Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/83

 and rather not blam'd, than much applauded, insinuates it self by insensi­ble degrees into the liking of the Reader: The more he studies it, the more it grows upon him; every time he takes it up, he discovers some new Graces in it. And whereas Poems which are produc'd by the vigour of Imagination only, have a gloss upon them at the first, which Time wears off; the Works of Judgment, are like the Dia­mond, the more they are polish'd, the more lustre they receive. Such is the difference betwixt Virgil's Æneis, and Adone. And if I may be allow'd to change the Metaphor, I wou'd say, that Virgil is like the Fame which he describes;

Such a sort of Reputation is my aim, though in a far inferiour de­gree, according to my Motto in the Title Page: Sequiturque Patrem, non passibus æquis: and therefore I appeal to the Highest Court of Ju­dicature, like that of the Peers, of which your Lordship is so great an Ornament.

Without this Ambition which I own, of desiring to please the Ju­dices Natos, I cou'd never have been able to have done any thing at this Age, when the fire of Poetry is commonly extinguish'd in other Men. Yet Virgil has given me the Example of Entellus for my En­couragement: when he was well heated, the younger Champion cou'd not stand before him. And we find the Elder contended not for the Gift, but for the Honour; Nec dona moror. For Dampier has in­form'd us, in his Voyages, that the Air of the Country which produces Gold, is never wholsom.

I had long since consider'd, that the way to please the best Judges, is not to Translate a Poet literally; and Virgil least of any other. For his peculiar Beauty