_The_ Græcian _Muse has all their gods surviv'd, Nor_ Jove _at us, nor_ Phœbus _is arriv'd; Frail Deities, which first the Poets made, And then invok'd to give their Fancies Aid. Yet, if they still divert us with their Rage, What may be hop'd for in a better Age, When not from_ Helicon_'s imagin'd Spring, But sacred Writ we borrow what we sing? This with the Fabrick of the World begun Elder than Light, and shall out-last the Sun._ There are not ten finer Verses together in Mr. _Waller_'s Poems, yet he wrote them when he was above fourscore Years old. Are not these two Verses of a Manuscript Poem in the sublime Kind? the young Author, a Lad at _Eaton_ School, wrote it on the Birth of his Royal Highness the Duke of _Cumberland_: _Gods how he springs like Whirlwinds charg'd with Fire, He lays War waste, and Makes the World retire._ And these Verses out of _Tamerlane_: _The dreadful Business of the War is over, And Slaughter, that from yester Morn till Even, With Gyant Steps past striding o'er the Field Besmear'd, and horrid with the Blood of Nations, Now weary sits among the mangled Heaps, And slumbers o'er her Prey._ I cou'd easily fill many Volumes of Quotations out of the Antients and Moderns, in all the Kinds of Thinking; but as I am doubtful of the Success of my Attempt, so the Fewer I insert, the Less I shall offend. The _French_ perhaps have been a little too scrupulous and exact in dividing the _Noble_ and the _Grand_ in the Manner of Thinking. However, as to the Noble, let us see whether this Passage borrow'd of Scripture by _Milton_, will not serve for an Instance: _All Night he will pursue, but his Approach, Darkness defends between till Morning Watch, Then thro' the fiery Pillar and the Cloud, God looking forth will trouble all his Host, And craze their Chariot Wheels; when, by Command,_ Moses _once more, his potent Rod erects Over the Sea: The Sea his Rod obeys On their embattled Ranks, the Waves return, And overwhelm their War._ There would be no End of it, if one should go about to enumerate such Instances as these out of _Milton_. His Poem of _Paradise lost_ is so full of them, that almost out of one Book one might collect as many such noble Passages, as out of all the _Æneis_; and I would add the _Ilias_ too, if I understood _Greek_ half so well as the Translator. Among the many Sketches of the glorious Character of King _William_ in that of _Tamerlane_, Mr. _Row_ has this, which I take to be a very noble Image: