Page:The Works of Abraham Cowley - volume 1 (ed. Aikin) (1806).djvu/83

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After such enthusiasm, who will not lament to find the poet conclude with lines like these!

The fault of Cowley, and perhaps of all the writers of the metaphysical race, is that of pursuing his thoughts to the 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