Page:Tixall Poetry.djvu/389

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Notes.
335
Ardet inexcita Ausonia atque immobilis ante:
Pars pedes ire parat campis; pars arduus altis
Pulverulentus equis furit: omnes arma requirunt.
٭٭٭٭٭٭
Signaque ferre juvat, sonitusque audire tubarum.
٭٭٭٭
Vomeris, hue et falcis honos, hue omnis aratri
Cessit amor; recoquunt patrios fornacibus enses.
Æn. B. 7. v. 620.

P. 14. l. 11.You that have travel'd ore, and scene and knowne
That perfect "microcosme" of your owne.

Microcosm, from the Greek, signifies the little world, and is opposed to macrocosm, the great world, or the universe. In this sense man is called a microcosm, from the admirable contrivance and wonderful distribution of parts in the human frame; and also from being imagined, by some fanciful philosophers, to have something in him analogous to the four elements. It appears to have been a favourite word with our older writers, both in prose and verse.[1]

P. 15. The opposite characters, of the scholar and soldier, are discriminated in these lines with spirit, learning, and judgment.

P. 17. Voyages into the east appear to have been much the fashion at that period. Perhaps they were increased by the publication of the curious and entertaining Travels of George Sandys, one of the most accomplished gentlemen and smoothest versifiers of his time. He translated Ovid's Metamorphoses into verse, and the easy flowing style of his numbers, has been much commended both by Dryden and Pope. He also paraphrased many parts of the Bible, and, among


  1. So Sylvester, in his Translation of Du Bartas (f. 1633, p. 52):—
    "Ther's under Sun (as Delphos God did showe)
    No better knowledge than our selfe to knowe;
    There is no theam more plentiful! to scan,
    Than is the glorious goodly frame of man;
    For in man's self is fire, aire, earth, and sea;
    Man's (in a word) the world's epitomie
    Or little map"————

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