But the poet made his piety
more successful; he brought off his father and his son; and his gods
witnessed to his devotion by putting themselves under his
protection, to be replaced by him in their promised Italy. Neither
the invention nor the conduct of this great action were owing to
Homer or any other poet; it is one thing to copy, and another thing
to imitate from nature. The copier is that servile imitator to whom
Horace gives no better a name than that of animal; he will not so
much as allow him to be a man. Raffaelle imitated nature; they who
copy one of Raffaelle's pieces, imitate but him, for his work is
their original. They translate him, as I do Virgil; and fall as
short of him as I of Virgil. There is a kind of invention in the
imitation of Raffaelle; for though the thing was in nature, yet the
idea of it was his own. Ulysses travelled, so did AEneas; but
neither of them were the first travellers: for Cain went into the
land of Nod before they were born, and neither of the poets ever
heard of such a man.
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