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By voice or hand; and various-meafur'd verfe."

Par. Reg. B. iv. 255.

ONE of the ancients has obferved, that the burthen of government is encreafed upon princes by the virtues of their immediate predeceffours. It is, indeed, always dangerous to be placed in a ftate of unavoidable comparison with excellence; and the danger is ftill greater when that excellence is confecrated by death, when envy and interest cease to act against it, and those paffions by which it was at firft vilified and oppofed now ftand in its

a Dr. Warton is jufly furprifed, that Pope fhould notice two great mafters of VERSIFICATION, Waller and Dryden, and yet omit the name of Milton. "What! did Milton contribute nothing to the harmony and extent of our language?-Surely his verfes vary and refound as much, and difplay as much majesty and energy, as any that can be found in Dryden." See Effay on Pope, vol. ii. p. 351, edit. 1782. I fhall enlarge thefe remarks of Dr. Johnson by occafionally introducing other opinions refpecting MILTON'S VERSIFICATION; together with various proofs, that the poet's " skill in harmony was not less than his invention or his learning." TODD.

defence, and turn their vehemence against honeft emulation.

He, that fucceeds a celebrated writer, has the fame difficulties to encounter: He ftands under the fhade of exalted merit, and is hindered from rifing to his natural height, by the interception of those beams which fhould invigorate and quicken him. He applies to that attention which is already engaged, and unwilling to be drawn off from certain fatisfaction; or perhaps to an attention already wearied, and not to be recalled to the fame object. One of the old poets congratulates himfelf that he has the untrodden regions of Parnaffus before him, and that his garland will be gathered from plantations which no writer had yet culled. But the imitator treads a beaten walk; and, with all his diligence, can only hope to find a few flowers or branches untouched by his predeceffour; the refufe of contempt, or the omiflions of negligence. The Macedonian conquerour, when he was once invited to hear a man that fung like a nightingale, replied with contempt, that he had heard the nightingale herfelf; and the fame treatment must every man expect, whofe praife is, that he imitates another.

Yet, in the midft of thefe difcouraging reflections, I am about to offer to the reader fome obfervations upon Paradife Loft; and hope, that, however I may fall below the illuftrious writer who has fo long dictated to the commonwealth of learning, my attempt may not be wholly ufelefs. There are, in every age, new errours to be rectified, and new prejudices to be oppofed. Falfe tafte is alfo bufy

to mislead those that are entering upon the regions of learning; and the traveller, uncertain of his way, and forfaken by the fun, will be pleafed to fee a fainter orb arife on the horizon, that may refcue him from total darknefs, though with weak and borrowed luftre.

Addifon, though he has confidered this Poem under moft of the general topicks of criticifm, has barely touched upon the VERSIFICATION; not probably because he thought the art of numbers unworthy of his notice, for he knew with how minute attention the ancient criticks confidered the difpofition of fyllables, and had himself given hopes of fome metrical obfervations upon the great Roman poet; but being the firft who undertook to difplay the beauties, and point out the defects, of Milton, he had many objects at once before him, and paffed willingly over thofe which were moft barren of ideas, and required labour rather than genius.

Yet verfification, or the art of modulating his numbers, is indifpenfably neceffary to a poct. Every other power by which the understanding is enlightened, or the imagination enchanted, may be exercifed in profe. But the poet has this peculiar fuperiority, that, to all the powers which the perfection of every other compofition can require, he adds the faculty of joining mufick with reason, and of acting at once upon the fenfes and the paffions. I fuppofe there are few who do not feel themselves touched by poetical melody, and who will not confefs that they are more or lefs moved by the fame thoughts, as they are conveyed by different

founds; and more affected by the fame words in one order, than in another. The perception of harmony is indeed conferred upon men in degrees very unequal; but there are none who do not perceive it, or to whom a regular feries of proportionate founds cannot give delight.

In treating ON THE VERSIFICATION OF MILTON, I am defirous to be generally understood, and shall therefore ftudiously decline the dialect of grammarians; though, indeed, it is always difficult, and fometimes fcarcely poffible, to deliver the precepts of an art without the terms by which the peculiar ideas of that art are expreffed, and which had not been invented but becaufe the language, already in ufe, was infufficient. If therefore I fhall fometimes feem obfcure, may it be imputed to this voluntary interdiction, and to a defire of avoiding that offence which is always given by unusual

words.

The heroick meafure of the English language may be properly confidered as pure or mixed. It is pure, when the accent refts upon every fecond fyllable through the whole line:

"Courage uncertain dangers may abate,

"But who can beár th' appróach of cértain fáte."

Dryden.

"Here Love his golden fhafts employs, here lights

"His cónftant lámp, and wáves his purple wings,

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Reigns here and revels; not in the bought finile

"Of hárlots, loveless, jóyless, únendeár'd.”

Milton.

The accent may be obferved in the fecond line of Dryden, and in the fecond and fourth of Milton, to repofe upon every fecond fyllable.

The repetition of this found or percuffion at equal times, is the moft complete harmony of which a fingle verfe is capable, and fhould therefore be exactly kept in diftichs, and generally in the laft line of a paragraph, that the ear may reft without any fenfe of imperfection.

But, to preferve the feries of founds untranfpofed in a long compofition, is not only very difficult, but tirefome and difgufting; for we are foon wearied with the perpetual recurrence of the fame cadence. Neceffity has therefore enforced the mixed measure, in which fome variation of the accents is allowed: This, though it always injures the harmony of the line confidered by itfelf, yet compenfates the lofs by relieving us from the continual tyranny of the fame found; and makes us. more fenfible of the harmony of the pure meafure. Of thefe mixed numbers every poet affords us innumerable inftances; and Milton feldom has two pure lines together, as will appear if any of his paragraphs be read with attention merely to the mufick:

"Thus, at their fhady lodge arriv'd, both stood, "Both turn'd, and under open fky ador'd

"The God that made both fky, air, earth, and heaven,

"Which they beheld, the moon's refplendent globe, "And flarry pole: Thou alfo madft the night,

"Maker Omnipotent, and thou the day,

"Which we, in our appointed work employ'd,