nious as can poffibly be written, and that in rhymed Verse also they are used, without detracting in the leaft from its Melodioufnefs. In proof of these Affertions, he produces a Variety of Examples from Paradife Loft, with refpect to the firft, and from Pitt's English Tranflation of the first Æneid, with regard to the Second. Harmony, our Author fays, confifts in mixing rough and smooth, foft and harfh Sounds. There are Monofyllables of all thefe Sorts; and, by a jus dicious Mixture of them, as he fhews, Harmony may be promoted, rather than destroy'd. But there is another Account, on which Monofyllables are likewife of great Confequence. The Strength of the English Language is greatly owing to them: For, as he adds, it is principally obliged to them for its Concifenefs; and Concifeness is Strength. Now Conciseness is not only to express ourselves in as few Words as we can, but the Excellency of the Language fhews itself if those few Words are compofed of few Syllables. And herein, upon Examination, the Strength of the English Tongue will be found to lie; and for this Cause it may be faid to be more concife than the Latin As this is a Doctrine very different from the Notion commonly conceived of this Matter, the Reader will not be displeased if I recite what the Author of it has offered in its Confirmation. The Truth of what he has advanced will appear, he fays, if Virgil is turned into English Verfe. Of this he gives feveral Examples. It fhall fuffice here to quote one of them: "ubi tot Simois correpta fub undas "Scuta Virúm, Galeafq; & fortia Corpora Volvit. "Where Simois Streams, incumber'd with the Slain, "Roll'd Shields, and Helms, and Heroes to the Main Pitt's First Æneid. Το To discover which of thefe two Paffages is the moft concife, it is not fufficient, he fays, to fhew that there are two whole English Lines, and but one Line and three Parts of another in the Latin. "Latin and English Lines cannot be compared together, because in a Latin Line there are fix "Feet, and in an English Line but five. Again, "in Latin Verfe there must be in every line one "Foot of three Syllables, often three or four, or " even five Feet of three Syllables, and fometimes "four or five Syllables in one Foot, whereas in an "English Line there is hardly ever more than "two Syllables in a Foot, fo that an English Verfe "cannot be compared with the Latin by the Line "or by the Foot, but only by the Syllables of "which the Words are compofed, which make "the Feet in both the Languages. The Bufinefs "then is to inquire whether we write or pronounce "more Syllables in the Latin or English Verfes "here quoted: Upon Inquiry it appears that there "are twenty-nine Syllables in the Latin, and but "twenty-one in the English; fo that the English is "almost one third Part lefs than the Latin; which 66 certainly fhews the former to be much more con"cife than the latter, there being nothing left out in "the English, but the whole Thought is rather more "fully expreffed: And this we fee is owing to Monofyllables, both Verbs and Nouns, Streams, "Shields, Slain, Roll'd, Helms, Main. Our Author Instances the fame thing in three other Paffages; the laft is two Lines of the Georgick, the English of which has the Property we are speaking of, although it wants the Advantage of being tranflated by fo good a Hand as Mr. Pitt's. In the Latin there are thirty Syllables, in the Verfion but twenty-one: So that the English is almoft one third concifer than that is; and at the fame time Virgil's Meaning is amply expre fed. "In fhort there "there is nothing throughout the Whole that is in "the leaft deficient in the Fulness of the Senfe, in "Majefty, or in Harmony of Numbers; but in "all these Qualities the Tranflation is equal to the "Original, and is fuperior to it in that which we << are here exprefly afferting. This Epiftle ends with an Extract from Mr. Ròner's Preface to his Melopeia Sacra, which fhews that learned Foreigner to have had the very fame Sentiments of the Advantage of Monofyllables to a Language, and particularly the English, as our Author is here defending. In the third Letter he enters upon a Comparison of Virgil's and Milton's Verfification; and here he has explained and demonstrated a Paradox, (as it will appear to the Majority of Readers) namely, that the principal Advantage Virgil has over Milton is Virgil's Rhyme. In comparing the Verfification of these two he begins with Virgil; and difplays fome of the principal Beauties of his Poetry in this respect. He has ranked them under the following Heads: ift, The continual Varying of the Paufe. 