And indeed, this may be said, in general, that great subjects are above
being nice; that dignity and spirit ever suffer from scrupulous exactness;
And that the minuter cares effeminate a composition. Great masters of
poetry, painting, and statuary, in their nobler works, have even affected
the contrary: and justly; for a truly masculine air partakes more of the
negligent, than of the neat, both in writings, and in life--
Grandis oratio haberet majestatis suae pondus.
--PETRON.
A poem, like a criminal, under too severe correction, may lose all its
spirit, and expire. We know it was Faberrimus, that was such an artist at
a hair or a nail. And we know the cause was
Quia ponere totum
Nescius.
HOR.
To close: if a piece of this nature wants an apology, I must own, that
those who have strength of mind sufficient profitably to devote the whole
of their time to the severer studies, I despair of imitating, I can only
envy and admire.
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