Again, Steel could the works of mortal pride confound, And hew triumphal arches to the ground. Again, She fees, and trembles at th' approaching ill, Again, With carneft eyes, and round unthinking face, And this fuggefts another experiment, which is, to fet the different orders more directly in oppofition, by giving examples where they are mixed in the fame paffage. First and fecond orders. Sol through white curtains fhot a tim❜rous ray, Again, Not youthful kings in battle feiz'd alive, Not ancient ladies when refus'd a kiss, Not Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die, Firft and third. Think what an equipage thou haft in air, Again, What guards the purity of melting maids, Again, With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre, Again, Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around, Blue Neptune storms, the bellowing deeps refound, VOL. II. 3 I Earth Earth shakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way, And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day! Second and third. Sunk in Thalestris' arms, the nymph he found, Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound. Again, On her heav'd bofom hung her drooping head, 1 Mufing on the foregoing fubject, I begin to doubt whether I have not been all this while in a reverie, Here unexpectedly a fort of fairy-fcene opens, where every object is new and fingular. Is there any truth in the appearance, or is it merely a work of imagination? The scene seems to be a reality; and if it can bear examination, it must exalt greatly the melody of English heroic verfe. If uniformity prevail, in the arrangement, in the equality of the lines, and in the refemblance of the final founds; variety is ftill more conspicuous in the pauses and accents, ner. which are diverfified in a furprifing manThe beauty that refults from combined objects, is juftly obferved to confift in a due mixture of uniformity and variety*. Of this beauty many inftances have already occurred, but none more illustrious than English verfification. However rude it may be by the fimplicity of arrangement, it is highly melodious by its paufes and accents, fo as already to rival the most perfect fpecies known in Greece or Rome. And it is no difagreeable profpect to find it susceptible of still greater re finement. We proceed to blank verfe, which hath fo many circumftances in common with rhyme, that what is neceffary to be faid upon it may be brought within a narrow compafs. With refpect to form, it differs not from rhyme farther than in rejecting the jingle of fimilar founds. But let us not think this difference a trifle, or that we gain nothing by it but the purifying our * See chap. 9. 3 I 2 verfe verse from a pleasure so childish. In truth, our verse is extremely cramped by rhyme; and the great advantage of blank verfe is, that, being free from the fetters of rhyme, it is at liberty to attend the imagination in its boldest flights. Rhyme neceffarily divides verfe into couplets: each couplet makes a complete musical period; the the parts of which are divided by pauses, and the whole fummed up by a full close at the end the modulation begins anew with the next couplet: and in this manner a compofition in rhyme proceeds couplet after couplet. I have more than once had occa→ fion to obferve the influence that found and fenfe have upon each other by their intimate union. If a couplet be a complete period with regard to the melody, it ought regularly to be fo alfo with regard to the fenfe. This, it is true, proves too great a cramp upon compofition; and licences are indulged, as explained above. These however must be used with discretion, fo as to preferve fome degree of uniformity betwixt the fenfe and the music. There |