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Pricks up his Ears; and trembling with Delight
Shifts Pace, and paws; and hopes the promis'd Fight.
On his right Shoulder his thick Mane reclin'd,
Ruffles at speed, and dances in the Wind.
His Horny Hoofs are jetty black, and round;
His Chine is double; farting, with a bound
He turns the Turf, and shakes the folid Ground.
Fire from his Eyes, Clouds from his Noftrils flow;
He bears his Rider headlong on the Foe.

NOW follows that in the Book of Job; which under all the Disadvantages of having been written in a Language little understood; of being expreft in Phrafes peculiar to a Part of the World, whofe manner of Thinking and Speaking feems to Us very uncouth; and a'bove all, of appearing in a Profe Tranflation; is nevertheless so tranfcendently above the Heathen Defcriptions, that hereby we may perceive, how faint and languid the Images are which are formed by mortal Authors; when compared with that, which is figured, as 'twere, just as it appears in the Eye of the Creator. God fpeaking to Job, asks him,

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HAST thou given the Horfe ftrength? haft thou clothed his Neck with thunder? Canft thou make him afraid as a grafhopper? the glory of his noftrils is terrible. He pareth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his ftrength: he goeth on to meet the armed men. He mocketh at fear, and is not afraid; neither turneth be back from the fword. The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering Spear and the field. He fwalloweth the ground with fiercenefs and rage: neither believeth he that it is the Jound of the trumpet. He faith amongst the trumpets, Ha, ba; and be fmelleth the battle afar off; the thun'dring of the Captains, and the fhouting.

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HERE are all the great and fprightly Images, that Thought can form, of this generous Beat; expreft ⚫ in fuch Force and Vigour of Stile, as would have given the great Wits of Antiquity new Laws for the Sublime, had they been acquainted with thefe Writings. I cannot but particularly obferve, that whereas the ⚫ Claffical Poets chiefly endeavour to paint the cutward Figure, Lineaments, and Motions; the Sacred Poet

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'makes all the Beauties to flow from an inward 'Principle in the Creature he describes; and thereby gives great Spirit and Vivacity to his Description. The following Phrafes and Circumstances feem fingularly ' remarkable.

'HAST thou clothed his neck with thunder? Homer ⚫ and Virgil mention nothing about the Neck of the Horse, but his Mane: The Sacred Author by the bold Figure ⚫ of Thunder, not only expreffes the fhaking of that re'markable Beauty in the Horfe, and the Flakes of Hair which naturally fuggeft the Idea of Lightning; but likewife the violent Agitation and Force of the Neck, < which in the Oriental Tongues had been flatly exprest by a Metaphor less than this.

CANST thou make him afraid as a grafhopper? There is a two-fold Beauty in this Expreffion, which ⚫ not only marks the Courage of this Beast, by asking if ⚫he can be feared? but likewife raises a noble Image of his Swiftness, by infinuating, that if he could be frightned he would bound away with the nimbleness of a Grafhopper.

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THEglory of his noftrils is terrible. This is more ftrong and concife than that of Virgil, which yet is the nobleft Line that was ever written without Infpiration.

Collectumque premens volvit fub naribus ignem.

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HE rejoiceth in his ftrength- He mocketh at fear <--neither believeth he that it is the found of the trumpet-He faith among the trumpets, Ha, ba; ---are Signs Courage, as I faid before, flowing from an inward Principle. There is a peculiar Beauty in his not believing it is the Sound of the Trumpet: That is, he cannot believe it for Joy; but when he was fure of it, and is among ft the Trumpets, he faith, Ha, ba; he neighs, he rejoices. His docility is elegantly painted in his ⚫ being unmoved at the rattling Quiver, the glittering Spear and the Shield; and is well imitated by Oppian (who undoubtedly read Job as well as Virgil) in his Poem upon Hunting.

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How firm the Manag'd War-Horfe keeps his Ground,
Nor breaks his Order, though the Trumpets found!
With fearless Eye the glitt'ring Hoft furveys,
And glares directly at the Helmet's Blaze:
The Mafter's Word, the Laws of War he knows;
And when to stop; and when to charge the Foes.

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HE walloweth the Ground is an Expreffion for digious Swiftnefs, in Ufe amongst the Arabians, Job's Countrymen, at this Day. The Latins have fomething like it.

Latumque fugâ confumere campum.

Capere prata fuga.

campumque volatu

Cum rapuere, pedum veftigia quæras.

Nemefian.
Virg.

