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25. English verse arises from a limited and

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regulated distribution of accents and pauses, as of improved well as of quantities; and, as Pope has ob- Perception. served, in the heroic verse of ten syllables, a pause naturally falls upon the fourth, fifth, or sixth syllable; besides that at the end of every verse; which equally takes place in every kind of metre in every language; since, without it, the verse is only a distinct portion of measure to the eye, but not at all to the ear. Milton has, however, frequently no pause at the end of the verse, but occasionally upon every other syllable, from the first to the ninth; and this licence has been applauded, as adding endless variety to the harmony of his versification †. That it must add variety either to the harmony or dissonance of language, I admit: but the very essence of verse consists in the variety of its harmony not being endless, but being limited to the changes, that certain divisions of articulate sound, determinate in their quantities, regulated in their modes of utterance, and corresponding to, or succeeding each other, are capable of. Language may have more variety of cadence without these limitations or regulations; but then it will not be versified language, although it be duly and correctly measured out into lines of ten syllables each:

Fourth Letter to Walsh.

+ Webb on Poetry.

I.

CHAP. neither will it have that elastic energy and raOf improved pidity of movement, which give a character of Perception. enthusiasm; and, in fact, make it poetry *: for

it is this character of enthusiasm, that marks the poetical language of all nations; and to this a metrical division, strongly marked by limited pauses or accents, or similar terminations of the verses, as in the Greek and Latin hexametre, or English couplet, is certainly most appropriate.

26. The principle of harmony, as Dionysius of Halicarnassus has observed, is the same in prose as in verse; it consisting in certain arrangements of quantities, accents and pauses in both; which, in the one, are without limitation or restraint; but, in the other, are restricted by rules, and measured out into given portions; which succeed each other, either immediately, as in our heroic metre; alternately, as in our elegiac and lighter lyric; or after certain periods, as in our pindaric or graver lyric. It is possible that a person may prefer free and unrestrained language, in all cases, to that which is restricted to rule and measure; as it

* The critic above cited says, in praise of a line, that the breast actually labours to get through it. Dial. i. p. 46. To employ labour in writing may be a merit, if it be employed with taste; but to require labour in reading, is a species of ponderous excellence, that never yet found favour in the ears of any but a systematic critic.

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is possible that he may prefer ale to champagne; but let him not, therefore, hold up licence as Of improved the perfection of rule, or malt liquor as the Perception. only pure wine. Hall, Donne, Hobbes, and Crashaw are as licentious in their pauses as Milton; and distribute them, with the same irregularity, through the verse, from the first to the ninth syllable; and, if this licence be so exquisite a beauty, and add so much to harmony, their versification ought to be preferred to that of Dryden, Pope, or Goldsmith: but,. unfortunately, they have not deserved or acquired so great a name, in other respects, as Milton; and the authority of a name is a medium, through which critics of this class discover innumerable excellencies, which otherwise would have remained as imperceptible to them as to the rest of mankind. The great and transcendent merits of Milton's poetry may excuse even greater blemishes and defects than are to be found in it: but to hear these defects and blemishes, the stains of negligence and rust of antiquity, extolled and recommended as refinements of taste and artifice, cannot but excite the indignation of every writer, whose indignation is not stifled by contempt.

27. Poetry is the language of inspiration, and consequently of enthusiasm; and it appears to me that a methodical arrangement of

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Of improved

the sound into certain equal or corresponding portions, called verses, the terminations of Perception. which are distinctly marked to the ear; and the subdivisions or pauses of which are limited within certain bounds, is absolutely necessary to sustain that steady rapidity of utterance and exaltation above the ordinary tone of common speech; which can alone give a continued character of enthusiastic expression to any extensive composition. It is only by a constant preconception of what is to follow, that the poetical flow of utterance and elevation of tone care sustained: for unless the reader be generally apprised of what is to come, by what has gone before, he is like a person walking blindfolded over an uneven road; and knows as little how to modulate his voice, as such a person does how to regulate his steps: both march timidly, and consequently without vehemence or enthusiastic animation, in the just expression of which poetry consists; and to free it from metre and rhyme; restraints, with which, it has been said, that only the ignorance or necessities of a rude age have shackled it*, would be in fact to deprive it of its essence.

28. It is observed by Dr. Johnson, that the Paradise Lost is one of the books, which the reader admires and lays down, and forgets to

* See Alison's Essays on Taste, p. 318.

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take up again. None ever wished it longer than it is. Its perusal is a duty rather than Of improved a pleasure. We read Milton for instruction, Perception. retire harassed and over-burdened, and look elsewhere for recreation* ! If we dip into the Iliad, we are immediately borne along by the enthusiastic vehemence of the poet's diction, as it were by a torrent; and even in the Odyssey, the Eneid, or Jerusalem, we glide down the stream without labour or effort; but, in the Paradise Lost, we are perpetually tugging at the oar; and though we discover, at every turn, what fills us with astonishment and delight, the discovery is, nevertheless, a work of toil and exertion consequently we can only enjoy it, when the powers of attention are fresh and vigorous; no man ever flying to the Paradise Lost, as he does to the works of other great epic poets, as a refuge from lassitude or dejection. Yet surely the first and most essential merit of poetry is to be pleasing-to exhilarate and exalt the spirits by brilliant imagery and enthusiastic sentiment, rather than to overawe and depress by gloomy grandeur and sour morality.

"On peut être à la fois et pompeux et plaisant,

Et je hais un sublime ennuyeux et pesant."

29. This great defect, the want of the power to please and amuse, I cannot but think as

Life of Milton.

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