For if it be
such a part, as, being present or absent, nothing concerns the
whole, it cannot be called a part of the whole; and such are the
episodes, of which hereafter. For the present here is one example:
the single combat of Ajax with Hector, as it is at large described
in Homer, nothing belongs to this Ajax of Sophocles.
You admire no poems but such as run like a brewer's cart upon the
stones, hobbling:-
"Et, quae per salebras, altaque saxa cadunt,
Accius et quidquid Pacuviusque vomunt.
Attonitusque legis terrai, frugiferai." {160a}
SOME POEMS.
TO WILLIAM CAMDEN
Camden! most reverend head, to whom I owe
All that I am in arts, all that I know -
How nothing's that! to whom my country owes
The great renown, and name wherewith she goes!
Than thee the age sees not that thing more grave,
More high, more holy, that she more would crave.
What name, what skill, what faith hast thou in things!
What sight in searching the most antique springs!
What weight, and what authority in thy speech!
Men scarce can make that doubt, but thou canst teach.
Pardon free truth, and let thy modesty,
Which conquers all, be once o'ercome by thee.
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