1800.] Concerning Hexameters, 
Jo the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
S a philofophical examination of tri- 
A fling circumftances fometimes leads 
to important difcoveries, I wifh to draw 
the attention of fome of your {cientific 
readers to a commonly received maxim 
among the ladies, that tea made in a filver 
or japanned tea-pot is better than that 
which is made in China, or earthen ware. 
The reafon they allege for it is, that it 
draws better ; and as far as my oblerva- 
tion has gone the maxim appears to be 
founded on fact. I imagine the difference 
mult be occafioned by the action of the 
heat, which, paffing with more facility 
through the metal than the earthen fub- 
ftances, may probably have a greater effect 
in ex racting the virtues from the vegeta- 
ble infufed. Upon this principle I con- 
ceive it might be a defirable improvement 
in brewing or diftiliing, if copper or iron 
were fubftituted infead of wood for the 
mafh tuns, as the latter muft greatly re- 
tard the ation ot heat. Should you think 
this hint deferving a place in your valuable 
mifcellany, it may be the means of induc- 
ing fome of your experienced readers to 
inveltigate the fubjeét more minutely ; and 
fhould it he attended with any advantage, 
it will afford fome pleafure te your con- 
ftant reader, Onyx HOoILe, 
Goodman’s Fields, Sep. 10, 1800. 
—=2 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
COMPLETE tranflation of Klop- 
fock’s Meffiah into Engiiftt is de- 
voutly to be wifhed. It may probably be 
expected trom the hand of Sin HERBERT 
Crort (ice his Letter to the Princefs Roy- 
al). He projects a prole tranflation line 
for line, and has enjoyed fo much of the 
author’s acquaintance as occafionally to 
have coniulted him about the meaning of 
thole ob{curer paffages, which even Ger- 
mans interpret with faultering. Sucha 
verfion would however not preclude the 
with for a metrical, polifhed, and lefs anx- 
ioufly verbal tranflation: but I cannot 
agree with Mr. Good * (p. 1) in recom- 


* If your Correfpondent were to review his 
own lines through the microfcope of captious 
criticifm, he would be become aware that they 
occafionally tolerate tne infertion of redun- 
dant or improper epithets: fuch are, furely : 
“< qwearied city,” (for it is alfa faid to fleep) ; 
€* pet malignant,” (a tautology, for all peits 
are fo) ; pale lamp,” (the flame of a lamp 
» fully ? 
and Klopftock’s Meffiah. 317 
mending to the future tranflator, by his 
example at Jeaft, the adoption of five-foot 
couplets, or heroic verfe, as our moft cuf- 
tomary metre is fometimes called. So 
much Englifh poetry has been written, 
fince Dryden, in this form, that all pofli- 
ble ftructures of line are familiar, and all 
fources of variation exnaufted ; every ca- 
dence Is an echo, every paufe expected, 
every rhyme forefeen. It beftows there- 
fore, even on novelty of thought, a flat 
featurelefs mien, an infipid treacly fame 
nefs, a terfe quotidian triviality, very un. 
favourable to impreffion, and wholly im- 
pervious to peculiar and characteriftic fal- 
lies of genius and orginality. The ufe 
of heroic verle, for rendering the work of 
a mannerift is like adding to wine milk, ~ 
which turns hock or fherrts into the {ane 
undittinzuifhable poflet. How much more 
of variety there is in the Homer of Cow- 
per, or in the Taflo of Fairfax, than in the 
couplets of Pope, and Hoole. Had Mac. 
pherfon verfified all Offian, like the fpe- 
cimen in his preface, would he have de- 
tained to the end our attention fo delight- 
To a majeftic fimplicity of ftyle, 
to the fublime of thought enly, heroic 
verfe feems peculiarly tatal—confult the 
rhymed book of Job—it is more infuffer- 
able than the Alexandrines of a French 
tragedy. 
The very metre employed in the origi. 
nal Mefflish is no lefs adaptable to the 
other Gothic dialects than to the German. 
In all of them ftrefs makes quantity. An 
emphatic fyliable 1s long; an unem- 
phatic fyllable, fhort. The fcanner 
has to confider neither the articulation of 
the vowels, nor the pofition of the confo- 
nants: two accented fyllables form his 
{pondees ; one accented and two unac- 
cented, his daétyls. With fuch feet Klop- 
ftock compofes Hexameters, carefully put- 
ting a dacty] in the firth place, unlefs a pe- 
culiar heavinefs of cadence is requifite ; 
and indulging frequently in the licentious 
fub{titution of trochces to fpondees, not 
is reddith) ; “* converte fill,” (a language of 
the eyes) ; childle/s mother,” (fhe is already 
robbed of her babes); ‘* dul! fexton,” (a pof- 
fible accident, but not fignificant here); 
*< deferts drear,”” (a tautology) 3 and “‘ righte- 
ous Judgment,” (the approach of Satan is not 
compared to that of a righteous or merited 
judgment.) In all this, not the rapidity of 
the writer, the metre itfelf muft be in fault 5 
for, if report faystrue, fpecimens of a Tranf- 
lation of Lucretius by Mr. Good have been 
handed about, which difplay not only ample 
powers of language, but precificn of feyle, and 
great felicity of imitations 
only 
