Here filken robes inveft unmanly limbs,
And in long trains the flowing Purple ftreams.

Mr. Rowe.

She bears in one hand a fprig of frankincense.

folis eft thurea virga Sabeis.

Virg.

And od rous frankincenfe on the Sabean bough.

Mr. Dryden. Thuriferos Arabum faltus. Claud. de 3. Conf. Hon. Thurilegos Arabas. Ov. de Faft. Lib. 4.

In the other hand you fee the perfumed reed, as the garland on her head may be fuppofed to be woven out of fome other part of her fragrant productions.

Nec procul in molles Arabas terramque ferentem
Delicias, varieque novos radicis honores;

Leniter adfundit gemmantia littora pontus,
Et terræ mare nomen habet.

de finu Arabico Manil. Lib. 4.

More weft the other foft Arabia beats,
Where incenfe grows, and pleafing odour fweats;
The Bay is call'd th' Arabian gulf; the name
The country gives it, and 'tis great in fame.

Mr. Creech,

Urantur pia thura focis, urantur odores,
Quos tener à terra divite mittit Arabs.

fit dives amomo

Tibul. Lib. 2. El. z.

Cinnamaque, coftumque fuam, fudataque ligno

Thara

Thura ferat, florefque alios Panchaia tellus;
Dum ferat et Myrrham.

Ov. Met Lib. 10.

Let Araby extol our happy coaft,...

;

Her Cinnamon, and fweet Amomum boast
Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious:

tears,

Her fecond harvests, and her double years:
How can the land be call'd fo blefs'd, that
Myrrha bears?
Mr. Dryden.

Odorate fpirant medicamina Silva. Manil.
The trees drop balsam, and on all the boughs
Health fits, and makes it fovereign as it flows.
Mr. Creech.

Cinnami fylvas Arabes beatos
Vidit-

Sen. Oedip. A&t. i.

What a delicious country is this, fays Cynthio? a man almost smells it in the defcriptions that are made of it. The Camel is in Arabia, I fuppofe, a beaft of burden; that helps to carry off its fpices. We find the Camel, fays Philander, mentioned in Perfius on the fame account.

Tolle recens primus piper è fitiente Camelo.

The precious weight

Of pepper and Sabaan incenfe, take

Perf. Sat. 5.

With thy own hands from the tir'd Camel's back. Mr. Dryden.

He loads the Camel with pepper, because the animal and its cargo are both the productions of the fame country.

Mercibus

The greedy Merchants, led by lucre, run
To the parch'd Indies and the rifing Sun;
From thence hot pepper, and rich drugs they bear,
Bart'ring for fpices their Italian ware.
Mr. Dryden.

You have given us fome quotations out of Perfius this morning, fays Eugenius, that in my opinion have a great deal of poetry in them. I have often wondered at Mr. Dryden for paffing fo severe a censure on this Author. He fancies the description of a Wreck that you have already cited, is too good for Perfius, and that he might be helpt in it by Lucan, who was one of his contemporaries. For my part, fays Cynthio, I am fo far from Mr. Dryden's opinion in this particular, that I fancy Perfius a better Poet than Lucan: and that had he been engaged on the fame fubject, he would at leaft in his Expreffions and Defcriptions have out-writ the Pharfalia. He was indeed employed on fubjects that feldom led him into any thing like Defcription, but where he has an occafion of fhewing himself, we find very few of the Latin Poets that have given a greater beauty to their Expreffions. His obfcurities are indeed fometimes affected, but they generally arife from the remotenefs of the Cuftoms, Perfons and Things he alludes to as Satire is for this reafon more difficult to be understood by thofe that are not of the fame age with it, than any other kind of Poetry. Love-verses and Heroics

Heroics deal in Images that are ever fixed and settled in the nature of things, but a thousand ideas enter into Satire, that are as changeable and unfteady as the mode or the humours of mankind.

Our three friends had paffed away the whole morning among their Medals and Latin Poets. Philander told them it was now too late to enter on another Series, but if they would take up with fuch a dinner as he could meet with at his Lodgings, he would afterwards lay the reft of his Medals before them. Cynthia and Eugenius were both of them fo well pleafed with the novelty of the fubject, that they would not refufe the offer Philander made them.

C

PH

HILANDER ufed every morning to take a walk in a neighbouring wood, that stood on the borders of the Thames. It was cut through by abundance of beautiful allies, which terminating on the water, looked like fo many painted views in perfpective. The banks of the river and the thickness of the fhades drew into them all the birds of the country, that at Sunrifing filled the wood with fuch a variety of notes, as made the prettieft confufion imaginable. I know in defcriptions of this nature the fcenes are generally fuppofed to grow out of the Author's imagination, and if they are not charming in all their parts, the Reader never imputes it to the want of fun or foil, but to the writer's barrennels of invention. It is Cicero's obfervation on the Plane-tree, that makes fo flourishing a figure in one of Plato's Dialogues, that it did not

draw