Page:The Works of Alexander Pope (1717).djvu/118
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82
ESSAY on CRITICISM.
You then whose judgment the right course would steer,
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 study, and delight,
Read them by day, and meditate by night,
Thence form your judgment, thence your notions bring,
And trace the Muses upward to their spring.
Still with itself compar'd, his text peruse;
And let your comment be the Mantuan Muse.
[1]When first young Maro sung of Kings and wars,
'Ere warning Phœbus touch'd his trembling ears,
Perhaps he seem'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:
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 study, and delight,
Read them by day, and meditate by night,
Thence form your judgment, thence your notions bring,
And trace the Muses upward to their spring.
Still with itself compar'd, his text peruse;
And let your comment be the Mantuan Muse.
[1]When first young Maro sung of Kings and wars,
'Ere warning Phœbus touch'd his trembling ears,
Perhaps he seem'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:
- ↑ Virgil, Eclog. 6. Cum canerem Reges & Prælia, Cynthius aurem Vellit———
Convinc'd,