1797:] Taylor's Reply to G. W..Welfo Poetry...Defence of Rhyme. 235 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SISHT Bie : 
mm HOUCH your correfpondent G./W. 
= afferts, that my verfion of Hebrews 
-xi. 3, “Sfeems to be unreafonable, and 
is certainly unneceflary,’’ yet he has not 
offered one argument to prove its unrea- 
fonablenefs ; nor has he, by his para- 
phrafe of the fenfe, fhown it to be un- 
reafonable, unlefs he can make it appa- 
rent, that cau Barzmoseve, OF, things qwhich 
aré feen, means, according to his para- 
phrafed verfion, ‘ the prefent fy{em of 
religious faith.” But who, that has been 
in the habit of ¢henking, does not fee, 
that this is impoffible > I fhould con- 
ceive 1t muf be obvious, almoft to every 
one, that by “‘ things which are feen,” 
Paul meant the mundane phenomena: 
and if this be his meaning, my verfion of 
the pailage muft be unavoidably adopted. 
After all, though it muft be oblerved, 
that 1 only contend for the. natural 
and wn/fophifiicated meaning of the word 
Breoyzeve, G. W. is, doubtlefs, better 
acquainted with the /er/piwral fenfe of 
words than I pretend to be, orthan Ican 
be, confiftently with thofe fentiments 
which L fhall ever glory to avow, and 
labour to propagate. *Y ours. 1scc; 
Manor Place, Walworth. "T. TayLor. 

To the Editor of the Monthly Magaxine. 
SIR, “eR 
gle is the fourth piece, in continua- 
tion, of the poetry of Hywet, fon 
of Gwarin GwyNez, which you have 
been pleafed to infert ; and, as there are 
but four more extant, and thofe fhort, I 
with to-give them all, to be preferved in 
your yaluable Repofitory. Your's, &c. 
i MEIRION. 
Hywel ab Oviain ai cant. 
Paw vai lawen vrain; pan vryfiai waed ; 
Pan wyar wariat 5 
Pan ryvel; pan ruzid ei thai 
Pan RuzLan, pan ruz-lys lofgai; 
Pan ruzam, rhuz-flam flemycai hyd név, 
Ein azev ni nozai; 
Hawz gweled goleu-lofg arnai, 
O gaer wen geir ymyl Menat.— 
Trengyfant trydydyz o vai, trican-llong 
¥n liynges vordia ; 
A degcant cymanoa’u cilial 
- Cyvarv, heb un varv ar VENAT. 
THE TRANSLATION. _ 
Hywel, the jon of Owain, compofed it, 
When the ravens rejoice; when blood is haft- 
ening ; when the gore runs bubbling ; when 
the war doth rage; when the houfes redden in 
Ruzlan 3; when the red hall is burning; when 
we glow with wrath; the ruddy flame it blazes 
“up to heaven ; our abode affords no fhelter ; 
yok 
and plainly is the brizht conflagration feen from 
the white walls upon the fhore of AZenai,—- 
after all he has faid, that it can be placed 
They perithed on the third day of May, three 
hundred thips of a fleet roving the ocean: and 
ten hundred times the number the oppofing 
weapon would put to flight, leaving not a fin- 
gle beard on Menai. 
*y* There is an etror of the prefs in fhe 
firft word of the original of the laft piece: for 
A weifi, vead Afwyeift. , 
gee CSE Sg 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SUR eG 
THOUGH not unacquainted with the 
toil and vexation attending rhyme- 
bunting, yet | own, I have acquired fuch 
a relifh for the jingle, when happily ex- 
ecuted, that { muft requeft you to indulge 
me with the infertion of a few words in 
its favour, in reply to the unmerciful at- 
tack made upon it by your ingenious 
Enquirer. pete 
And firft, with refpeét to the fource 
of the pleafure it attords, I do not fee, 
on a different foundation. from that af- 
forded by verfification ; fSr where is the 
effential difference between being pleafed 
with “ the recurrence of fimilar founds,” 
and with the: return of certaim ‘equal 
portions of fyllables?) It may be diffi- 
cult, in cither cafe, to analyfe the’ plea- 
fure, and refer it to fome original prin- 
ciple in our conftitution; but whether, 
in order to folve the point, we call in 
, the love of variety, or of uniformity, or 
of novelty, it will, as I conceive, apply 
juft as well in one cafe, as in the other. 
Jf the praétice of rhyme originated im 
the dark ages, did not that of verfe ori- 
ginate in periods equally dark? If the 
Greeks and Romans enjoyed their poetry, 
without rhyme, it is certain, that they 
recurred to'modes of verfification, anda 
ftyle of recitation, extremely foreign from 
our ideas; and who thall fay, which is 
moft inthe right? Rhyme is a jingle 
at the end of a line—meafured feet are 2 
falfe pace through the courfe of tt—pen- 
tameter is a hitch in the middle. If one 
of thefe ts ridiculous, abftraétedly con- 
fidered, fo are the reft. If one is found, 
by experience, to be capable of pleafing 
the ear, the fame experience may be 
pleaded in favour of another. 
But rhyine is a fhackle. Doubtlefs it 
is; and fo ts verfe—fo its harmonious 
profe—fo is every thing which obliges 
the writer to exertions fuperior to thofe 
of common language. Rhyme is apt to 
occafion the ule of improper and unne- 
ceffary words.” True, but’fe/doés ver= 
fification, if at all ftudied, or complex. 
An unprejudiced critic will find, even in 
the moft celebrated of the ancient poets, 
DU as diftortiens 
