And, whilft I do thus discover [9] - I think there be] "I think, Crab, my dog be the foureft-natured dog that lives." [Shakefp. Two Gent. of Verona, A. 11. S. 3.] Be, for am or is, was originally the mistake of one mode for another. It, afterwards, grew into credit; and feemed to take an air of confiftency and regularity, when fomebody had bethought himfelf to ufe, be'ft, in the fecond Perfon, for art. Hence, what grammarians call, the double form in the Indicative Prefent of the Auxiliary, to be. It is, now, defervedly exploded. With love and wit thou doft begin, False fires, alas, to draw us in, Which, if our course we by them keep, Sleep were well; thou'ft learnt a way It grieves me, when I fee what fate Can arm against death's smallest dart All the world's mortal to 'em then, And wine is aconite to men. Nay, in death's hand, the grape-ftone proves THE XII. THE PRAISE OF PINDAR [r], P AN OD E: In Imitation of HORACE, Od. IV. ii. 1. INDAR is imitable by none; The phoenix Pindar is a vaft fpecies alone. Who e'er, but Dædalus, with waxen wings could fly And neither fink too low, nor foar too high? What could he, who follow'd, claim, But of vain boldness the unhappy fame, Pindar's unnavigable fong, Like a fwoln flood from fome fteep mountain, pours along: The ocean meets with fuch a voice® From his enlarged mouth, as drowns the ocean's noife. 2. So Pindar does new words and figures roul Which in no channel deigns t' abide, Whether [r] The praife of Pindar.] This, and the three following odes are in the number of those, which Mr. Cowley calls, Pindaric: an exquifite fort of poetry, to Whether th' immortal gods he fings In a no less immortal strain ; Or the great acts of god-defcended kings, Which their triumphant brows around, 3. Whether at Pifa's race he please To carve in polifh'd verfe the conquerors images : Be crowned in his nimble, artful, vigorous fong: Such mournful, and fuch pleasing words, The grave can but the drofs of him devour, to which his ftyle was very ill fuited; being, for the "Stellis inferere et concilio Jovis." Hor. Od. 111, 25. COWLEY. 4. Lo, 4. Lo, how th' obfequious wind, and fwelling air, For little drops of honey flee [u], And there with humble fweets contents her industry. [] The Theban fwan] Mr. Gray calls him, the Theban eagle; but the imagery of both poets is much the fame. -'tho' he inherit "Nor the pride, nor ample pinion, ་་ "That the Theban eagle bear Sailing with fupreme dominion "Thro' the azure deep of air." Progress of Poetry. [u]-fee] The proper word had been fly, if the rhyme would have given leave. To fee, is properly to more with Speed out of the way of danger; to fly, to move with speed on WINGS. XIII. |