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From all their charms combined, with happy toil,
Did ANNIBAL compose his wond'rous style:
O'er the fair fraud so close a veil is thrown,
That every borrow'd grace becomes his own.

s If then to praise like theirs your souls aspire,
Catch from their works a portion of their fire;
Revolve their labours all, for all will teach,-
Their finish'd picture, and their slightest sketch,
Yet more than these to Meditation's eyes
Great Nature's self redundantly supplies:
Her presence, best of models! is the source
Whence Genius draws augmented power
force:

Her precepts, best of teachers! give the powers,
Whence art, by practice, to perfection soars.

760

These useful rules from time and chance to save,
In Latian strains, the studious FRESNOY gave:
On Tiber's peaceful banks the poet lay,

What time the pride of Bourbon urged his way,
Through hostile camps, and crimson fields of slain,
To vindicate his race and vanquish Spain;

Fortunæque bonis. Quos sedulus Hannibal omnes
In propriam mentem, atque modum mirâ arte coëgit.
h Plurimus inde labor tabulas imitando juvabit
Egregias, operumque typos ; sed plura docebit
Natura ante oculos præsens; nam firmat et auget
Vim genii, ex illâque artem experientia complet.
Multa supersileo quæ commentaria dicent.

767

and

770

775

535

540

Hæc ego, dum memoror subitura volubilis ævi

Cuncta vices, variisque olim peritura ruinis,

Pauca sophismata sum graphica immortalibus ausus
Credere Pieriis, Romæ meditatus: ad Alpes,

545

8 LXXI. Nature and Ex- h LXXI. Natura et Expe

perience perfect Art.

perientia Artem perficiunt.

U 4

High on the Alps he took his warrior stand,
And thence in ardent volley from his hand
His thunder darted (so the Flatterer sings
In strains best suited to the ear of kings),
And like ALCIDES, with vindictive tread,
Crush'd the Hispanian lion's gasping head.
But mark the Proteus-policy of state:
Now, while his courtly numbers I translate,
The foes are friends, in social league they dare
On Britain to "let slip the Dogs of War."
Vain efforts all, which in disgrace shall end,
If Britain, truly to herself a friend,

Through all her realms bids civil discord cease,
And heals her empire's wounds by arts of Peace.
Rouse, then, fair Freedom! Fan that holy flame,
From whence thy sons their dearest blessings claim;
Still bid them feel that scorn of lawless sway,
Which Interest cannot blind, nor Power dismay :
So shall the throne thou gavest the BRUNSWICK line,
Long by that race adorn'd, thy dread palladium shine.

Dum super insanas moles, inimicaque castra
Borbonidum decus et vindex Lodoicus avorum,
Fulminat ardenti dextrâ, patriæque resurgens
Gallicus Alcides premit Hispani ora leonis.

780

785

790

795

NOTES

ON

THE ART OF PAINTING.

The few notes which the Translator has inserted, and which are marked M., are merely critical, and relate only to the Author's text or his own version.

NOTES

ON

THE ART OF PAINTING.

NOTE I. VERSE 1.

Two Sister Muses, with alternate fire, &c. M. DU PILES opens his annotations here, with much learned quotation from Tertullian, Cicero, Ovid, and Suidas, in order to show the affinity between the two arts. But it may perhaps be more pertinent to substitute in the place of it all a single passage, by Plutarch ascribed to Simonides, and which our author, after having quoted Horace, has literally translated: Ζωγραφίαν είναι ΦΘΕΓΓΟΜΕΝΗΝ την Ποιησιν, Ποιησιν δε ΣΙΓΩΣΑΝ την Ζωγραφίαν. There is a Latin line somewhere to the same purpose, but I know not whether ancient or modern :

Poema

Est Pictura loquens, mutum Pictura Poema.

M.

NOTE II. VERSE 33.

Such powers, such praises, heav'n-born pair, belong
To magic colouring, and persuasive song.

That is to say, they belong intrinsically and of right. Mr. Wills, in the preface to his version of our poet,

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