et sometimes falls into by indulging the sallies of
imagination. This will be obvious, when we reflect that every branch of
the Ode is characterised by a peculiar degree of vivacity and even
vehemence both of sentiment and expression. It is impossible to preserve
this distinguishing character, unless the thoughts are diversified, and
the diction is concise. When a metaphor is hunted down (if I may use
that expression) and a description overwrought, its force and energy are
gradually lessened, the object which was originally new becomes
familiar, and the mind is satiated instead of being inflamed.

We must not think that this method of extending an illustration
discovers always a defect or sterility of the inventive Faculty. It is,
in truth, the consequence of that propensity which we naturally feel to
consider a favourite idea in every point of light, and to render its
excellence as conspicuous to others as it is to ourselves. By this means
sentiments become _superficial_, because the mind is more intent upon
their _external dress_, that their _real importance_. They are likewise
_thinly scattered through a work_, because each of them receives an
higher proportion or ornament than justly belongs to it. We frequently
judge of them likewise, in the same manner as a birthday suit is
estimated by its purchaser, not by the standard of intrinsic value, but
by the opinion of the original proprietor. Thus to superficial readers,

------ _verbum emicuit si forte decorum,
Si versus paulo concinnior unus aut alter
Injuste totum ducit, venditque poema[70]._

One simile that solitary shines
In the dry desart of a thousand lines,
Or lengthen'd thought that gleams thro' many a page,
Has sanctified whole poems for an age. POPE.

[Footnote 70: Hor. Epist. Lib. II. Epist. 1.]

Custom, my Lord, that sovereign arbiter, from whose decision in literary
as well as in civil causes, there frequently lies no appeal, will lead
us to consider boldness of transition as a circumstance which is
peculiarly characteristic of the Ode. Lyric Poets have in all ages
appropriated to themselves the liberty of indulging imagination in her
most irregular excursions; and when a digression is remotely similar to
the subject, they are permitted to fall into it at any time by the
invariable practice of their Predecessors. Pindar expressly lays claim
to this privilege.

+Enkamion gar aotes Uumnon
ep' allot' allon os te me-
lissa th