by knowledge.

"Rich are the diligent, who can command
Time, nature's stock! and, could his hour-glass fall,
Would, as for seed of stars, stoop for the sand,
And by incessant labour gather all!"

[325] Can one read such passages as these without catching some of the
sympathies of a great genius that knows itself?

"He who writes an heroic poem leaves an estate entailed, and
he gives a greater gift to posterity than to the present age;
for a public benefit is best measured in the number of
receivers; and our contemporaries are but few when reckoned
with those who shall succeed.

"If thou art a malicious reader, thou wilt remember my preface
boldly confessed, that a main motive to the undertaking was a
desire of fame; and thou mayest likewise say, I may very
possibly not live to enjoy it. Truly, I have some years ago
considered that Fame, like Time, only gets a reverence by long
running; and that, like a river, 'tis narrowest where 'tis
bred, and broadest afar off.

"If thou, reader, art one of those who have been warmed with
poetic fire, I reverence thee as my judge; and whilst others
tax me with vanity, I appeal to thy conscience whether it be
more than such a necessary assurance as thou hast made to
thyself in like undertakings? For when I observe that writers
have many enemies, such inward assurance, methinks, resembles
that forward confidence in men of arms, which makes them
proceed in great enterprise; since the right examination of
abilities begins with inquiring whether we doubt ourselves."

Such a composition is injured by mutilation. He here also
alludes to his military character: "Nor could I sit idle and
sigh with such as mourn to hear the drum; for if the age be
not quiet enough to be taught virtue a pleasant way, the next
may be at leisure; nor could I (like men that have civilly
slept till they are old in dark cities) think war a novelty."
Shakspeare could not have expressed his feelings, in his own
style, more eloquently touching than D'Avenant.

[326] It is said there were four writers. The Clinias and Dametas were
probably Sir John Denham and Jo. Donne; Sir Allan Broderick
and Will Crofts, who is ment