that have nothing peculiar in them. I only venture to fuggeft, and I do it with diffidence, that each of the orders is peculiarly adapted to certain fubjects, and better qualified than the others for expreffing fuch fubjects. The best way to judge is by experiment; and to avoid the imputation of a partial search, I fhall confine my inftances to a fingle poem, beginning with the first order.

On her white breaft, a fparkling cross she wore,
Which Jews might kifs, and infidels adore.
Her lively looks a fprightly mind disclose,
Quick as her eyes, and as unfix'd as thofe :
Favours to none, to all fhe fmiles extends;
Oft fhe rejects, but never once offends.
Bright as the fun, her eyes the gazers ftrike,
And, like the fun, they shine on all alike.
Yet graceful cafe, and sweetness void of pride,
Might hide her faults, if belles had faults to hide :
If to her fhare fome female errors fall,

Look on her face, and you'll forget 'em all.

Rape of the Lock.

In accounting for the remarkable livelinefs of this paffage, it will be acknowledged by every one who has an ear, that the melody muft come in for a fhare. The lines, all of them, are of the first order; a very unufual circumftance in the author of this poem, fo eminent for variety in his verfification. Who can doubt, that, in this paffage, he has been led by delicacy of tafte to employ the first order preferably to the others?

Second

Second order.

Our humble province is to tend the fair,
Not a lefs pleafing, though less glorious care;
To fave the powder from too rude a gale,
Nor let th' imprifon'd effences exhale;

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;

To steal from rainbows, ere they drop their how'rs, &c.

Again :

Oh, thoughtless mortals! ever blind to fate,
Too foon dejected, and too foon elate.

Sudden, these honours shall be fnatch'd away,
And curs'd for ever this victorious day.

Third order:

To fifty chofen fylphs, of fpecial note,
We trust th' important charge, the petticoat.

Again:

Oh fay what stranger caufe, yet unexplor'd,
Could make a gentle belle reject a lord?

A plurality of lines of the fourth order, would not have a good effect in fucceffion; becaufe, by a remarkable tendency to rest, their proper office is to close a period. The reader, therefore, must be satisfied with inftances where this order is mixed with others.

Not

Not louder fhrieks to pitying Heav'n are caft,

When husbands, or when lapdogs, breathe their laft.

Again:

Steel could the works of mortal pride confound,
And hew triumphal arches to the ground.

Again :

She fees, and trembles at th' approaching ill,
Juft in the jaws of ruin, and codille.

Again:

With earneft eyes, and round unthinking face,
He firft the fnuff-box open'd, then the cafe.

And this fuggefts another experiment, which is, to fet the different orders more directly in oppofition, by giving examples where they are mixed in the fame passage.

First and second orders.

Sol through white curtains fhot a tim❜rous ray,
And ope'd thofe eyes that must eclipse the day.

Again:

Not youthful kings in battle feiz'd alive,
Not fcornful virgins who their charms furvive,

Not

Not ardent lovers robb'd of all their blifs,
Not ancient ladies when refus'd a kifs,
Not tyrants fierce that unrepenting die,
Not Cynthia when her manteau's pin'd awry,
E'er felt fuch rage, refentment, and despair,
As thou, fad virgin! for thy ravish'd hair.

First and third.

Think what an equipage thou haft in air,
And view with scorn two pages and a chair,

Again:

What guards the purity of melting maids,
In courtly balls, and midnight-masquerades,
Safe from the treach'rous friend, the daring spark,
The glance by day, the whisper in the dark ?

Again:

With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,
And breathes three am'rous fighs to raise the fire;
Then proftrate falls, and begs, with ardent eyes,
Soon to obtain, and long poffefs the prize.

Again :

Jove's thunder roars, heav'n trembles all around,
Blue Neptune ftorms, the bellowing deeps refound,
Earth fhakes her nodding tow'rs, the ground gives way,
And the pale ghosts start at the flash of day!

Second

Second and Third.

Sunk in Thaleftris' arms, the nymph he found,
Her eyes dejected, and her hair unbound.

Again:

On her heav'd bofom hung her drooping head,
Which with a figh fhe rais'd; and thus fhe faid.

Mufing on the foregoing fubject, I begin to doubt whether I have not all this while been in a reverie, and whether the scene before me, full of objects new and fingular, be not mere fairy-land. Is there any truth in the appearance, or is it wholly a work of imagination? We cannot

doubt of its reality; and we may with affurance pronounce, that great is the merit of English Heroic verfe for though uniformity prevails in the arrangement, in the equality of the lines, and in the resemblance of the final founds; variety is - ftill more confpicuous in the pauses and in the accents, which are diversified in a furprising man

ner.

Of the beauty that refults from a due mixture of uniformity and variety, many inftances have already occurred, but none more illuftrious than English verfification: however rude it may be in the fimplicity of its arrangement, it is highly melodious by its paufes and accents, fo as already to rival the most perfect species known in Greece or Rome; and it is no difagreeable pro

* See chap. 9.

fpect