The original Verses, uniting the leonine and tailed Rhyme, with every Line broken into three equal Parts, present a Metre so strange and difficult, that the Poet in his dedicatory Epistle declares that Nothing but especial Grace and Inspiration could have enabled him to bring his great Work to an End. The following Lines, with which the subjoined Translation commences, show the Structure of the Verse:
"Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangetur, hic breve fletur,
Non breve vivere, non breve plangere, retribuetur.
O retributio! stat brevis actio, vita perennis;
O retributio! cœlica mansio stat lue plenis,
Qui datur et quibus, æther egentibus et cruce dignis,
Sidera vermibus, optima sontibus, astra malignis."
The chief Defect of the Poem is its Want of Progress. It eddies round the Subject, recurring again and again to Illustrations and Thoughts which
