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the combinations of concurring, or the perplexity of contending paffions. He had read much, and knew what books could teach; but had mingled little in the world, and was deficient in the knowledge which experience must confer.

Through all his greater works there prevails an uniform peculiarity of Diction, a mode and caft of expreffion which bears little refemblance to that of any former writer; and which is fo far removed from common ufe, that an unlearned reader, when he first opens his book, finds himself surprised by a new language.

This novelty has been, by thofe who can find nothing wrong in Milton, imputed to his laborious endeavours after words fuitable to the grandeur of his ideas. Our language, fays Addifon, funk under bim. But the truth is, that, both in profe and verfe, he had formed his ftyle by a perverfe and pedantick principle. He was defirous to ufe English words with a foreign idiom. This in all his profe is difcovered and condemned; for there judgement operates freely, neither foftened by the beauty, nor awed by the dignity of his thoughts; but fuch is the power of his poetry, that his call is obeyed without refiftance, the reader feels himfelf in captivity to a higher and a nobler mind, and criticifm finks in admiration.

Milton's ftyle was not modified by his fubject; what is fhewn with greater extent in Paradife Loft, may be found in Conius. One fource of his peculi arity was his familiarity with the Tuscan poets; the difpofition of his words is, I think, frequently Italian; perhaps fometimes combined with other tongues.

Of him, at laft, may be faid what Jonfon fays of Spenfer, that be wrote no language, but has formed what Butler calls a Babylonifh dialect, in itfelf harsh and barbarous, but made by exalted genius and extenfive learning the vehicle of fo much inftruction and fo much pleasure, that, like other lovers, we find grace in its deformity.

Whatever be the faults of his diction, he cannot want the praise of copiousness and variety: he was mafter of his language in its full extent; and has felected the melodious words with fuch diligence, that from his book alone the Art of English Poetry might be learned.

After his diction, fomething must be said of his verfification. The measure, he fays, is the English heroick verfe without rhyme. Of this mode he had many examples among the Italians, and fome in his own country. The Earl of Surrey is faid to have tranflated one of Virgil's books without rhyme; and, befide our tragedies, a few short poems had appeared in blank verfe, particularly one tending to reconcile the nation to Raleigh's wild attempt upon Guiana, and probably written by Raleigh himself. These petty performances cannot be supposed to have much influenced Milton, who more probably took his hint from Triffino's Italia Liberata; and, finding blank verse easier than rhyme, was defirous of perfuading himself that it is better.

Rhyme, he fays, and fays truly, is no neceffary adjunct of true poetry. But, perhaps, of poetry, as a mental operation, metre or mufick is no neceffary adjunct it is however by the mufick of metre that poetry has been discriminated in all languages;

and,

and, in languages melodiously constructed with a due proportion of long and short fyllables, metre is sufficient. But one language cannot communicate its rules to another; where metre is fcanty and imperfect, fome help is neceffary. The mufick of the English heroick lines ftrikes the ear fo faintly, that it is easily loft, unless all the fyllables of every line co-operate together; this co-operation can be only obtained by the prefervation of every verse unmingled with another as a diftinct fyftem of founds; and this distinctness is obtained and preferved by the artifice of rhyme. The variety of pauses, so much boafted by the lovers of blank verfe, changes the measures of an English poet to the periods of a declaimer; and there are only a few skilful and happy readers of Milton, who enable their audience to perceive where the lines end or begin. Blank verse, faid an ingenious critick, feems to be verfe only to the eye.

Poetry may fubfift without rhyme, but English poetry will not often please; nor can rhyme ever be fafely fpared but where the fubject is able to support itself. Blank verfe makes fome approach to that which is called the lapidary ftyle; has neither the eafinefs of profe, nor the melody of numbers, and therefore tires by long continuance. Of the Italian writers without rhyme, whom Milton alledges as precedents, not one is popular; what reafon could urge in its defence has been confuted by the ear.

But, whatever be the advantages of rhyme, I cannot prevail on myself to with that Milton had been a rhymer; for I cannot wifh his work to be other than it is; yet, like other heroes, he is to be admired

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admired rather than imitated. He that thinks himself capable of aftonishing may write blank verfe; but those that hope only to please muft condefcend to rhyme.

The highest praise of genius is original invention. Milton cannot be faid to have contrived the structure of an epick poem, and therefore owes reverence to that vigour and amplitude of mind to which, all generations must be indebted for the art of poetical narration, for the texture of the fable, the variation of incidents, the interpofition of dialogue, and all the ftratagems that furprife and enchain attention. But, of all the borrowers from Homer, Milton is perhaps the leaft indebted. He was naturally a thinker for himself, confident of his own abilities, and difdainful of help or hindrance: he did not refuse admiffion to the thoughts or images of his predeceffors, but he did not feek them. From his contemporaries he neither courted nor received fupport; there is in his writings nothing by which the pride of other authors might be gratified, or favour gained; no exchange of praife, nor folicitation of fupport. His great works were performed under discountenance, and in blindness; but difficulties vanished at his touch; he was born for whatever is arduous; and his work is not the greatest of heroick poems, only because it is not the first.

BUT

BUTLER.

F the great author of Hudibras there is a life prefixed to the latter editions of his poem, by an unknown writer, and therefore of difputable authority; and fome account is incidentally given by Wood, who confeffes the uncertainty of his own narrative; more however than they knew cannot now be learned, and nothing remains but to compare and copy them.

SAMUEL BUTLER was born in the parish of Strenfham in Worcestershire, according to his biographer, in 1612. This account Dr. Nafh finds confirmed by the regifter. He was chriftened Feb. 14.

His father's condition is variously represented, Wood mentions him as competently wealthy; but Mr. Longueville, the fon of Butler's principal friend, fays he was an honeft farmer with fome fmall eftate, who made a shift to educate his fon at the grammarschool of Worcester, under Mr. Henry Bright*, from whose

*Thefe are the words of the author of the fhort account of Butler prefixed to Hudibras, which Dr. Johnson, notwithstanding what he fays above, feems to have fuppofed was written by Mr. Longueville,

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