Sil. Ital.

'It is indeed the boldeft and nobleft of Images for Swift'ness; nor have I met with any thing that comes fo ⚫ near it, as Mr. Pope's in Windfor Foreft.

Th' impatient Courfer pants in ev'ry Vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the diftant Plain;
Hills, Vales and Floods appear already croft,
And ere he Starts, a thousand Steps are loft.

He fmelleth the Battle afar off, and what follows about the shouting, is a Circumftance expreffed with great Spirit by Lucan.

Sovhen this Ring with joyful Shouts rebounds, With Rage and Pride th' imprison'd Courfer bounds: He frets, be foams, he rends his idle Rein;

Springs o'er the Fence, and headlong feeks the Plain.

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N° 87.

Saturday, June 20.

Conftiterant hinc Thisbe, Priamus illinc, Inque vicem fuerat jactatus anhelitus oris.

M

Ovid.

Y Precautions are made up of all that I can hear and fee, tranflate, borrow, paraphrafe, or contract, from the Perfons with whom I mingle and converse, and the Authors whom I read. But the grave Difcourfes which I fometimes give the Town, do not win fo much Attention as lighter Matters. For this Reafon it is, that I am obliged to confider Vice as it is ridiculous, and accompanied with Gallantry, elfe I find in a very short time I fhall lie like wafte Paper on the Tables of Coffee-houfes: Where I have taken moft Pains I often find my self leaft read. There is a Spirit of Intrigue got into all, even the meaneft of the People, and the very Servants are bent upon Delights, and commence Oglers and Languishers. I happened the other Day to pafs by a Gentleman's Houfe, and faw the most flippant Scene of low Love that I have ever obferved. The Maid was rubbing the Windows within fide of the Houfe, and her humble Servant the Footman was fo happy a Man as to be employed in cleaning the fame Glafs on the fide toward the Street. The Wench began with the greatest Severity of Afpect imaginable, and breathing on the Glafs, followed it with a dry Cloth; her Oppofite obferved her, and fetching a deep Sigh, as if it were his laft, with a very difconfolate Air did the fame on his fide of the Window. He fill worked on and languished, till at laft his Fair one fmiled, but covered herself, and fpreading the Napkin in her Hand, concealed her felf from her Admirer, while he took Pains as it were, to work through all that intercepted their Meeting. This pretty Contest held for four or five large Panes of Glass, till at last the Waggery was turn'd to an humourous way of breathing in each other's Faces, and catching the Impreffion. The

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gay Creatures were thus Loving and pleafing their Imaginations with their Nearness and Diftance, till the Windows were fo transparent that the Beauty of the Female made the Man-Servant impatient of beholding it, and the whole House befides being abroad, he ran in, and they romped out of my Sight. It may be imagined thefe Oglers of no Quality made a more fudden Application of the Intention of kind Sighs and Glances than those whofe Education lays them under greater Restraints, and who are confequently more flow in their Advances. I have often obferved all the low Part of the Town in Love, and taking a Hackney-Coach have confider'd all that paffed by me in that Light, as thefe Cities are compofed of Crouds wherein there is not one who is not lawfully or unlawfully engaged in that Paffion. When one is in this Speculation, it is not unpleasant to obferve Alliances between those Males and Females whofe Lot it is to act in Publick. Thus the Woods, in the middle of Summer, are not more entertaining with the different Notes of Birds, than the Town is of different Voices of the feveral forts of People who act in Pub lick; they are divided into Claffes, and Crouds made for Crouds. The Hackney-Coachmen, Chairmen, and Porters, are the Lovers of the Hawker-Women, Fruitreffes, and Milk-Maids. They are a wild World by themfelves, and have Voices fignificant of their private Inclinations, which Strangers can take no notice. of. Thus a Wench with Fruit looks like a Mad-Woman, when the cries Wares you fee fhe does not carry, but thofe in the Secret know that Cry is only an Affignation to an Hackney-Coachman who is driving by, and underftands her. The whole People is in an Intrigue, and the undifcerning Paffengers are unacquainted with the Meaning of what they hear all round them: They know not how to separate the Cries of mercenary Traders from the Sighs and Lamentations of languishing Lovers. The common Face of Modefty is loft among the ordimary part of the World, and the general Corruption of Manners is visible from the lofs of all deference in the low People towards thofe of Condition. One Order of Mankind trips fait after the next above, it, and by this Rale you may trace Iniquity from the ConverfaVOL. II.

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