And on the shaded ocean rush'd the night.
Dryden.
Sternitur, exanimisque tremens procumbit humi bos.
Down drops the beast, nor needs a second wound;
But sprawls in pangs of death, and spurns the ground.
Dryden.
Parturiunt montes, nascitur ridiculus mus.
The mountains labour, and a mouse is born.
Roscommon.
If all these observations are just, there must be some remarkable conformity between the sudden succession of night to day, the fall of an ox under a blow, and the birth of a mouse from a mountain; since we are told of all these images, that they are very strongly impressed by the same form and termination of the verse.