i 7 8 APPENDIX. 



tavia was prefent, who rewarded him fo bountifully for the 

 twenty verfes which were made in honour of her deceafed Ion 

 Marcellus) ; in this lixth book, I fay, the Poet, fpeaking of 

 Mifenus, the trumpeter, fays, 



:< Quo non prasftantior alter, 



JEre ciere viros, = 



and broke off in the hemiftich, or midft of the verfe ; but in 

 the very reading, feized as it were -with a divine fury, he made 

 up the latter part of the hemiftich with thefe following 



words., 



Martemque accendere cantu. 



How warm, nay, how glowing a colouring is this ! In the 

 beginning of the verfe, the word as, or brafs, was taken for 

 a trumpet, becaufe the inftrument was made of that metal, 

 which of itfelf was fine; but in the latter end, which was 

 made extempore, you fee three metaphors, Martemque, 



accendere,-, cantu. Good Heavens ! how the plain fenfe is 



raifed by the beauty of the words. But this was Happinefs, 

 the former might be only Judgment. This was the " curiofa 

 felicitas" which Petronius attributes to Horace. It is the 

 pencil thrown luckily full upon the horfe's mouth, to exprefs 

 the foam, which the Painter, with all his ikill, could not 

 perform without it. Thefe hits of words a true Poet often 

 finds, as I may fay, without feeking; but he knows their 

 value when he finds them, and is infinitely pleafed. A bad 

 Poet may fometimes light on them, but he difcerns not a 

 diamond from a Briftol ftone ; and would have been of .the 

 cock's mind in jEfop, a grain of Barley would have pleafed 

 him better than the jewel. The lights and madows which 

 belong to colouring, put me in mind of that verfe of Horace, 

 Hoc amat obfcurum, vult hoc fub luce videri. 



Some 



