DR. DARWIN. IJ9 



the alluiion is not fufficiently obvious. 

 The reader paufes to confider what the 

 poet means by " mimic lace" Such paufes 

 deaden fenfation, and break the courfe of 

 attention. A friend of the Doclor's 

 pleaded ftrongly that the line might run 

 thus, 



" On her wan brow thtJJiadoivy crape was tied j" 



but the alteration was rejected. Inatten- 

 tion to the rules of grammar in the firft 

 v.erfe, was alfo pointed out to him at the ' 

 fame time. The dream is addrefled, 



" Dread dream, that clafped my aching head," 



but nothing is faid to it ; and therefore 

 the fenfe is left unfinished, while the 

 elegy proceeds to give a picture of the 

 lifelefs beauty. The fame friend fuggefted 

 a change, which would have remedied the 

 defeft, thus, 



" Dread iv;.$ the dream, that, in the midnight air, 

 " Clafp'd, with it's dulky wing, my aching head, 

 While to, &c." 



I 4 Hence, 



