All here is noble, and as it should be. The comparison enlarges the thing compared without stretching it upon a violent rack, till it bursts with ridiculous explosion. The application of such gorgeous imagery to an old man's beard is of a piece with the Bardolfian bombast: "see you these meteors, these exhalations?" or the raptures of an Oriental lover, who should compare his mistress's nose to a watchtower or a steeple. The presageful nature of the meteor, which makes so fine an adjunct of the simile in Heywood, Milton has judiciously omitted, as less proper to his purpose; but he seems not to have overlooked the beauty of it, by his introducing the superstition in a succeeding book-- ----like a comet burn'd, That fires the length of Ophiuchus huge In th' artic sky, and from his horrid hair Shakes pestilence and war. VIII.--[AN AMERICAN WAR FOR HELEN] (1813) I have in my possession a curious volume of Latin verses, which I believe to be unique. It is entitled _Alexandri Fultoni Scoti Epigrammatorum libri quinque_. It purports to be printed at Perth, and bears date 1679. By the appellation which the author gives himself in the preface, _hypodidasculus_, I suppose him to have been usher at some school. It is no uncommon thing now a days for persons concerned in academies to affect a literary reputation in the way of their trade. The "master of a seminary for a limited number of pupils at Islington," lately put forth an edition of that scarce tract, the _Elegy in a Country Churchyard_ (to use his own words), with notes and head-lines!--But to our author. These epigrams of Alexander Fulton, Scotchman, have little remarkable in them besides extreme dulness and insipidity; but there is one, which, by its being marshalled in the front of the volume, seems to have been the darling of its parent, and for its exquisite flatness, and the surprising stroke of anachronism with which it is pointed, deserves to be rescued from oblivion. It is addressed, like many of the others, to a fair one:-- AD MARIULAM SUAM AUTOR Moverunt bella olim Helenæ decor atque venustas Europen inter frugiferamque Asiam. Tam bona, quam tu, tam prudens, sin illa fuisset, Ad lites issent Africa et America! Which, in humble imitation of mine author's peculiar poverty of stile, I have ventured thus to render into English:-- THE AUTHOR TO HIS MOGGY For love's illustrious cause, and Helen's charms, All Europe and all Asia rush'd to arms. Had she with these thy polish'd sense combin'd, All Afric and America had join'd! The happy idea of an American war undertaken in the cause of beauty ought certainly to recommend the author's memory to the countrymen of Madison and Jefferson; and the bold anticipation of the discovery of that Continent in the time of the Trojan War is a flight beyond the Sibyll's books. IX.--[DRYDEN AND COLLIER] (1813)