589

Till, skill'd her separate features to design,
You know each muscle's site, and how they join.
These while beneath some master's eye we trace,
Vers'd in the lore of symmetry and grace,
Boldly proceed: his precepts shall impart
Each sweet deception of the pleasing art:
Still more than precept shall his practice teach, 595
And add what self-reflection ne'er can reach.

* Oft, when alone, the studious hour employ
On what may aid your art, and what destroy;
+ Diversity of parts is sure to please,
If all the various parts unite with ease;

600

Corpora viva super studium meditabitur, ante Illorum quàm symmetriam, internodia, formam Noverit, inspectis, docto evolvente magistro, 430 Archetypis, dulcesque dolos præsenserit artis. Plusque manu ante oculos quam voce docebiturusis. Quære artem quæcunque juvant; fuge quæque repugnant.

§ Corpora diversæ natura juncta placebunt; Sic ea quæ facili contempta labore videntur: 435

*LX. Art must be subservient to the Painter. + LXI. Diversity aud Facility are pleasing.

LX. Ars debet servire Pictori, non Pictor Arti. § LXI. Oculos recreant diversitas et operis facilitas, quæ speciatim Ars dicit.

As surely charms that voluntary style,

605

Which careless plays, and seems to mock at toil;
For labour'd lines with cold exactness tire,
'Tis freedom only gives the force and fire
Etherial; she, with alchymy divine,
Brightens each touch, ennobles every line;
Yet pains and practice only can bestow
This facile power of hand, whose liberal flow
With grateful fraud its own exertions veils ;
He best employs his art who best conceals.
*This to obtain, let taste with judgment join'd
The future whole infix upon thy mind;
Be there each line in truth ideal drawn,
Or ere a colour on the canvass dawn;

610

Æthereus quippe ignis inest et spiritus illis;
Mente diu versata, manu celeranda repenti.
Arsque laborque operis grata sic fraude latebit:
Maxima deinde erit ars, nihil artis inesse videri.
+ Nec prius inducas tabulæ pigmenta colo-
rum,
440

Expensi quàm signa typi stabilita nitescant,
Et menti præsens operis sit pegma futuri.

* LXII. The Original must + LXII. Archetypus in be in the Head, and the Copy mente, Apographus in tela. on the Cloth.

Then as the work proceeds, that work submit 615
To sight instinctive, not to doubting wit;

The eye
Hold then the compass only in the eyes.

each obvious error swift descries,

+ Give to the dictates of the learn'd respect,
Nor proudly untaught sentiments reject,
Severe to self alone: for self is blind,
And deems each merit in its offspring join'd:
Such fond delusion time can best remove,
Concealing for awhile the child we love :
By absence then the eye impartial grown,
Will, though no friend assist, each error own;

620

625

Prævaleat sensus rationi, quæ officit arti Conspicua; inque oculis tantummodo circinus esto. § Utere doctorum monitis, nec sperne super

bus

Discere, quæ de te fuerit sententia vulgi :

445

Est cæcus nam quisque suis in rebus, et expers
Judicii, prolemque suam miratur amatque.
Ast ubi consilium deerit sapientis amici,
Id tempus dabit, atque mora, intermissa labori. 450

* LXIII. The Compass to

be in the Eyes.

+ LXIV. Pride an enemy to good Painting.

+ LXIII. Cercinus in Oculis.

§ LXIV. Superbia Pictori nocet plurimum.

But these subdu'd, let thy determin'd mind
Veer not with every critic's veering wind,
Or e'er submit thy genius to the rules
Of prating fops, or self-important fools;
Enough if from the learn'd applause be won;
Who dote on random praises, merit none.

*

By nature's sympathetic power, we see, As is the Parent, such the

progeny:

630

Ev'n Artists, bound by their instinctive law, 635
In all their works their own resemblance draw:
Learn then "to know thyself;" that precept sage
Shall best allay luxuriant Fancy's rage;
Shall point how far indulgent Genius deigns
To aid her flight, and to what point restrains. 640

Non facilis tamen ad nutus, et inania vulgi Dicta, levis mutabis opus, geniumque relinques : Nam qui parte sua sperat bene posse mereri Multivaga de plebe, nocet sibi, nec placet ulli. + Cumque opere in proprio soleat se pingere pictor, (Prolem adeo sibi ferre parem natura suevit), Proderit imprimis pictori γνωθι σεαυτόν, Ut data quæ genio colat, abstineatque negatis.

455

* LXV. Know thyself. + LXV. Nosce teipsum.

645

But as the blushing fruits, the breathing flowers,
Adorning Flora's and Pomona's bowers,
When forcing fires command their buds to swell,
Refuse their dulcet taste, their balmy smell;
So labour's vain extortion ne'er achieves
That grace supreme which willing Genius gives.
*Thus though to pains and practice much we owe,
Though thence each line obtains its easy flow,
Yet let those pains, that practice, ne'er be join'd,
To blunt the native vigour of the mind.

650

† When shines the Morn, when in recruited

course

The spirits flow, devote their active force

Fructibus utque suus nunquam est sapor, atque

venustas

Floribus, insueto in fundo, præcoce sub anni 460 Tempore, quos cultus violentus et ignis adegit: Sic nunquam, nimio quæ sunt extorta labore, Et picta invito genio, nunquam illa placebunt. § Vera super meditando, manûs labor improbus adsit;

* LXVI. Perpetually practice, and do easily what you have conceived.

+ LXVII. The Morning most proper for work.

+ LXVI. Quod mente conceperis manu comproba.

§ LXVII. Matutinum Tempus labori aptum.