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A N

ESSAY

Ο Ν

The Harmony, Variety, and Power

OF

NUMBERS,

Whether in PROSE or VERSE:

Preparatory to a SECOND ESSAY on the NUMBERS OF PARADISE LOST.

Mufeo contingens cuncta lepore.

LUCRETIUS.

(96)

To Mr. RICHARDSON.

SIR,

IN over Numbers in was reading over to You a Former Paper on the Variety and Power of Numbers in Paradife Loft, which was written at Your Request, I perceived, that in order to give You a clearer Apprehenfion of the Juftness of the Remarks I had made on the Verfification of This Great Author, it was neceffary to trace the Idéa of Numbers to their First Principles.

:

This has produced the following Essay on Numbers in General in which if there be any thing New to You, I own also it was fo to Myself till I came to confider this Subject with more Attention than I had hitherto✶ done.

And if it has the Happiness to give You the fame Entertainment in the Reading, which You have given the Author, in laying him under the agreeable Neceflity of Writing it; You will have all the Pleasure which Enquiries of this Nature deferve to give us.

* See §. II. and III.

S. S.

ESSAY the FIRST.

On the Harmony, Variety, and Power of N U M B E RS in General, whether in Profe or Verfe: Preparatory to a Second Effay on the NUMBERS of PARADISE LOST in Particular.

N Enquiry

§. I.

Úmbers * în General, to the Purpose I mean of the Present Enquiry, is but another Word for ORDER and PROPORTION; the Source of HARMONY and GRACE, whether in SOUNDS OF MOVEMENTS, or whatever Work of Genius or of art.

But, in the Language of Poëts and Rhetoricians, it is Such a Num-. ber of Sounds, in Such an Order and Proportion to one another, as is either proper to PLEASE the EAR, or IMPRESS the MIND in a peculiar Manner.

For the Beauty of NUMBERS confifts in the GRACE or the PROPRIETY of 'em.

The PROPRIETY of 'em confifts in Sounds adapted to the Sense: And the Refult or Effect of fuch Sounds is the POWER of NUMBERS; of which the Ancients relate fuch Wonders: A Beauty which Every Great Genius does, in his Diction, principally aim at, and naturally fucceeds in: But which is the peculiar Felicity of those only who CONCEIVE CLEARLY, and EXPRESS STRONGLY whatever they CONCEIVE. Now the Force of Expreffion confifts partly in the Words themselves, and partly in the Numbers and Difpofition. And they who have the+Happy Curiofity [of HORACE] to choose Proper Words, and to give Every Word its Proper Situation and Emphasis of Sound, will be able to transfufe all the Idéas of their Own Minds into the

*The Reafon why the Accents are pear in the Sequel of this Effay. mark'd on Some of the Syllables will ap- + Curiofa Felicitas.

Minds

Minds of their * Readers, and transport 'em, whither foever they will, into the Same Regions and Paffions with themselves.

And this is the true Magic of Verfe. But here,

No Poët any Paffion can excite,

But what they feel transport 'em when they write,
Háve you been léd thro' the Cumæăn Cave?

And heard th' impatient Maid | divinely rave?
I

I hear her Now |--I fee | her rowling Eyes

And Panting-lo❘ the God! | the God! —she cries.

But few| ōh few | Souls præordain'd by Fāte,

The Race of Gods | have reach'd | That énvied Height!

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Earl of RosCOMMON.

The GRACE or HARMONY of NUMBERS, in the ufual Senfe of this Word in English, is the agreeable Distinction which the Ear perceives between a certain Number or Quantity of Sounds; and a kind of Beating of Time with the Voice; fometimes at Equal, fometimes at Various, but always at Measur'd and Regular Distances.

And to This the Ear itself, and the Custom of Reading Good Authors, will unawares and infenfibly lead us in fome measure: But 'tis too often the mere Effect of Art and Labor: A painful Induftry, or Drudgery rather, with which little Writers are wont immoderately to amuse themselves; efpecially in the Decline of Eloquence, and when Men begin to have loft the Tafte of Fine Writing, or a Juft Propriety of Words and Thought.

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But whenever it appears to be Natural and Unaffected, it must be acknowledged to have its Beauty, and which therefore no good Writer will úttĕrly neglect.

And wherever the genuine Order and due Proportion of Sounds are truly, and even nicely obferv'd, and yet in a manner Secret, and Imperceptible to the Reader; there the Style will be Smooth, Inoffenfive, and Flowing; Easy to the Voice, and agreeable to the Ear.

Such was the Style of XENOPHON among the Ancients, (Xenophontis illa fluens et fine Salebris Oratio,) fo unaffected in Appearance, and yet fo inexpreffibly sweet, that the Graces themselves, in the Words of CICERO, feem to have turn'd the Easy Periods.

And this feems the Style moft proper for calm Reflections and agreeable Narrations; fuch as are generally those of XENOPHON, and, among the Moderns, many of the SPECTATORS, and other Papers by the fame Authors. And thus MILTON Concludes the Narration of the Fabulous Part of his History of Britain. "By this

Time, like one who had fet out on his Way by Night, and tra"vail'd thro' a Region of Smooth or Idle Dreams } Our History "Now arrives on the Confines where Day-light and Truth meet "us with a clear Dawn: Representing to our View, tho' at a Far "diftance, true Colors and Shapes."

But the Motions of Paffion are naturally stronger, and the Freeks or unaccountable Changes of Humour are lefs Subject to Rule and Order: And there are Images that Fill or that Fire the Mind with their Beauty, or their Grandeur. And what we feel within, we express with the Voice. 'Tis reasonable therefore to affume a dif ferent Style, and Numbers far Different, when the Like Ideas, or the Like Paffions are intended to be rais'd in Thofe that hear us.

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