DR DARWIN. 3O9 



to improve, as in the above fecond line 

 of this fecond Canto. Dryden, in his 

 noble Ode on St. Cecilia's Day, has alli- 

 terated with the hiffing f, in two lines, 

 which he meant fhould be peculiarly 

 mufical ; thus, 



Softly fweet in Lydian raeafures 

 Soon he footh'd the foul to pleafures. 



A foreign ear would not endure the 

 lines, which, however lively, are certainly 

 not tender, not harmonious ; yet the^ and 

 all the harfher confonants, are capable of 

 producing, by fkilful application, that 

 " echo of found to fenfe," which is fo 

 eminently defirable in poetry. When Mil- 

 ton obferves in the Paradife Loft, 



So talk'd the fpirited fly fnake, 



the line attains, folely by alliteration, the 

 perfect hifs of the ferpent ; and Pope, in 

 his Homer, by a mafterly intermixture of 

 the vowels and the fonorous confonants 

 x 3 with 



