Page:The Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, Volume 1.djvu/59

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THEIR expressions sometimes raise horror, when they intend perhaps to be pathetic:

THEY were not always strictly curious, whether the opinions from which they drew their illustrations were true; it was enough that they were popular. Bacon remarks, that some falsehoods are continued by tradition, because they supply commodious allusions.

IN forming descriptions, they looked out not for images, but for conceits. Night has been a common subject, which poets have contended to adorn. Dryden's Night is well known; Donne's is as follows:

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