y flow;
Nations unborn your mighty names shall sound,
And worlds applaud that must not yet be found
O may some spark of your celestial fire,
The last, the meanest of your sons inspire,
(That on weak wings, from far, pursues your flights;
Glows while he reads, but trembles as he writes,)
To teach vain wits a science little known,
T' admire superior sense, and doubt their own!

A magnificent burst of thoughtful enthusiasm! an urgent and monitory
exhortation, in which Pope calls upon rising critics and poets to pursue,
in the great writings of classical antiquity, the study of that art which
proceeds from the true study of Nature. It depictures his own studies; and
expresses the admiration of a glowing disciple, who, having found his own
strength and light in the conversation of his high instructors, will utter
his own gratitude, will advance their honour, and will satisfy his zeal
for the good of his brethren, by engaging others to use the means that
have prospered with himself.

The art delivered by Greece was self-regulated nature. Criticism was the
well-expounded Reason of inspiration, calling and instructing emulation.
The critic that will be, must transport himself into the mind of
antiquity; and, in particular, into the mind of his author for the time
being. Homer is your one great, all-sufficient lesson. Read him, after
Virgil's manner of reading him, who sought Nature by submitting himself to
rules drawn from her, and emblazoned in the Iliad and Odyssey.

Nevertheless, the rules do not yet comprehend every thing; and emergencies
occur when they whom the rules have trained to mastery, inspired by their
spirit, and following out their design, transcend them: so creating a new
excellence, which, in its turn, becomes a rule--but, O ye moderns! beware,
and dare tremblingly!

There are critics of a confined and self-confident wit, who impeach these
liberties, even of the masters, most unthinkingly and rashly; for
sometimes the skillful tactician is on his way to winning the victory,
when you think him flying.

The fame of those ancients is now safe and universal. Withhold not your
solitary voice. Hail, ye victorious inheritors of ever-gathering renown!
And, oh! enable the last and least of poets to teach the pretenders of
criticism modesty and reverence!

_Edinburgh: Printed by Ballantyne and Hughes, Paul's Work._

Footnotes:

[1] Daguerreotype, &c.

[2] Valerius Flaccus.

[3] Cice