Page:Vida's Art of Poetry.djvu/80

Use not your fortune, nor unfurl your sails,
Tho' call'd, tho' courted by the flatt'ring gales,
Refuse them still; and call your judgment in,
While the fierce god exults and reigns within,
To reason's standard be your thoughts confin'd,
Let reason rule the sallies of the mind.
Indulge your heat with conduct, and restrain,
Learn when to draw, and when to give the rein.
But always wait, 'till the warm raptures cease,
And lull the tumults of the soul to peace;
Then, nor 'till then, examine strictly o'er
What your wild sallies might suggest before.

Be sure from nature never to depart;
To copy nature is the task of art.
The noblest poets own her sov'reign sway,
And ever follow where she leads the way.
From her the diff'rent characters they trace,
That mark the human or the salvage race,
Each various and distinct; in every stage
They paint mankind; their humours, sex, and age;

They