fication. This felicity of his numbers was, at the revival of learning, difplayed with great ele gance by Vida, in his artof poetry. From the Italian gardens Pope feems to have tranfplanted this flower, the growth of happier climates, into a foil lefs adapted to its nature, and lefs favourable to its encrease. "Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows, "Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the "main." From thefe lines, laboured with great attention, and celebrated by a rival wit, may be judged what can be expected from the most diligent endeavours after this imagery of found. The verfe, intended to represent the whisper of the vernal breeze, must be confeffed not much to excell in softness or volubility; and the fmooth ftream runs with a perpetual clash of jarring confonants. The noife and turbulence of the torrent is, indeed, diftinctly imaged; for it requires very little fkill to make our language rough: But in thofe lines, which mention the effort of Ajax, there is no particular heaviness, obstruction, or delay. The fwiftnefs of Camilla is rather contrafted than exemplified: Why the verfe fhould be lengthened to express speed, will not easily be discovered. In the dactyls, used for that purpose by the ancients, two short fyllables were pronounced with fuch rapidity, as to be equal only to one long; they, therefore, naturally exhibit the act of paffing through a long space in a fhort time. But the alexandrine, by its pause in the midft, is a tardy and stately measure; and the word unbending, one of the moft fluggish and flow which our language affords, cannot much accelerate its motion. Thefe rules, and thefe examples, have taught our prefent criticks to inquire very ftudiously, and minutely, into founds and cadences. It is, therefore, useful to examine with what skill they have proceeded; what difcoveries they have made; and whether any rules can be established, which may guide us hereafter in fuch researches. The resemblance of poetick numbers to the fubject which they mention or describe, may be confidered as general or particular; as confifting in the flow and structure of a whole paffage taken together; or as comprised in the found of fome emphatical and defcriptive words; or in the cadence and harmony of single verses. The general resemblance of the found to the fenfe is to be found in every language, which admits of poetry; in every author, whofe force of fancy enables him to imprefs images ftrongly on his own mind, and whofe choice and variety of language readily fupplies him with just representations. To fuch a writer it is natural to change his measures with his subject, even without any effort of the understanding, or intervention of the judgement. To revolve jollity and mirth, neceffarily tunes the voice of a poet to gay and fprightly notes, as it fires his eyes with vivacity; and reflection on gloomy fituations, and difaftrous events, will fadden his numbers, as it will cloud his countenance. But in fuch paffages there is only the fimilitude of pleasure to pleafure, and of grief to grief, without any immediate application to particular images. The fame flow of joyous verfification will celebrate the jollity of marriage, and the exultation of triumph; and the fame languour of melody will fuit the complaints of an abfent lover, as of a conquered king. It is fcarcely to be doubted, that, in many occafions, we make the musick which we imagine ourselves to hear; that we modulate the poem by our own difpofition, and afcribe to the numbers the effects of the fenfe. We may obferve in life, that it is not eafy to deliver a pleasing meffage in an unpleafing manner; and that we readily affociate beauty and deformity with those whom, for any reafon, we love or hate. Yet it would be too daring to declare that all the celebrated adaptations of harmony are chimerical; that Homer had no extraordinary attention to the melody of his verfe, when he defcribed a nuptial festivity ; Νύμφας δ' ἐκ θαλάμων, δαΐδων ὑπολαμπομενάων, that Vida was merely fanciful, when he fuppofed Virgil endeavouring to represent, by uncommon fweetness of numbers, the adventitious beauty of Æneas; "Os humerófque deo fimilis: namque ipfa decoram or that Milton did not intend to exemplify the harmony which he mentions; "Fountains, and ye that warble, as ye flow, Melodious murmurs, warbling tune his praife." That Milton understood the force of founds well adjusted, and knew the compass and variety of the ancient meafures, cannot be doubted, fince he was both a mufician and a critick; but he feems to have confidered thefe conformities of cadence, as either not often attainable in our language, or as petty excellencies unworthy of his ambition; for it will not be found that he has always affigned the fame caft of numbers to the fame fubjects. He has given, in two paffages, very minute descriptions of angelick beauty: But, though the images are nearly the fame, the numbers will be found upon comparison very different. "And now a ftripling Cherub he appears, "In curls on either cheek play'd; wings he wore "Of many a colour'd plume, sprinkled with gold.” Some of the lines of this defcription are remarkably defective in harmony, and therefore by no means correfpondent with that fymmetrical elegance, and eafy grace, which they are intended to exhibit. The failure, however, is fully compenfated by the reprefentation of Raphael, which equally delights the ear and imagination: "A Seraph wing'd: Six wings he wore, to fhade "Girt like a starry zone his waift, and round The adumbration of particular and distinct images, by an exact and perceptible refemblance |