power of consulting his own mind in the midst of danger. The
rejection and contempt of fiction is rational and manly. It may be
observed that the last line is imitated by Pope:--

"Marlb'rough's exploits appear divinely bright--
Raised of themselves their genuine charms they boast,
And those that paint them truest, praise them most."

This Pope had in his thoughts, but, not knowing how to use what was
not his own, he spoiled the thought when he had borrowed it:--

"The well-sung woes shall soothe my pensive ghost;
He best can paint them who shall feel them most."

Martial exploits may be PAINTED; perhaps WOES may be PAINTED; but
they are surely not PAINTED by being WELL SUNG: it is not easy to
paint in song, or to sing in colours.

No passage in the "Campaign" has been more often mentioned than the
simile of the angel, which is said in the Tatler to be "one of the
noblest thoughts that ever entered into the heart of man," and is
therefore worthy of attentive consideration. Let it be first
inquired whether it be a simile. A poetical simile is the discovery
of likeness between two actions in their general nature dissimilar,
or of causes terminating by different operations in some resemblance
of effect. But the mention of another like consequence from a like
cause, or of a like performance by a like agency, is not a simile,
but an exemplification. It is not a simile to say that the Thames
waters fields, as the Po waters fields; or that as Hecla vomits
flames in Iceland, so AEtna vomits flames in Sicily. When Horace