fort of independent existence, by interjecting a pause between it and its fubftantive. I cannot therefore approve the following lines, nor any of the fort ; fog to my taste they are harsh and unpleasant,

Of thousand bright l inhabitants of air

Th Spritus of fiery i termagants infiaine
The ret, his many-col urdrobe conceal'd
The same, his ancient ! przfin.ge to deck
Ev'n here, where frozen | Chastity retires
I fil, with fad civility, I read
Pak to my rative | moderation Aide
Or thall we ev'ry || decency confound
Tinue was, a sober | English man would knock
And place, on good || security, his gold
Taste, that eternal l wanderer, which flies
But ere the tenth || revolving day was run
First let the just || equivalent be paid.
Go, threat thy earth-born | Myriniduns; but here
Hale to the fierce || Achilles' tent (he crics)
All but the ever wakefull eves of Jove
Your own resistless | eloquence employ

I have upon this article multiplied examples, that in a case where I have the misfortune to dislike what passes current in practice, every man upon the spot may judge by his own taste. And to taste I appeal ; for though the foregoing reasoning appears to me juit, it is however too subtile to afford conviction in opposition to taste,

Considering this matter superficially, one might be apt to imagine, that it must be the same, whether the adjective go firit, which is the natural order, or the substantive, which is indulged by the laws of inversion. But we foon discover this to be a miitake : colour, for example, cannot be conceived independent of the surface coloured ; but a tree may be conceived, as growing in a certain spot, as of a certain kind, and as spreading its extended branches all

around, without ever thinking of its colour. In a word, a subject may be confidered with some of its qualities independent of others ; though we cannot form an image of any single quality independent of the subject. Thus then, though an adjective name! first be inseparable from the substantive, the propo)sition does not reciprocate : an image can be forned of the substantive independent of the adjective ; and for that reason they may be separated by a paule, when the substantive takes the lead.

For thee the fates || severely kind ordain

And curs'd with hearts || unknowing how to yield. The verb and adverb are precisely in the same condition with the fubftantive and adjective. An adverb, which modifies the action expressed by the verb, is not feparable from the verb even in imagination : and therefore I must also give up the follow, ing lines ;

And which it much is becomes you to forget

'Tis one thing madly Il to disperse my store.
But an action may be conceived with some of its miod-
ifications, leaving out others; precisely as a subject
may be conceived with some of its qualities, leaving
out others : and therefore, when by inverfion the
verb is first introduced, it has no bad effect to inter-
ject a pause between it and the adverb that follows.
This may be done at the clofe of a line, where the
pause is at least as full as that is which divides the line :

While yet he spoke, the Prince advancing drew
Nigh to the lodge, &c.

The agent and its action come next, expressed in grammar by the active substantive and its verb. Be. tween these, placed in their natural order, there is no difficulty of interjecting a pause : an active being is not always in motion, and therefore it is easily separable in idea from its action : when in a sentence the substantive takes the lead, we know not that action is to follow ; and as reit must precede the commencement of motion, this interval is a proper opportunity for a pause.

But when by inversion the verb is placed first, is it lawful to separate it by a pause from the active subítantive? I answer, No: because an action is not an idea separable from the agent, more than a quality from the subject to which it belongs. Two lines of the irit rate for beauty, have always appeared to me exce; tionable, upon account of the pause thus interjected between the verb and the consequent fubitantive ; and I have now discovered a reason to support

my tate:

Ir these deep solitudes and awful cells,
Where heav'nly-pensive || Conteniplation dwells,

And ever-musing | Melancholy reigns. Tile point of the greatest delicacy regards the active verb and the passive substantive placed in their natural order. On the one hand, it will be observed, that these words fignify things which are not separable id idea. Killing cannot be conceived without a being that is put to death, nor painting without a surface upon which the colours are spread. On the other hand, an action and the thing on which it is exerted, are not, like subject and quality, uvited in one individual object : the active subitantive is perfect's distinct from that which is pallive; and they are Connected by one circumstance only, that the adio of the former is exerted upon the latter. This makes it poflible to take the action to pieces, and to

consider it first with relation to the agent, and nex'
with relation to the patient. But after all, so inti
mately connected are the paris of the thought, thai
it requires an effort to make a separation even for a
moment: the fubtililing to such a degree is not agree.
able, especially in works of imagination. The best
poets, however, taking a lvantage of this subtilty,
fcruple not to separate by a pause an active verb froin
the thing upon which it is exerted. Such pauses in
a long work may be indulced ; but taken fingly,
they certainly are not agreeable; and I appeal to the
following examples :

The peer now spreads! the glit'ring forfx wide
As ever fully'll the fair tace of lint
Repair'd to learn the gloomy Cave of Spleen
Nothing, to mak: 1 Psilofophy ily friend
Shou'd nie to niak 1 he well-droli?:abslc stare
Or cr. f, 10 plun!er il provinces, the main
These madın 11 ever hurt the church or itate
How thall we fill || a library with wit
Wha: better teach a foreigner the tongtie
Sure, if I fpira | the miniller, no rules
Of honour bind ine, not to maul his tools.

11

On the other hand, when the pailive substantive is by inversion first named, there is no difficulty of interjecting a pause between it and the verb, more than when the active substantive is tirit named. The fame reason holds in both, that though a verb cannot be separated in idea from the fubftantive which gorerns it, and scarcely from the substantive it governs ; yet a substantive may always be conceived indcpen. dent of the verb : when the paffive fubftantive is introduced before the verb, we know noi that an action is to be exerted upon it ; therciore we may rest till the aélion commences. For the sake of illus. tration taks the following examples :

Slirines !

Shrines ! where there vigils | pale-ey'd virgins keep
Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose

No happier task these faded eyes pursue. What is said about the pause, leads to a general observation, That the natural order of placing the active substantive and its verb, is more friendly to a pause than the inverted order ; but that in all the other connections, inversion affords a far better opportunity for a pause. And hence one great advan. tage of blank verse over rhyme; its privilege of in. version giving it a much greater choice of pauses than can be had in the natural order of arrange. ment.

We now proceed to the flighter connections, which · shall be discussed in one general article. Words con.

nected by conjunctions and prepositions admit freely a pause between them, which will be clear from the following instances :

Allume what sexes || and what shape they please
The light militia ll of the lower sky

Connecting particles were invented to unite in a pe. riod two substances fignifying things occasionally united in the thought, but which have no natural union: and betw.cen two things not only separable in idea, but really distinct, the mind, for the sake of mel. ody cheerfully admits by a pause a momentary difjunction of their occasional union.

One capital branch of the subject is still upon hand, to which I am directed by what is just now said. It concerns thofe parts of speech which singly represent no idea, and which become not fignificant till they be joined to other words. I mean conjunctions, prepositions, articles and such like accessories,

pafling