Enough if there the fluent numbers please,
With native clearness, and instructive ease. 40

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:
No, 'tis their liberal purpose to convey
That scientifick skill which wins its way
On docile nature, and transmits to youth,
Talents to reach, and taste to relish truth;
While inborn Genius from their aid receives
Each supplemental art that practice gives.

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,
Ornari præcepta negent, contenta doceri.

Nec mihi mens animusve fuit constringere nodos 30
Artificum manibus, quos tantùm dirigit usus;
Indolis ut vigor inde potens obstrictus hebescat,
Normarum numero immani, Geniumque moretur:
Sed rerum ut pollens ars cognitione, gradatim
Naturæ sese insinuet, verique capace

Transeat in Genium; Geniusque usu induat artem.
Præcipua imprimis artisque potissima pars est,

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
Pulchrius, idque modum juxta, mentemque vetustam;
Quâ sine barbaries cæca et temeraria pulchrum
Negligit, insultans ignotæ audacior arti,

Ut curare nequit, quæ non modo noverit esse;
Illud apud veteres fuit unde notabile dictum,
"Nil Pictore malo securius atque Poetâ."

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 ;
But earth-born graces sparingly impart

Yet if those charms too closely we define,
Content to copy nature line for line,

Our end is lost. Not such the Master's care, 75
Curious he culls the perfect from the fair;
Judge of his art, thro' beauty's realm he flies,
Selects, combines, improves, diversifies;
With nimble step pursues the fleeting throng,
And clasps each Venus as she glides along. 80

Illa tamen quæ pulchra decent; non omnia casus
Qualiacunque dabunt, etiamve simillima veris;
Nam quamcunque modo servili haud sufficit ipsam
Naturam exprimere ad vivum: sed ut arbiter artis, 50
Seliget ex illâ tantùm pulcherrima Pictor;

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
Dogmata Naturæ, artisque exemplaria prima
Altius intuiti; sic mens habilisque facultas
Indolis excolitur, Geniumque Scientia complet;
Luxuriansque in monstra furor compescitur Arte.
"Est modus in rebus, sunt certi denique fines,
"Quos ultra citraque nequit consistere rectum."

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.