Page:Petrach, the first modern scholar and man of letters.djvu/315

 of it now, and at the same time might be led to reflect on the fact that we mortals, all of us,—not I alone, who with all my zeal and industry am handicapped by insufficiency of talent and literary training, but all other men as well, however great their learning and their abilities,—are so limited in our powers that all our inventions have some element of incompleteness, perfection being the prerogative of him alone from whom proceeds the little that we know and are able to do. Then, in conclusion, I want you to join me in praying Virgil to pardon me, and not harden his heart against me for unwittingly borrowing not stealing these few words from him, who himself has stolen outright, many and many a time, from Homer, and Ennius, and Lucretius, and many another poet. Farewell. , Oct. 28, [1365].