* GENERAL POSTSCRIPT. 53 



unfaid on that part of the art on which it was my purpofb 

 principally to enlarge, I thought the Didactic method not 

 only more open but more proper for my attempt. This mat- 

 ter once determined, I did not hefitate as to my choice between 

 blank verfe and rhyme > becaufe it clearly appeared,, that num* 

 bers of the moft varied kind were moft proper to illuftrate a 

 fubject ivbofe every charm fpr ings from variety, and which 

 painting Nature, as fcorning control, (hould employ a verifi- 

 cation for that end as unfettered as Nature itfelf. Art at the 

 fame time, in rural improvements, pervading the province of 

 Nature, unfeen ajwi unfelt, feemed to bear, a finking analogy 

 to that fpecies of verfe, the harmony of which refults from 

 meafured quantity and varied cadence, without the too ftudied 

 arrangement of final fyllables, or regular return of confonant 

 founds. I waSy notwithstanding, well aware, that by choofing 

 to write in blank verfe, I mould not court popularity, becaufe 

 I perceived it was growing much out of vogue; but this 

 reafon, as may be fuppofed, did not weigH much with a writer, 

 who meant to combat Famion in the very theme he intended 

 to write upon ; and who was alfo convinced that a mode of 

 Englifh verfification, in which fo many good poems, witb 



H 3 Paradife 



