Spence, Joseph; Tindal, Nicholas [Editor]; Dodsley, James [Oth.]: A Guide To Classical Learning: Or, Polymetis Abridged: Containing, I. By Way of Introduction, the Characters of the Latin Poets and their Work ... II. An Inquiry concerning the Agreement between the Works of the Roman Poets and the Remains of the Antient Artists ... Being a Work absolutely necessary, not only for the Right Understanding of the Classics, but also for forming in Young Minds a True Taste for the Beauties of Poetry, Sculpture, and Painting (London: Printed for J. Dodsley, 1786)

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mixed kind ; the luxuriance of his fancy, and the
incorre&ness of his way of writing, make what he
says more doubtful and uncertain. The poets of
the third age have a middle kind of authority;
greater than the writers of the first age, but lets
than the Augustan, as much better acquainted
with the works of art than the former, and much
less exacft than the latter. Silius, perhaps, may be
allowed the greatest authority of any of his age,
for his car.efulness and particular love of the arts,
as Lucan’s heat and Statius’s inexa&ness may ren-
der them less fit to be depended upon than some
others who wrote in the decline of poetry, and of
the arts at Rome.

SECT. III.
"The use of these Inquiries in general, and of
this in particular.
HE usefulness of antiques towards explaining
the classics appears from the reason of the
-thing. The works of the old artists and poets
must naturally throw mutual light on each, other.
As they were both conversant in the same sort of
knowledge, fell much into the same way of think*
ing, and were often employed on the very same
subje&s, they must of courfe be the best explainers
of one another.
Ttys