3G4 HENRY KIRKE WHITE's REMAINS. 



*• On clierubs and on clierubims 

 1 uU ro,yally he rode, 

 And on tiie Tvings of mighty winds 

 Came flying ail abroad." 



Dryden honoured these verses with very high commen- 

 dation, and, in the following lines of his Annus Mirabi- 

 lis, has apparently imitated them, in preference to the ori- 

 ginal. 



" The duke less numerous, but in courage more, 

 On wings of all the winds to combat flies." 



And in his Ceyx and Alcyone, from Ovid, he has — 

 '•' And now sublime she rides upon the wind." 



which is probably imitated, as well as most of the follow- 

 ing, not from Sternhold, but the original. Thus Pope, 



" Not God alone in the still calm we find, 

 He mounts the storm and rides ujion the wind.'* 



And Addison — 



" Rides in the whirlwind and directs the storm." 



The unfortunate Chatterton has — 



" And rides upon the pinions of the wind." 



And Gray — 



" With arms sublime that float upon the air." 



Few poets of eminence have less incurred the charge 

 of plagiarism than Milton ; yet many instances might be 

 adduced of similarity of idea and language with the Scrip- 

 ture, which are certainly more than coincidences ; and 

 some of these I shall, in a future number, present to your 

 readers. Thus the present passage in the Psalmist was 

 in all probability in his mind when he wrote — 



And with mighty wings outspread, 



Dove-like sat'st brooding on the vast abyss." 



Far. Lost, 1. 20, b. 



