This judicious Critick gave the same Opinion of Mr. Cowley above 50 Years ago, which Mr. Pope has given of him lately in one of his Horatian Epistles.

“Abr.  Cowley seu Coulejus poemata scripsit, &c. Quae ad genium Virgiliani Carminis non accedunt:  argutiis enim nimium indulget, ut Epigrammaticum potius quod interdum scribat, quam planum carmen:  Ac praeterea non ubique purus est:  quanquam Angli illum omnes veterum Poetarum numeros implevisse sibi persuadeant.

Foreigners, I am apt to think, frequently judge with more Exactness of our Countrymen’s Performances than the generality of the Natives.  I think the Judgment of another learned Foreigner very sensible, when he says upon reading Virgilium Dryd[)e]ni, “That if the Original had been no better than the Copy, Augustus would have done well to have committed it to the Flames.”  But the Author’s own Words are worth perusing.

“Saepe, Maro, dixi, quantum mutatus ab illo es! 
Romani quondam qui stupor orbis eras. 
Si te sic tantum voluisset vivere Caesar,
Quam satius, flammis te periisse foret.
Vid. Fabric.  Bib.  Lat.

December 4. 1736,

I am, SIR, _&c._

LETTER X.

SIR,

By what I have shewn in the preceding Letters, it sufficiently appears that Virgil and Milton had good reason to begin with Hinc canere incipiam. Nunc te Bacche canam. Arma Virumque cano. Sing Heavenly Muse. Their Verse is all Musick, and that is the reason why their Poems please, though ever so often read:  And all Poetry that is not attended with Harmony, is properly speaking no Poetry at all.

Let the Sense be ever so fine, if the Verse is not melodious, the Reader will undoubtedly find himself soon overtaken with Drowsiness.  But what I chiefly hope I have made out, is, that Rhyme does not owe its Original to Druids, or to dreaming Monks, since it is certain there is more Rhyme in Virgil, than there can be in any English Translation of his Works. English Verse never admits but of two Syllables that Rhyme in two Lines.  But in Virgil, it is not easy to tell how many Rhymes there are in a single Line; as for Example,

  “O nimium Coelo, & pelago confise sereno,

  “Et sola in sicca secum spatiatur arena.

And the like.  But what would you say, if I was to observe to you all that Erythraeus has writ of the Rhyme Cum intervallo, & sine intervallo in Virgil?  Of the Rhyme sine intervallo there are four Examples in the two first Lines of the AEneid, namely, in the first, no—­tro, and qui—­pri.  In the second, to—­pro, and que—­ ve.