An Nequiry Concerning The Principles Of Morals - pg. 138

And can it possibly be doubted, that this talent itself of poets, to move the passions, this PATHETIC and SUBLIME of sentiment, is a very considerable merit; and being enhanced by its extreme rarity, may exalt the person possessed of it, above every character of the age in which he lives? The prudence, address, steadiness, and benign government of AUGUSTUS, adorned with all the splendour of his noble birth and imperial rown, render him but an unequal competitor for fame with VIRGIL, who late nothing into the opposuite scale but the divine beauties of his poetical genius.