e _Master of your Subject_, _Thoughts_ will _flow_: 300
The _newer_ 'tis, the _choicer Fruit_ 'twill yield,
More _Room_ you have to work if _large_ your _Field_;
The _Sponge_ you oftner than the _Pen_ will want,
And rather _Reason_ see to _prune_ than _plant_;
Yet where the _Thoughts_ are _barren, weak_ and _thin_,
New _Cyons_ should be neatly _grafted_ in.
[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_ indul