"As Poetry delights in cloathing abstracted Ideas in Allegories and sensible Images, we find a magnificent Description of the Creation form'd after the same manner in one of the Prophets, wherein he describes the Almighty Architect as measuring the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand, meting out the Heavens with his Span, comprehending the Dust of the Earth in a Measure, weighing the Mountains in Scales, and the Hills in a Balance."
Spectator, No. 339
At least 80 entries in ESTC (1711, 1712, 1713, 1714, 1715, 1716, 1717, 1718, 1720, 1721, 1723, 1724, 1726, 1729, 1733, 1734, 1735, 1737, 1738, 1744, 1745, 1747, 1748, 1749, 1750, 1753, 1754, 1755, 1756, 1756, 1757, 1761, 1763, 1765, 1766, 1767, 1769, 1771, 1776, 1778, 1785, 1788, 1789, 1781, 1793, 1797, 1799, 1800).<br>
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By Steele, Addison, Budgell and others, <u>The Spectator</u> (London: Printed for Sam. Buckley, at the Dolphin in Little Britain; and sold by A[nn]. Baldwin in Warwick-Lane, 1711-1714). &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/P1724">Link to ESTC</a>&gt; -- No. 1 (Thursday, March 1. 1711) through No. 555 (Saturday, December 6. 1712); 2nd series, No. 556 (Friday, June 18. 1714), ceased with No. 635 (20 Dec. 1714).<br>
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Some text from <u>The Spectator</u>, 3 vols. Ed. Henry Morley (London: George Routledge, 1891). &lt;<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12030/12030-h/12030-h/12030-h.htm">Link to PGDP edition</a>&gt;<br><br>
Reading in Donald Bond's edition: <u>The Spectator</u>, 5 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965).