PAGE 151.
While all forlorn the baffled critic stands,
Fumbling a naked stump between his hands.
I had originally written
By the old puzzle of the dwindling mound
Bringing at last the critic to the ground,
which of course represents the Latin better: but it occurred to me that the allusion to the sophism of the heap, following immediately on the similar figure of the horse's tail, could only embarrass an English reader, and would therefore be out of place in a passage intended to be idiomatic. Howes has got over the difficulty neatly:—
Till my opponent, by fair logic beat,
Shall find the ground sink fast beneath his feet.