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Such, fuch our enemies beheld,

With virtue not to be repell'd,

Young DRUSUS plung'd in glorious fight,
Where the Alps tow'r beyond the fight, &c. *

§ 3. The first feven verses of the Apostle PAUL'S Epiftle to the Romans is but one period, and seems very irregular and intangled, though it is quite reconcilable to the analogy of rational grammar. The preface, "PAUL, a fervant of

JESUS CHRIST," waits for its complete sense till the seventh verse, " to all that are in Rome," &c. So long is the parenthesis, and fo great is the tranfposition. But whoever will duly consider the pasfsage will find, that every inter

Qualem miniftrum fulminis alitem,
(Cui Rex Deorum regnum in aves vagas
Permifit, expertus fidelem

Juppiter in Ganymede flavo)

Olim juventas, & patrius vigor
Nido laborum propulit inscium;
Vernique, jam nimbis remotis,
Infolitos docuere nifus

Venti paventem; mox in ovilia
Demifit hoftem vividus impetus :
Nunc in reluctantes dracones
Egit amor dapis atque pugnæ :
Qualemve lætis caprea pafcuis
Intenta, fulvæque matris ab ubere
Jam lacte depulfum leonem,
Dente novo peritura, vidit.

Videre Rhæti bella fub Alpibus

Drufum gerentem, & Vindelici, &c.

vening

HORAT. Od. lib, iv. od, 4

vening ingraftment, or feemingly lawless luxuriance, is rich in divine fentiment, and strongly evinces the feraphic devotion of the Apostle's fpirit.

§ 4. Dr WATTS, in his epiftolary preface to his version of the 114th Pfalm, as preferved in the Spectator*, fays, "As I was describing the

66

journey of Ifrael from Egypt, and added the "divine presence, I perceived a beauty in the "Pfalm which was intirely new to me, and " which I was going to use; and that is, that "the Poet utterly conceals the prefence of GOD

in the beginning of it, and rather lets a pos"fefsive Pronoun go without its Subftantive, ❝ than he will fo much as mention any thing of divinity there: "Judah was his fanctuary, and Ifrael his dominion," or kingdom. The rea"fon now appears evident, and this conduct "necessary, for if GOD had appeared before, "there could be no wonder why the mountains "should leap, and the sea retire; therefore, that "this convulsion of nature may be brought in "with due surprise, his name is not mentioned << till afterwards, and then with a very agree"able turn of thought; GoD is introduced at "once with all his majefty." With this previous remark we fhall trace the beauty of the Pfalm, and find it springing from such a kind of fufpension as that of which we have been fpeaking, or at least I know not under what Figure besides

*Vol. vi. N° 461.

besides so properly to range it.

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When Israel

ss went out of Egypt, the house of JACOB from

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a people of strange language: JUDAH was his fanctuary, and Ifrael his dominion. The fea "faw it, and fled; Jordan was driven back: "the mountains skipped like rams, and the little Shills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou " sea, that thou fleddeft? thou Jordan, that " thou waft driven back? Ye mountains, that Sye skipped like rams? and ye little hills, like Ss lambs? Tremble thou, earth, at the presence " of the LORD, at the prefence of the GOD of

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Jacob. Who turned the rock into a standing ss water; the flint into a fountain of water."

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I think it not improper to infert the excellent • version of this Pfalm by Dr WATTS, though it is to be found in his Imitation of the Pfalms of DAVID, a book so much known in the world.

When Ifrael, freed from PHARAOH's hand,
Left the proud tyrant, and his land;
The tribes with chearful homage own
Their King, and Judah was his throne.
Across the deep their journey lay;
The deep divides to make them way:
Jordan beheld their march, and fled
With backward current to his head.

The mountains fhook like frighted sheep,
Like lambs the little hillocks leap;
Not Sinai on her bafe could ftand,
Confcious of fov'reign pow'r at hand.

What

What pow'r could make the deep divide?
Make Jordan backward roll his tide ?
Why did ye leap, ye little hills?
And whence the fright that Sinai feels?
Let ev'ry mountain, ev'ry flood
Retire, and own th' approaching GOD,
The King of Ifrael. See him here;
Tremble, thou earth, adore and fear.
He thunders, and all nature mourns;
The rock to ftanding pools he turns:
Flints fpring with fountains at his word;
And fires and feas confefs the LORD.

$5. I'fhall conclude this Figure with a remark, and a few cautions.

The remark is, that this Figure greatly entertains our hearers, as it ftrikes out of the common® road, both as to fenfe and method of exprefsion, and keeps the mind, while the Figure is properly managed, in a pleasing attention. And methinks nothing can more ftrongly fhew the ardor and riches of a speaker's or writer's ideas, than when his language is fometimes abrupt, and broken, and irregular, and the thoughts crowd so fast and full, as that they cannot ftay to get clothed in the common forms of exprefsion. Of this fort of Figures, we may fay with Mr POPE,

From vulgar bounds with brave disorder part, And fnatch a grace beyond the reach of art *. And again,

Great wits may fometimes gloriously offend, And rife to faults true critics dare not mend †. * POPE's Effay on Criticism, ver. 152. + Ver. 159,160.

The cautions are, that we should not be too free with this Figure; as indeed its very nature fhews, that it should be but sparingly used : That we should take heed, while we indulge to irregularity and diforder, or at least vary from the common arrangements of fpeech, that we do not fall into abfurdity and a kind of inexplicable entanglement. And finally, when we make these kinds of excursion, and deviate a while from the usual track, let us be folicitous not to take these liberties in vain, or for a light and trifling purpose. When we return from our digressions, and close our periods, let us return loaden with the best part of the freight of SOLOMON's fhips, when they came from Tarshish t; I mean the gold and silver, fentiments of fubftantial worth; and not with apes and peacocks, ideas only fit to draw ridicule upon us, or glittering with a gaudy fplendor, but deftitute of intrinsic merit.

† 1 Kings x. 22.

CHAPTER

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