The tests propounded by MR. KEIGHTLEY (Vol. vii. p. 160.) with reference to
the authenticity of the poems of Rowley, namely the use of "its," and the
absence of the feminine rhyme in _e_, furnish additional proof, if any were
wanting, that Chatterton was the author of those extraordinary productions.
Another test often insisted upon is the occurrence, in those poems, of
borrowed thoughts--borrowed from poets of a date posterior to that of their
pretended origin. Of this there is one instance which seems to have escaped
the notice of Chatterton's numerous annotators. It occurs at the
commencement of _The Tournament_, in the line,--
"The _worlde_ bie _diffraunce_ ys ynn _orderr_ founde."
It will be seen that this line, a very remarkable one, has been cleverly
condensed from the following passage in Pope's _Windsor Forest_:--
"But as the _world_, harmoniously confused,
Where _order_ in variety we see;
And where, tho' all things _differ_, all agree."
This sentiment has been repeated by other modern writers. Pope himself has
it in the _Essay on Man_, in this form,--
"The lights and shades, whose well-accorded strife
Gives all the strength and colour of our life."
It occurs in one of Pascal's _Pensees_:
"J'ecrirai ici mes pensees sans ordre, et non pas peut-etre dans une
confusion sans dessein: C'est le veritable ordre, et qui marquera
toujours mon objet par le desordre meme."