And all Olympus to its centre shook.
Pope.
Certainly Mr. Hobbes of Malmsbury perceived no portion of that sublime which was felt by Phidias and by Mr. Pope, when he could thus translate this fine description:
This said, with his black brows he to her nodded,
Wherewith displayed were his locks divine;
Olympus shook at stirring of his godhead,
And Thetis from it jump’d into the brine.
In the translation of the Georgics, Mr. Dryden has displayed great powers of poetry. But Dryden had little relish for the pathetic, and no comprehension of the natural language of the heart. The beautiful simplicity of the following passage has entirely escaped his observation, and he has been utterly insensible to its tenderness:
Ipse cavâ solans ægrum testudine amorem,
Te, dulcis conjux, te solo in littore secum,