For what Reason has this Passage been always praised by the Criticks?
'Tis because the Figure is in itself beautiful and pathetick, but they
did not examine into the Congruity and Bottom of the Thought.

I return to my Paradox--That all these shining Strokes, to which they
give the Name of Wit, never ought to be introduced into great Works
made to instruct or to move; I'll even say they ought not to be found
in Odes for Musick. Musick expresses Passions, Sentiments and Images:
but what are the Concords that can be giv'n an Epigram? _Dryden_ was
sometimes negligent, but he was always natural.

In a Sermon of Doctor _South_, where he speaks of Man's Rectitude and
Freedom from Sin before the Fall, are seen these Words:

"We were not born crooked, we learnt these Windings and
Turnings of the Serpent."

I remember to have heard this Passage admired by several People: but
who does not see that the Motions, _viz._ the Windings and Turnings of
the Serpent's Body are here confounded with those of its Heart: and
that at best, 'tis but a mere Point and Pleasantry.

Certainly there's a great Impropriety in putting any kind of Smartness
into Pieces of such a Nature as Dr. _South_'s; but what is still
worse, we generally find these Smartnesses to be quite vague and
superficial; they don't enter, but only play upon the Surface of the
Soul.

Had a certain polite Author been a Cotemporary of the
Doctor's, he'd have told him that