"Nil mutum Natura dedit: non aëris ales
Quadrupedesve silent," &c.
should be compared with the celebrated stanza of Spenser's _Faerie Queen_
(book ii. canto xii. st. 71.), beginning with
"The joyous birds shrouded in cheareful shade;"
and with D'Israeli's animated defence, in his _Amenities_ (vol. ii. p.
395.) of these charming verses against the [Greek: plêmmelês] and
tasteless, the anti-poetical and technical, criticism of Twining, in his
first _Dissertation on Poetical and Musical Imitation_.