have above had an occafion to refer *. In particular he fays, a poet fhould write entirely for the benefit of his readers without any appearance of fetting off himself. To make a work truely excellent it is neceffary, that the author fhould fo forget himself, that the reader may forget him likewife, and have his attention engaged only on the fubject †.

NO poet is fo free from all kind of oftentation, and comes up fo fully to this character as Homer. But to conclude, the fum of what has here been faid amounts to this, that the perfection even of a figurative ftyle confifts in its being free from any luxuriant and oftentatious pomp of words, or any affectation of pleafing the car unconnected with the principal office of fpeech, which is to convey our ideas with eafe, clearness and force. How far the diction of the author, we have taken under examination, comes up to this character may in fome measure be judged of by the following paffages. As o'er the western waves, when ev'ry storm Is hufh'd within its cavern, and a breeze Soft-breathing lightly with its wings along

The

* Réflex. fur la rhetorique et fur la poëtique. Je demande un poëte aimable, proportionné au commun des hommes, qui fafe tout pour eux, et rien pour lui. - Afin qu'un ouvrage foit véritablement beau, il faut que l'Auteur s'y oublie, et me permette de l'oublier. §. 5.

The flacken'd cordage glides, the failor's ear
Perceives no found throughout the vast expanfe;
None, but the murmurs of the fliding prowe,
Which flowly parts the smooth and yielding main.
B. I. v. 89.

As in fome torrid region, where the head
Of Ceres bends beneath its golden load,
If on the parching ground a fatal fpark
Fall from a burning brand; the fudden blaze
Increas'd and aided by tumultuous winds
In rapid torrents of involving flames

Sweeps o'er the crackling plain, and mounting high

In ruddy fpires illumines half the fkies.

B. 2. v. 167.

-like the vaft Atlantic, when no fhore,
No rock or promontory ftops the fight
Unbounded, as it wanders; but the moon,
Refplendent eye of night, in fulleft orb
Throughout th' interminated furface throws
Its rays abroad, and decks in fnowy light
The dancing billows.

B. 2. v. 239.
-when the song of Thracian Orpheus drew
To Hebrus' margin from their dreary seats
The favage race, which Hamus wrapt in clouds,
Pangæus cold, and Rhodopeian fnows

In blood and difcord nurs'd; the foothing ftrain Flow'd with enchantment through their ravifh'd

ears:

Their fiercenefs melted, and amaz'd they learn'd H 4 The

The facred laws of juftice, which the bard
Mixt with the mufic of his heav'nly string.
B. 4. v. 352.
One first appear'd

In fervile garb attir'd; but near his fide
A woman graceful and majestic stood;
Not with an afpect rivalling the pow'r
Of fatal Helen, or the wanton charms
Of Love's foft queen; but such as far excell❜d,
Whate'er the lilly blending with the rose
Paints on the cheek of beauty foon to fade;
Such as exprefs'd a mind, which wisdom rul'd,
And sweetness temper'd, virtue's pureft light
Illumining the countenance divine,

Yet could not footh remorseless fate, nor teach
Malignant fortune to revere the good,

Which oft with anguifh rends the spotlefs heart,
And oft affociates wifdom with despair.
B. 6. v. 32.

-To the hoftile camp
With fteps compos'd and filent down the pass
The phalanx moves. Each patient bofom hush'd
Its ftruggling fpirit, nor in whispers breath'd
The rapt'rous ardour, virtue then inspir'd;
But all await the moment doom'd to give
The Barb'rous millions to their deathful steel:
So lowring clouds expanding from the north
Awhile fufpend their horrors, deftin'd foon
To blaze in lightnings, and to burft in storms.
B. 8. 1.414.

As

As in fome fruitful clime, which late hath known
The rage of winds and floods, when now the ftorm
Is heard no longer, and the deluge fled,
Still o'er the wafted region nature mourns
In melancholy filence; through the grove
With proftrate glories lie the stately oak

And elm uprooted, while the plains are spread
With fragments swept from villages o'erthrown,
And round the pastures flocks and herds are caft
In weltring heaps of death.

B. 9. v. 288. As, by th' excelling architect difpos'd

To fhield fome haven, a ftupendous mole Fram'd of the grove and quarry's mingled ftrength In ocean's bofom penetrates afar;

There ftands the pride of art against the weight Of feas, unmov'd, and breaks the whelming

furge.

Ibid. v. 326.

SECTION

SECTION VI.

Of verfification.

WHAT has made many too fond of high

figures, founding epithets, and laboured conftructions, I imagine, is their not being duely apprized of the power of numbers; whereas a juft and harmonious measure of verfe will give fufficient grace or dignity to the most unaffected diction.

It must be confeffed, that all the modern languages fall infinitely fhort of the ancient in this point. Both the Greek and Latin tongues, even in discourse, affigned for the pronunciation of each fyllable an exact measure of time, in fome longer and in fome fhorter, and fo variously intermixt those two different meafures in the fame word, as furnished means for that variety of verfification, to which we are altogether ftrangers. These meafures were of fuch efficacy in thofe languages, that the adjusting their periods to fome agreeable ryth mus, or movement by an apt fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables was confidered in oratory, as an art of great importance towards the perfection of eloquence. In our language this feems to be scarce thought of; though, perhaps, what we commonly call fmoothness of ftyle is in part owing to something analagous, namely fuch a rangement of the words, whereby the fyllables follow one another with a

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