And those regealing crystal spheres.
I hold thy tears
50Pledges of more distilling sweets,
The bath that ushers in the sheets.
Else pious Julia, angel-wise,
Moves the Bethesda of her trickling eyes
To cure the spital world of maladies.
To Julia, &c. Johnson singled out the opening verse of this as a special example of 'bringing remote ideas together'.
1 'Shrieve' of course = 'Sheriff'.
3-4 'advowson' (again of course, but these things get curiously mistaken nowadays) = 'right of presenting to or enjoying a benefice'. 'Incumbency' = 'the actual occupation or enjoyment'. Cf. Square-Cap, ll. 37-8.