Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

*Not fo the ftream, that from the fountain flows,
Limpid it runs, nor breaks the fwain's repose;
Plenty and peace its lucid windings chear,
"And searce its murmurs touch the list'ning ear.”

[ocr errors]

CLIMAX our sense will by gradation raise,

And this thought for the next a groundwork lays. Then," fays th' Omnipotent, who reigns on high, My pitying ear fhall hearken to the sky;

[ocr errors]

ss The sky fhall hear the earth, the earth the wine, SS The wine fhall Jezreel hear, for Jezreel now is mine*

HYPOTYFOSIS to the life will paint.

At Dives' gate poor Laz'rus pours his plaint: "Each eager feature speaks the asking soul; Thick heave his fighs, his tears in torrents roll ". O! my fon,

66

I faw, abhorr'd idea! at the stake

Old, venerable LATIMER; a foul "Spotless as infant chastity, than whom "No Prelate wore a whiter robe, or grac❜d "An holier mitre. With officious hafte "A blood-ftain'd fury hurl'd a flaming brand "Amidst the pile, and taught the tow'ring blaze "To roufe a thousand agonies of pain "In ev'ry limb. He fmil'd, the martyr fmil'd, Scarce confcious of a pang. His lifted eye, "O majesty of virtue! calmly hung "On heav'n's unclouded arch, and feem'd to shine "With fomething more than human; rapture feiz'd "Each glowing cheek, and flush'd his ev'ry look "With all a cherub's brightness. At his fide, "Sad intercourfe of forrows! RIDLEY grafp'd The focial chain, and fhar'd with equal zeal

Hofea ii. 21. See page 268,

"Barbarity

Barbarity of torture - Yes, I fhar'd "Affliction's deadly cup, and half affum'd "His dignity of foul. Ye heav'ns! what joy "Tumultuous heav'd my breast! what manly ftrength, "What energy of firmness, while my ear "Enjoy'd his heav'nly comforts? Ev'ry nerve "Confefs'd the full divinity, and steel'd "Affrighted nature, till th' angelic band, "Bright hov'ring o'er the flame, exulting led "Our unembodied fouls to feats of blifs, "A paradife of fweets! and gently lull'd

The last keen agonies of fense to reft *." "Duration's long interminable line "In regions unexplor'd, O man, is thine: "Why then of low terrestrial cares fo full? "Why in thy work fo languishingly dull? "Thy life with what rapidity † it flies? "A moment glances, and a moment dies: "And yet how few remain upon thy score ! "Or who dares say, thou haft a moment more? "Ere long all nature too shall fink in years, "And funs and planets, lawless from their spheres, "In ruin fhall rufh down precipitate, "Quench'd and abforb'd in all-devouring fate; "O'er worlds demolish'd Night fhall throw its pall, "And Death and second Chaos fwallow all."

PROSOPOPEIA into perfons turns

The qualities of mind. "See Valour burns
"From Virtue's threat'ned head t' avert the blow,
"And crush Oppreffion, her infulting foe."

Bishop RIDLEY's Ghost, page 212.

Abstract

+ Refpice celeritatem rapidiffimi temporis:,cogita brevitatem hujus fpatii, per quod citatiffimi currimus. SEN.Epift.99.-Were ever words more happily chofen to exprefs a Writer's ideas?

Abstract ideas, gen'ral notions rise, And in corporeal fhapes the foul surprise. "Fame on its wings the hero's name fhall raife, "And her loud trump fhall labour in his praise, "While Viary weaves the laurels for his brows, "And round the chief her blaze of glory throws." A filent perfon thro' his friend fhall speak. How does my heart with MILO's fpeeches break? "Farewel, farewel, my citizens, he cries, "Enjoy in peace your laws and liberties; "Still, my lov'd Rome, ftill happy may'ft thou be, "Whatever wrongs are multiply'd on me *." This Figure by departed ghofts persuades. "The bursting earth unveils her awful fhades, "All flow, and wan, and cover'd o'er with fhrouds, "They glide along in vifionary crowds, "And all with fober, folemn accents cry, “Think, think, O mortal, what it is to die †.” PROSOPOPEIA too endows with sense, With life, with paffion, and intelligence Inan'mate nature. "At our father's fall, "Whose curse has swept in ruin o'er us all,

"Earth to its center figh'd, the heav'ns around "Grew dark, and fighing, back return'd the sound ‡.”

