صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

rejected the hexameter of the ancients, the double clofe of the Italians, and the alexandrine of the French; and the elifion of vowels, however graceful it may seem to other nations, may be very unfuitable to the genius of the English tongue.

There is reason to believe that we have negligently loft part of our vowels, and that the filent e which our ancestors added to most of our monofyllables, was once vocal. By this detruncation of our fyllables, our language is overstocked with confonants, and it is more neceffary to add vowels to the beginning of words, than to cut them off from the end.

Milton therefore feems to have somewhat mistaken the nature of our language, of which the chief defect is ruggedness and asperity, and has left our harsh cadences yet harsher. But his elifions are not all equally to be cenfured; in fome fyllables they may be allowed, and perhaps in a few may be fafely imitated. The abfciffion of a vowel is undoubtedly vicious when it is ftrongly founded, and makes, with its affociate confonant, a full and audible fylJable,

What he gives,

Spiritual, may to pureft spirits be found,
No ingrateful food, and food alike these pure
Intelligential fubftances require.

Fruits,- -Hefperian fables true,
If true, here only, and of delicious taste.

Evening now approach'd,

For we have also our evening and our morn.

Of guests he makes them flaves,
Inhofpitably, and kills their infant males.

And

And vital Virtue infus'd, and vital warmth
Throughout the fluid mass.

God made thee of choice his own, and of his own To ferve him.

I believe every reader will agree that in all thofe paffages, though not equally in all, the mufick is injured, and in fome the meaning obfcured. There are other lines in which the vowel is cut off, but it is fo faintly pronounced in common fpeech, that the lofs of it in poetry is fcarcely perceived; and therefore fuch compliance with the measure may be allowed.

Nature breeds

Perverse, all monftrous, all prodigious things,
Abominable, inutterable; and worfe

Than fables yet have feign'd.

From the fhore

They view'd the vaft immenfurable abyfs.
Impenetrable, impal'd with circling fire.

To none communicable in earth or heav'n.

Yet even these contractions encreafe the roughness of a language too rough already; and though in long poems they may be fometimes fuffered, it never can be faulty to forbear them.

Milton frequently ufes in his poems the hypermetrical or redundant line of eleven fyllables.

-Thus it fhall befall

Him who to worth in woman over-trufting

Lets her will rule

I alfo err'd in over-much admiring.

Verses of this kind occur almoft in every page; but though they are not unpleafing or diffonant, they ought not to be admitted into heroick poetry, fince the narrow limits of our language allow us no other diftinction of epick and tragick measures, than is afforded by the liberty of changing at will the terminations of the dramatick lines, and bringing them by that relaxation of metrical rigour nearer to prose.

NUMB. 89. TUESDAY, January 22, 1751.

Dulce eft defipere in loco.

Wisdom at proper times is well forgot..

HOR.

LOCKE, whom there is no reason to fufpect of being a favourer of idleness or libertinifm, has advanced, that whoever hopes to employ any part of his time with efficacy and vigour, must allow fome of it to pass in trifles. It is beyond the powers of humanity to spend a whole life in profound ftudy and intense meditation, and the moft rigorous exacters of industry and ferioufnefs have appointed hours for relaxation and amusement.

It is certain, that, with or without our confent, many of the few moments allotted us will flide imperceptibly away, and that the mind will break, from confinement to its stated task, into fudden excurfions. Severe and connected attention is preferved but for a fhort time, and when a man fhuts himself up in his closet, and bends his thoughts to the difcuffion of any abftrufe

5

abftrufe question, he will find his faculties continually ftealing away to more pleafing entertainments. He often perceives himfelf tranfported, he knows not how, to diftant tracts of thought, and return to his first object as from a dream, without knowing when he forfook it, or how long he has been abstracted from it.

It has been obferved that the moft ftudious are not always the most learned. There is, indeed, no great difficulty in difcovering that this difference of proficiency may arife from the difference of intellectual powers, of the choice of books, or the convenience of information. But I believe it likewife frequently happens that the most reclufe are not the most vigorous profecutors of ftudy. Many impofe upon the world, and many upon themfelves, by an appearance of fevere and exemplary diligence, when they, in reality, give themselves up to the luxury of fancy, pleafe their minds with regulating the paft, or planning out the future; place themfelves at will in varied fituations of happiness, and flumber away their days in voluntary vifions. In the journey of life fome are left behind, becaufe they are naturally feeble and flow; fome becaufe they mifs the way, and many becaufe they leave it by choice, and inftead of preffing onward with a steady pace, delight themfelves with momentary deviations, turn afide to pluck every flower, and repofe in every shade.

There is nothing more fatal to a man whofe bufinefs is to think, than to have learned the art of regaling his mind with thofe airy gratifications. Other vices or follies are reftrained by fear, reformed by admonition, or rejected by the conviction which the

com

comparison of our conduct with that of others, may in time produce. But this invifible riot of the mind, this fecret prodigality of being, is fecure from detection, and fearless of reproach. The dreamer retires to his apartments, fhuts out the cares and interruptions of mankind, and abandons himself to his own fancy; new worlds rife up before him, one image is followed by another, and a long fucceffion of delights dances round him. He is at last called back to life by nature, or by cuftom, and enters peevish into fociety, because he cannot model it to his own will. He returns from his idle excurfions with the afperity, though not with the knowledge of a ftudent, and haftens again to the fame felicity with the eagerness of a man bent upon the advancement of fome favourite fcience. The infatuation ftrengthens by degrees, and, like the poison of opiates, weakens his powers, without any external symptom of malignity.

It happens, indeed, that these hypocrites of learning are in time detected, and convinced by difgrace and disappointment of the difference between the labour of thought, and the sport of mufing. But this discovery is often not made till it is too late to recover the time that has been fooled away. A thousand accidents may, indeed, awaken drones to a more early fenfe of their danger and their fhame. But they who are convinced of the neceffity of breaking from this habitual drowfinefs, too often relapfe in fpite of their refolution; for thefe ideal feducers are always near, and neither any particularity of time nor place is neceffary to their influence; they invade the foul without warning, and have often charmed down

refift

« السابقةمتابعة »