Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/82

 of warm young Men, who are not yet arriv'd so far as to discern the difference betwixt Fustian, or ostentatious Sentences, and the true sublime. These are above liking Martial, or Owen's Epigrams, but they wou'd certainly set Virgil below Statius, or Lucan. I need not say their Poets are of the same Taste with their Admirers. They af­fect greatness in all they write, but tis a bladder'd Greatness, like that of the vain Man whom Seneca describes: An ill Habit of Body, full of Humours, and swell'd with Dropsie. Even these too desert their Au­thors, as their Judgment ripens. The young Gentlemen themselves are commonly miss-led by their Pædagogue at School, their Tutor at the University, or their Governour in their Travels. And many of those three sorts are the most positive Blockheads in the World. How many of those flatulent Writers have I known, who have sunk in their Re­putation, after Seven or Eight Editions of their Works? for indeed they are Poets only for young Men. They had great success at their first appearance; but not being of God, as a Wit said formerly, they cou'd not stand.

I have already nam'd two sorts of Judges, but Virgil wrote for nei­ther of them: and by his Example, I am not ambitious of pleasing the lowest, or the middle Form of Readers.

He chose to please the most Judicious: Souls of the highest Rank, and truest Understanding. These are few in number; but whoever is so happy as to gain their approbation, can never lose it, because they never give it blindly. Then they have a certain Magne­tism in their Judgment, which attracts others to their Sense. Every day they gain some new Proselyte, and in time become the Church. For this Reason, a well-weigh'd Judicious Poem, which at its first ap­pearance gains no more upon the World than to be just receiv'd,