lines. I write to you, as usual, for assistance in my projects,

Already men had, under treaty pacts,

Confederates and allies, when poets began

To hand heroic actions down in verse;

Nor long ere this had letters been devised-

Hence is our age unable to look back

On what has gone before, except where reason

Tillings of fields, walls, laws, and arms, and roads,

Dress and the like, all prizes, all delights