Page:Johnson - Rambler 2.djvu/220

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212
THE RAMBLER.
N° 91.
He blew
His trumpet, heard in Oreb since, perhaps
When God descended; and, perhaps, once more
To sound at general doom.

If the poetry of Milton be examined, with regard to the pauses and flow of his verses into each other, it will appear, that he has performed all that our language would admit; and the comparison of his numbers with those who have cultivated the same manner of writing, will show that he excelled as much in the lower as the higher parts of his art, and that his skill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning.



Numb. 91. Tuesday, January 29, 1751.

Dulcis inexpertis cultura potentis amici,
 Expertus metuit.

Hor.

  To court the great ones, and to sooth their pride,
 Seems a sweet task to those that never tried;
 But those that have, know well that danger's near.

Creech.

TH E Sciences having long seen their votaries labouring for the benefit of mankind without reward, put up their petition to Jupiter for a more equitable distribution of riches and honours. Jupiter was moved at their complaints, and touched with the approaching miseries of men, whom the Sciences, wearied with perpetual ingratitude, were now threatening to forsake, and who would have been reduced by their departure to feed in dens upon the mast of trees,