Alone of all Italians, trace
Our history and name.
Then take this little book, whate'er
Of good or bad it store;
And grant, oh guardian Muse, that it
May keep the flavour of its wit
A century or more!"
The reference to the polish of the pumice-stone in the first verse may be simply metaphorical, and designed to express the general neatness of the work as poetry; but this sense must not be pressed too far, when we remember the enhancement of an author's affection for his own productions, which consists in their neat turning out and getting up. The ancient parchments underwent no small amount of pumice-polishing on the inside for the purpose of taking the ink, and on the outside, with the addition of colour, for a finish. Our poet might indulge in a reasonable complacency when he sent a presentation copy to Cornelius Nepos, which externally and internally laid equal claim to neatness. It was not so always, as we find him telling his friend Varus, in reference to the poetaster Suffenus, who had a knack of rattling off any number of verses, and then, without laying them by for correction and revision, launching them upon the public in the smartest and gayest of covers. Of this scribbler's mania he writes—
He keeps fair-copied—scribbled not
