For if too arrogant you vaunt your might,
You fall with greater scandal in the fight,
When on the nicest point your fortune stands,
And all your courage, all your strength demands.
With gradual flights surprise us as we read;
And let more glorious images succeed,
To wake our souls; to kindle our desire
Still to read on, and fan the rising fire.
But ne'er the subject of your work proclaim
In its own colours, and its genuine name;
Let it by distant tokens be convey'd
And wrapt in other words, and cover'd in their shade.
At last the subject from the friendly shrowd
Bursts out, and shines the brighter from the cloud;
Then the dissolving darkness breaks away,
And every object glares in open day.
And hence [1]Ulysses' toils were I to choose,
For the main theme that should employ my muse;
By his long labours of immortal fame,
I'd pain my heroe, but conceal his name;
- ↑ Vid. Hom. Odyss. Lib. I.
