In reading this Verfe we muft acute the firft half Foot, and the firft Syllable in every full Foot.

This Verfe may have another Divifion of the half Feet, as into five and five, which is into two fourths. I fhall exemplify this from Mr. Pope's Windfor Forrest. Mr. Pope is wonderfully happy in the Divifion of the Concords, for there is not a Verfe in this Poem but what is mufically divided.

See from the Brake the wirring || Pheasant
Springs,

And mounts exulting || on ~tri | umphant
| Wings.

Here the laft Verfe is divided into two fourths, or into five and five half Feet; and the first Verse is divided into feven and three half Feet.

Milton wants this Divifion of the Verfe into mufical Concords, where his Verfe is compofed of Polyfyllable Words, which are of ten an Obftruction to this Divifion; but then the Grandeur of his Diction and Thoughts, and his most beautiful Tranfpofitions, fupply this Harmony, or Want of the Numbers; and the Misfortune is, that whenever this Poet has these Numbers or mufical Concords, they are generally confounded by profaic Stops. The firft Verfe of this Poem is a feventh in Mufic, or is G 2 divided

divided into feven and three half Feet, that is, into a fifth and a Tierce Minor; thus divided:

Of Man's first Difobedience, and the Fruit!

This Verfe is mufically pointed at the End of the Word Difobedience, where the Concord ends, or the Cæfural Stop is to be; and confequently the Reader cannot be deceived in reading this Verfe, if he begins and ends in half a Foot; and if he reads this Verfe in the rythmical Proportion of the Feet: But the following Verfe, which has the fame Concords, has thefe Concords confounded from the profaic Stop; for it is pointed thus:

Of that forbidden Tree, whofe mortal Tafte.

Whereas this Verse should be pointed according to the Concords.

Of that forbidden Tree whofe, || mortal, Tafte.

The Reader may obferve that the last Concord mōrtal Täfte is a Moloffus, which should be a Cretic; thus corrected for the sake of the Quantity.

Of the forbidden Tree tho' beautiful.

Some may think this Rhythm is too effeminate, and that Milton's Number is more masculine, as it really is; and that this Neglect

of

of Number in the Exordium may not be amifs, I have only expreffed the natural Number, and the Reader may judge as he thinks fit. These three long Syllables at the End of the Verse is common to Milton, B. iii. v. 1.

Hail boly Light, Offspring of Heav'n first born, Or of the eternal co eternal Beam,

May I express thee unblam'd? Since God is Light,

.

And never but in unapproached Light
Dwelt, from Eternity dwelt || then in thee,
Bright Effluence of bright Effence, increāte.

These, and the following Lines, are wonderfully beautiful, and flow in the Concords.

Or bear'st thou rather || pure Ethereal Stream,
Whofe Fountain | who shall tell? Before the Sun,
Before the Heav'ns thou wer't, and at the
Voice

Of God, as with a Mantle || didst invest
The rifing World with Waters || dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless || Infinite.

B. viii. v. 520.

To the nuptial Bower

I led her blufbing like the Morn, all Heav'n
And happy Conftellations || on that Hour
Shed their felecteft|| Influence; the Earth
Gave Signs of Gratulation || and each Hill;
Joyous the Birds, fresh Gales, and || gentle Airs,

Whif

Whisper'd it to the Woods, and from their
Wings
Flung Rofe flung Odours from the Spicy Shrub,
Difporting, 'till the amorous Bird of Night
Sung Spoufal, and bid hafte the Evening Star
On his Hill Top to light the || bridal Lamp.

B. 5. v. 12.

He on his Side

Leaning balf-rais'd, with Look of || cordial Love
Hung over her enamour'd, and beheld
Beauty, which, whether waking or afleep,
Shot forth peculiar Graces; || then with Voice
Mild as when Zephyrus on Flora breathes,
Her Hand foft touching whisper'd thus, A-
wake,

My faireft my efpous'd, my latest found,
Heav'n's loft, beft Gift, my ever new Delight,
Awake; the Morning fhines, and the fresh
Fields

Call us; we lofe the Prime, to || mark bow Springs

Our tended Plants, how blows the || Citron Grove,

What drops the Myrrh, and || what the balmy Reed,

How Nature paints her Colour, || how the Bee Sits on the Bloom, extracting liquid Sweets.

There is a wonderful Harmony in these Lines from the Change of the Concords, B. 8.

V. I.

The

The Angel ended, and in Adam's Ear,
So charming left his Voice, that he awhile,
Thought him ftill speaking | ftill stood fix'd to

bear.

This mufical Flow is not to be had from Polyfyllable Words, as you may find from this and other Verfes;

Powers and Dominions Deities of Heav'n.

Words of one, two, or three Syllables are beft adapted to thefe mufical Concords, as thus,

·He ended frowning, and his Looks denounc'd,

Or thus, B. vi. v. 1.

All Night the dreadlefs Angel.|| unpur fu'd,

Or thus,

-Perhaps has spent his Shafts and || ceafes now To bellow thro' the vast and boundless Deep.

Or thus in 4th. B. 6, v. 110.

Go then thou, mightiest || in thy Father's Might! Afcend my Chariot, guide the rapid Wheels That Shake Heav'ns Bafis; bring forth all my

War,

My Bow, my Thunder, my almighty Arms;
Gird on thy Sword on thy puillant Thigh.

Or