Page:Johnson - Rambler 2.djvu/248

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240
THE RAMBLER.
N° 95.

can there be between modulations of sound and corporeal dimensions?

Milton, indeed, seems only to have regarded this species of embellishment so far as not to reject it when it came unsought; which would often happen to a mind so vigorous, employed upon a subject so various and extensive. He had, indeed, a greater and nobler work to perform; a single sentiment of moral and religious truth, a single image of life or nature, would have been cheaply lost for a thousand echoes of the cadence of the sense; and he who had undertaken to vindicate the ways of God to man, might have been accused of neglecting his cause, had he lavished much of his attention upon syllables and sounds.



Numb. 95. Tuesday, February 12, 1751.

Parcus Deorum cultor, et infrequens,
Insanientis dum sapientiæ
Consultus erro; nunc retrorsum
Vela dare, atque iterare cursus
Cogor relictos.

Hor.

  A fugitive from heav'n and prayer,
 I mock'd at all religious fear,
   Deep scienc'd in the mazy lore
 Of mad philosophy; but now
 Hoist sail, and back my voyage plow
 To that blest harbour, which I left before.

Francis.

To the RAMBLER.

SIR,

TH E R E are many diseases both of the body and mind, which it is far easier to prevent than to cure, and therefore I hope you will think