Page:An Essay on Criticism - Pope (1711).pdf/18

 Thence form your Judgment, thence your Notions bring, And trace the Muses upward to their Spring; Still with It self compar'd, his Text peruse; And let your Comment be the Mantuan Muse. When first great Maro in his boundless Mind A Work t'outlast Immortal Rome design'd, Perhaps he seem'd above the Critick's Law, And but from Nature's Fountains scorn'd to draw: But when t'examine ev'ry Part he came, Nature and Homer were, he found, the same: Convinc'd, amaz'd, he checkt the bold Design, And did his Work to Rules as strict confine, As if the Stagyrite o'erlook'd each Line. Learn hence for Ancient Rules a just Esteem; To copy Nature is to copy Them. Some Beauties yet, no Precepts can declare, For there's a Happiness as well as Care. Musick resembles Poetry, in each Are nameless Graces which no Methods teach, And which a Master-Hand alone can reach. If