ESSAY on the RISE and PROGRESS of RHIME by THEOPHILUS 



SWIFT, ESq^ To which ivas adjudged the Gold Prize Medal, pro- 



fofed by the Royal Irijh Academy, for the bejl EJfay on that Subjed.- - 

 Read Nov. gth, 1801. 



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LuCR. 



JLF it be of importance to the interefts of letters, that the sera has been 

 afcertained when the compofitions of the Greeks fii-fl abandoned rhythm, 

 and affumed the form called afterward in their own language m^oi ^loyoj, 

 oratio foluta ; the tracing to its fource that branch of the poetic art, 

 diftinguilhed by the name of rhime, will be found an obje£l: not un- 

 worthy of learned curiofity ; and the difcuffion, perhaps, may be produc- 

 tive of fome collateral obfervations not unprofitable to the caufe of phi- 

 lology in general. 



It may be faid, (for what filly argument hath not been urged in 

 every age by the idle and illiterate ?) that verbal inveftigations, fuch as 

 the prefent, are attended with no folid advantage, are too inconfiderablc 

 for popular regard, and too remote from general utility. It is anfwered, 

 that the mofl important difquifitions are often the mofl .uninterefting to 

 the multitude ; but, for that very reafon, become the more valuable 

 to the few for whom they were intended. To underrate a fubjeft, be- 

 caufe it happens not to fall in with our own particular ftudies or pur- 

 fuits, is the fure fign of a narrow and prejudiced mind. Poetry em- 

 ploys a language of her own, and addrefles not berfelf to the vulgar : 

 through her, every grace of literature, every intelligence of fcience, comes 

 to us recommended, embeiliflied, illumined : and this academy, when it di- 

 refted the prefent enquiry, sacrificed at her flirine, and added another leaf 

 to her laurel. '^'' 



A 2 A celebrated 



