mmon neglect of
the following rule of good writing, that when a figurative word is used,
whatsoever is predicated of it ought not only to agree in terms to the
thing to which the figure is applied, but likewise to that from which
the figure is taken. "Thick films" agree only with the thing to which it
is applied, namely, to the sight or eye; and not to that from which it
is taken, namely, a ray of light coming to the eye. He should have said
"thick clouds," which would have agreed with both. But these
inaccuracies are not to be found in his later poems.--WARBURTON.

Concanen had previously made the same objection in his Supplement to the
Profound, and Pope has written in the margin, "Milton," who uses "visual
ray," Par. Lost, iii. 620, "visual nerve" xi. 415, and "visual beam,"
Samson Agonistes, ver. 163; but none of these passages support Pope's
misapplication of the phrase "thick films" to rays of light.]

[Footnote 28: Isaiah xxxv. 5.--POPE. "_The ears of the deaf shall be
unstopped._"]

[Footnote 29: Isaiah xxxv. 6.--POPE. "_Then shall the lame man leap as
an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing._"]

[Footnote 30: I wonder Dr. Warton had not here pointed out the force and
the beauty of this most comprehensive and striking line.--BOWLES.]

[Footnote 31: The verse, as first published, stood

He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes,

which was from Milton's Lycidas, ver. 181:

And wipe the tears for ever from his eyes.

Steele having objected that Pope's line "in exalted and poetical spirit"
was below the original, Isaiah xxv. 8,--"_The Lord God will wipe away
tears from off all faces_,"--the poet altered his text without, perhaps,
either injuring or improving it.]

[Footnote 32: Isaiah xxv. 8.--POPE. "_He will swallow up death in
victory._"

The meaning of the original has been missed by Pope. The promise was not
that men should cease to die, which would be the ease if Death was
"bound in adamantine chains," but that death should lose its terrors
through "the life and immortality brought to light by the gospel," and
be welcomed as the passport to a blissful eternity.]

[Footnote 33: "He" is redundant.--WARTON.]

[Footnote 34: Isaiah xl. 11.--POPE. "_He shall feed his flock like a
shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his
bosom._"]

[Footnote 35: He was betrayed into a little impropriety here, by not
being aware that the "bosom," in classic use, commonly means t