Thou may'st smile calm, when all weep around thee.

310

Pleasures are few; and we enjoy fewer:

Pleasure is bright and coy, like quicksilver :
With our utmost skill we strive to grasp it :
It eludes us still, and it still glitters..

311

"Can this be true?" cries an arch observer.

"True! yes, 'tis true with these eyes I saw it."-
"On that ground alone, sir, I believe it:
Had I seen it with my own, I could not."

312

A tale should be succinct, clear, judicious;
The incidents well link'd, the language plain.
Tell not what ev'ry body knows, as new;
And, new or old, hasten still to a close..

$13

Though array'd in Vulcanian panoply,.
Patroclus betray'd his native weakness,

*Patroclus.-This name must here take the accent on the first syllable, and have the second short; which, in fact, is the genuine classic pronunciation, though Mr. Pope, in translating. Homer, chose to make it Patroclus, for the sake of metrical convenience; Patroclus being better suited to the nature of iambic verse than Patroclus. A late writer, after having quoted the authority of some modern lexicographers, and given his own. vote in favor of Patroclus, calls for a reason why he should not be at liberty to accent Patrocles and Patrocli in the same manner.-A very simple and obvious reason might easily have been. given, without recurring to modern authorities in a case where:

When, tempting the unequal fight rashly,
Beneath resistless Hector's might he fell,
Taught by his superior prowess to know,
How diff'rent real worth from empty show.

314

Oh! could some poet rise, bold in wisdom,
And unfold half thy beauties to the world,

they cannot possibly have the smallest weight, as the question must be decided by one universal and invariable rule, well known to every school-boy who has read even the first page of the Latin prosody. The rule is, that a short vowel, immediately pre ceding a mute and liquid, is rendered, by such position, not necessarily long, but simply common; that is to say, that, although it still remain short in prose, it may, in poetry, be made either long or short, at the writer's option, as I have shown by various examples in my " Latin Prosody." Now, Patroclus, Patrocles, Androcles, Nicŏcles, Metrocles, Damocles, &c. being written in Greek with the O-micron, or short O, that O, though rendered common in poetry by the following mute and liquid, still continues short in Greek and Latin prose: consequently, it ought to be so pronounced in English prose; and, as our language does pot admit a licentious two-fold pronunciation, it ought to be equally short in our poetry. Indeed the warmest admirer of ancient literature would certainly laugh at any writer who should, in English verse, transform the well-known prosaic names of Pericles, Sophocles, Themistocles, to Pericles, Sophocles, Themistocles, though such transformation is perfectly allowable in Greek and Latin. The same unvarying rule applies to Doryclus, Iphiclus, and many other names, which are too often misaccented and mispronounced by persons un-acquainted with the ancient languages. See the note on Androcles, page 129, No.

321.

Roving on fancy's wing, impart thy fire,
And feel thy genius beaming on his heart-
I'd wish humbly, though the wish would be vain,
That on me some small portion might alight.

315.-To
To England, on the Roman Invasion.
At this distant moment, thy language shows,
How much the country owes to the conqu'ror:
Refin'd, energetic, and expressive,

It sparkles with the gems he left behind.

When he came, he brought thy land a blessing:
Savage he found thee, and tame he left thee.

316

The scenes of life, when confess'd and present,
Stamp on the breast but their bolder features:
Yet not an image, when view'd remotely,
However rude, and however trivial,

But wakes the social sigh, and wins the heart,
With ev'ry claim of close affinity.

317

Rich harvests fill each undulating vale:

Trees crown the waving hill: flow'rs deck the mead.
Oaks throw a show'r of acorns from their boughs:
In the trunk below, bees hoard their nectar.
Large flocks, that whiten and spread o'er the field,
Yield to the shepherd their fleecy tribute.

318.- Sir Robert Walpole.

Thus was he form'd to please and to govern :
Dignity with ease, familiar greatness,
Compos'd his frame: in ev'ry state, admir'd;
Great in public, amiable in private;

In pow'r, gentle, but, in disgrace, daring;
His love was liberty, peace was his wish.
319

Darius tow'r'd in pride high on his throne:
The fair Apame* grac'd the sov❜reign's side;
And she smil'd now, and, with mimic frown, now
Plac'd the monarch's sacred crown on her brow.
He bends o'er her faultless form in transport,
Loves ev'ry look, and commends ev'ry act.
320. A Miser.

He wore a threadbare cloak, and rusty hat:
At charge of other folk he din'd and supp'd:
And, had he held out his palms, by his looks,.
An object fit for alms he might be thought.
So, if he refus'd his pelf to the poor,

Apame. The elegant and ingenious author of these lines has used a poetic licence in lengthening the middle syllable of this name, which must here accordingly be made Apāme, though its real quantity is Apăme.-But, as some of our dictionaries say otherwise, it may be necessary to add, that, although perhaps no ancient verse can be produced, in which the name appears, there occurs, in Priscian's geographical poem, a line (quoted in my "Latin Prosody,” sect. 3) which mentions the city of Apămèa, denominated from Apăme; and, by a well-known rule of ancient prosody, the quantity of the derivative proves that the primitive Apame has the middle syllable short.

↑ Folk. These lines are from Swift, whose suffrage we thus luckily have in favor of grammatic propriety; folk being a singular noun of multitude, like people; and neither of them admitting a plural, unless (like the Latin populi and the French. peuples) we were to say folks or peoples, for nations.

Full as kindly as himself he us'd them.

321. Androcles and the Lion.

When the lion rears his terrific form,

Lo! Androcles* appears half dead with fright.
But, when the lion views his well-known face,
How soon he renews his former friendship!
The grateful brute lies on the ground, fawning,
And licks the hand that had erst heal'd his wound.
322.-The Planet Jupiter.

Revolving earth must run her course twelve times,
Ere, round the sun, the vast planet journeys.
Four radiant moons guide the mighty monarch,
And dance by his side in bright succession;
Eclips'd and eclipsing, move around him,

And light the night of Jove with changing beams.
Round the sacred oak, gay with garlands, thus
In bright array the rural virgins dance.

323

We die in part, as those we love decay:
String after string from the heart is sever'd ;
Till loosen'd life, but breathing clay at last,
Is glad to fall away without one pang.

* Androcles.-This name, like some other Greek names of kindred derivation, is written in two ways, Androclus and Andrŏcles, as, in Homer, we find one and the same individual indiscriminately called Patroclus and Putrocles.-In Aulus Gellius, the name is Androclus-in Elian, Androcles; which latter is preferable, as the more usual form of such derivatives. In either shape, it has the middle syllable short, and the accent on the first. See the note on Patroclus, page 125, No. 313.