With horrible convulsion, to and fro,
He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew
The whole roof after them with burst of thunder,
Upon the heads of all who sat beneath;
Lords, ladies, captains, counsellors, and priests,
Their choice nobility.
The error might be less unpardonable with a statesman of the continent; but with Englishmen, who have Ireland in one direction, and Scotland in another; the one in ignorance, sloth, and rebellion, in the other general information, industry, and loyalty, verily it is not error merely, but infatuation.
[Picturesque Words]
Who is ignorant of Homer's
Yet in some Greek manuscript hexameters I have met with a compound epithet, which may compare with it for the prize of excellence in flashing on the mental eye a complete image. It is an epithet of the brutified archangel, and forms the latter half of the verse,
Ye youthful bards! compare this word with its literal translation, "tail-horn-hoofed Satan," and be shy of compound epithets, the components of which are indebted for their union exclusively to the printer's hyphen. Henry More, indeed, would have naturalized the word without hesitation, and