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Ω λευκα Γαλάλεια, τι τον φιλεον ̓ ἀποβάλλη;
Λευκότερα πακίας πόλιδειν, απαλώτερα δ ̓ ἀρνΘ,
Μοσχω γαυρότερα, φιαρώτερα ομφακα ωμας. *

These simple and pastoral images were the most proper that could occur to a Cyclops, and to an inhabitant of Sicily. Ovid could not restrain the luxuriancy of his genius, on the same occasion, from wandering into an endless variety of flowery and unappropriated similitudes, and equally applicable to any other person or place.

Candidior nivei folio, Galatea, ligustri;
Floridior pratis; longâ procerior alno;
Splendidior vitro; tenero lascivior hædo;
Lævior assiduo detritis æquore conchis;
Solibus hybernis, æstivâ gratior umbrâ ;
Nobilior pomis; platano conspectior altâ ;
Lucidior glacie; maturâ dulcior uvâ ;
Mollior et cygni plumis, et lacte coacto;
Et, si non fugías, riguo formosior horto.†

There are seven more lines of comparison.

22. False eloquence, like the prismatic glass,
Its gaudy colours spreads on every place;
The face of nature we no more survey,
All glares alike without distinction gay.

The

* Idyll. Κυκλ. + Metam. xiii. 789.

Ver. 311.

The nauseous affectation of expressing every thing pompously and poetically, is no where more visible than in a poem lately published, entitled AMYNTOR and THEODORA. The following instance may be alleged among many others. Amyntor having a pathetic tale to discover, being choaked with sorrow, and at a loss for utterance, uses these ornamental and unnatural images:

O could I steal

From Harmony her softest warbled strain
Of melting air! or Zephyre's vernal voice!
Or Philomela's song, when love dissolves
To liquid blandishment his evening lay,
All nature smiling round.*

Voltaire has given a comprehensive rule with respect to every species of composition: "Il ne faut rechercher, ni les pensées, ni les tours, ni les expressions, et que l'art, dans tous les grands ouvrages, est de bien raisonner, sans trop faire d'argument; de bien peindre, sans vouloir tout peindre; d'émouvoir, sans vouloir toujours exciter les passions.†

23. Some

* Cant. 3. ver. 92.

+ Oeuvres, tom. iii.

page 332.

23. Some by old words to fame have made pretence.*

QUINTILIAN'S advice on this subject is as

follows. translata; propriis dignitatem dat antiquitas. Namque et sanctiorem, et magis admirabilem reddunt orationem, quibus non quilibet fuit usurus: eoque ornamento acerrimi judicii Virgilius unice est usus. Olli enim, et quianam, et mis, et pone, pellucent, et aspergunt illam, quæ etiam in picturis est gratissima, vetustatis inimitabilem arti auctoritatem. Sed utendum modo, nec ex ultimis tenebris repetenda."†

"Cum sint autem verba propria, ficta,

24. Where'er you find "the cooling western breeze,” In the next line it "whispers through the trees."+

Trite and unvaried rhymes offend us; not only as they are destitute of the grace of novelty, but as they imply carelessness in the poet, who adopts what he finds ready made to his hands. We have not many compositions where NEW and uncommon rhymes are introduced. One or two writers,

* Ver. 324.

Inst. Orat. lib. vii. c. 3.

‡ Ver. 350.

writers, however, I cannot forbear mentioning, who have been studious of this beauty. They are Parnell; Pitt, in his Translation of Vida; West, in his Pindar; Thomson, in the Castle of Indolence; and the author of an elegant Ode To SUMMER, published in a Miscellany entitled the UNION.*

25. A needless Alexandrine ends the song t

Dryden was the first who introduced the frequent use of this measure into our English heroic; for we do not ever find it even in the longer works of Sandys, nor in Waller. Dryden has often used it very happily, and it gives a complete harmony to many of his triplets. By scrupulously avoiding it, POPE has fallen into an unpleasing and tiresome monotony, in his Iliad.

25. And praise the easy vigour of a line,

Where Denham's strength and Waller's sweetness join.‡

FENTON,

* Edinburgh, 1753, 12mo. p. 81.

+ Ver. 356.

* Ver. 360.

FENTON, in his entertaining observations on Waller, has given us a curious anecdote concerning the great industry and exactness with which Waller polished even his smallest compositions. "When the court was at Windsor, these verses were writ in the Tasso of her Royal Highness, at Mr. Waller's request, by the late Duke of Buckinghamshire; and I very well remember to have heard his Grace say, that the author employed the GREATEST PART OF A SUMMER in composing and correcting them. So that, however he is generally reputed the parent of those swarms of insect wits who affect to be thought easy writers, it is evident that he bestowed much time and care on his poems, before he ventured them out of his hands."t

27. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance,
As those move easiest who have learn'd to dance.‡

It is well known that the writings of Voiture, of Sarassin, and La Fontaine, cost them much

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+ Fenton's Waller, edit. 12mo. OBSERVATIONS, p. 148.

+ Ver. 362.

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