Inftructs the Fowls of Heav'n; and thro' their Breafts
Thefe Arts of Love diffufes? - What? but GOD!
Infpiring GOD! who boundless Spirit all,

And unremitting Energy, pervades,
Subfifts, adjufts, and agitates the Whole.
He ceafelefs works alone, and yet alone
Seems not to work, fo exquifitely fram'd
Is this Complex, amazing Scene of Things.

Spring, ver. 796.

And thus the Perpetuity, and Unchangeableness of the Heavenly Bodies--

WITH what a perfect World-revolving Power
Were first th' unweildy Planets launch'd along
Th'illimitable Void! Thus to remain,
Amid the Flux of many thousand Years,
That oft has swept the bufy Race of Men,
And all their labour'd Monuments away,
Unrefting, changeless, matchlefs, in their Course;
To Night and Day, with the delightful Round
Of Seasons, faithful; not excentric once?
So pois'd, and perfect is the vaft Machine.

Summer, ver. 32.

His next is on the Virtues of Herbs--

THEN fpring the living Herbs, profufely wild
O'er all the deep-green Earth, beyond the Power
Of BOTANIST to number up their Tribes, &c.---
But who their Virtues can declare? who pierce
With Vifion pure into thefe fecret Stores

Of Life, and Health, and Joy? The Food of Man
While yet he liv'd in Innocence, and told

A Length of golden Years, unfiefh'd in Blood,

A Stranger

A Stranger to the favage Arts of Life,

Death, Rapine, Carnage, Surfeit, and Disease,
The Lord, and not the Tyrant of the World.

Spring, ver. 247.

Another in Laudem Diluculi ---
FALSELY luxurious, will not Man awake,
And, starting from the Bed of Sloth, enjoy
The cool, the fragrant, and the filent Hour,
To Meditation due and facred Song?

And is there ought in Sleep can charm the Wife?
To lie in dead Oblivion, lofing half

The fleeting Moments of too short a Life?
Total Extinction of th' enlighten'd Soul!
Or else to feaverish Vanity alive,

Wilder'd, and toffing thro' distemper'd Dreams?
Who would in fuck a gloomy State remain,
Longer than Nature craves; when every Mufe,
And every blooming Pleafure wait without,
To blefs the wildly-devious Morning Walk?

Summer, ver. 66.

His next to prefumptuous Infidels --AND lives the Man, whofe Universal Eye Has fwept at once th' unbounded Scheme of Things; Mark'd their Dependance fo, and firm Accord, As with unfaultering Accent to conclude

That This availeth nought? Has any feen

The mighty Chain of Beings?

Summer, ver. 296.

The laft a ferious Contemplation in a gloomy Winter's Night --

AS yet'tis
'tis Midnight wafte. The weary Clouds,
Slow-meeting, mingle into folid Gloom. &c.

And

And now ye lying Vanities of Life!

Ye ever-tempting, ever-cheating Train!
Where are ye now? and what is your Amount ?
Vexation, Disappointment, and Remorse.
Sad, fickening Thought! and yet deluded Man,
A Scene of crude disjointed Visions paft,
And broken Slumbers, rifes ftill refolv'd,
With new-flush'd Hopes to run the giddy Round.

Winter, ver. 191.

IN SECTION XIX. which, thro' the Injury' of Time, is, as many of the rest are, imperfect, LONGINUS fhews, That as ASYNDETONS raife, fo in SECTION XXI, that POLYSYNDETONS or Copulatives enervate Stile. See both thefe Figures in Book I. The two Afyndetons following are Mr. THOMSON's.

tors

The firft, the Pleasure of Faithful Precep

WHEN infant Reafon grows apace-it calls
For the kind Hand of an affiduous Care:
Delightful Tafk! To rear the tender Thought,
To teach the young Idea how to boot,

Го

pour the fresh Inftruction o'er the Mind, To breathe th' infpiring Spirit, to implant The generous Purpofe in the glowing Breaft.

OBS. XXI.

Spring, ver. 1067.

ANNOTATION S.

ERE's the whole Leaves are fuppos'd to

H fourth great be wanting.

Gap in the MSS. where two

The

The other a Midfummer Rapture --WELCOME, ye Shades! ye bowery Thickets, bail! Ye lofty Pines! ye venerable Oaks !

Ye Afbes wild, refounding o'er the Steep!
Delicious is your shelter to the Soul,
As to the bunted Hart the fallying Spring!

Summer, ver. 392.

IN SECTION XX. he fhews that a Complication of Figures makes a lively Impreffion on the Mind, and gives an Inftance from Demofthenes of a beautiful Congeries of ANAPHORA, DIATYPOSIS, and ASYNDETON. All which fee in Book I. Claufes ANAPHORA begins alike. DIATYPOSIS paints Things to the Life. ASYNDETON drops AND thro' Hafte or Paffion.

My Inftance of the Complication of all these three Figures from Mr.THOMSON is an Addrefs to the Ladies to diffuade 'em from Hunting

BUT if the rougher Sex by this fierce Sport
Are burry'd wild, let not fuch horrid Joy
Eer ftain the Bofom of the British Fair.
Far be the Spirit of the Chace from them!
Uncomely Courage, unbefeeming Skill,

To Spring the Fence, to rein the prancing Steed,
The Cap, the Whip, the Masculine Attire,
In which they roughen to the Senfe, and all
The winning Softness of their Sex is loft.
Made up of Blufbes, Tenderness and Fears,
In them 'tis graceful to diffolve at Woe;
And from the fmallest Violence to fhrink.-

Know

Know they to feize the captivated Soul
In Rapture warbled from the radiant Lip;
To fwim along, and fwell the mazy Dance;
To train the Foliage o'er the Snowy Lawn;
To play the Pencil, turn th' inftructive Page;
To give new Flavour to the fruitful Year ;
To give Society it's highest Tafte;

To make well-order'd Home Man's best Delight;
To fweeten all the Toils of Human-Life;

This be the Female Dignity and Praise.

Autumn, ver. 564.

I am, SIR,

Your's, &c.

LETTER VIII.

SIR,

IN

Holt, July 17.

N SECTION XXII. our excellent Critic treats of HYPERBATON (which fee in Book I.) a Figure which is thus prais'd and defcrib'd by HORA CE--

Ordinis hæc Virtus erit, & Venus (aut ego fallor)
Ut jam nunc dicat, jam nunc debentia dici
Pleraque differat & præfens in tempus omittat.

Art. Poet. ver. 42.

VIRGIL and MILTON, not only in their Diction but in their Plans of their feveral Poems, have obferved it; the first beginning his Æneid

G

with