more light and airy. Here, in weighing authority against argument, the fcales feem to be upon a level; and therefore, to come at any thing decifive, we must pierce a little deeper. Mufic has great power over the foul; and may be fuccefsfully employ'd to inflame or footk our paffions, if not actually to raise them. A fingle found, however fweet, is not mufic; but a fingle found repeated after proper intervals, may have the effect to rouse the attention, and to keep the hearer awake and a variety of similar founds, fucceeding each other after regular intervals, must have a ftill ftronger effect. This confideration is applicable to rhyme, which confilts in the connection that two verfe-lines have by closing with two words fimilar in found. And confidering attentively the mufical effect of a couplet, we find, that it roufes the mind, and produceth an emotion moderately gay without dignity or elevation: like the murmuring of a brook gliding through pebbles, it calms the mind. when perturbed, and gently raises it when funk. These effects are scarce perceived when the whole poem is in rhyme; but are extremely remarkable by contrast, in the couplets that clofe the several acts of our later tragedies; the tone of the mind is fenfibly varied by them, from anguish; distress, or melancholy, to fome degree of eafe and alacrity. For the truth of this observation, I appeal to the fpeech of Jane Shore in the fourth act, when her doom was pronounced by Glo❜ster; to to the fpeech of Lady Jane Gray at the end of the first act; and to that of Califta, in the Fair Penitent, when the leaves the ftage, about the middle of the third act. The speech of Alicia, at the close of the fourth act of Jane Shore, puts the matter beyond doubt: in a scene of deep distress, the rhymes which finish the act, produce a certain gaiety and chearfulness, far from according with the tone of the passion : * Alicia. For ever? Oh! For ever! Oh! who can bear to be a wretch for ever! Tear her poor bofom, and her frantic hair, And prove } Having defcribed, the best way I can, the impreffion that rhyme makes on the mind; I proceed to examine whether there be any fubjects to which rhyme is peculiarly adapted, and for what fubjects it is improper. Great and elevated fub jects, jects, which have a powerful influence, claim precedence in this inquiry. In the chapter of grandeur and fublimity it is established, that a grand or fublime object, inspires a warm enthufiaftic emotion difdaining strict regularity and order; which emotion is very different in its tone from that infpired by the moderately-enlivening music of rhyme. Supposing then an elevated fubject to be expreffed in rhyme, what must be the effect? The intimate union of the mufic with the fubject, produces an intimate union of their emotions; one inspired by the subject, which tends to elevate and expand the mind; and one infpired by the mufic, which, confining the mind within the narrow limits of regular cadency, and fimilar found, tends to prevent all elevation above its own pitch. Emotions fo little concordant, cannot in union have a happy effect. But it is scarce neceffary to reafon upon a cafe, that never did, and probably never will happen, viz. an important fubject clothed in rhyme, and yet fupported in its utmost elevation. A happy thought or warm expreffion, may at times give a fudden bound upward; but it requires a genius greater than has hitherto exifted, to fupport a poem of any length in a tone much more elevated than that of the melody: Taffo and Ariosto ought not to be made exceptions, and ftill lefs Voltaire. And after all, where the poet has the dead weight of rhyme conftantly to struggle with, how can we expect an uniform elevation in a high high pitch; when fuch elevation, with all the fupport it can receive from language, requires the utmost effort of the human genius? But now, admitting rhyme to be an unfit drefs for grand and lofty images; it has one advantage however, which is, to raise a low fubject to its own degree of elevation. Addifon obferves, "That rhyme, without any other affiftance, "throws the language off from profe, and very " often makes an indifferent phrafe pafs unregarded; but where the verfe is not built upon 66 rhymes, there, pomp of found and energy of expreffion are indifpenfably neceffary, to support the style, and keep it from falling into the "flatnefs of profe." This effect of rhyme is remarkable in the French verfe, which, being fimple, and in a good measure unqualified for inverfion, readily finks down to profe where it is not airtficially supported: rhyme is therefore indifpenfable in the French tragedy, and may be proper even in their comedy. Voltaire † affigns this very reason for adhering to rhyme in these compofitions. He indeed candidly owns, that, even with the fupport of rhyme, the tragedies of his country are little better than converfationpieces; which fhows, that the French language. is weak, and an improper drefs for any grand fubject. Voltaire was fenfible of this imperfec Spectator, N° 285. + Preface to his OEdipus, and in his discourse upon tragedy, prexed to the tragedy of Brutus. and yet Voltaire attempted an epic poem tion; and The chearing and enlivening power of rhyme, is still more remarkable in poems of fhort lines, where the rhymes return upon the ear in a quick fucceffion; and for that reafon, rhyme is perfectly well adapted to gay, light, and airy fubjects: witness the following. O the pleafing, pleafing anguish. Thoughts furprising, Pleasure courting, Charms tranfporting. Fancy viewing, Joys enfuing, O the pleafing, pleafing anguish, Rofamond, a 1. fc. 2. For this reafon, fuch frequent rhymes are very improper for any fevere or ferious paffion: the diffonance between the fubject and the melody, is very fenfibly felt: witnefs the following. Ardito ti renda, T'accenda Di fdegno L'amer |