Again, Mr. Pope's, "Or ravish'd with the whistling of a name, is for the fame reason, if there were no other points of likeness, copied from Mr. Cowley's "Charm'd with the foolish whistlings of a name. Tranfl. of Virgil's O! fortunati nimium, &c. VII. An improper use of uncommon expreffion, in very exact writers, will fometimes create a fufpicion. Milton had called the fight indifferently visual nerve and visual ray, P. L. iii. 620. xi. 415. Mr. Pope in his Meffiah thought he might take the fame liberty, but forgot that though the vifual nerve might be purged from film, the visual ray could not. Had Mr. Pope invented this bold expreffion, he would have seen to apply his metaphor more properly. VIII. Where the word or phrafe is foreign, there is, if poffible, ftill lefs doubt. at laft his fail-broad vans He fpreads for flight. Milton P.L. ii. 927 Most 1 Most certainly from Taffo's, -Spiega al grand volo i vanni. ix. And that of Johnson in his Sejanus, O! what is it proud flime will not believe from Juvenal's nihil eft quod credere de se A. 1. Non poffit, cum laudatur Diis æqua poteftas. IX. Conclude the fame when the expreffion is antique, in the writer's own language. In Mr. Waller's Panegyric on the Protector, So, when a Lion shakes his dreadful mane, The antique formality of the phrase that first took pain, for, that first took the pains, in fo pure and modern a speaker, as this poet, looks fufpicious. He took it, as he Q3 found found it in an older writer. There are ma ny other marks of imitation, but we had needed no more than this to make the difcovery: So when a lion fhakes his dreadful mane, If his commander come, who first took pain X. You obferve in most of the instances, here given, befides other marks, there is an identity of rhyme. And this circumstance of itfelf, in our poetry, is no bad argument of imitation, particularly when joined to a fimilarity of expreffion. And the reafon is, the rhyme itself very naturally brings the expreffion along with it. I. 1. "Stuck o'er with titles, and hung round with ftrings, That thou may'st be by Kings, or whores of Kings.” Effay on man, E. IV. 205. besbat from Mr. Cowley in his tranflation of Hor. 1. "To Kings, or to the favourites of Kings. 2. Such is the world's great harmony, that springs From order, union, full confent of things. from Denham's Cowper's Hill, 86 Ep. 111. 295. Wifely fhe knew the harmony of things As well as that of founds from difcord springs." 3. "Far as the folar walk, or milky way. Effay on man, Ep. 1. † 102. from Mr. Dryden's Pindaric Poem to the me mory of K. Charles II. "Out of the folar walk, or heav'ns high way. Though thefe confonancies chyming in the writer's head, he might not always be aware of the imitation. XI. In the examples, just given, there was no reason to fufpect the poet was imitating, till you met with the original. Then indeed the rhyme leads to the discovery. if an exact writer falls into a flatness of expreffion for the fake of rhyme, you Q4 may may ev'n previously conclude that he has fome precedent for it." In the famous lines Let modest Fofter, if he will, excell I used to fufpect that the phrase of preaching well fo unlike the concife accuracy of Pope, would not have been hazarded by him, if fome eminent writer, though perhaps of an older age and lefs correct tafte than his own, had not fet the example. But I had no doubt left when I happened on the following couplet in Mr. Waller. Your's founds aloud, and tell us you excell Our great poet is more happy in the application of these rhymes on another occafion, Let fuch teach others, who themselves excell, Effay on Crit. 15. The |