The Spectator
Chapter 395 : Poems like pictures are. 59. SENECA. Busy about nothing. 60. PERS. Sat. iii. 85. Is it

'Poems like pictures are.'

59. SENECA.

'Busy about nothing.'

60. PERS. Sat. iii. 85.

'Is it for this you gain those meagre looks, And sacrifice your dinner to your books?'

61. PERS. Sat. v. 19.

' 'Tis not indeed my talent to engage In lofty trifles, or to swell my page With wind and noise.'

(Dryden).

62. HOR. Ars Poet. ver. 309.

'Sound judgment is the ground of writing well.'

(Roscommon).

63. HOR. Ars Poet. ver. i.

'If in a picture, Piso, you should see A handsome woman with a fish's tail, Or a man's head upon a horse's neck, Or limbs of beasts, of the most different kinds, Cover'd with feathers of all sorts of birds; Would you not laugh, and think the painter mad?

Trust me that book is as ridiculous, Whose incoherent style, like sick men's dreams, Varies all shapes, and mixes all extremes.'

(Roscommon).

64. JUV. Sat. iii. 183.

'The face of wealth in poverty we wear.'

65. HOR. 1 Sat. x. 90.

'Demetrius and Tigellius, know your place; Go hence, and whine among the school-boy race.'

66. HOR. 1 Od. vi. 21.

'Behold a ripe and melting maid Bound 'prentice to the wanton trade: Ionian artists, at a mighty price, Instruct her in the mysteries of vice, What nets to spread, where subtle baits to lay; And with an early hand they form the temper'd clay.'

(Roscommon).

67. SALl.u.s.t.

'Too fine a dancer for a virtuous woman.'

68. OVID, Met. i. 355.

'We two are a mult.i.tude.'

69. VIRG. Georg. i. 54.

'This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres suits; That other loads the trees with happy fruits, A fourth with gra.s.s, unbidden, decks the ground: Thus Tmolus is with yellow saffron crown'd; India black ebon and white iv'ry bears; And soft Idume weeps her od'rous tears: Thus Pontus sends her beaver stones from far: And naked Spaniards temper steel for war: Epirus for th' Elean chariot breeds (In hopes of palms) a race of running steeds.

This is th' original contract; these the laws Imposed by nature, and by nature's cause.'

(Dryden).

70. HOR. 1 Ep. ii. 63.

'Sometimes the vulgar see and judge aright.'

71. OVID, Epist. iv. 10.

'Love bade me write.'

72. VIRG. Georg. iv. 208.

'Th' immortal line in sure succession reigns, The fortune of the family remains, And grandsires' grandsons the long list contains.'

(Dryden).