be seen of Cato but his privy member. Such are these lines of a leviathan at sea:
His motion works, and beats the oozy mud,
And with its slime incorporates the flood,
'Till all th' incumbered, thick, fermenting stream
Does like one pot of boiling ointment seem.
Wherever he swims, he leaves along the lake
Such frothy furrows, such a foamy track,
That all the waters of the deep appear
Hoary —— with age, or gray with sudden fear[1].
But perhaps even these are excelled by the ensuing.
| Now the resisted flames and fiery store, | |
| By winds assaulted, in wide forges roar, | |
| And raging seas flow down of melted ore. | |
| Sometimes they hear long iron bars remov'd, And to and fro huge heaps of cinders shov'd[2]. |
2. The Vulgar
is also a species of the diminishing: by this a spear flying into the air is compared to a boy whistling as he goes on an errand.
The mighty Stuffa threw a massy spear,
Which, with its errand pleas'd, sung through the air[3].
A man raging with grief to a mastiff dog.
I cannot stifle this gigantic woe,
Nor on my raging grief a muzzle throw[4].
And clouds big with water to a woman in great necessity.
Distended with the waters in 'em pent,
The clouds hang deep in air, but hang unrent.
- ↑ Blackm. Job, p. 197.
- ↑ Pr. Arthur, p. 157.
- ↑ Pr. Arthur.
- ↑ Job, p. 41.
