All definitions of the same thing must be nearly the same; and
descriptions, which are definitions of a more lax and fanciful kind,
must always have in some degree that resemblance to each other which
they all have to their object. Different poets describing the spring or
the sea would mention the zephyrs and the flowers, the billows and the
rocks; reflecting on human life, they would, without any communication
of opinions, lament the deceitfulness of hope, the fugacity of pleasure,
the fragility of beauty, and the frequency of calamity; and for
palliatives of these incurable miseries, they would concur in
recommending kindness, temperance, caution, and fortitude.
When therefore there are found in Virgil and Horace two similar
passages--
_Hae tibi erunt artes--
Parcere subjectis, et debellare superbos_. VIRG.
To tame the proud, the fetter'd slave to free:
These are imperial arts, and worthy thee. DRYDEN.
_Imperet bellante prior, jacentem
Lenis in hostem_. HOR.
Let Caesar spread his conquests far,
Less pleas'd to triumph than to spare--
it is surely not necessary to suppose with a late critick, that one is
copied from the other, since neither Virgil nor Horace can be supposed
ignorant of the common duties of humanity, and the virtue of moderation
in success.
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