fore, he was obliged to have recourse to his invention, which did not always fupply him with fuch as were of the most fatisfactory kind; and he seems through the whole of his elaborate work to entertain much too high an idea of the importance of thofe rules; for he feems to confider them as founded in reason, and as laws by which tafte ought to be regulated, whereas they are properly founded in taste, and the most judicious and best established rules are really nothing more than the different principles by which experience fhows that the decifions of tafte are governed. But " à priori" it is impoffible to prove, by any fpeculative reasoning, that thofe principles poffefs more of innate propriety than the oppofite ones: for instance, it is a rule that the unity of action in an Epic poem ought to be preserved; and no one can read the Iliad and the Orlando Furiofo without being fenfible of the propriety of it; but if any one fhould ask the reafon upon which this rule is founded, we are compelled to confefs that it refolves itself entirely into a matter of taste. We might indeed retreat a step backward, and anfwer, that the reafon is, because the attention ought not to be divided; but the question immediately recurs, Why ought not the attention to be divided?" And to this what can be replied, but that it is found by experience to be unpleasant, and to occafion wearinefs and difguft. 66 Having thus ftated my ideas on the fubject of fpeculative and theoretical criticism, I proceed to confider what it is that properly constitutes By conftitutes the difference between verfe and profe. Verfe, I think, may be defined as a fpecies of compofition, in which the arrangement of words is fubject to certain precise rules; and the ear, as Lord Kaims observes, must be appealed to, as the proper judge for deciding upon the effects produced by these rules. what mark then does the ear distinguish verse from profe? The proper and fatisfactory answer, according to his Lordship, is, that "these make different impreffions upon every one who hath an ear." "This advances us," fays he, "one step in our enquiry." Now. I own I cannot perceive that the smallest advance is made in the enquiry by this anfwer. Verse and profe are allowed to be different kinds of compofition diftinguishable by the ear. The question is, By what criterion the ear afcertains the diftinction between them; and we are told it is by the different impreffions made upon it. But the question itself implies, that dif ferent impreffions are made upon that organ; and it is the nature of this difference only that needs to be explained: but, in answer to the enquiry respecting that point, we are gravely informed, that we have advanced one step in our enquiry, by being affured that their certainly is a difference. This is one inftance out of a thousand which might be ad, duced of the pompous inanity of Lord Kaims's mode of writing; his Lordfhip's critical talents, however, have been held in fuch high and general estimation, that I know not well to whom I can appeal as an authority authority upon this occafion, in order to corroborate my own fentiments, excepting the celebrated Abbé Winckleman; and he indeed speaks in much more contemptuous terms than I choose to adopt of the whole performance. The proper answer to the question feems to be, that the ear diftinguishes verfe from profe by its uniformity; for though it may be capable of confiderable variety in fome respects, yet in others, as it is fubject to fixed rules, it must be easily diftinguishable by the regular recurrence of thofe peculiarities of found which muft refult from their operation for I think none of the various modes of Verfification in ufe amongst us is fo loofe and irregular, as not to be very diftinguishable from profe according to this criterion, even by an indifferent ear. In fhort, the effential difference between verfe and profe confifts in the measure; for if we admit fuch performances as Selemaque or Fingal into the clafs of poems, how is it poffible to draw any precife line between thefe two fpecies of compofition? In order to preferve fome degree of method in the remaining part of this Effay, I fhall first offer fome remarks upon the different kinds of Verfification of which our language and poetry are susceptible; and, 2dly, I shall add a few reflections respecting the merit or demerit of the most celebrated English poets as to this fundamental excellence of that divine art. Of all the different kinds of verfe known in Eng lifh lish poetry, blank verfe is undoubtedly entitled to be first mentioned as first in dignity and importance. Voltaire has obferved, that blank verfe is of fo loofe a texture, that it cofts nothing but the trouble of writing; upon which account he feems to intend to represent it as fcarcely worth the trouble of reading, or as far inferior at least to French heroic verfe, which confifting of four regular anapests, and admitting little or no va riation of paufes, accents, or arrangement, is confequently of much more difficult conftruction; but this difficulty furmounted, he pretends, is the fource of great delight to every reader of taste ; a strange criterion, indeed, by which to judge of the comparative merit of these two different kinds of Verfification. If that mode of compofition, which is moft difficult in itself, be upon that account most pleasing, our greatest poets ought no doubt to have retired into " fome peaceful province of acroftic land.” "There they might wings display, and altars raise, "And torture one poor word ten thousand ways.” It is certainly true that blank verfe is very easy to write; but for this reafon it is as certain, that it is the more difficult to excel in writing it. Such blank verfe as Monf. de Voltaire himself has given us a fpecimen of is, no doubt, to do him justice, truly contemptible: but if Monf. de Voltaire had been competently qualified to criticize upon English poetry, he would have known that the blank blank verfe of Milton and Shakespeare is, of all the various measures practised among us, that which is moft difficult of imitation. Blank verfe has fo near an affinity to profe, that it requires the most confummate skill and judgment in the arrangement of the periods, as well as the utmost force and elevation of language to preferve the diftinction between them. But when the requifite proportion of skill and genius is exerted, and that degree of perfection attained, which genius, conducted by application, never fails to reach, the wonderful effects of this fpecies of poetical compofition become fully apparent; and we admire the Verfification of the "Paradife Loft," not because Milton has furmounted great difficulties, for this alone is a very weak foundation for applause, but because he has attained to pofitive beauties of the most exquisite kind. Doubtlefs, that egregious blockhead who took the trouble to tranflate the Iliad, and in each of the twenty-four books omitted fome one letter of the alphabet, furmounted a difficulty of great magnitude; but is he therefore the fubject of our admiration or derifion? The truth is, that the conqueft of difficulties is never a fource of pleasure, at least to men of refinement, except fome purpose either of use or beauty is accomplished by it; but, when any fuch purpose is effected, the emotion of wonder excited by the removal of the difficulty, agreeably to the laws of affociation, blends itself with the emotion of esteem or admiration excited by the contempla tion |