33 



anacreontics alfo they are chafle and fentlmental, beyond even the grace 

 of the Teian bard. And we do not find, that in thefe fympofial 

 and amatory odes the rhime has deflroyed either the moral or poetical 

 fentiment ; witnefs this, which we give in Englilh, " Ye who drink 

 " out of golden cups, defpife not the coarfe veffel of the poor man, 

 " who has no flaves to fill it for him ; when two of you have deeply 

 " drank, as is your faftiion, remember, it may be your fate to fleep 

 "■ together under the fame tree." 



Thofe who defire to know more of the Chlnefe poetry and its 

 rhimes, may confult Du Halde, whofe account of China I have found 

 more fatisfaftory than any other, not excepting Fathers Magaillaa and 

 Kircher. 



Like that of the Hebrews, and, it is prefumed, of mod infant ftates, 

 the early poetry of the Arabians confifted in a fort oi rhimed profe,* 

 ofiETjov, but always rhiming, either in a repetition of the very fame rhimes, 

 or in the return of fimilar founds, correfponding to the firft rhime 

 throughout ; or again, in fuch diftinft and varied rhimes as fancy or 

 convenience offered. Of the firfl fort Le Clerc gives us two examples, 

 one from the Lamiato' I Ajam of Tograi^ whofe rhimes, he tells us. 



Vol. IX. E end 



liger, in his Poetics, pronounces it not inferior to any thing in Pindar ; and Cafauboo 

 in his Animadverfions on Athensus, calls it carmen aureolum. Might I offer an opinion 

 after fuch great authorities, I fliould fay it was the work of a great post and a great 

 philofophtr. The odes of China, it (hould feem, ftrongly referable this of Ariftotle in 

 their fober fimplicity, and that virtue which is obferved to animate them. 



* This rhimed profe they ufe even to this day, in their common difcourle, as well 

 on affairs of bufinefs, as in their falutations and viCts of ceremony. When we reflefl 

 that the Arabian language is Angularly adapted to poetry, being expreffiye, ftrong, mu. 

 Ccal and fonorou5, and perhaps the moft copious of any in the world, one is tempted 

 •0 think rhime eflential to the language of the mufes. 



t Vid. Lamiato 7 Ajam, Carmen Tograi, poetae Arabls doftiflimi, cum verfione Latina, 

 •^pera Edvardi Pocock. Oxon. i66i. 



