The epithet “feigned” is imitated from Milton’s treatment of similar subjects. But Milton was not at all uniform in his treatment; and therefore having paid this tribute to the truth of Christianity and entered by this word my protest against the fables of Polytheism, I do not think it necessary, any more than Milton did, to be perpetually marring poetical effects by intimating that comparisons are derived from fictitious subjects. Thus in the finest book of _Paradise Lost_, the second, all the Greek and Roman fables are introduced with excellent effect, and without any intimation that they are apocryphal. Thus Abhorred Styx, the flood of deadly hate, &c. _P.L._ ii. 577. Medusa with Gorgonian terror guards The ford. _Ib._ ii. 611. ----The water flies All taste of living wight, as once it fled The lip of Tantalus. _Ib._ ii. 612. A cry of Hell-hounds never-ceasing barked With wide Cerberean mouths. _Ib._ ii. 654. “It rolleth bounding with gigantic ease.” Καὶ μὴν Σίσυφον εἰσεῖδον, κρατέρ’ ἄλγε’ ἔχοντα, Λᾶαν βαστάζοντα πελώριον ἀμφοτέρῃσιν· Ἦτοι ὁ μὲν, σκηριπτόμενος χερσὶν τε ποσὶν τε. κ. τ. λ. Hom. _Od._ xi. 592. The fine dactylic verse which follows, and which Dionysius of Halicarnassus so highly commends, is wonderfully descriptive of the bounding of a huge stone down a mountain:-- Αὖτις ἔπειτα πέδονδε κυλίνδετο λᾶας ἀναιδὴς. Hom. _Od._ xi. 598. Notwithstanding the numerous and highly celebrated attempts of Pope and Dryden at onomatopœiac effects in English iambic lines, I think Thomson has surpassed them both in the following line from what Byron justly pronounces one of the very finest poems in the English language:-- “Down thunders back the stone with mighty sweep!” _Castle of Indolence_, cant. i. III. “Full many a rock’s Aiantine volume rolled.” Δεῦτερος αὖτ’ Αἴας πολύ μείζονα λᾶαν ἀείρας. Hom. _Il._ vii. 268. “Their powerful hands this rude artillery hold.” Others with vast Typhœan rage more fell Rend up both rocks and hills. --Milt. _Par. Lost._ ii. 539. Typhœus was one of the Titans who warred against Heaven. VII. “And charging through the valley shakes the field With thunderous gallop.” Debaixo dos pés duros dos ardentes Cavallos treme a terra, as valles soam. Camóens, _Lus._ iv. 31. VIII. “Our fiery squadrons. * * They bathe their swords in blood at every bound.”