[Sidenote: _A Judge_.] If you with _Friend_ or _Enemy_ are blest, Your _Fancy's Offspring_ ne'er can want a _Test_, Tho _Both_, perhaps may _overshoot_ the _Mark_: First _Spite_ with _Envy_ charges in the _Dark_; 310 _Unread_ they _damn_, and into _Passion_ fall, 'Tis _Stuff_, 'tis _Blasphemy_ 'tis _Nonsense_ all; They _sleep_ (when _doz'd before_) at every _Line_, } While your more _dang'rous Friend_ exclaims,--'Tis fine, } 'Tis _furiously Delightful_, 'tis _Divine_; } Th' _inspiring God's_ in ev'ry Page confess'd; A COWLEY or a DRYDEN at the least! Yet you'll from _both_ an _equal Judgment_ frame And stand the _nearest Candidate_ for _Fame_: What _Envy praises_, or what _Friends dislike_, 320 This bears the _Test_, and that the _Sponge_ should strike. Chuse to be _absent_ when your _Cause_ is try'd, Lest _Favour_ should the _partial Judge_ misguide; Not _others Thoughts_ implicitly prefer, Your _Friend's_ a _Mortal_, and like _you_, may _err_. Upon the _last Appeal_ let _Reason_ sit, And _here_, let _all Authority_ submit. Divest your _self of self_ whate'er you can, And think the _Author_ now some _other Man_. A thousand trivial _Lumber-Thoughts_ will come, 330 A thousand _Fagot-Lines_ will crowd for room; _Reform_ your _Troops_, and no _Exemption_ grant, You'll gain in _Strength_, what you in _Numbers_ want. Nor yet _Infallibility_ pretend; He still _errs on_ who thinks he ne'er can _mend_: Reject that _hasty_, that _presumptuous Thought_! None e'er but VIRGIL wrote without a _Fault_; (Or _none_ he has, or none that _I can find_, Who, dazzled with his _Beauties_, to his _Moles_ am blind.) Who has the _least_ is _happiest_, he the _best_, 340 Who _owns_ and _mends_ where he has once _transgrest_. Nor will _good Writers smaller Blots_ despise, Lest those neglected should to _Crimes_ arise; Such _Venial Sins_ indulg'd will _mortal_ prove, At least they from _Perfection_ far remove. Nor _Critical Exactness_ here deride, It looks like _Sloth_ or _Ignorance_, or _Pride_; _Good Sense_ is spoild in _Words unapt_ exprest, And _Beauty_ pleases more when 'tis _well drest_. [Sidenote: _Method_.] Forget not METHOD if the _Prize_ you'd gain, 350 'Twill cost you _Thought_, but richly pays the _Pain_; What _first_, what _second_, or what _last_ to place, What here will _shine_, and there the _Work_ disgrace. Before you build, your MODEL justly lay, And ev'ry Part in _Miniature_ survey; Where airy _Terraces_ shall threat the _Skies_, Where _Columns_ tow'r, or neat _Pilasters_ rise; Where cool _Cascades_ come _roaring_ down the Hill, Or where the _Crystal Nymph_ a _mossie Bason_ fill: