Part 1 / Book 1 — SHEFFIELD, DUKE OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.
Reading edition
1649-1721.
Essay on Poetry.
Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
There's no such thing in nature, and you'll draw A faultless monster, which the world ne'er saw.
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.