i8o APPENDIX. 



,words, &c. are evidently fhewn to be the cloathing of the 

 .thought, in the fame fenfe as colours are the cloathing of the 

 .defign ; fo the Painter and the Poet ought to judge exa&ly 

 ,when the colouring and expreffions are .perfect, and then to 

 think their work is truly finished. Apelles faid of Protogenes, 

 that " he knew not when to give over." ' A work may be 

 over- wrought as well as under-wrought : Too much* labour 

 ofteA takes away the fpirit, by adding to the poliming; fo 

 that there remains nothing but a dull corre&nefs, a piece 

 without any confiderable faults, but with few beauties ; for 

 when the fpirits are drawn off, .there is nothing but a " caput 

 mortuum." Statius never thought an expreffion could be 

 bold enough ; and if a bolder could be found, he rejected the 

 firft. Virgil had judgment enough to know Daring was ne- 

 cefTary ; but he knew, the difference betwixt a glowing colour 

 and a glaring; as when he compared the fliocking of the 

 fleets at A&ium to the juftling of iflands rent from their 

 foundations and meeting in ,-the ocean. He knew the com- 

 parifon was forced beyond Nature, and raifcd too high ; he 

 therefore foftens the metaphor with a credas. You would 

 almoft believe that mountains or iilaads ruilied againfl each 

 Qtherj 



. -T-T- Credas innare revulfas 



Cycladas ; aut montes concurrere montibus sequos. 



-But here I muft break off without rmifhing the difcourfe. 



" Cynthius aurem vellit, & admonuit, &c." the things 

 which are behind are of too nice a confideration for an EfTay 

 begun and ended in twelve mornings ; and perhaps the Judges 

 .of Painting and Poetry, -when I tell them how fhort a time it 

 ccft me. may make me. the fame anfwer which my late Lord 

 Rochefter made to. one, who, to commend a Tragedy, faid, 



