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I'he cloutl-c;ipt towers, the gorgeous palaces, 

 The folemn temples, the great globe itfelf, 

 Yea all which it inherit, fliall diflblve. 

 And like this infubftantial pageant faded, 

 Leave not a wreck behind. 



The whole of this grand thought may be thus fhortly and 

 profaically expreffed : — " The earth, with every work of art and 

 " nature which it contains, fliall in time be annihilated." Yet 

 who can be dull enough to maintain this fundamental thought 

 to be of equal fublimity with the figure. Dr. Blair will per- 

 haps call this a proper feledion of circumftances ; but this is 

 not its entire excellence, and if it were, his criticifm would be 

 merely a play upon words, for it is univerfally accounted among 

 the figures of fpeech. 



To prove the fublime efied of the profopopaeia I fliall feled: 

 two inftances. The firft may be found in Bifliop Sherlock's Ser- 

 mons : — " How defpitefully do we treat the Gofpel of Chrift, 

 " to which we owe that clear light which we now enjoy, 

 " when we endeavour to fet up reafon and nature in oppofition 

 " to it. Ought the withered hand, which Chrift has reftored and 

 " made whole, to be lifted up againft him ? Or ought the' dumb 

 " man s tongue, juft loofened from the bonds of filence, to blaf- 

 " pheme the power that fet it free?" 'The ground of this moft 

 eloquent paffage is the ingratitude of modern infidelity, in em- 

 ploying thofe advantages of light and knowledge which reafon 

 has derived from revelation againft the interefts of the Gofpel. 

 But is there any man of feeling upon earth who thinks the 

 abftrad fentiment approaches in any degree to the fublimity ot 

 the figurative form? Perhaps it may not be thought refining 



too 



