The meanest thing that bears

40Th' impression of thy pen;

Tho' coarse and cheap their natural metal were,

Stamp'd with thy verse he knows th' are sacred then,

He knows them by that character to be

Predestinate and set apart for immortality.

IV.

If native lustre in thy themes appear,

Improv'd by thee it shines more clear:

Or if thy subject's void of native light,