yo Dr. Barnes tin Poetry. 
Roman tongues were fo happily conftrudted, 
that their verfe eafily diftinguifhed itfelf by its 
arrangement, and therefore needed no fecondary 
or artificial aid. It lias been thought, that our 
Englifh tongue is not equally happy; and that, 
therefore, rhyme is, in general, neceftary to make 
the difcrimination perfedb, and to give that chime 
or muftc to the ear, which the fucceftion of long 
and fhort fyllables alone, could not effedb. The 
fadb adduced in fupport of this obfervaiion by 
Dr. Johnfon, * is certainly true ; <c that very few 
poems, in blank verfe, have long maintained 
a charadber among us. Thomfon, and above 
all, Milton, are great exceptions, but their ftile is 
fingular. They formed thenrtfelves upon no 
model; and are originals which we may admire , 
but ought not to attempt to copy” 
This remark, though, perhaps, in fome degree 
juft, is, however, degrading. And, if the tag 
of rhyme be, in general, neceftary to our Englifh 
poetry, it will be an additional argument in 
favour of that hypothefis, which luppofes metre 
to be the grand criterion of poetic diction. 
Yet, methinks, the Dodbor is too fevere, when he 
fays, “ The variety of paufes, fo much boafted of 
by the lovers of blank verfe, changes the rneafures 
of an Englifh Poet , into the periods of a declaimer 
To me, there appears a very eflential difference, 
* Life of Milton. 
between 
