xii PREFACE. 



which every criticifm of his muft demand. Be- 

 fides this, as much more time was now elapfed 

 fmce I had myfelf perufed the copy, my own eye 

 was become more open to its defects. I found the 

 rule which my Author had given to his Painter 

 full as ufeful to a Writer, 



(Aft ubi confilium deerit fapientis amici 

 Id tempus dabit, atque mora intermifla labori.) 

 And I may fay, with truth, that having become 

 from this circumftance, as Impartial, if not as fafti- 

 dious, to my own work, as any -other critic could 

 poffibly have been, I hardly left a {ingle line in it 

 without giving it, what .1 thought, an .emendation-. 

 It is not, therefore, as a juvenile work .that I now 

 prefent it Jx> the public, but as one which I have 

 improved to the utmoft of my mature abilities, in 

 order to ma^e it more worthy of its Annotator. 



In the preceding Epiftle I have obviated, I hope, 

 every fufpicion of arrogance in attempting this work 

 after Mr. DRYDEN. The {ingle confideration that 

 his Verfion was in Profe were in itfelf fufficient ; 

 becaufe, as Mr. POPE has juftly obferved, Verfe and 

 even Rhyme is the beft mode of conveying precep- 

 tive truths, " as in this way they are more {hortly 

 exprefled, and more eafily retained*." Still lefs need 



I 



* See his Advertifement before the EfTay on Man. 



