FRAGMENT. 259 



*' bellows with the ftrokes thundering on innume- 

 '* rable anvils. They, in regular time and order, 

 " elevate the brawny arm to the lufty blow, and 

 " turn round and round the flaming mafs with the 

 ** tenacious tongs." 



You think you fee thofe gigantic Tons of .^tna 

 at work, and hear the noife of their ponderous 

 hammers ; fo imitative is the harmony of Firpl's 

 verfification 1 



The compofition of the thunder is well worthy 

 of attention. It is replete with genius, that is, 

 with obfervations of Nature entirely new. Fir^i^ 

 introduces into it the four elements all at once, 

 and places them in contraft : the earth and the 

 water, the fire and the air. 



Tres imbris torti radios, très nubis aquofse 

 Addiderant, nituli tres ignis, & alitis Auftri. 



There is, indeed, in the compofition, no earth 

 properly fo called, but he gives folidity to the wa- 

 ter, to fupply it's place ; ïres imbris torti radios, 

 literally, " three rays of crifped rain," to denote 

 hail. This metaphorical expreffion is ingenious ; 

 it fuppofes the Cyclopes to have crifped the drops 

 of the rain, in order to form them into hail-ftones. 

 Remark, likevvife, the appropriate correfpondence 

 of the expreffion alitis Aujlri^ " the winged Auf- 



s z '' ter." 



