11 Affimilare fuis, nullóque folubile fæclo "Eternal lights! though adamantine laws et rerum publica mater 20 Omniparum contracta uterum fterilefcet ab avo?] Compare Shakspeare's Timon of Athens, A. iv. S. iii. of the earth : "Common mother, thou "Whofe womb unmeasurable, and infinite breaft Ver. 23. Qualis in Ægæam &c.] See before, El. vii. 61. "Sic dolet amiffum proles Junonia cœlum, &c." And Par. Loft, B. i. 740. "Men call'd him Mulciber, and how he fell Deturbata facro cecidit de limine cœli? 30 Tunc etiam aërei divulfis fedibus Hæmi "Dropt from the zenith like a falling ftar 40 45 In the last line Bentley reads, " On Lemnos thence his ifle." But, to fay no more, Ægean is perhaps afcertained by our Latin text. T. WARTON. Ver. 34. Confuluit rerum fumma,] So, in Par. Loft, B. vi. 673, the Almighty Father is represented "Confulting on the fum of things." ToDn, Manè vocans, et ferus agens in pafcua cœli; Stringit et armiferos æquali horrore Gelonos Trux Aquilo, fpirátque hyemem, nimbósque volutat. 55 Utque folet, Siculi diverberat ima Pelori Et Sed neque, Terra, tibi fæcli vigor ille vetufti 60 Prifcus abeft, fervátque fuum Narciffus odorem, ille fuum tenet, et puer ille, decorem, Phoebe, tuúfque, et, Cypri, tuus; nec ditior olim Terra datum fceleri celavit montibus aurum puer Ver. 51. Nec variant elementa fidem,] Claudian, De Rapt. Proferp. i. 42. "Pœne reluctatis iterùm pugnantia rebus Ver. 63. Hyacinth the favourite boy of Phoebus, Adonis of Venus. Both, like Narciffus, converted into flowers. T. WARTON. Ver. 64. Terra datum fceleri celavit montibus aurum And Comus, 718. "in her own loins "She hutch'd th' all-worshipt ore, &c." See El. v. 77. Confcia, vel fub aquis gemmas. Sic denique in ævum Ibit cunctarum feries juftiffima rerum; 65 Donec flamma orbem populabitur ultima, latè Circumplexa polos, et vafti culmina cœli; Ingentique rogo flagrabit machina mundi *. Again, ibid. 732. "And the unfought diamonds "Would fo imblaze the forchead of the deep, &c." T. WARTON. * This poem is replete with fanciful and ingenious allufions. It has alfo a vigour of expreffion, a dignity of fentiment, and elevation of thought, rarely found in very young writers. T. WARTON. VOL. VII. Z De Idea Platonicâ quemadmodum Ariftoteles intellexit *. DICITE, facrorum præfides nemorum deæ ; 5 * I find this poem inferted at full length, as a specimen of unintelligible metaphyficks, in a fcarce little book of univerfal burlefque, much in the manner of Tom Brown, feemingly published about the year 1715, and intitled "An Effay towards the Theory of the intelligible world intuitively confidered. Designed for fortynine Parts, &c. by Gabriel John. Enriched with a faithful account of his ideal voyage, and illuftrated with poems by several hands; as likewife with other ftrange things, not infufferably clever, nor furiously to the purpofe. Printed in the year One thoufand feven hundred et cætera." T. WARTON. Ver. 3. This is a fublime perfonification of Eternity. And there is a great reach of imagination in one of the conceptions which follows, that the original archetype of Man may be a huge giant, ftalking in fome remote unknown region of the earth, and lifting his head fo high as to be dreaded by the gods, &c. v. 21. "Sive in remota forte terrarum plaga "Incedit ingens hominis archetypus gigas, "Et diis tremendus erigit celfum caput, "Atlante major portitore fiderum, &c." T. WARTON. In the opening of this poem there is fome resemblance to Claudian, De Laud. Stil. ii. 424. "Eft ignota procul, noftræque impervia menti, |