However, when at any time you find y muse 

 propitious, I shall always rejoice to see a copy of 

 y"^ performance; and shall be ready to commend; 

 and what is more rare, yet more sincere, even to 

 object and criticize where there is occasion. 



A little turn for English poetry is no doubt a 

 pretty accomplishment for a young Gent: and will 

 not only enable him the better to read and relish our 

 best poets ; but will, like dancing to the body, have 

 an happy influence even on his prose compositions. 

 Our best poets have been our best prose-writers : of 

 this assertion Dryden and Pope are notorious in- 

 stances. It would be in vain to think of saying 

 much here on the art of versification : instead of the 

 narrow limits of a letter such a subject would re- 

 quire a large volume. However, I may say in few 

 words, that the way to excell is to copy only from 

 our best writers. The great grace of poetry con- 

 sists in a perpetual variation of y cadences: if pos- 

 sible no two lines following ought to have their 

 pause at the same foot. Another beauty should not 

 be passed over, and that is the use of throwing the 

 sense and pause into the third Hue, which add a 

 dignity and freedom to y"" expressions. Dryden in- 

 troduced this practice, and carryed it to great per- 

 fection : but his successor Pope, by his over exact- 

 ness, corrected away that noble liberty, and almost 

 reduced every sentence within the narrow bounds 



of a couplet. Alliteration, or the art of introducing 

 31 203 



