1. Aurelius Victor observes of Fabricius, “quòd difficiliùs ab honestate, quàm Sol à suo cursu, averti posset.”
Tasso flourishes a little on this thought;
Prima dal corso distornar la Luna
E le stelle potrà, che dal diritto
Torcere un sol mio passo—
C. x. S. 24.
Mr. Waller rises upon the Italian,
“where her love was due,
So fast, so faithful, loyal, and so true,
That a bold hand as soon might hope to force
The rowling lights of heav’n, as change her course.”
On the Death of Lady Rich.
But Mr. Cowley, knowing what authority he had for the general sentiment, gives the reins to his fancy and wantons upon it without measure.
Virtue was thy Life’s centre, and from thence
Did silently and constantly dispense
The gentle vigorous influence
To all the wide and fair circumference:
And all the parts upon it lean’d so easilie,
Obey’d the mighty force so willinglie,
That none could discord or disorder see
In all their contrarietie.
Each had his motion natural and free,
And the whole no more mov’d, than the whole world could be.
Brutus.
2. The ingenious author of the Observations on Spenser (from which fine specimen of his critical talents one is led to expect great things) directs us to another imitation of this sort.
Tasso had said,
Cosi a le belle lagrime le piume
Si bagna Amore, e gode al chiaro lume.