The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,
The next in majesty, in both the last.
The force of Nature could no further go;
To make a third she joined the former two.
Mr. Malone suggested that the idea of these lines was borrowed by Dryden from Salvaggi’s Latin distich:—
“Græcia, Mæonidem, jactet sibi Roma Maronem,
Anglia Miltonum jactat utrique parem.”
But in a little work, printed in 1676, entitled “Anima Astrologia,” a verse occurs which bears a much nearer resemblance to Dryden’s epigram:—
“Let envy burst; Urania’s glad to see
Her sons thus joined in a triplicity;