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Et non mortali defuper igne pluunt ;
Stat dubius cui fe parti concedat OLYMPUS
Et metuit pugnæ non fupereffe fuæ.
At fimul in cœlis MESSIÆ infignia fulgent,
Et currus animes, armaque digna DEO;
Horrendúmque rotæ ftrident, & fæva rotarum
Erumpunt torvis fulgura luminibus;
Et flammæ vibrant, & vera tonitrua rauco
Admiftis flammis infonuere polo:
Excidit attonitis mens omnis, & impetus omnis,
Et caffis dextris irrita tela cadunt..

Ad pænas fugiunt, & (ceu foret ORCUS afylum!)
Infernis certant condere fe tenebris.
Cedite ROMANI Scriptores, cedite GRAIL,.
Et quos FAMA recens, vel celebravit anus:
Hæc quicunque leget, tantùm ceciniffe putabit
MEONIDEM Ranas, VIRGILIUM Culices.

SAM. BARROW, M. D.

இே

On PARADISE LOST.

W

HEN I beheld THE POET blind, yet bold,
In flender book His vaft design unfold:
MESSIAH crown'd, GOD's reconcil'd decree,
Rebelling Angels, the Forbidden Tree,

Heav'n, Hell, Earth, Chaos, All! the argument
Held me a while mifdoubting His intent ;
That He would ruin (for I saw him strong)
The Sacred Truths to fable, and old fong;
(So SAMPSON grop'd, the temple's pofts in fpight)
The world o'erwhelming to revenge His fight.

Yet as I read, foon growing lefs fevere,
I lik'd his project, the fuccefs did fear;

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Through

Through that wide field how He his way fhould find,
O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind;
Left He perplex'd the things He would explain,
And what was easy, He should render vain.

Or, if a work fo infinite He span'd
Jealous I was that some less skilful hand
(Such as difquiet always what is well,
And by ill imitating would excell)

Might hence prefume, the whole creation's day
To change in scenes, and shew it in a Play.

Pardon me, MIGHTY POET! nor despise
My causeless, yet not impious, furmise.
But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare
Within thy Labours to pretend a share.
Thou haft not mifs'd one thought that could be fit;
And all that was improper doft omit:
So that no room is here for Writers left,
But to detect their ignorance, or theft.

That majefty which through Thy Work doth reign, Draws the devout, deterring the profane: And Things Divine Thou treat'st of in such state, As them preferves, and Thee inviolate. At once delight and horror on us feize, Thou fing'ft with fo much gravity and ease ; And above humane flight doft foar aloft, With plume fo ftrong, fo equal, and fo foft! The bird nam'd from that Paradise You fing So never flags, but always keeps on wing.

Where couldft Thou words of fuch a compass find? Whence furnish such a vast expense of mind? Just Heav'n Thee, like TIRESIAS, to requite, Rewards with prophefy Thy loss of fight.

Well might'ft Thou scorn thy readers to allure With tinkling rhyme, of Thy own fenfe fecure;

While the TowN-BAYS writes all the while and fpells,
And, like a pack-horfe, tires without his bells.
Their fancies like our bufhy-points appear,
The Poets tag them, we for fashion wear.
I too transported by the mode commend ;
And while I mean to praife Thee, must offend,
Thy verse created like Thy Theme fublime,
In number, weight and measure, needs not rhyme.

ANDREW MARVELL.

The VERSE.

HE measure is ENGLISH Heroic Verfe without

T Rhyme, as that of HOMER in Greek, and of VIR

GIL in Latin; Rhyme being no neceffary adjunct, or true ornament of Poem or good verfe; in longer works efpecially but the invention of a barbarous age, to fet-off wretched matter and lame metre: grac'd indeed fince by the use of fome famous modern Poets carried away by Custom; but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and conftraint to exprefs many things otherwife (and for the moft part worse) than elfe they would have expreft them. Not without cufe therefore fome (both ITALIAN and SPANISH) Poets of prime note have rejected Rhyme, both in longer and fhorter works; as have alfo long fince our beft ENGLISH Tragedies; as a thing of itfelf, to all judicious ears, trivial and of no true mufical delight: which confifts only in apt Numbers, fit quantity of fyllables, and the fenfe variously drawn out from one verfe into another : not in the jingling found of like endings; a fault avoided by the learned Antients both in Poetry and all good Oratory. This neglect then of Rhyme fo little is to be taken for a defect; (though it may feem fo perhaps to vu'gar readers) that it rather is to be esteem'd an example fet (the first in ENGLISH) of antient liberty recover'd to Heroic Poem, from the troublesome and modern bondage of Rhyming.

THE

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