from Mr. Cowley in his translation of Hor. 1. ep. 10.
“To Kings, or to the favourites of Kings.”
2. “Such is the world’s great harmony, that springs
From order, union, full consent of things.”
Ep. III. 295.
from Denham’s Cowper’s Hill,
“Wisely she knew the harmony of things
As well as that of sounds from discord springs.”
3. “Far as the solar walk, or milky way.”
Essay on Man, Ep. I. V. 102.
from Mr. Dryden’s Pindaric Poem to the memory of K. Charles II.
“Out of the solar walk, or heav’n’s high way.”
Though these consonancies chyming in the writer’s head, he might not always be aware of the imitation.
XI. In the examples, just given, there was no reason to suspect the poet was imitating, till you met with the original. Then indeed the rhyme leads to the discovery. But “if an exact writer falls into a flatness of expression for the sake of rhyme, you may ev’n previously conclude that he has some precedent for it.”