CHAP. I. ranged, intelligible; and, in these, all the polished languages of modern Europe are defective: wherefore it is impossible that they Perception. Of improved should ever rival those of the Greeks and As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends, says Macbeth, when agitated by remorse and K iisdem СНАР. Of improved who wrote from feeling, has many happy instances of the same kind; as me of my lawful pleasure, she bereft, &c. ;" but Milton, and other epic and moral writers in blank verse, who viewed nature through the medium of books, and wrote from the head rather than the heart, have often employed this inverted order merely to stiffen their diction, and keep it out of prose; an artifice, of all others, the most adverse to the genuine purposes of a metrical or poetical style; which, though known to be the result of study and labour, should always appear to flow from inspiration. In matters of taste, it is of little importance what the understanding knows by inference or analogy; but it is different with what the imagination perceives by immediate impression. 34. The pleasure, which we receive from verse, in light or didactic compositions; or such as are not capable of exciting or sustaining enthusiasm, arises from the charms of neatness, point, and emphasis; all of which are improved and invigorated by the regularity of a metrical style, which facilitates the flow of utterance, and directs and fixes the attention to the particular idea, which the author wishes to impress most strongly. By these means, as well as by the periodical recurrence iisdem verbis stante sententia, ad nihilum omnia recident, cum sint ex aptis dissoluta."-Cic. Orator. CHAP. I. of similar quantities or modifications of sound, it also greatly facilitates remembrance; and Of improved to facilitate remembrance seems to have been Perception. the original use and purpose of verse: whence the muses were fabled to be the daughters of memory; and the oldest metrical writer extant addresses his most earnest and emphatical prayer to them, not to obtain their inspiration in developing the counsels of the gods, or in relating the actions of Diomede or Achilles, but to procure their assistance in compiling the catalogue of the Grecian army. 35. In the accentual pronunciation of the different languages of modern Europe, each pronounces the Greek and Latin words accordingly as words of the same number of syllables are usually pronounced in their own respective languages. Thus an Englishman pronounces the first syllable of the verb cano, and of the adjective canus, equally long; and a Frenchman, equally short; though it be invariably long in the latter, and invariably short in the former. In conformity to the idiom of our own language, we also arbitrarily alter the quantity of the first syllable of a word, when another is added to the end of it; as in virum and virus; which are always pronounced as trochees; while virumque and virusque are as invariably turned into amphibrachys. The first СНАР. Of improved syllable of the one is, however, uniformly short, and of the other, uniformly long. 36. But notwithstanding these violations of quantity, which all the nations of Europe commit, in different modes and degrees; each finds melody in the verses of the Greek and Latin poets, when pronounced after its own fashion; and the ears of each are equally offended at hearing them pronounced after any other fashion. This alone, were there no other instance, abundantly proves the great influence of habit and imagination, and the little influence of sensation, in matters of this kind. All agree in fixing a pause at the end of the line or stanza; and in giving it a regularly marked termination of some kind or other; and this instantly constitutes verse, which each nation puts into tune according to the particular habitual pronunciation of its own language; and with this tune or mode of reading, be it ever so anomalous, all, who speak that language, are satisfied, and even delighted. Every deviation from it, though strictly according to the laws of metre, offends them; because, when their own pronunciation has been familiarized, and, as it were, naturalized, to their ears, every other sounds foreign, and consequently ridiculous, upon a principle, that will be explained, when we come to treat of ridicule. 37. As each of these various modes of read CHAP. I. ing preserves the character of verse, though Of improved all in different ways, and all differing from the Perception. metrical laws of the original language, that character may nevertheless be capable of answering its purposes, both in maintaining the character of enthusiasm by giving an uniform exaltation to the style above that of common speech, and in enhancing the charms of point, neatness, and emphasis, in compositions of another kind. Where the sense of the lines is vigorous and impassioned; and strongly expressive of enthusiasm and inspiration, we naturally endeavour to recite them with a correspondent tone of utterance; and how anomalous soever the particular divisions of it may be, the general flow will be sufficiently maintained, by the effort itself, to preserve the character and spirit of poetry. To pretend that the ear is more delighted with the versification of Virgil than with that of Manilius, when every principle of metre is violated in the pronunciation, may seem like affectation: but, nevertheless, the glowing animated sense and polished periods of the one will inspire the reader with a flow and facility in his tone of utterance, which the other can never obtain ; and thus dupe the ear through the medium of the imagination. Hence I have known persons really and sincerely delighted with the |