Look round the habitable world, how few Know their own good, or, knowing it, pursue! - John Dryden

If confidence presage a victory, Eugenius, in his own opinion, has already triumphed over the Ancients: nothing seems more easy to him than to overcome those whom it is our greatest praise to have imitated well; for we do not only build upon their foundation, but by their models.

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.