be able to assert on this head, and with that declaration I shall conclude. "When my ex pressions are not so full as his, either our lan guage, or my art, were defective (but I rather "suspect myself); but where mine are fuller "than his, they are but the impressions which "the often reading of him hath left upon my thoughts; so that if they are not his own con 66 cr ceptions, they are at least the results of them." DEDICATION OF HIS POEMS +, TO CORNELIUS NEPOS. My little volume is complete, With all the care and polish neat That makes it fair to see: To whom shall I then, to whose praise, Inscribe my lively graceful lays? Cornelius +, friend, to thee. Thou only of th' Italian race Hast dared in three small books to trace All time's remotest flight: Oh Jove, how labour'd, learn'd, and wise! Yet still thou ne'er wouldst quite despise The trifles that I write. This + refers to the Notes at the end of the volume. |