CHAPTER X. THE SO-CALLED AUGUSTAN POETS. Alexander Pope. 1688-1744. (History, p. 154.) (From the Prologue to the Satires.) Peace to all such! but were there one whose fires Bear like the Turk, no brother near the throne, 5. Too fond to rule alone: an idiom no longer in use; we should now say "too fond of ruling." Fond may, however, perhaps mean "foolishly eager here. 13. Blame, Fr. blûmer, is merely another form of blaspheme, which in Bacon and Shakespeare is used in the sense of to slander or defame generally. 16. Obliged: pronounced, after the French fashion, obleeged; a pronunciation not very long extinct, if, indeed, it do not still survive with some people of the old school. 126. From the ESSAY ON MAN.' THE SCALE OF BEING. Far as Creation's ample range extends, Feels at each thread, and lives along the line: Remembrance and Reflection, how allied; 20 What thin partitions Sense from Thought divide ! 2. Sensual, such as belong to sense; there is no suggestion of evil in the word here. 7. Headlong: see note 19, extract 15. 11. Spider's touch: the spider is the spinner, and is so called still in certain parts of England. 13. Nice, Fr. nice, It. Ptg. nescio, fr. Lat. nescius, once meant ignorant, foolish; then trifling, unimportant; then precise, fastidious: whence it passed to its modern sense. This word has had much the same history as fond. See note 31, extract 55. 17. Barrier, like oblige, had not yet entirely separated itself from its French origin, and must be pronounced here with the accent on the final syllable. 20. Compare line 15 of extract 112. OMNIPRESENCE OF THE DEITY. All are but parts of one stupendous whole, That, changed through all, and yet in all the same, 5 Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, 10 As full, as perfect, in a hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile Man that mourns, 12. Seraph that. burns: the word seraph means the fiery one; Milton, Paradise Lost, v. 249, calls these existences "celestial Ardours.' Súraf Heb., and ardeo Lat., are the same. (Keightley.) 127. From the RAPE OF THE LOCK.' DESCRIPTION OF BELINDA. Not with more glories in th' ethereal plain, 5 Fair Nymphs and well-drest Youths around her shone, On her white breast a sparkling cross she wore, 3. Issuing: issue comes from exire through It. escire (uscire) and O. Fr. eisser, issir (Diez). Rival: rivals were once partners, associates, as in Shakespeare's " the rivals SPECS. ENG. LIT. of my watch" (Hamlet), Lat. rivales, dwellers on the banks of the same river. The way in which the word obtained its present meaning is obvious. N Favours to none, to all she smiles extends; Bright as the sun, her eyes the gazers strike, And, like the sun, they shine on all alike. Look on her face, and you'll forget them all. This Nymph, to the destruction of mankind, 21. Deck: the radical meaning of this word is to cover, Lat. tegere, O. E. theccan (whence thatch, Ger. dach, the cover of a house). Miranda in the Tempest "decked the sea with drops full salt;" "Decked with ceremonies" occurs in Julius Cæsar. The deck of a ship is that which coversin the vessel. Mr. Craik suggests that its present use originated in a confusion between it and decorate, fr. Lat. decorare, to adorn. 128. THE DYING CHRISTIAN TO HIS SOUL. Vital spark of heavenly flame! Oh the pain, the bliss of dying! Hark! they whisper; Angels say, Sister spirit, come away. The world recedes; it disappears! Heaven opens on my eyes! my ears Lend, lend your wings! I mount! I fly! Oh Death! where is thy Sting? Jonathan Swift. 1667-1745. (History, p. 158.) 129. THE SPIDER AND THE BEE. From the Battle of the Books, written in reference to the great contest on the comparative merits of the ancient and modern writers. The Bee represents the ancients; the Spider the moderns. Upon the highest corner of a large window there dwelt a certain spider, swollen up to the first magnitude by the destruction of infinite numbers of flies, whose spoils lay scattered before the gates of his palace, like human bones before the cave of some giant.' The avenues to his castle were guarded with turnpikes and palisadoes, all after the modern way of fortification. After you had passed several courts you came to the centre, wherein you might behold the constable himself in his own lodgings, which had windows fronting to each avenue, and ports to sally out3 upon all occasions of prey or defence. In this mansion he had for some time dwelt in peace and plenty, without danger to his person by swallows from above, or to his palace by brooms from below: when it was the pleasure of fortune to conduct thither a wandering bee, to whose curiosity a broken pane in the glass had discovered itself, and in he went; where, expatiating a while, he at last happened to alight upon one of the outward walls of the spider's citadel; which, yielding to the unequal weight, sunk down to the very foundation. 1. Giant, Fr. géant, signifies etymologically earth-born, Lat. gigas, Gk. γηγενής. 2. Constable: few words have sunk so low as this. A constable was once a comes stabuli, Count of the Stables, or Master of the Horse, one of the highest imperial officials; and subsequently, under the feudal system, discharging impor tant military functions. Its military sense is still preserved to a degree in the modern Constable of the Tower. 3. Sally out, literally to make a leap out (Fr. saillie), from Lat. salire. 4. Expatiating, roving at large, fr. Lat. exspatiari-now only used in a metaphorical sense. |