ecidere, cadentque
Quae nunc sunt in honore vocabula, si volet usus
Quem penes, arbitrium est, et jus, et norma loquendi_.

"The not observing of this Rule, is that which the World has blamed in
our satirist CLEVELAND. To express a thing hard and unnaturally is his
New Way of Elocution. Tis true, no poet but may sometimes use a
_catachresis_. VIRGIL, does it,

"_Mistaque ridenti Colocasia fundet Acaniho_--

"in his Eclogue of _POLLIO_.

"And in his Seventh AEneid--

"_Mirantur et unda,
Miratur nemus, insuetam fulgentia longe,
Scuta virum fluvio, pictaque innare carinas_.

"And OVID once; so modestly, that he asks leave to do it.

"_Si verbo audacia, detur
Haud metuam summi dixisse Palatia coeli_

"calling the Court of JUPITER, by the name of AUGUSTUS his palace.
Though, in another place, he is more bold; where he says, _Et longas
visent Capitolia pompas_.

"But to do this always, and never be able to write a line without it,
though it may be admired by some few pedants, will not pass upon those
who know that _Wit is best conveyed to us in the most easy language: and
is most to be admired, when a great thought comes dressed in words so
commonly received, that it is understood by the meanest apprehensions; as
the best meat is the most easily digested_. But we cannot read a verse of
CLEVELAND's, without making a face at it; as if every word were a pill to
swallow. He gives us, many times, a hard nut to break our teeth, without a
kernel for our pains. So that there is this difference between his
_Satires_ and Doctor DONNE's: that the one [_DONNE_] gives us deep
thoughts in common language, though rough cadence; the other
[_CLEVELAND_] gives us common thoughts in abtruse words. 'Tis true, in
some places, his wit is independent of his words, as in that of the
_Rebel Scot_--

"Had CAIN been Scot, GOD would have changed his doom,
Not forced him wander, but confined him home.

"_Si sic, omnia dixisset!_ This is Wit in all languages. 'Tis like
MERCURY, never to be lost or killed. And so that other,

"For beauty, like white powder, makes no noise,
And yet the silent hypocrite destroys.

"You see the last line is highly metaphorical; but it is so soft and
gentle, that it does not shock us as we read it.

"But to return from whence I have digressed, to the consideration of the
Ancients' Writing and Wit; of which, by this time, you will grant us, in
some me