The fault of Cowley, and perhaps of all the writers of the
metaphysical race, is that of pursuing his thoughts to their last
ramifications, by which he loses the grandeur of generality; for of
the greatest things the parts are little; what is little can be but
pretty, and by claiming dignity becomes ridiculous. Thus all the
power of description is destroyed by a scrupulous enumeration, and
the force of metaphors is lost, when the mind by the mention of
particulars is turned more upon the original than the secondary
sense, more upon that from which the illustration is drawn than that
to which it is applied.

Of this we have a very eminent example in the ode entitled the
"Muse," who goes to "take the air" in an intellectual chariot, to
which he harnesses Fancy and Judgment, Wit and Eloquence, Memory and
Invention; how he distinguished Wit from Fancy, or how Memory could
properly contribute to Motion, he has not explained: we are however
content to suppose that he could have justified his own fiction, and
wish to see the Muse begin her career; but there is yet more to be
done.


Let the POSTILLION Nature mount, and let
The COACHMAN Art be set;
And let the airy FOOTMEN, running all beside,
Make a long row of goodly pride;
Figures, conceits, raptures, and sentences,
In a well-worded dress,
And innocent loves, and pleasant truths, and useful lies,
In all their gaudy LIVERIES.