96 



Our own Spencer alfo, who knew he never fpoke with more truth 

 or more propriety, than when he echoed the fentiments of his great 

 originals, arrefled the idea, and after them has faid, 



" The woods fliall anfwer, and their echoes ring." 



Eftthar. 



Neither was the mufic or the philofophy of this verie unacknow- 

 ledged by the mod harmonious and philofophic of all modem poets, 

 who, in his paftoral entitled " Summer," puts the very fame line into 

 the mouth of his " fhepherds' boy." 



Man, I have faid, is the moft imitative of all animals : this it was, 

 perhaps, that induced the great philofophic poet of Rome to fuppofe, 

 that his firft mufic was borrowed of the birds, whofe notes he imi. 

 tated, nature and the country inviting him to make the attempt. 



" At liquidas anum voces iraltarier ore 



•' Ante fuit multo, quam Ixvia carmiaa cantu, 



" Concelebrare homines poffent, aureisque juvare." 



Lucret. Lib. 5. T. 1 378. 



I fliall not flop to debate the queflion : but we know, that the 

 firft accents of the plumy people, like thofe of the unfledged poet, 

 compofed, as we have feen, of correfpondent founds, are chirped in 

 the fame imitated notes. And what is the long-drawn warble of the 

 fweeteft of all birds, the Attic fongflier herfelf, but the affemblage of 

 the fame notes lengthened and multiplied without end ? Well there- 

 fore, might the poets perfonify found, and make a goddcfs of her 

 whom they found to be nothing more than nature herfelf in her mofl* 

 fnnple but captivating charafter. How beautifully and pioufly, has 

 Fabricius, the learned author of " Specimen Arabicum," defcribed this 

 prevailing nature, that harmonifes all creation ! " Deus Optimus Max- 



imus 



