Note 235 — QUARRELS OF AUTHORS; (continued 2)
Reading edition
The line stood originally, and nearly literally copied from Isaiah—
“He wipes the tears for ever from our eyes;”
which Steele retouched, as it now stands—
“From every face he wipes off every tear.”
Dr. Warton prefers the rejected verse. The latter, he thinks, has too much of modern quaintness. The difficulty of choice lies between that naked simplicity which scarcely affects, and those strokes of art which are too apparent.