Genius again correct with science sage,

And curb luxuriant Fancy's headlong rage.

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Right ever reigns its stated bounds between,

"And taste, like morals, loves the golden mean."
• Some lofty theme let judgment first supply,
Supremely fraught with grace and majesty ;
For fancy copious, free to every charm

That lines can circumscribe or colours warm;
Still happier, if that artful theme dispense

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A poignant moral and instructive sense.

8 Then let the virgin canvass smooth expand,

To claim the sketch and tempt the Artist's hand :
Then bold INVENTION, all the powers diffuse,

Of all thy sisters thou the noblest Muse:

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Indolis excolitur, Geniumque Scientia complet; Luxuriansque in monstra furor compescitur Arte. "Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,

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Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum.”

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f His positis, erit optandum thema, nobile, pulchrum, Quodque venustatum, circa formam atque colorem, 70 Sponte capax, amplam emeritæ mox præbeat Arti Materiam, retegens aliquid salis et documenti.

i Tandem opus aggredior; primoque occurrit in albo Disponenda typi, concepta potente Minervâ, Machina, quæ nostris INVENTIO dicitur oris :

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Thee every art, thee every grace inspires,
Thee Phoebus fills with all his brightest fires.

i Choose such judicious force of shade and light
As suits the theme, and satisfies the sight;
Weigh part with part, and with prophetic eye
The future power of all thy tints descry;
And those, those only on the canvass place,
Whose hues are social, whose effect is grace.
* Vivid and faithful to the historic page,
Express the customs, manners, forms, and age;
Nor paint conspicuous on the foremost plain
Whate'er is false, impertinent, or vain;

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Illa quidem priùs ingenuis instructa sororum
Artibus Aonidum, et Phœbi sublimior æstu.

m

Quærendasque inter posituras, luminis, umbræ,
Atque futurorum jam præsentire colorum

Par erit harmoniam, captando ab utrisque venustum.
"Sit thematis genuina ac viva expressio, juxta
Textum antiquorum, propriis cum tempore formis.
Nec quod inane, nihil facit ad rem, sive videtur
Improprium, miniméque urgens, potiora tenebit

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IV. Dispositio, sive operis totius œconomia.

n V. Fidelitas Argumenti.

• VI. Inane rejiciendum.

But like the Tragic Muse, thy lustre throw,
Where the chief action claims its warmest glow.

This rare, this arduous task no rules can teach, 125 No skill'd preceptor point, no practice reach;

'Tis taste, 'tis genius, 'tis the heav'nly ray

Prometheus ravish'd from the car of day.

In Egypt first the infant art appear'd,

Rude and unform'd; but when to Greece she steer'd Her prosperous course, fair Fancy met the Maid, Wit, Reason, Judgment, lent their powerful aid; Till all complete the gradual wonder shone,

And vanquish'd Nature own'd herself outdone.

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'Twas there the goddess fix'd her blest abodes, 135 There reign'd in Corinth, Athens, Sicyon, Rhodes,

Ornamenta operis; Tragicæ sed lege sororis,
Summa ubi res agitur, vis summa requiritur Artis.
Ista labore gravi, studio, monitisque magistri
Ardua pars nequit addisci: rarissima namque,
Ni priùs æthereo rapuit quod ab axe Prometheus
Sit jubar infusum menti cum flamine vitæ.
Mortali haud cuivis divina hæc munera dantur;
Non uti Dædaleam licet omnibus ire Corinthum.
Ægypto informis quondam pictura reperta,
Græcorum studiis, et mentis acumine crevit :
Egregiis tandem illustrata et adulta magistris,
Naturam visa est miro superare labore.

Quos inter, Graphidos Gymnasia prima fuêre Portus Athenarum, Sicyon, Rhodos, atque Corinthus,

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Her various vot'ries various talents crown'd:
Yet each alike her inspiration own'd:
Witness those marble miracles of grace,

Those tests of symmetry where still we trace

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All art's perfection: With reluctant gaze

To these the genius of succeeding days

Looks dazzled up, and, as their glories spread,

Hides in his mantle his diminish'd head.

P Learn then from Greece, ye Youths, Proportion's law,

Inform'd by her, each just POSITION draw;
Skilful to change each large unequal part,
With varied motion and contrasted art;
Full in the front the nobler limbs to place,
And poise each figure on its central base,

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But chief from her that flowing outline take, Which floats, in wavy windings, like the snake,

Disparia inter se modicùm ratione laboris ;
Ut patet ex veterum Statuis, formæ atque decoris
Archetypis; queis posterior nil protulit ætas
Condignum, et non inferius longè, arte modoque,
9 Horum igitur vera ad normam positura legetur :
Grandia, inæqualis, formosaque partibus amplis
Anteriora dabit membra, in contraria motu
Diverso variata, suo librataque centro;

Membrorumque sinus ignis flammantis ad instar,

Serpenti undantes flexu; sed lævi, plana,

P VII. Design or Position, the second part of painting.

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VII. Graphis seu Positura secunda picturæ pars.

Or lambent flame; which, ample, broad, and long,
Reliev'd not swell'd, at once both light and strong,
Glides thro' the graceful whole. Her art divine
Cuts not, in parts minute, the tame design,
But by a few bold strokes, distinct and free,
Calls forth the charms of perfect symmetry.
True to anatomy, more true to grace,
She bids each muscle know its native place;,
Bids small from great in just gradation rise,
And, at one visual point, approach the eyes.

Yet deem not, Youths, that Perspective can give

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Those charms complete by which your works shall live:

What tho' her rules may to your hand impart

A quick mechanic substitute for art,

Yet formal, geometric shapes she draws;

Hence the true Genius scorns her rigid laws;

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Magnaque signa, quasi sine tubere subdita tactu,
Ex longo deducta fluant, non secta minutim.
Insertisque toris sint nota ligamina, juxta
Compagem anatomes, et membrificatio Græco
Deformata modo, paucisque expressa lacertis,
Qualis apud veteres; totoque Eurythmia partes
Componat; genitumque suo generante sequenti
Sit minus, et puncto videantur cuncta sub uno.
Regula certa licet nequeat prospectica dici,
Aut complementum graphidos; sed in arte juvamen,
Et modus accelerans operandi: at corpora falso

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Sub visu in multis referens, mendosa labascit: . 120