to our language, is evidently true, not because monofyllables cannot compofe harmony, but because our monofyllables being of Teutonick original, or formed by contraction, commonly begin and end with consonants, as, -Every lower faculty Of fenfe, whereby they hear, fee, fmell, touch, tafie. The difference of harmony arifing principally from the collocation of vowels and confonants, will be fufficiently conceived by attending to the following paffages: Immortal Amarant-there grows And flow'rs aloft, fhading the fount of life, The fame comparison that I propose to be made between the fourth and fixth verfes of this paffage, may be repeated between the laft lines of the following quotations: Under foot the violet, Crocus, and hyacinth, with rich in-lay Here in clofe recefs, With flowers, garlands, and fweet-fmelling herbs, Milton, whofe ear had been accustomed, not only to the mufick of the ancient tongues, which, how ever vitiated by our pronunciation, excel all that are now in ufe, but to the foftness of the Italian, the moft melifluous of all modern poetry, feems fully convinced of the unfitnefs of our language for fmooth verfification, and is therefore pleafed with an opportunity of calling in a fofter word to his affiftance; for this reafon, and I believe for this only, he fometimes indulges himself in a long series of proper names, and introduces them where they add little but mufick to his poem. -The richer feat Of Atabalipa, and yet unfpoil'd The moon The Tufcan artift views He has indeed been more attentive to his fyllables than to his accents, and does not often offend by collifions of confonants, or openings of vowels upon each other, at least not more often than other writers who have had lefs important or complicated fubjects to take off their care from the cadence of their lines. The great peculiarity of Milton's verfification, compared with that of later poets, is the elifion of one vowel before another, or the fuppreffion of the laft fyllable of a word ending with a vowel, when a vowel begins the following word. As Knowlege Oppreffes elfe with furfeit, and foon turns This licence, though now difufed in English poetry, was practifed by our old writers, and is allowed in many other languages ancient and modern, and therefore the criticks on Paradife Loft have, without much deliberation, commended Milton, for continuing it. But one language cannot communicate its rules to another. We have already tried and rejected the hexameter of the ancients, the double clofe of the Italians, and the alexandrine of the French; and the elifion of vowels, however graceful it may feem to other nations, may be very unfuitable to the genius of the English tongue.. There is reafon to believe that we have negligently loft part of our vowels, and that the filent e which our ancestors added to moft of our monofyllables, was once vocal. By this detruncation of our fyllables, our language is overflocked with confonants, and it is more neceffary to add vowels to the beginning of words, than to cut them off from the end. Milton therefore feems to have fomewhat miftaken the nature of our language, of which the chief defect is ruggedness and afperity, and has left our harsh cadences yet harfher. But his elifions are not all equally to be cenfured; in fome fyllables they may be allowed, and perhaps in a few may be fafely imitated. The abfciffion of a vowel is undoubtedly vicious when it is ftrongly founded, and makes, with its affociate confonant, a full and audible fyllable -What he gives, Spiritual, may to pureft fpirits be found, No ingrateful food, and food alike thefe pure Fruits, Fruits,-Hefperian fables true, If true, here only, and of delicious taste. -Evening now approach'd, For we have alfo our evening and our morn. And vital Virtue infus'd, and vital warmth God made thee of choice his own, and of his own To ferve him. I believe every reader will agree, that in all those paffages, though not equally in all, the mufick is injured, and in fome the meaning obfcured. There are other lines in which the vowel is cut off, but it is fo faintly pronounced in common fpeech, that the lofs of it in poety is fcarcely perceived; and therefore fuch compliance with the measure may be allowed. Nature breeds Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things, -From the fhore They view'd the vast immensurable abyss. To none communicable in earth or heav'n. Yet even these contractions encrease the roughnefs of a language too rough already; and though in long poems they may be fometimes fuffered, it never can be faulty to forbear them. K 4 Milton Milton frequently ufes in his poems the hypermetrical or redundant line of eleven fyllables. -Thus it fhall befall Him who to worth in woman over-trufting Lets her will rule I also err'd in over-much admiring. Verfes of this kind occur almost in every page; but though they are not unpleafing or diffonant, they ought not to be admitted into heroick poetry, fince the narrow limits of our language allow us no other diftinction of epick and tragick meafures, than is afforded by the liberty of changing at will the terminations of the dramatick lines, and bringing them by that relaxation of metrical rigour nearer to profe. L NUMB. 89. TUESDAY, January 22, 1751. Dulce eft defipere in loco. Wisdom at proper times is well forgot. HOR. OCKE, whom there is no reafon to fufpect of being a favourer of idlenefs or libertinifm, has advanced, that whoever hopes to employ any, part of his time with efficacy and vigour, muft allow fome of it to pafs in trifles. It is beyond the powers of humanity to spend a whole life in profound study , and intense meditation, and the moft rigorous exacters of industry and seriousness have appointed hours for relaxation and amusement. It is certain, that, with or without our confent, many of the few moments allotted us will flide |