Alcibiades _gave to_ Socrates, _when he compar'd him to the Statues of
the_ Sileni, _which to look upon, had nothing beautiful and ornamental;
but open them, and there you might discover the Images of all the Gods
and Goddesses._

_Who knows the secret Springs of the Soul, and those sudden Emotions,
which excite illustrious Men, to act and speak out of the_ Common Road?
_They seem irregular to Us by reason of the Fondness and Bigottry we pay
to_ Custom, _which is no Standard to the Brave and the Wise. The Rules
we receive in our first Education, are laid down with this Purpose, to
restrain the_ Mind; _which by reason of the Tenderness of our Age and
the ungovernable Disposition of Young Nature, is apt to start out into
Excess and Extravagance. But when Time has ripen'd us, and Observation
has fortify'd the Soul, we ought to lay aside those common Rules with
our Leading strings; and exercise our Reason with a free, generous and
manly Spirit. Thus a_ Good Poet _should make use of a Discretionary
Command; like a_ Good General, _who may rightly wave the vulgar Precepts
of the Military School (which may confine an ordinary Capacity, and curb
the Rash and Daring) if by a new and surprizing Method of Conduct, he
find out an uncommon Way to Glory and Success._

Bocalin, _the_ Italian _Wit, among his other odd Advertisements, has
this remarkable one, which is parallel to the present Discourse. When_
Tasso _(says he) had presented_ Apollo _with his_ Poem, _call'd_
Giurasalemme Liberata; _the_ Reformer _of the_ Delphic Library, _to
whose Perusal it was committed, found fault with it, because it was not
written according to the Rules of_ Aristotle; _which affront being
complain'd of,_ Apollo _was highly incens'd, and chid_ Aristotle _for
his Presumption in daring to prescribe Laws and Rules to the high
Conceptions of the_ Virtuosi, _whose Liberty of Writing and Inventing,