Principio quoniam magni commercia coeli Numina concessere homini, cui carmina curae, Ipse Deum genitor divinam noluit artem Omnibus expositam vulgo, … - Marco Girolamo Vida

Nec dubitem versus hirsuti saepe poetae
Suspensus lustrare, et vestigare legendo,
Sicubi se quaedam forte inter commoda versu
Dicta meo ostendant, quae mox melioribus ipse
Auspiciis proprios possim mihi vertere in usus,
Detersa prorsus prisca rubigine scabra.

With gay descriptions sprinkle here and there
Some grave instructive sentences with care,
That touch on life, some moral good pursue,
And give us virtue in a transient view;
Rules, which the future sire may make his own,
And point the golden precepts to his son.

Praeterea haud lateat te nil conarier artem,
Naturam nisi ut assimulet, propiusque sequatur. Hanc unam vates sibi proposuere magistram:
Quicquid agunt, hujus semper vestigia servant.