And again:
[92] Non umbræ altorum nemorum, non mollia possunt Prata movere animum; non qui per saxa volutus Purior electro campum petit amnis.
No Shades of Groves, no grassy Meads can move His Soul; nor Streams, which rolling o'er the Stones, Purer than Crystal, glide along the Fields.
In general it is true, but not always, that Herbs are joyful, Meadows soft, Rivers pure, and the Breath of Calves sweet.
These are the general Rules, and such as are rarely or never to be transgress'd, in the Choice of Epithets: But to insert them only to fill up a Verse, when they are entirely idle and useless, and the Description is neither advanced, heightened, or illustrated by them, is the greatest Fault almost a Writer can be guilty of. From hence the Style is barren and jejune; the Sense relax'd and enervated. And yet this Fault, great as it is, not only Boys, but some even of the Ancients, and many of our modern Writers, run into. Buchanan, in his Paraphrastical Version of the Psalms, has these Verses:
[93] Dum procul à patria, mœsti, Babylonis in oris, Fluminis ad liquidas forte sedemus aquas.
Two Lines after he goes on thus:
Flevimus, & gemitus luctantia verba repressit, Inque sinus liquidæ decidit imber aquæ.
We had no Occasion to be reminded once, much less twice in the Compass of five Verses, that Water was liquid; 'tis a Circumstance that served as little for the Information of the Reader, as for the Illustration of what the Poet was describing. Ovid is often guilty this Way; as in the following Verse:
[94] Eque sagittifera prompsit duo tela pharetra.