Emb. 13. Book III.
“Read on this dial”—“Behold these lilies”—does not this put you in mind of the same form of expression in Ossian? “His spear was like that blasted fir.”
Quarles was commenting on his print in which the dial and lilies were represented; Ossian saw his images “in his mind’s eye”——but both the poets considered them as really existing—at least, they make them exist to their readers.
“How the shades devour,” &c. Shakspeare has the same figure
——————the tide
Eats not the flats with more impetuous haste
it is wonderfully expressive!
In what he calls his hieroglyphics, Quarles compares man to a taper, which furnishes him with a number of very striking allusions. It is at first unlighted, then a hand from heaven touches it with fire—the motto, Nescius unde.
This flame-expecting taper hath at length
Received fire, and now begins to burn: