But useless lances into scythes fhall bend, And the broad faulchion in a plow-share end. m Shall finish what his short-liv'd Sire begun; Their vines a shadow to their race shall yield, 65 70 To leafless fhrubs the flow'ring palms fucceed, 75 And od'rous myrtle to the noisom weed, REMARK S. namely a ray of light coming to the eye. He fhould have faid thick clouds, which would have agreed with both. But these inaccuracies are not to be found in his later poems, IMITATIONS, VER. 67. The fwain in barren deferts] Virg. E. iv. 28, Incultifque rubens pendebit fentibus uva, "The fields fhall grow yellow with ripen'd ears, and the red "grape fhall hang upon the wild brambles, and the hard oaks "fhall diftill honey like dew. ISAIAH, Ch. XXXV. 7. "The parched ground shall become "a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: In the habitations "where dragons lay, fhall be grafs, and reeds and rushes.” Ch. Ch. xxxv. 1, 7, • Ch. xli. * 19 Ch. Ixv. and Ch. tv. 21, 22. 13. The lambs with wolves fhall graze the verdant mead, The fteer and lion at one crib fhall meet, IMITATIONS. lv. 13. "Instead of the thorn fhall come up the fir-tree, and inftead of the briar fhall come up the myrtle tree. P. VER. 77. The lambs with wolves, etc.] Virg. E. iv. y 21. "The goats fhall bear to the fold their udders diftended with "milk: nor fhall the herds be afraid of the greatest lions. The "ferpent fhall die, and the herb that conceals poifon fhall die. ISAIAH, Ch. xi. y 16, etc. "The wolf fhall dwell with the "lamb, and the leopard fhall lie down with the kid, and the calf " and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child "fhall lead them.---And the lion fhall eat straw like the ox. And "the fucking child fhall play on the hole of the afp, and the "weaned child shall put his hand on the den of the cockatrice. P. VER. 85. Rife crown'd with light, imperial Salem, rife! ] The thoughts of Ifaiah, which compofe the latter part of the poem, are wonderfully elevated,and much above thofe general exclamations of Virgil, which make the loftieft parts of his Pollio. Magnus ab integro fæclorum nafcitur ordo! 1-1 toto furget gens aurea mundo! --- incipient magni procedere menfes ! Afpice, venturo lætentur ut omnia fæclo! etc. *Chị xi. * 6, 7, 8, 4 Ch. Ixv. 25. Ch. lx. 1. 99 See, a long race thy fpacious courts adorn; V And feeds of gold in Ophir's mountains glow. One tide of glory, one unclouded blaze 95 100 O'erflow thy courts: the Light himself shall shine The 'feas fhall wafte, the skies in smoke decay, 105 IMITATIONS. The reader needs only to turn to the paffages of Ifaiah, here cited. P. Ch. Ix. 4. Ch. Ix. 3. Ch. lx. 6. Ch. Ix. 19, 30. Ch. li. 6. and Ch. liv. ver. 10. |