“Eve, easily may Faith admit that all The Good which we enjoy, from Heav’n descends; But, that from us ought should ascend to Heav’n So prevalent as to concern the Mind Of God high-blest, or to incline his Will, Hard to belief may seem; yet this will Prayer, Or one short Sigh of human Breath, up born Ev’n to the Seat of God.  For since I sought By Pray’r th’ offended Deity to appease; Kneel’d and before him humbled all my Heart, Methought I saw him placable and mild, Bending his Ear, _&c._

How extremely fine is the Poetry of this Passage?  How soft is the beginning, occasion’d by the Assonance of the two first Words, Eve, Easily, and of the five next all alliterated with the same Vowel, A

  “—­May Faith admit that all.

How solemn is the Pause at the 1st Syllable of the 3d Line! But—­

And the Caesure upon the Monosyllable Us that follows immediately,

  “But—­that from us—­

And the same Energy is plainly perceiv’d at the End of the 6th Line, where the Caesure is plac’d upon the Monosyllable yet,

  “Yet—­this will Prayer, _&c._

But when we come to that Line,

  “Kneel’d; and before Him humbled all my Heart,

such is the Force of the Word kneel’d in that Situation, that we actually see Adam upon his Knees before the offended Deity; and by the Conclusion of this Paragraph,—­Bending his Ear, Infinite Goodness is visibly as it were represented to our Eyes as inclining to hearken to the Prayers of his penitent Creature.

LETTER VI.

SIR,

[Sidenote:  XI.]

I am now to proceed to the Assonantia Syllabarum or Rhyme.  I have shown under this Head how much Virgil abounds in Rhyme; from whence I conclude, that it may be reasonably supposed Rhyme had its Original from a nobler Beginning than the Barbarity of Druids and Monks.  It is very probable that Chaucer, Dante, and Petrarch learnt it from Virgil, and that other Nations follow’d the Example they had set them.

To say the Bards rhym’d in the Times of grossest Ignorance, merely by their own Invention, only proves that Rhyme is naturally harmonious.  We are told by the Learned that the Hebrew Poetry is in Rhyme, and that where-ever any Footsteps of this Art are to be trac’d, Rhyme is always found, whether in Lapland or in China.

If it should be objected that the Greek Tongue is an Exception to this general Rule; that Matter perhaps may be disputed, or a particular Answer might be given.  But that the Latin Language is a Friend to Rhyme is clear beyond all doubt; and the same is as true of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.