But neither will a
generous spirit affect the empty sound of words; nor can a mind,
unless enricht with learning, be deliver'd of a birth of poetry; there
must be the purity of language, no porterly expression, or meanness,
as I may call it, of words is to be admitted; but a stile perfectly
above the common, and with Horace,--
"'Scorn the unletter'd herd,
And drive 'em from you.'
"Besides, you must be strictly diligent, that your expressions appear
of a piece with the body of the discourse, and your colours so laid,
that each may contribute to the beauty of the whole. Greece has given
us a Homer and the Lyricks for example; Rome a Virgil and an Horace;
the purity of whose language is so happily correct, others either
never saw the path that leads to poetry, or seeing, were afraid to
tread it. To describe the civil wars of Rome would be a master-piece,
the unletter'd head that offers at it, will sink beneath the weight of
so great a work; for to relate past actions, is not so much the
business of a poet, as an historian; the boundless genius of a poet
strikes through all mazes, introduces gods, and puts the invention on
the rack for poetick ornaments; that it may rather seem a prophetick
fury, than a strict relation, with witnesses of meer truth. As for
example, this rapture, tho' I have not given it the last hand.
"Now Rome reign'd Empress o're the vanquished ball,
As far as earth and seas, obey'd by all:
Uneasie yet, with more desires she's curst,
And boundless, as her empire, is her thirst.
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