MISCELLANEOUS REMARKS on CHAP. XXXIX.

IN this chapter the wifdom of the Almighty is farther displayed in his providential care of feveral wild creatures, herein particularly named, viz. The wild Goats, the Hinds, the Wild-Afs, the Unicorn, the Peacock, the Stork, the Ostrich, the Horse, the Hawk, the Eagle, &c. As I prefume poetical descriptions of the above creatures will be entertaining, I fhall make no apology for introducing them, chiefly from Dr. YOUNG.

There is no parts in a poem, fays Mr. HUGHS, which strike the generality of readers with so much pleasure as defcription; and there are none, in which poets of an ordinary rank are more frequently betrayed into faults. A judicious defcription is like a face which is beautiful without art; an injudicious one is like a painted complexion, which often discovers itself, by affecting more gaiety of colour than is natural.

The reafon why defcriptions make livelier impreffions on common readers than other parts of a poem, is, because they are formed of ideas drawn from the fenfes, and are thus in a manner like pictures made objects of the fight; whereas moral thoughts and difcourfes consisting of ideas, abstracted from sense, operate flower, and with less vivacity. Every one immediately perceives the refemblances of nature in the defcription of a tempest, a palace, or a garden; but the beauty of proper fentiment in the fpeeches of a Prince, a General, or a Counsellor, is more remote, and difcerned by a kind of fecond thought or reflection.

As descriptions are all drawn from objects of the senses, and the likeness and unlikenefs of them are easily perceived; fo there is a general funilitude in all true defcriptions of the fame object drawn by feveral artifts, and the degrees of likeness, and the different manner of expreffing it by thofe feveral artists, make a very diftinguishable and entertaining variety. The famous defcription of a horse in the fixth Book of Homer's Iliad, and that in the fourth Book of the Encis of Virgil, the latter being only a copy of the firft, and that in the book of Job are very different, yet all are extremely natural and beautiful. We shall transcribe those descriptions in their proper place to which we refer the reader.

VER. I. II. III. IV..

KNOWEST THOU THE TIME WHEN THE WILD. GOATS OF THE ROCK BRING FORTH? OR CANST THOU MARK WHEN THE HINDS DO CALVE? CANST THOU NUMBER THE MONTHS THAT THEY FULFIL? OR KNOWEST THOU THE TIME WHEN THEY BRING FORTH? THEY BOW THEMSELVES, THEY BRING FORTH THEIR YOUNG ONES, THEY CAST OUT THEIR SORROWS. THEIR YOUNG ONES ARE IN GOOD LIKING, THEY GROW UP

WITH

WITH CORN; THEY GO FORTH AND RETURN NOT UNTO THEM.

THUNDER puts the Hind into fuch an agony, that fhe prefently excludes her young one, which fticks in the birth, Pfalm xxix. ver. 8. and other authors.

Know'st thou how many moons, by me affign'd
Roll o'er the MOUNTAIN-GOAT, and FOREST-HIND,
While pregnant they a mother's load sustain ?
They bend in anguish, and caft forth in pain.
Hale are their young, from human frailties freed,
Walk unfuftain'd, and unaffifted feed;

They live at once, forfake the dams warm fide,
Take the wide world, with nature for their guide;
Bound o'er the lawn, or feek the diftant glade,
And find a home in each delightful shade.

VER. V. VI. VII. VIII.

WHO HATH SENT OUT THE WILD-ASS FREE? OR WHO HATH LOOSED THE BANDS OF THE WILD-ASS? WHOSE HOUSE I HAVE MADE THE WILDERNESS, AND THE BARREN LAND HIS DWELLINGS. HE SCORNETH THE MULTITUDE OF THE CITY, NEITHER REGARDETH HE THE CRYING OF THE DRIVER. THE RANGE OF THE MOUNTAINS IS HIS PASTURE, AND HE SEARCHES AFTER EVERY GREEN THING.

DIDST thou from fervice the WILD-Ass difcharge,

And break his bands, and bid him live at large,
Through the wide wafte, his ample manfion, roam,
And lofe himself in his unbounded home?

By nature's hand magnificently fed,

His meal is on the range of mountains spread;

As in pure air aloft he bounds along,

He fees in diftant smoke the city-throng;

Conscious of freedom, fcorns the fmother'd train,

The threatning driver, and the fervile rein.

VER. IX. X. XI. XII.

WILL THE UNICORN BE WILLING TO SERVE THEE, OR ABIDE BY THY CRIB? CANST THOU BIND THE UNICORN WITH HIS BAND IN THE FURROW OR WILL HE HARROW THE VALLEYS

AFTER

AFTER THEE?

WILT THOU TRUST HIM, BECAUSE HIS STRENGTH IS GREAT? OR WILT THOU LEAVE THY LABOUR. TO HIM? WILT THOU BELIEVE HIM THAT HE WILL BRING. HOME THY SEED, AND GATHER IT INTO THY BARN?

WILL the tall REEM, which knows no Lord but me,.

Low at the Crib, and ask an alms of thee?

Submit his unworn fhoulder to the yoke,

Break the stiff clod, and o'er thy furrow fmoke?

Since great his ftrength, go truft him, void of care,

Lay on his neck the toil of all the year;

Bid him bring home the seasons to thy doors,

And caft his load among thy gather'd stores.

VERSE XIII.

GAVEST THOU THE GOODLY WINGS UNTO THE PEACOCKS?

HOW rich the PEACOCK! What bright glories run:

From plume to plume, and vary in the fun?

He proudly spreads them to the golden ray,

Gives all his colours, and adorns the day;
With confcious ftate the spacious round difplays,

And flowly moves amid the waving blaze.

VER. XIII. XIV. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII.

