Face, that sits to him, handsome. 'Tis enough if he sets the best Features he finds in their full and most advantageous Light. But if the Poet has private Deformities, tho' Good-breeding will not allow to expose him naked, yet surely there can be no Reason to recommend him, as the most finish'd Model of Harmony and Proportion.
Whoever has this undistinguishing Complaisance, will not fail to vitiate the Taste of the Readers, and misguide many of them in their Judgment, where to approve, and where to censure.
It must be granted, that where there appears an infinite Variety of inimitable Excellencies, it would be too harsh and disingenuous to be severe on such Faults, as have escap'd rather thro' want of Leisure, and Opportunity to correct, than thro' the erroneous Turn of a deprav'd Judgment; How sensible Ovid himself was of the Uncorrectness of the Metamorphoses, appears from these Lines prefix'd before some of the Editions by the Care of his Commentators;
Orba parente suo quicunque Volumina tangis,
His saltem vestrâ detur in urbe locus.
Quòque magis faveas; non sunt hæc edita ab Ille,
Sed quasi de domini funere rapta sui.
Quicquid in his igitur vitii rude carmen habebit,
Emendaturus, si licuisset, erat. Trist. El. vi.
