This page needs to be proofread.
The Preface.
xxiii
Welcome, great Stagirite, and teach me now
All I was born to know.
All I was born to know.
And commending Cicero, he says,
Thou art the best of Orators; only he
Who best can praise thee, next must be.
Who best can praise thee, next must be.
And of Virgil thus,
Who brought green Poefy to her perfect Age,
And made that Art, which was a Rage.
And made that Art, which was a Rage.
And in the beginning of the next Ode, he wou'd not certainly have apply'd himself to WIT in the harsh Cadence of Monosyllables, had he thought them so very harsh;
Tell me, O tell, what kind of thing is Wit,
Thou who Master art of it!
Thou who Master art of it!
Again,
In a true Piece of Wit all things must be
Yet all things there agree.
Yet all things there agree.
But did he believe such Concord to be inconsistent with the use of Monosyllables, he had surely banished them from these two Lines; and were I to fetch Testimonies out of his Writings, I might pick a Jury of Twelve out of every Page.
And now comes Mr. Waller, and what does he with his Monosyllables, but,
Give us new Rules, and set our Harp in Tune.
And that honourable Peer whom he commends, the Lord Roscommon thus keeps him in Countenance;
Be what you will, so you be still the same.
And
