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Bafe fugitives, to that afylum fly.
And facred laws with infolence defy.
Nor thus our heroes of the former days
Deferv'd and gain'd their never-fading bays
For I miftake, or far the greatest part
Of what fome call neglect, was study's art.
When Virgil feems to trifle in a line,
'Tis like a warning-piece, which gives the fig
To wake your fancy, and prepare your fight,
To reach the noble height of fome unusual flight.
I lofe my patience when, with faucy pride,
By untun'd ears I hear his number tried.
Reverse of nature: fhall fuch copies then
Arraign th' original of Maro's pen:
And the rude notions of pedantic schools
Blafpheme the facred founder of our rules?'
The delicacy of the nicest ear

Finds nothing harsh or out of order there.
Sublime or low, unheeded or intense;
The found is fill a comment to the fenfe.
A fkillful ear in numbers fhould prefide,
And all difputes without appeal decide.

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This ancient Rome, and elder Athens found,
Before mistaken flops debauch'd the found.
When, by impulfe from Heaven, Tyrtæus fung,
In drooping foldiers a new courage fprung;
Reviving Sparta now the flight maintain'd,
And what two gen'rals loft, a poet gain'd.
Vol. VI. 21.

B

By

By fecret influence of indulgent fkies,
Empire and poefy together rife.

True poets are the guardians of the flate,
And, when they fail, portend'approaching fate.
For that which Rome to conqueft did inspire,
Was not the véftal, but the mufe's fire;
Heaven joins the bleffings: no declining age
Ere felt the raptures of poetic rage.

Of many faults rhyme is perhaps the cause ;
Too ftrict to rhyme, we flight more useful laws:
For that, in Greece or Rome, was never known,
Till by barbarian deluges o'erflown:

Subdued, undone, they did at laft obey,
And change their own for their invader's way.
I grant that, from fome moffy idol oak,
In double rhymes our Thor and Woden spoke ;
And by fucceffion of unlearned times,

As bards began, fo monks rung on the chimes.

But now that Phoebus and the facred Nine With all their beams on our blest island shine, Why fhould not we their ancient rites reftore, And be what Rome or Athens were before ?

* Have forgot how Raphael's numerous profe • Led our exalted fouls thro' heavenly camps, And mark'd the ground where proud apoftate thrones Defied Jehovah! here, 'twixt hoft and hoft,

(A narrow, but a dreadful interval)

• Por

An Effay on Blank Verfe, out of Paradife Loft, B. VI.

• Portentous fight! before the cloudy van Satan with vaft and haughty ftrides advanc'd, ⚫ Came tow'ring arm'd in adamant and gold. • There bellowing engines, with their fiery tubes,. 6 Difpers'd æthereal forms, and down they fell By thousands, angels on archangels roli'd ; • Recover'd to the hills they ran, they flew, Which (with their ponderous load, rocks, waters, • woods), !

• From their firm feats torn by the fhaggy tops, They bore like shields before them through the air, Til more incens'd they hurl'd them at their foes, All was confufion, heaven's foundation fhook, • Threat'ning no lefs than univerfal wreck ;

For Michael's arm main promontories flung, • And over-prefs'd whole legions weak with fin: Yet they blafphem'd and ftruggled as they lay, • Till the great enfign of Meffiah blaz'd,

And (arm'd with vengeance) God's victorious Sen (Effulgence of paternal deity !)

Grafping ten thousand thunders in his hand,
• Drove th' original rebels headlong down,
And fent them flaming to the vafl aby fs.'
O may I live to hail the glorious day,

And fing loud pæans through the crowded w ay,
When in triumphant ftate the British Muse,
True to herfelf, fhall barbarous aid refuse,
And in the Roman Majefty appear,

Which none know better, and none come fo near.

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THENCE paffing forth, they fhortly do arrive

Whereas the Bower of Blifs was fituate;

A place pick'd out by choice of beft alive, That nature's work by art can imitate ; In which whatever in this wordly flate Is fweet and pleafing unto living fenfe, Or that may daintieft fanta fie aggrate, Was poured forth with plentiful difpenfe, And made there to abound with lavifh affluence,

Goodly it was enclofed round about,

As well their enter'd guefts to keep within,

As thofe unruly beafts to hold without; Yet was the fence thereof but weak and thin: Nought fear'd their force that fortilage to win,

But wifdom's powre and temperance's might, By which the mightieft things efforced bin : And eke the gate was wrought of fubftance light, Rather for pleasure than for battery or fight.

It framed was of pretious yvory, That feem'd a work of admirable wit;

And therein all the famous hiftorie

Of Jafon and Medea was ywrit;

Her

Her mighty charmes, her furious loving fit,

His goodly conqueft of the golden fleece, His falfed faith, and love to lightly flit,

The wondred Argo, which invent'rous peece

Firit thro' the Euxian feas bore all the flow'r of Greece.

Ye might have feen the frothy billowes fry Under the fhip, as thorough them she went, That feemed waves were into yvory,

Or yvory into the waves were fent,

And other where the fhowy fubftance fprent,
With vermell-like the boyes bloud therein shed:
A piteous fpectacle did reprefent;

And otherwhiles with gold besprinkeled,

It feem'd th' enchanted flame which did Creufa wed.

All this and more might in this goodly gate Be read; that ever open flood to all

Which thither came; but in the porch there fate

A comely perfonage of stature tall,

And femblance pleasing more than natural,
That travellers to him feem'd to entice;
His loofer garments to the ground did fall,
And flew about his heels in wanton wife,
Not fit for speedy pace or manly exercise.

The foe of life, that good envies to all,
That fecretly doth us procure to fall,
Through guileful femblaunce. which he makes us fee
He of this gardin had the governall

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