GAVEST THOU WINGS AND FEATHERS UNTO THE OSTRICH ?? WHICH LEAVETH HER EGGS IN THE EARTH, AND WARMETH THEM IN THE DUST; AND FORGETTETH THAT THE FOOT MAY CRUSH THEM, OR THAT THE WILD BEAST MAY BREAK THEM. SHE IS HARDNED AGAINST HER YOUNG ONES AS THOUGH THEY WERE NOT HERS: HER LABOUR IS IN VAIN WITHOUT FEAR; BECAUSE GOD HATH DEPRIVED HER OF WISDOM, NEITHER HATH HE IMPARTED TO HER UNDERSTANDING. WHAT TIME SHE LIFTETH UP HERSELF ON HIGH,, SHE SCORNETH THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER.

WHO in the ftupid OSTRICH has fubdu'd

A parent's care, and fond inquietude?

While far fhe flies, her fcatter'd eggs are found.
Without an owner on the fandy ground;
Caft out on fortune, they at mercy lie,
And borrow life from an indulgent sky ;

Adopted!

Adopted by the fun, in blaze of day,
They ripen under his prolific ray;
Unmindful fhe, that fome unhappy tread

May crufh her young in their neglected bed;
What time the fkims along the field with speed,

She fcorns the rider, and pursuing steed.

Though there are many inftances of this bird's stupidity; yet two will be sufficient: first, it covers its head in the reeds, and thinks itself all out of fight. Secondly, they that go in purfuit of them, draw the skin of an Oftrich's neck on one hand, which proves a fufficient lure to take them with the other. They have fo little brains, that Heliogabulus had fix hundred heads for his fupper.-Here we may obferve, that our judicious as well as fublime author juft touches the great point of diftinction in each creature, and then haftens to another. A defcription is exact, when you can neither add any thing, but what is common to another fubject, nor withdraw any thing, but what is peculiar to the subject described. A likeness is often loft in too much description, as a meaning in too much illuftration.-She fcorneth the horse and his rider.-Zenophon fays, Cyrus had horfes that could overtake the Goat and the Wild-Afs, but none that could reach the Oftrich. DR. YOUNG.

VER. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIV. XXV. HAST THOU GIVEN THE HORSE STRENGTH HAST THOU CLOATHED HIS NECK WITH THUNDER? CANST THOU MAKE HIM AFRAID AS A GRASHOPPER. THE GLORY OF HIS NOSTRILS IS TERRIBLE. HE PAWETH IN THE VALLEY, AND REJOICETH IN HIS STRENGTH: HE GOETH ON TO MEET THE ARMED MEN. HE MOCKETH AT FEAR, AND IS NOT AFFRIGHTED; NEITHER TURNETH HE BACK FROM THE SWORD. THE QUIVER RATTLETH AGAINST HIM, THE GLITTERING SPEAR AND THE SHIELD. HE SWALLOWETH THE GROUND WITH FIERCENESS AND RAGE, NEITHER BELIEVETH HE THAT IT IS THE SOUND OF THE TRUMPET. HE SAITH AMONG THE TRUMPETS, HA, HA; AND HE SMELLETH THE BATTLE AFAR OFF, THE THUNDER OF THE CAPTAINS AND THE SHOUTING.

THIS description, under all the disadvantages of having been written in a language little understood; of being expreffed in phrases peculiar to a part of the world, whofe manner of thinking and speaking seems to us very uncouth; and above all, appearing in a prose translation; is nevertheless so tranfcendently above the heathen descriptions, that hereby we may perceive, how faint and languid the images are which are formed

by

by mortal authors, when compared with that which is figured, as it were, just as it appears in the eye of the Creator.-In this defcription are all the great and sprightly images, that thought can form of this generous beast, exprest in such force and vigour of style, as would have given the great wits of antiquity new laws for the fublime, had they been acquainted with thefe writings. I cannot but particularly obferve, that whereas the claffical poets chiefly endeavour to paint the outward figure, lineaments and motions; the facred poet makes all the beauties to flow from an inward principle. in the creature he defcribes; and thereby gives fpirit and vivacity to his defcription. The following phrafes and circumftances feem fingularly remarkable. Haft thou cloathed his neck with thunder? Homer and Virgil mention nothing about the neck of the horse, but his mane: The facred author by the bold figure of thunder, not only expreffes the shaking of that remarkable beauty in the horse, and the flakes of hair, which naturally fuggeft the idea of lightning; but likewise the violent agitation and force of the neck, which in the oriental tongues had been flatly expressed by a metaphor less than this.-The glory 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 inspiration.

Collecumque premens volvit fub.naribus ignem.

and fnorting curbs

The fmoke and fire which in his noftrils roll.

GEORG. III. L. 85.

TRAP.

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, ha; are signs of courage,
flowing from an inward principle. There is a peculiar beauty in his not believing it is
the found of the trumpet. That is, he cannot believe it for joy; but when he is fure
of it, and is among the trumpets, he faith, ha, ha; he neighs, he rejoices. His do-
cility is elegantly painted in his being unmoved at the ratling quiver, the glittering
fpear, and the shield. He swalloweth the ground-is an expreffion for prodigious
fwiftness, in ufe among the Arabians, Job's countrymen, at this day. It is indeed
the boldeft and nobleft image for fwiftnefs; nor have I met with any thing that
comes nearer to it than the following lines in Mr. Pope's Windfor Foreft.

The impatient courfer pants in every vein,
And pawing, feems to beat the distant plain;
Hills, vales and floods appear already croft,

And e'er he starts a thousand steps are loft.

GUARDIAN, No. 86.

That the reader may the better judge of the juftnefs of the foregoing remarks, I shal produce the celebrated descriptions of a horfe from Homer and Virgil, to which I shall beg leave to add one from Shakespear, which I think in many places feems to be copied from both.

652 The