Page:Johnson

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210

THE RAMBLER.

N° 90.

⁠God,———with frequent intercourse,
Thither will send his winged messengers
On errands of supernal grace. So sung
The glorious train ascending.

It may be, I think, established as a rule, that a pause which concludes a period should be made for the most part upon a strong syllable, as the fourth and sixth; but those pauses which only suspend the sense may be placed upon the weaker. Thus the rest in the third line of the first passage satisfies the ear better than in the fourth, and the close of the second quotation better than of the third.

⁠The evil soon
Drawn back, redounded (as a flood) on those
From whom it sprung; impossible to mix
With blessedness.

⁠———What we by day
Lop overgrown, or prune, or prop, or bind,
One night or two with wanton growth derides,
Tending to wild.

⁠The paths and bow'rs doubt not but our joint hands
Will keep from wilderness with ease as wide
As we need walk, till younger hands ere long
Assist us.

The rest in the fifth place has the same inconvenience as in the seventh and third, that the syllable is weak.

⁠Beast now with beast 'gan war, and fowl with fowl,
And fish with fish, to graze the herb all leaving,

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