But, even here, Eumolpus returning to his old humour: "Young men," began he, "this poetry deceives many; for not only every one that is able to give a verse its numbers, and spin out his feble sence in a long train of words, has the vanity to think himself inspir'd; but pleaders at the bar, when they wou'd give themselves a loose from business, apply themselves to poetry, as an entertainment without trouble; believing it easier to compile a poem than maintain a controversie, adorn'd with a few florid sentences. But neither will a generous spirit affect the empty sound of words; nor can a mind, unless enricht with learning, be deliver'd of a birth of poetry; there must be the purity of language, no porterly expression, or meanness, as I may call it, of words is to be admitted; but a stile perfectly above the common, and with Horace,-- "'Scorn the unletter'd herd, And drive 'em from you.' "Besides, you must be strictly diligent, that your expressions appear of a piece with the body of the discourse, and your colours so laid, that each may contribute to the beauty of the whole. Greece has given us a Homer and the Lyricks for example; Rome a Virgil and an Horace; the purity of whose language is so happily correct, others either never saw the path that leads to poetry, or seeing, were afraid to tread it. To describe the civil wars of Rome would be a master-piece, the unletter'd head that offers at it, will sink beneath the weight of so great a work; for to relate past actions, is not so much the business of a poet, as an historian; the boundless genius of a poet strikes through all mazes, introduces gods, and puts the invention on the rack for poetick ornaments; that it may rather seem a prophetick fury, than a strict relation, with witnesses of meer truth. As for example, this rapture, tho' I have not given it the last hand.