When the success of AEneas depended on the favour of the
queen upon whose coasts he was driven, his celestial protectress thought
him not sufficiently secured against rejection by his piety or bravery,
but decorated him for the interview with preternatural beauty. Whoever
desires, for his writings or himself, what none can reasonably contemn,
the favour of mankind, must add grace to strength, and make his thoughts
agreeable as well as useful. Many complain of neglect who never tried to
attract regard. It cannot be expected that the patrons of science or
virtue should be solicitous to discover excellencies, which they who
possess them shade and disguise. Few have abilities so much needed by
the rest of the world as to be caressed on their own terms; and he that
will not condescend to recommend himself by external embellishments,
must submit to the fate of just sentiment meanly expressed, and be
ridiculed and forgotten before he is understood.
No. 169. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 29, 1751.
_Nec pluteum caedit, nec demorsos sapit ungues_. PER. Sat. i. 106.
No blood from bitten nails those poems drew;
But churn'd, like spittle, from the lips they flew. DRYDEN.
Natural historians assert, that whatever is formed for long duration
arrives slowly to its maturity.
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