Enough if there the fluent numbers please, Nor shall my rules the Artist's hand confine, Whom practice gives to strike the free design; Or banish Fancy from her fairy plains,` Or fetter Genius in didactic chains: 45 50 a "Tis Painting's first chief business to explore, What lovelier forms in Nature's boundless store Cum nitidâ tantùm et facili digesta loquelâ, Nec mihi mens animusve fuit constringere nodos 30 Transeat in Genium; Geniusque usu induat artem. 35 a I. Of the Beautiful. I. De Pulchro. Are best to art and antient taste allied, For antient taste those forms has best applied. Till this be learn'd, how all things disagree! How all one wretched, blind barbarity! 56 61 The fool to native ignorance confin'd, No beauty beaming on his clouded mind; Untaught to relish, yet too proud to learn, He scorns the grace his dulness can't discern. Hence reason to caprice resigns the stage, And hence that maxim of the antient Sage, "Of all vain fools with coxcomb talents curst, "Bad Painters and bad Poets are the worst." When first the orient rays of beauty move 65 The conscious soul, they light the lamp of love; Nôsse quid in rebus natura creârit ad artem Ut curare nequit, quæ non modo noverit esse; 40 Cognita amas, et amata cupis, sequerisque cupita; 45 Passibus assequeris tandem quæ fervidus urges: Love wakes those warm desires that prompt our chace, To follow and to fix each flying grace ; Yet if those charms too closely we define, Our end is lost. Not such the Master's care, 75 Illa tamen quæ pulchra decent; non omnia casus Quodque minus pulchrum, aut mendosum, corriget ipse Marte suo, formæ Veneres captando fugaces. < Yet some there are who indiscreetly stray, Where purblind practice only points the way: Who every theoretick truth disdain, And blunder on mechanically vain. Some too there are, within whose languid breasts A lifeless heap of embryo knowledge rests, 86 When nor the pencil feels their drowsy art, Nor the skill'd hand explains the meaning heart. In chains of sloth such talents droop confin'd: 'Twas not by words Apelles charm'd mankind. 90 Hear then the Muse; tho' perfect beauty towers Above the reach of her descriptive powers, d Utque manus grandi nil nomine practica dignum Assequitur, primum arcanæ quam deficit artis Lumen, et in præceps abitura ut cæca vagatur; Sic nihil ars operâ manuum privata supremum Exequitur, sed languet iners uti vincta lacertos; Dispositumque typum non linguâ pinxit Apelles. Ergo licet totâ normam haud possimus in arte Ponere, (cum nequeant quæ sunt pulcherrima dici,) 55 60 • II. Of Theory and Prac tice. • II. De Speculatione et Praxi. Yet will she strive some leading rules to draw From sovereign nature's universal law; Stretch her wide view o'er ancient Art's do main, Again establish Reason's legal reign, Genius again correct with science sage, And curb luxuriant fancy's headlong rage. 66 Right ever reigns its stated bounds between, 95 "And taste, like morals, loves the golden mean." 100 * Some lofty theme let judgement first supply, Supremely fraught with grace and majesty; For fancy copious, free to every charm That lines can circumscribe or colours warm; Nitimur hæc paucis, scrutati summa magistræ 65 f His positis, erit optandum thema, nobile, pulchrum, Quodque venustatum, circa formam atque colorem, 70 e III. Of the Subject. f III. De Argumento. |