O arma ingentes olim paritura triumphos!
Non sic herbarum vario subridet Amictu,
Planities pictæ vallis, montisque supini
Clivus, perpetuis Cedrorum versibus altus.
Non sic æstivo quondam nitet hortus in anno,
Frondusque, fructusque ferens, formosa secundum
Flumina, mollis ubi viridisque supernatat umbra."
Cowley, Davideidos lib. i. ad finem.
I do not mean that Gray may not have had other poets in his mind when writing these lines (for there is nothing new or uncommon about them); but rather a careful going over of Cowley's poems convinces me that Gray was sensible of his "merits," and often corrects his want of "judgment" by his own refined and most exquisite taste. I must give one more instance; and I think that Bishop Hall's allusion to his life at Emmanuel College, and Bishop Ridley's "Farewell to Pembroke Hall," must every one fall into the background before Cowley. Gray's poem ought to be too well known to require quoting:
"Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,