MEMOIRS OF 



With foft, fufpended Hep Attention moves, 

 And Silence hovers o'er the liftening groves. 



The fecond line of the paflage is too alli- 

 terative, and therefore palls upon the ear. 

 Alliteration is an edge tool in the Poet's 

 hand, improving or injuring his verfe, as it 

 is judicioufly or injudicioufly ufed. Homer, 

 Virgil, Ovid, Spenfer, Milton, and all the 

 beft poets, have employed it to admirable 

 cffeft ; and to admirable effecl has Dr. Dar- 

 win frequently employed it, though not in 

 this inftance. It often increafes, and fome- 

 times entirely constitutes, that power which, 

 by a metaphoric expreffion that literal 

 terms would neither fo concifely nor fo 

 well explain, is called pi&urefque found. 

 To increafe the harmony of verfe, allitera- 

 tion muft be \vith the vowels, the liquid 

 letter /, or by the fonorous letters m and n, 

 and even with them it's too frequent ufe in 

 a poem, or too lavifli repetition in a fingle 

 line or couplet, will injure what it is defigned 



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