Read it through once

HE that wishes to know the character of any poet ought carefully to consider the age in which he lived. No man can be a poet in the same manner at all times: and, for the same reason, a great poet, who conversed with a rude and barbarous people, will there be admired where the same excellencies would not be regarded among polished nations. To expose the vices of a luxurious and corrupt court, is the province of satire or of moral painting; to speak to the heart of a simple and rustic people is the business of pastoral or descriptive poetry: to be the first that gave his country a language, is the praise of him that labours to be both instructive and delightful.