In things apparently unlike. Of wit, thus defined, they have more than enough. From this account of their compositions it will be readily inferred that they were not successful in representing or moving the affections. Their courtship was void of fondness and their lamentation of sorrow. Their wish was only to say what they hoped had been never said before.
Sublimity is produced by aggregation, and littleness by dispersion.
Great thoughts are always general, and consist in positions not limited by exceptions, and in descriptions not descending to minuteness. To write on their plan it was at least necessary to read and think. No man could be born a metaphysical poet, nor assume the dignity of a writer by descriptions copied from descriptions, by imitations borrowed from imitations, by traditional imagery and hereditary similes, by readiness of rhyme and volubility of syllables. The Norton Anthology of English Literature . A philosophical theory which has entered into poetry is established, for its truth or falsity in one sense ceases to matter, and its truth in another sense is proved.