1797.) Direétions for Englifh Ver fyfication..Scoteh Literature. 44 
principles of-criticifm; to confider the 
conne‘tion between poetry and mufic; to 
ftudy thofe writers who have more parti- 
cularly attended to the princtples of har- 
monv, I mean the Greek and Latin; and, 
always recolleétiny, that Englith poetry, 
fo far as concerns the mechanical part of 
it, is deducible from the fame principles ; 
to acquire a familiarity with “bofe Englith 
writers who may be confidered as the 
mott excellent verfifiers ; fuch as Milton 
unqueftionably is with refpeét to blank 
verfe, and Pope with refpect to rhyme 
of ten fyliables. 
Having, by thefe means, acquired a good 
ear, your correfpondent will have lefs oc- 
cafion for rules. At fome future period, 
however, [ may, perhaps, fubmit a few 
hints to his confideration through your 
Magazine : for the prefent, I propofe to 
his examination the following books : 
A pamphlet, entitled, Of Harmony 
and Numbers, in Latin and Englifh Profe, 
and in Englifh Poetry, in five Chapters, 
by the Rev. Edward Mainwaring. 
Webb’s Conneétion between Poetry, 
Painting, and Mutfic. 
A very excellent, though fhort, Effay, 
on the fubjeét of Englith verfification, in 
Mr. Walth’s Letters to Pope. ~ Letter the 
the fixth, in Pope’s Works. 
A little work, lately publifhed, on 
Latin verfification, entitled, “ Metrona- 
rifton,’” which contains fome incidental 
obfervations on Englifli verfification. 
A few obfervations alfo may be collect- 
ed from bifhop Hurd’s Differtations fub- 
joined to his Commentary and Notes on 
Horace’s Art of Poetry. 
Some ufeful hints, occafionally thrown 
out, may be alfo gathered from Warton’s 
Effay on the Life and Writings of Pope, 
and Wakefield's Editions of Pope and. 
Gray. I wifh I could add to this lift the 
Iliad of Homer, as corrected by the Elder 
Captain Morris, which ts finifhed by him 
with much tafte. 
For the blank verfe, vour correfpondent 
may procure, Letters concerning Poeti- 
cal Tranflations, and Virgil’s and _Mil- 
ton’s Arts of Verfe, commonly afcribed to 
Mr. Auditor Benfon. I have never read 
this work. It is made ufe of by bifhop 
Newron, in his edition of Milton. 
Bithop Newton himfelf has made fome 
ebfervations on Milton’s verfe in the courfe 
ef his notes, ‘more particularly in his 
notes on the beginning of Paradife Loft, 
« OF man’s firft difobedience,”’ &c. 
I am, your’s, &c. 
- G. D. 
ae 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
ACCOUN? OF THE FORMER PRo-~ 
GRESS AND PRESENT STATE OF 
LITERATURE AND SCIENCE IN 
SCOTLAND. 
[Concluded from our laft.] 
| ey hiftory, fo great was the fuccefs of 
Foltaire and Hume, and fo deficient 
was Britifh literature fill accounted to be 
in excellent models, that this province ap- 
peared to the Scottifh votaries of liberal 
learning to prefeat a fair field on which 
emolument and diftinCtion might be cer- 
tainly acquired. About the end of the 
year 1788, Robertfon gave to the world, in 
his Hiflory of Scotland, a work which was 
praifed by Chefferfeld, as one of the mok 
perfect models of hiftorical compofition 
that had ever been written. Its fuccefs 
encouraged him afterwards to publifh fuce 
ceffively his Hifory of Charles ibe Fifth, 
and of Spanifb America. His literary 
career was clofed with the publication of 
his Difquifitions concerning India. Gilbert 
Stuart, and Henry, and Watfon, and 
Lothian, and Fergufon, have foliowed the 
hiftorical career of Hume and Robertfon; 
but baud paffibus equis. Somerville, Dr. 
Thomas Rodserifin, the ingenious and inde- 
fatigable Mr. PINKERTON, with the late 
Sir David Dalrymple, and the prefent Stim 
Joun DALRYMPLE. have alfo tried their 
talents in hiftory ; and I know not whe- 
ther we may not juiily eftimate their me- 
rits by the meafure of their fuccefs. 
Even the lighter branches of elegant 
literature, which are rarely carried to high 
perfection in the earlier fiages of the pro-. 
grefs of learning among any nation, have 
already. been very fucceisfully cultivated 
by the Scots. Moralsty and Criticifm have 
been prelented in the charming pages of 
BiatrR, in a form in which they make 
almoft as light reading as any play or novel 
whatfoever. In the. Mirrour and the 
Lounger, the eflays of Addifon, of Fobufony 
of Hawkefworth, of Colman, and Thorne 
ton, have been imitated with very come 
mendable diligence, tafte, and fpirit. The 
poems of Burns, written in the Scotrith 
dialeét, have been defervedly admired. 
Tytler, the learned profeffor of civil hiftory 
in the univerfity of Edinburgh, is fup-' 
pofed to be the author of an exce'lent 
Effay on the Principles of Tranflation, and 
of fome other anonymous picces of great 
merit. Logan, who, within thefe few 
years, died in London, wrote fome valua- 
ble picces of poeiry, with a variety of 
eloquent works in profe. Dr. Wilkam 
Thompjon, well known as the author of 
many refpedtable mifcellancous works, 
fiudied 

