Here filken robes inveft unmanly limbs, She bears in one hand a sprig of frankincense. -folis eft thurea virga Sabeis. Virg. And od❜rous frankincenfe on the Sabaan bough. Mr. Dryden. Thuriferos Arabum faltus. Claud. de 3. Conf. Hon. In the other hand you fee the perfumed reed, as the garland on her head may be supposed to be woven out of fome other part of her fragrant productions. Nec procul in molles Arabas terramque ferentem De finu Arabico Manil. Lib. 4. More west the other foft Arabia beats, Where incenfe grows, and pleafing odour sweats; 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, Tibul. Lib. 2. El. 2. -fit dives amomo Cinnamaque, coftumque fuam, fudataque ligno Ov. Met. Lib. 10. Let Araby extol our happy coaft, Her Cinnamon, and fweet Amomum boaft; Her fragrant flowers, her trees with precious tears, Her fecond harvefts, and her double years: -Odoratæ fpirant medicamina Silva. Manil. The trees drop balfam, and on all the boughs Health fits, and makes it fovereign as it flows. Mr. Creech. Cinnami fylvas Arabes beatos Sen. Oedip. Ac. r. What a delicious country is this, fays Cynthio A man almoft fmells it in the defcriptions that are made of it. The Camel is in Arabia, I fuppose, a beast 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 With thy own hands from the tir'd Camel's back. Mr. Dryden. He He loads the Camel with pepper, because the animal and its cargo are both the productions of the fame country. Mercibus hic Italis mutat fub fole recenti Id. Sat. 5. The greedy Merchants, led by lucre, run 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 fevere a cenfure 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 subject, he would at least in his Expreffions and Descriptions have out-writ the Pharfalia. He was indeed employed on fubjects that seldom led him in any thing like Description, but where he has an occafion of fhewing himfelf, 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 reason more difficult to be understood derstood by thofe that are not of the fame age with it, than any other kind of Poetry. Loveverfes and Heroics deal in Images that are ever fixed and fettled in the nature of things, but a thoufand 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 rest of his Medals before them. Cynthio and Eugenius were both of them fo well pleafed with the novelty of the fubject, that they would not refuse the offer Philander made them. DIALOGUE III. -caufa eft difcriminis hujus Concifum Argentum in titulos faciefque minutas. Juv. Sat. 14. A PARALLEL between the Ancient and Modern MEDALS. PHILA HILANDER used 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 Sun-rifing filled the wood with fuch a variety of notes, as made the prettieft confufion imaginable. I know in descriptions of this nature, the scenes 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 barrenness of invention. It is Cicero's obfervation on the Plane-tree, that makes fo flourifhing a figure in one of Plato's Dialogues, that it did not draw its nourishment from the fountain that ran by |