Star.
London, England, 1829-10-06 00:00:00

LITERARY COINCIDENCES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR.
Si R—Your Paper of this evening contains an article,
quoted from a Morning Pr and bearing the some-
what indefinite title of " Coincidences,", in which some
passages are selected as examples worthy of that qualified
designation ; many of which, in my humble judgment,
would justify even a severer term of censure. Of the
instances, thus pointed out, there are two, which admit
of much more forcible illustration than is supplied in the
passages which the author of that brief essay has cited:
and which I now offer to the notice of your Readers:
es Thy image steals between my GOD and me."
Pon. Reim se 411derd.
Ces traits, gibers et airmails jot tosjours je revel,
Se snoetrent dans man lase entre le del et Ind."
Vovrans. Zaire. 4.4, k. 3.
" I peythee thew me her grave who stood
My ban sad heaven between."
Dun. 21 freight's Boungs.
In these instances, the thought and " form of expres-
sion" are so precisely similar, as to warrant the suspicion
of plagiarist;—and they are scarcely less analogous in
the followmg :
4. When in the Holy Land I pray'd, ev'n at the Holy Grave,
(Forgive me God 1) a sigh fer sin, and three for love I gave."
WARDER.
" Spine the Sera Arabisn, I the Soldsn's pay did take,
When oft at onset. for " Saint Geosge." " Saint Brame I Rake
WAIIIIII4

se Not en the Crow ray sees were
Pon. Mats go Ward.
The passage selected from MILTON, had its inter-
mediate prototype in Cow LLY ;
" His spear, to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills, to be the mast
Of some great animal, were but a wand,
He walk'd
Mums. Per. La. B. 1.
" His spear the trunk was of a lofty tree
Which Nature meant some tall ships mast amid be."
Cowurr. Goiisk Darikis•
My attention having been thus unexpectedly called to
the subject, I cannot close my notice of it, without
adding a few more illustrations from my own Common-
place Book, in which, however, they are registered
under the less scrupulous title f " Plagiarisms and
Parallel Passages of the Poets."—
" Now for as much as I was once an angell of light
it was the will of wisedome to confine me in darknee, and
to create mee Prince thereof ; that so I that could not
obey in Heaven might command in Hell. And, believe
me, Sir, I had rather controule within my dark diocese,
than to re-inhabite ccelum empyrium, and there live in
subjection under check.

STAFFORD'S Niobe.
Change God fog eaten, heaven's for bell's sovereign,
Oh let him soar in hell, who gems in heaven to reign.
To be in heaven the second be disdains,
So now the first in bell, in lamese reigns.
P. h
FLvicusa. illpaihjvnins.
In Haven they scoro'd to serve, so now in Hell they reign.
P. ?Lemma. Purple Island, Canlavii. v. s.
.--- in my choice
To reign Is worth ambition, though in Hell :
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
hluerote. Perna*, Lod, 5. 3.
Better to rule in Hell, than serve in Heaven.
Dar ums. Bass f Insweesice.

•
"Virtue is like precious odours, most fragrant when they
are incensed, or crushed ; for prosperity doth best dis-
cover vices, but adversity doth best discover virtue
ACON."
LORD B.
"Thus virtue's palms, oppressed, mount the more :
' • And spices bulled. smell sweeter than before."
Dedication to Ss THII.ILiS
SNIT., VDU BASTA., Aim amid iota.
As camomile, the more you tread it down,
The more It sprints; Those despightfully
Used, doth use the more to fructibe."
R. R. in commendeOwsV
&Loonies De IlLams.
And trodden weeds send out a rich perfume."
Assam

Dot thou wilt heal that broken heart,
Which, like the plants that throw
Their fragrance from the wounded part,
Breathes sweetness out of
wean. Owed amp.
" Poets were a timid and sensitive race, whose sweetness was
not to be drawn forth, like that of the fragrant grass near the
Ganges, by crashing and trampling upon the
T. Moose. Lao Beak.
One more example must suffice for the present :
is Proms, the commentator apse Plato, says of Cridas, one of
te lesbof Socrates, that " be had frequented the Assembly of
, yet so as to be reckoned a novice amongst philoso-
phise, and a philosopher amongst novices."
" A wit with dances, and a dunce with wits."
Pore. Dunciad, B. 4.
" A Lord amongst wits, and a wit amongst Lords."
Da. Jonsson, on Lord Ckesierjkl4.
With wits a fool, with fools a wit."
Cnoacnit.t. Monist,
" A fool with judges, amongst fools a judge."
Cows. Oessersatims.
WALpoLz, in his Royal and Noble Anther:, has this
" Henry Howard, Earl of Northampton, younger son of the
moss Hari of Surrey, was said to be the learnedat smog the
Many, and the most noble among the learned.' "
Justly has BYRON said—
" A poet had better borrow any thing (excepting money) o d
the thoughts of another—they are always sure to be reciainue'
Sep 5, 1816. FADLA DSO.