3d, The adapting of the Sound to the Senfe. 4th, The mixing of the fingular and plural Numbers. 5th, The giving Majefty and Strength to his Verfe, with the connecting Particles Que and Et. 6th, The Collocatio Verborum, or artful Way of placing Words. 7th, The Changing the common Pronunciation of Words. 8th, Verfes contrary to the common Measure. 9th, 10th, and 11th, His Alliteratio, Allufio Verborum, and Affonantia Syllabarum. Under each of these Topicks we find (as I have already hinted) fuch a Number of refined Obfer vations, vations, as are rarely met with in fo narrow a Compass as that into which our Author has reduced them. I will mention here and there a Particular. To begin with the firft of the foregoing Articles, The Varying of the Paufe. This Subject has occurred to our Author, as he tells us, in feveral Books; but fo obfcurely, that he fhou'd never from thence have apprehended throughly the Varying of the Pause in any Language, if he had not thought of an expedient to discover what is the common Pause in a Verfe, that each Language, whereof he had any Knowledge, naturally ftops at. To find out this, he confulted the middling fort of Poets, or the first Practicers in this Art: In this Inquiry (to ule his own Words) he obferved from Hefiod and Ennius, among the Greek and Latin Poets, and afterwards from Ovid, with relation to the latter, which he is now more immediately to speak of, that the common Pause or Stop in all Latin heroick Verfe (to fay nothing of the Greek which agrees with it in this refpect) is upon the first Syllable of the third Foot. This he exemplifies by the fifth and seven following Lines of the firft Book of the Metamorphofis. "Ante Mare & Tellus & quod tegit omnia,Cælum, "Unus erat toto | Nature Vultus in Orbe, 66 Quem dixere Chaos rudis indigeftaque Moles; "Nec quicquam, nifi Pondus, iners; | congeftaque eodem "Non bene Junitarum | difcordia Semina rerum. "Nullus adhuc Mundo præbebat lumina Titan; "Nec nova crefcendo | reparabat Cornua Phœbo; "Nec circumfufo pendebat in aere Tellus. All which are paufed in the fame Place, except one, (the fourth) and in this kind of Meafure the Mtamorphofis is generally written; from whence he collected the natural Paufe in the Latin Language F to to be as above-mention'd. He then confulted thebest Poem of the beft Latin Poet; which begins with thefe Lines: 66 "Quid faciat lætas Segetes, quo fydere Terram "Vertere, Mecenas, ulmifque adjungere Vites "Conveniat, quæ Cura Boum, qui Cultus habendo "Sit Pecori, Apibus quanta Experientia parcis, "Hinc Canere Incipiam. Our ingenious Author here Remarks, "That this great Master has artfully avoided the common "Pause till he comes to the fifth Line; and he af"fects to do it as much as poffible throughout the "whole Work; from whence arifes one of the most "material Differences in the Verfification of Ovid "and Virgil." It is for the Sake of this Circumftance, as he adds, that Virgil makes his broken Lines in the Eneid, which fufpend all Paufes thereby relieving the Ear, and fo qualifying it to attend with fresh Pleasure. I have quoted our Author entire upon this Point, and have made scarcely any Alteration in his Laṇguage; but I muft more briefly mention his following Obfervations: Indeed, with refpect to many of them, I can do no other, tho' I were to transcribe them verbatim. Those which relate to the fecond and third of the foregoing Heads, viz. The Inverfion of the Phrafe, and the Adapting the Sound to the Senfe, fill up the Remainder of this Epiftle. The former of thefe, as our Author fays, flings the Stile out of Profe, and occafions that Sufpence, which is the Life of Poetry. Of the Latter he has extracted many Instances from the Georgick and Eneid. In one Paffage, as he notes, the Verse labours, when strong heavy Land is to be ploughed! In another it moves nimbly, when the Turning over light Ground is reprefented! In one Line, a ponde rous |