word may mean to express all kinds of
fine writing, as the word Taste is applied to all agreeable
visible objects, and thus wit may mean descriptive sublimity,
beauty, the pathetic, or ridiculous, but when used in the
confined sense, as by Mr. Locke and Mr. Addison as above, it
may probably be better defined a combination of ideas with
agreeable novelty, as this may be effected by opposition as
well as by resemblance.]

"Last, at thy potent nod, Effect and Cause
Walk hand in hand accordant to thy laws;
Rise at Volition's call, in groups combined,
Amuse, delight, instruct, and serve Mankind;
Bid raised in air the ponderous structure stand,
Or pour obedient rivers through the land;
With cars unnumber'd crowd the living streets,
Or people oceans with triumphant fleets.

"Thy magic touch imagined forms supplies
From colour'd light, the language of the eyes; 320
On Memory's page departed hours inscribes,
Sweet scenes of youth, and Pleasure's vanish'd tribes.
By thee ANTINOUS leads the dance sublime
On wavy step, and moves in measured time;
Charm'd round the Youth successive Graces throng,
And Ease conducts him, as he moves along;
Unbreathing crowds the floating form admire,
And Vestal bosoms feel forbidden fire.

"When rapp'd CECILIA breathes her matin vow,
And lifts to Heaven her fair adoring brow; 330
From her sweet lips, and rising bosom part
Impassion'd notes, that thrill the melting heart;
Tuned by thy hand the dulcet harp she rings,
And sounds responsive echo from the strings;
Bright scenes of bliss in trains suggested move,
And charm the world with melody and love.

III. "SOON the fair forms with vital being bless'd,
Time's feeble children, lose the boon possess'd;
The goaded fibre ceases to obey,
And sense deserts the uncontractile clay; 340
While births unnumber'd, ere the parents die,
The hourly waste of lovely life supply;
And thus, alternating with death, fulfil
The silent mandates of the Almighty Will;
Whose hand unseen the works of nature dooms
By laws unknown--WHO GIVES, AND WHO RESUMES.

[Footnote: _The goaded fibre_, l. 339. Old age consists in
the inaptitude to motion from the inirritability of the
system, and the consequent want of fibrous contraction; see