53 



after a laborious fearch into and inveftigation of the fragments and de- 

 tached fentences of the Greeks, which Athenseus, Tzetzes, old fcholiafts 

 and others have coUefted or commented on, I have not been able to lay 

 my finger on a rhime, I mean ancient rhime of the Greeks, that bears 

 at all on the queftion. I find, indeed, that old Simraias Rhodius, who 

 flouriflied at the commencement of the Olympiads, and according to Suidas 

 406 years after the Trojan war, dedicated a copy of verfes to Diana 

 in her ob/letric capacity, which Dr. Afcham acquaints us was compofed 

 in rhime ; but which appears to be nothing more than a verfe-con- 

 Uruiflcd egg, called by Simmias himfelf the " Egg of a Mufical Bird," 

 whofe hard yoke fat uneafy on this poacher in Parnaflus. After this 

 followed the ax and altar of our bard, his wings and his lyre ; — q«®- Trg®. >ii,ja,. 

 All which gave birth to chriftian altars, globes, cups and balls, pyramids, 

 and other poetic evils ; ab ovo ufque ad malum. Could Pliny have 

 looked from his grave, and beheld an addle-headed Monk laying an egg, 

 would he not have again exclaimed, operofe nihil agens.f 



Some critics have detected in Homer and other Greek writers, 

 certain JJfonants, or words that echo; but thefe are only occafional, 

 and perhaps more the effeft of chance than defign : though a better 

 reafon may be offered ; that, fuch is the harmony of nature, it were im- 

 pollible to give a beautiful expreffion to xhtfenfe, and not to exprefs the 

 found with it. In this very principle lies the germen of rhime. Rhime, 

 we have faid, is the language of nature. A found grand or terrific ac- 

 cords not with one that is foft and tender ; for in the recurrence of the 

 fame found their contrary expreflions can never be felt. If a fublime 

 found be required to ejsprefs the thunder of the battle, or the fliock of 

 jarring elements, (and in what language can they be expreffed without 

 fublimity ?) (hall we feek its fimilar cadence in the murmur of the ri- 

 vulet, or the whifper of the breeze ? And if they do join, what effeft 

 can they produce, but unwelcome difcord, that, while it abases the 

 fubjeft, difappoints and offends the ear ? If then a fublime found require 

 another equally fublime, fhall not their confonance amplify its grandeur ? 

 And muft not rhime be the nobleft harmony of the mufe .'' Take this 



Euphonic 



