10 Obfervations on Wakefield’s Pope. 
Mr. W. obferves, that ‘woods, or 
elevated grounds, are better calculated 
than vales, to reverberate the pulfes of 
the air.”” Onthe contrary,I fhould think, 
that narrow vales, vith rocky fides, 
are the moft apprepriate feats of echoes. 
Thus, Virgil forbids the placing of bee- 
hives 


ubi concava pulfu 
Saxa fonant, vocifque offenfa refultat imago. 
In the Meffiah, under the line 
. A 
He from thick films fhall-purge the vifual ray, 
Mr. W. remarks, that applying flms'to 
the medium of vifion, the ray, and not 
to the inftrument of it, the eye, is a 
poetical fubftitution, and is one fource of 
the elevation of poetry above profe. 1 
confef{s, I have no tafte for the fubftitution 
of nonfenfe to fenfe; and I believe that 
in the prefent Cale, fae true caufe of the 
error in language was erroneous con- 
ception. In the old philofophy, vifion 
was fuppofed to be occaficned by fome- 
thing going'out of the eye, and not com- 
ing into it. Ibid. 
The tender lambs he raifes in his arms, 
Feeds from his hand, and in his bofom warms. 
Mr. W. thinks that the poet has been 
here betrayed into an impropriety, for 
want of knowing that the éofom, in clalfic 
ufe, means the capacious flow of the eaft- 
ern garments. But furely the image of 
wartning a lamb in the fhepherd’s bo- 
fom is ftri¢étly proper, whether clatlic or 
HOE wl, 
And heap’d with products of Sabean /p: ings. 
The reafon why incenfe and perfumes 
are made the produét of Sabean fprings, 
feems to be, becaufe in the arid foil “Or 
Arabia, there is no vegetation without 
water. 
In Windfor Force, Mr. W. objets to 
the expreflion pamted wings, applied to 
the pheafant, as not difcriminate - ; but I 
conceive that it is a very juft one, mean- 
ing marked with regular fpots, as if 
painted ;—pencilled. 
Ib. Mr. W. much admires the inge- 
nuity of the poet’s application of the 
ofices and attributes of Diana to queen 
Anne: but ‘I confefs, I do not perceive 
in what peculiar fenfe the queen was 
godde/s of the wocas, and luminary of night, 
though fhe might be emprefs of the main. 
ibia- 
Not Neptune's felf from all er ftreams re- 
CEIVES, 
A. wealthier tribute than to thine he gives. 
[ Feb. 
There is undoubedly an inaccuraey in 
the word her, which has no immediate 
reference; but it probably was in the 
poet’s mind referred to Britaiz, under- 
ftood.. Mr. W.’s emendation of “‘earih’s 
ftreams,”’ is furely very harfh. 
In the ode for St. Cecilia’s Day, Mr. 
W. thus points the following lines: 
By the ftreams that ever flow, 
By the fragrant winds that blow, 
O’er the Elyfian flow’rs ; 
making both the frreams and the winds 
refer tothe flowers; the alteration is in- 
genious, but, I think, not probable ; as 
the poet would not readily conceive of 
water flowing, and gales blowing, over 
the fame eee 
On the line in the chorus to isis 
See Arts her favage fons control, 
Mr. W. has a juft remark on the ambi- 
guity in our language, proceeding ‘from 
the want of inflexions of nouns to dif. - 
tinguith their government by verbs ; ei- 
ther aris or fons being here capable of 
becoming the nominative or accufative 
to control; and he has a fimilar remark 
in the Effay on Criticifm, on 


La Mancha’s knight, they fay, 
A certain bard encount’ring on the way. 
But as in both thefe inftances the trne 
conftruétion is according to the natural 
order of the words, they, perhaps, ought 
to be exempted from the char ge of am- 
biguity. 
Thus when we-view fome well-proportion’é 
dome, 
The ‘world’s juft wonder, and even thine, O 
Rome! &c. 
Mr. W. juftly complains of obfcuriry 
of application in this paflage of the Ef- 
fay on Criticifm; but I imagine the 
building intended: is. §t.) Betensos sot 
which it has more than once been faid, 
that from its exaét proportion, its vaft 
dimenfions do not at firit ftrike the cye 
as extraordinary. 
Ibid. On the hyperbole of Camilla’s 
Be flying o’er the unbending corn,” Mr. 
W. remarks, that Virgil, in the original 
paffage, has leffened the extravagance, 
by only faying ‘that “ fhe mgbt have fo 
flown, without injur ing the blades of corn, 
if fhe had chofen it.”” I confefs this ap- 
pears tome avery fmall diminution of 
the hyperbole, Ibid. 
For fools admire, but men of fenfe approve. 
Mr. 
