Repair’d to search || the gloomy cave of Spleen
Nothing, to make || philosophy thy friend
Shou’d chance to make || the well-dress’d rabble stare
Or cross, to plunder || provinces, the main
These madmen never hurt || the church or state
How shall we fill || a library with wit
What better teach || a foreigner the tongue?
Sure, if I spare || the minister, no rules
Of honour bind me, not to maul his tools.
On the other hand, when the passive subject by inversion is first named, there is no difficulty of interjecting a pause betwixt it and the verb, more than when the active subject is first named. The same reason holds in both, that though a verb cannot be separated in idea from the substantive which governs it, and scarcely from the substantive it governs; yet a substantive may always be conceived independent of the verb. When the passive subject is introduced before the verb, we know not that an action is to be exerted upon it; therefore we may rest till the action commences. For the sake of illustration take the following examples.
Shrines! where their vigils || pale-ey’d virgins keep