Th' Ænean

Th' Ænean Mufe, when the appears in ftate,
Makes all Jove's thunder on her verses wait.
Yet writes fometimes as foft and moving things
As Venus fpeaks, or Philomela fings.
Your author always will the best advife,
Fall when he falls, and when he rifes rife.
Affected noife is the moft wretched thing,
'That to contempt can empty fcriblers bring.
Vowels and accents, regularly plac'd,
On even fyllables (and still the last)
Though grofs innumerable faults abound,
In fpite of nonfenfe, never fail of found.
But this is meant of even verfe alone,

As being moft harmonious and most known:
For if
you will unequal numbers try,
There accents on odd fyllables must lie.
Whatever fifter of the learned Nine

'Does to your fuit a willing ear incline,
Urge your fuccefs, deserve a lasting name,
She'll crown a grateful and a conftant flame.
But, if a wild uncertainty prevail,

And turn your veering heart with every gale,
You lose the fruit of all your former care,
For the fad profpect of a just despair.

A quack (too fcandaloufly mean to name)
.Had, by man-midwifery, got wealth and fame :
As if Lucina had forgot her trade,

The labouring wife invokes his furer aid.
Well-feafon'd bowls the goffip's fpirits raise,

Who, while fhe guzzles, chats the doctor's praife.;

And