Footnotes
[279:1] Thou best-humour'd man with the worst-humour'd muse!—Goldsmith: Retaliation. Postscript.
[279:2] These last four lines are attributed to Rochester.
SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE. 1649-1720.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
Essay on Poetry.
There 's no such thing in Nature; and you 'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne'er saw.[279:3]
Essay on Poetry.
[[280]]
![[280]](#2001010581228339517_280.png.id-9077209154863485267.wrap-0.html.html){kind=link}
Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.
Essay on Poetry.