enrich'd the Schools and Libraries with gallant Composures; and to
enslave the Wits of Learned Men, was to rob the World of those alluring
Charms which daily flow'd from the Productions of Poets, who follow the
Dint of their own unbounded Imagination. You will find the rest in the
28th Advertisement._

_The Moral is instructive; because to judge well and candidly, we must
wean our selves from a slavish Bigotry to the Ancients. For, tho'_ Homer
_and_ Virgil, Pindar _and_ Horace _be laid before us as Examples of
exquisite Writing in the Heroic and Lyric Kind, yet, either thro' the
Distance of Time, or Diversity of Customs, we can no more expect to find
like Capacities, than like Complexions. Let a Man follow the Talent that
Nature has furnish'd him with, and his own Observation has improv'd, we
may hope to see Inventions in all Arts, which may dispute Superiority
with the best of the_ Athenian _and_ Roman _Excellencies_.

Nec minimum meruêre decus vestigia Græca
Ausi deserere.----

_It is another Rule of the same Gentleman, that we should attempt
nothing beyond our Strength: There are some modern_ Milo's _who have
been wedg'd in that Timber which they strove to rend. Some have fail'd
in the Lyric Way who have been excellent in the Dramatic. And, Sir,
would you not think a Physician would gain more Profit and Reputation
by_ Hippocrates _and_ Galen _well-studied, than by_ Homer _and_ Virgil
_ill-copied?_

Horace, _who was as great a Master of Judgment, as he was an Instance of
Wit, would have laid the Errours of an establish'd Writer on a
pardonable Want of Care, or excus'd them by the Infirmity of Human