With hideous ruin and combuftion, down To bottomlefs Perdition, there to dwell In adamantine chains, and penal fire, Who durft defy th' Omnipotent to arms. Par. Loft:

It is obvious from what I have faid of it, that the Couplet is not formed for fuch gradations as these. On the contrary, from the fameness in its flow, every fentiment, of what nature foever, comes equally recommended to the ear, and of course to our attention. Thus, the following thought in Eloifa to Abelard, receives as much importance from the movement of the verse, as it could have done, had it been destined to infpire us with the most noble and virtuous feelings.

Not Cæfar's emprefs wou'd I deign to prove No, make me miftrefs to the man I love.

Afp. THIS fentiment may, as you have observed, receive an importance from the movement of the verse; but you will allow, that it is very little indebted to the expreffion.

Eug. THE expreffion must often be difgraced, when a rhyme is neceffary. You have made, Afpafia, a much better use of this paffage, than I meant to do: for 1 produced it merely to fhew, that where à famenefs of verfification prevails, there can be no degrees, no contrafts in the founds, which, like fhades in painting, throw forward, and give a diftinction to the fuperior beauties.

Hor. MR. Pope feems to have had the fame idea, with refpect to the thoughts, that you have with refpect to the founds.

He fays,

To beftow heightening on every part, is monftrous: fome parts ought to be

lower than the reft; and nothing looks

more ridiculous than a work, where the thoughts, however different in their own nature, feem all on a level,'

Letter to Mr. Walsh.

Eug. I wonder he did not perceive the ill effects of this equality in the cadence of his verse, as well as in the colouring of his ideas. Of all the modes of verfification, that have been cultivated by men of sense, the [d] Latin diftich, and modern couplet are the greatest levellers. There is no li

[d] The couplet, like the diftich, has a ftrong epigrammatic turn: it is formed to run into points; but, above all, it delights in the antithefis; and the art of the verfifier is complete, when the discord in the ideas is

berty,

berty, no continuance in their movements. Like the out-line of a fcholar in drawing, they are broken, and interrupted; but, a flow of pencil is the ftile of a master in his Would you have a proof of what I

art.

advance ?

Ye facred Nine! that all my

foul poffefs,

Whose raptures fire me, and whofe vifions

blefs;

Bear me, oh bear me to fequefter'd fcenes, The bow'ry mazes, and furrounding greens..

W. Foreft.

HERE, you cannot but be fenfible, how the enthusiasm is tamed by the precision of the couplet, and the confequent littleness in the scenery.

proportioned to the accord in the founds. To jar and jingle in the fame breath, is a mafter piece of Gothic

refinement.

C 2

How

How different Milton ?

Yet not the more

Ceafe I to wander, where the Muses haunt Clear spring, or fhady grove, or funny hill, Smit with the love of facred fong; but chief Thee, Sion, and the flow'ry brooks beneath, That wash thy hallow'd feet, and warbling flow,

Nightly I vifit.

Par. Lof.

THO'it do not immediately belong to this part of my fubject, yet I must take notice here of a beauty, which finds its place naturally in blank verfe, but is almost incompatible with the regular movement of the couplet. I mean thofe fudden breaks or tranfitions in the verse, which so strongly characterize the paffions; and dart, as it

were,