PARABOLE darts its surprising beams,

And in unclouded luftre fets our themes.

55 A man unfaithful in an evil day,

ss When on his help our pleafing hopes we lay,

SS Proves like a broken tooth, which when we fain

SS Would use, reluctates and revolts in pain:

CICERO. See page 360.

lines in PARNELL's Night-Piece on Death. See page 355.

$ Or

+ Altered from fome

MILTON.

$5 Or a disjointed foot, that, as we truft
Our weight upon it, finks us to the duft,
Ss While the swift lines of agonizing smart

SS Rufh thro' our frame, and wound us to the heart *
Sublimity oft from this Figure springs,

And foars exulting on its tow'ring wings.

[ocr errors]

55 Who gave the crocodile his monstrous fize?
ss Large is his front; and, when his burnifh'd eyes
85 Lift their broad lids, the morning feems to rife tss.
PARABOLES afford a rich delight,

As thro' earth, fea, and fkies they wing their flight.
"As when from mountain-tops the dufky clouds
"Afcending, while the north-wind fleeps, o'erfpread
"Heav'n's chearful face, the louring element
"Scowls o'er the dark'ned landfcape, fnow or fhow'r;
"If chance the radiant fun, with farewel fweet,
"Extend his ev'ning beam, the fields revive,
"The birds their notes renew, and bleating herds
"Atteft their joy, that hill and valley rings +."

"As o'er the western waves, when ev'ry ftorm "Is hufh'd within its cavern, and a breeze "Soft-breathing lightly with its wings along "The flacken'd cordage glides, the failor's ear "Perceives no found throughout the vast expanfe, "None but the murmurs of the fliding prow, "Which flowly parts the smooth and yielding main; "So thro' the wide and lift'ning crowd no found,

Prov. xxv. 19.

" No

+YOUNG's verfion of Job xli. 18.

MILTON'S comparifon upon the breaking up of the infernal council, and the joy of the devils in SATAN's undertaking the bold attempt of paffing from hell through unknowa difficulties and dangers in fearch of our world, Paradife Loft, book ii. line 488.

[ocr errors]

"No voice but thine, O AGIS, broke the air, "Declaring thus the oracle divine *."

That holy man, who fin and finners flies, Who fets the laws of Heav'n before his eyes, There finds an inexhauftible delight,

Reads them by day, and thinks them o'er by night,
The honour'd fav'rite of his GOD fhall live,
And from his hand fhall endlefs blifs receive.
So, planted by fome river's flow'ry fide,

With ftreams from ever-bubbling fprings fupply'd,
Tow'rs fome young tree from its well-water'd root,
And in its feafon yields the choiceft fruit:
No fick'ning blaft upon its boughs is feen,
And its leaves flourish in immortal green +.

Bright was his genius as the folår beam,
Soft was his temper as the filver ftream;
His eloquence, with native vigour strong,
Swept like a tide, and bore our fouls along;
Like fun-enkindled gems his manners blaz'd;
All faw their beauty, and that beauty prais'd f.

EPIPHONEMA charms and edifies

With obfervations natʼral, juft, and wise.

7

"With am'rous language, and bewitching fmiles, "Attractive airs, and all the lover's wiles,

་་

"The fair Egyptian JACOB's fon carest,

"Hung on his neck, and languish'd on his breast; "Courted with freedom now the beauteous flave, "Now, flatt'ring, fu'd, and threat'ning, now did rave.

* GLOVER'S Leonidas, book i. line 89.

+ Pfalm i. 3.

"But

The Author's character of the Reverend Mr SAMUEL

DAVIES.

« AnteriorContinuar »