There are other Epithets, of so general a Nature, that in all poetical Descriptions they are always applicable to their Substantives, and yet are different from those I just now mention'd, that perfectly coincide with them. As in Virgil:
[89] Jamque rubescebat radiis mare, & æthere ab alto Aurora in roseis fulgebat lutea bigis.
And now the Ocean redden'd with the Rays; And in her rosy Car the blushing Morn Shone from the Sky.
And in Ovid:
[90] —Ecce! vigil nitido patefecit ab ortu Purpureas Aurora fores, & plena rosarum Atria.——
Soon as the Morn, in orient Purple drest, Unbarr'd the Portals of the roseate East. Pope, Odyss. IV. 411.
The Epithets, lutea, roseis, vigil, purpureas, &c. may always be used, in the Description of a bright Morning: And the same Thing may be observ'd of general Descriptions of the Night, the four Seasons of the Year, and the like.
There are others, again, of a middle Kind between the two Sorts of Epithets I have above laid down; which tho' they do not add to their Subjects distinct Ideas, yet are much farther off from the general Nature of them, than these I have here mention'd. Of this Sort are the following in the foremention'd Description of the Plague among the Cattle.
[91] Hinc læti vituli vulgo moriuntur in herbis, Et dulces animas plena ad præsepia reddunt.
In ev'ry Pasture, on the verdant Grass, The Calves all die, and render their sweet Souls Before the plenteous Racks.