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paffing under the name of particles. Upon thefe the
queftion occurs, Whether, they can be feparated by
a paufe from the words that make them fignificant?
Whether, for example, in the following lines, the
feparation of the acceffory prepofition from the prin
cipal substantive be according to rule?

The goddess with a difcontented air
And heighten'd by the diamond's circling rays
When victims at yon altar's foot we lay
So take it in the very words of Creech
An enfign of the delegates of Jove

Two ages o'er his native realm he reign'd
I

While angels, with their filver wings o'erfhade.

Or the feparation of the conjunction from the word that is connected by it with the antecedent word:

Talthybius and Eurybates the good

It will be obvious at the first glance, that the fore going reafoning upon objects naturally connected, is not applicable to words which of themselves are mere ciphers: we must therefore have recourfe to fome other principle for folving the prefent question. Thefe particles out of their place are totally infignif icant to give them a meaning, they must be joined to certain words; and the neceffity of this junction, together with custom, forms an artificial connection that has a strong influence upon the mind: it cannot bear even a momentary feparation, which deftroys the fenfe, and is at the fame time contradictory to practice. Another circumftance tends ftill more to make this feparation difagreeable in lines of the first and third order, that it bars the accent, which will be explained afterward, in treating of the accent.

Hitherto

Hitherto upon that paufe only which divides the line. We proceed to the paufe that concludes the line; and the question is, Whether the fame rules be applicable to both? This must be answered by making a diftinction. In the first line of a couplet, the concluding paufe differs little, if at all, from the paufe that divides the line; and for that reason, the rules are applicable to both equally. The concluding paufe of the couplet is in a different condition: it refembles greatly the concluding paufe in an Hexameter line. Both of them indeed are fo remaikable, that they never can be graceful, unless where they accompany a paufe in the fenfe. Hence it fol lows, that a couplet ought always to be finished with fome clofe in the fenfe; if not a point, at least a comma. The truth is, that this rule is feldom tranfgreffed. In Pope's works, I find very few deviations from the rule. Take the following inftances:

Nothing is foreign parts relate to whole;
One ali-extending, all-preferving foul
Connects each being

Another :

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs,
To fteal from rainbows ere they drop in fhow'rs
A brighter wash

I add, with refpect to paufes in general, that fup. pofing the connection to be fo flender as to admit a paufe, it follows not that a paufe may in every fuch cafe be admitted. There is one rule to which every other ought to bend, That the fenfe muft never be wounded or obfcured by the mufic; and upon that account I condemn the following lines:

Ulyffes, firft in public cares, the found

And,

And,

Who rifing, high || th' imperial fceptre rais'd.

With refpect to inverfion, it appears, both from reafon and experiments, that many words which cannot bear a feparation in their natural order, admit a pause when inverted. And it may be added, that when two words, or two members of a sentence, in their natural order, can be feparated by a paufe, fuch feparation can never be amifs in an inverted order. An inverted period, which deviates from the natural train of ideas, requires to be marked in fome measure even by paufes in the fenfe, that the parts may be diftinctly known. Take the following examples:

As with cold lips I kifs'd the facred veil
With other beauties | charm my partial eyes
Full in my view | fet all the bright abode
With words like thefe | the troops Ulyifes rul'd
Back to th' affembly roll the thronging train
Not for their grief | the Grecian holt I blame.

The fame where the feparation is made at the clofe of the first line of the couplet :

For fpirits, freed from mortal laws, with eafe,
Affume what fexes and what thapes they pleafe.

The paufe is tolerable even at the clofe of the couplet, for the reafon juft now fuggefted, that inverted members require fome flight paule in the fenfe :

'Twas where the plane-tree fpreads its fhades around The altars heav'd; and from the crumbling ground A mighty dragon ihot.

Thus

Thus a train of reafoning hath infenfibly led us to conclufions with regard to the mufical pause, very different from thofe in the first fection, concerning the feparating by a circumftance words intimately connected. One would conjecture, that whereever words are feparable by interjecting a circumftance, they fhould be equally feparable by interjecting a paufe but upon a more narrow infpection, the appearance of analogy vaniflieth. This will be evident from confidering, that a paufe in the fense distinguishes the different members of a period from cach other; whereas, when two words of the fame member are separated by a circumstance, all the three make still but one member; and therefore that words may be feparated by an interjected circumftance, though thefe words are not feparated by a pause in the fenfe. This fets the matter in a clear light; for, as obferved above, a mufical paufe is intimately connected with a paufe in the fenfe, and bught, as far as poffible, to be governed by it: particularly a mufical paufe ought never to be placed where a pause is excluded by the fenfe; as, for example, between the adjective and following fubftantive, which make parts of the fame idea and ftill lefs between a particle and the word that makes it fignificant.

Abftracting at prefent from the peculiarity of melody arifing from the different paufes, it cannot fail to be obferved in general, that they introduce into our verfe no flight degree of variety. A number of uniform lines having all the fame paufe, are extremely fatiguing; which is remarkable in French verfification. This imperfection will be difcerned by a fine car even in the fhorteft fucceffion, and becomes intolerable in a long poem. Pope excels in the va→,

riety of his melody; which, if different kinds can be compared, is indeed no lefs perfect than that of Virgil. From what is laft faid, there ought to be one exception. Uniformity in the members of a thought demands equal uniformity in the verbal members which exprefs that thought. When therefore refembling objects or things are expreffed in a plurality of verfe-lines, thefe lines in their ftructure ought to be as uniform as poffible; and the pauses in particular ought all of them to have the fame place. Take the following examples :

By foreign hands || thy dying eyes were clos'd, By foreign hands thy decent limbs compos'd, By foreign hands | thy humble grave adorn'd. Again :

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Bright as the fun her eyes the gazers ftrike :
And, like the fun, they fhine on all alike.

Speaking of Nature, or the God of Nature:

Warms in the fun | refreshes in the breeze,
Glows in the ftars and bloffoms in the trees;
Lives through all life || extends through all extent,
Spreads undivided || operates unfpent.

Paufes will detain us longer than was forefeen; for the fubject is not yet exhaufted. It is laid down above, that English Heroic verfe admits no more but four capital pauses; and that the capital pause of every line is determined by the fenfe to be after the fourth, the fifth, the fixth, or feventh fyllable. That this doctrine holds true as far as melody alone is concerned, will be teftified by every good car. At the fame time, I admit, that this rule may be varied where

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