Ev'n now, observant of the parting ray, Thro' Fortune's cloud one truly great can see, 40 L 2 TO JAMES CRAGGS, ESQ. SECRETARY OF STATE, 1720. A SOUL as full of worth as void of pride, } 10 15 TO MR. JERVAS, WITH MR. DRYDEN'S TRANS LATION OF FRESNOY'S ART OF PAINTING*. THIS verse be thine, my Friend! nor thou refuse This from no venal or ungrateful Muse. Whether thy hand strike out some free design, Where life awakes, and dawns at ev'ry line, Or blend in beauteous tints the colour'd mass, And from the canvass call the mimic face; Read these instructive leaves, in which conspire, Fresnoy's close art, and Dryden's native fire ; And reading with, like theirs, our fate and fame, So mix'd our studies, and so join'd our name; Like them to shine thro' long succeeding age; So just thy skill, so regular my rage. 5 10 15 Smit with the love of sister arts we came, And met congenial, mingling flame with flame; Like friendly colours found them both unite, And each from each contract new strength and light. How oft' in pleasing tasks we wear the day, While summer's suns roll unperceiv'd away! *This Epistle, and the two following, were written some years before the rest, and originally printed in 1717. How oft' our slowly-growing works impart, How oft' review, each finding, like a friend, 20 Something to blame, and something to commend! What flatt'ring scenes our wand'ring fancy wrought, Rome's pompous glories rising to our thought! Together o'er the Alps, methinks we fly, Fir'd with ideas of fair Italy. With thee on Raphael's monument I mourn, Or seek some ruin's formidable shade. While Fancy brings the vanquish'd piles to view, Here thy well-studied marbles fix our eye, A fading fresco here demands a sigh: 25 30 Each heav'nly piece unweary'd we compare, 35 Match Raphael's grace with thy lov'd Guido's air, Carracci's strength, Corregio's softer line, Paulo's free stroke, and Titian's warmth divine. This small well-polish'd gem, the work of years*; 40 * Fresnoy employed above 20 years in finishing his Poem. 45 50 Thence endless streams of fair ideas flow, 60 Oh! lasting as those colours may they shine! 65 |