V.

CHA P. pally delights us in that performance is, the furprifing eafe and felicity with which he runs the parallel between the English history and the Greek mythology. Of all the allufions which the following paffage contains, there is not one, taken fingly, of very extraordinary merit; and yet the effect of the whole is uncommonly great, from the fingular power of combination, which fo long and fo difficult an exertion discovers.

"Wife Phidias thus, his fkill to prove,

"Thro' many a god advanced to Jove,
"And taught the polish'd rocks to fhine
"With airs and lineaments divine,
"Till Greece amaz'd and half afraid,
"Th' affembled Deities furvey'd.

"Great Pan, who wont to chase the fair,
"And lov'd the fpreading oak, was there;
"Old Saturn, too, with up-caft eyes,
"Beheld his abdicated fkies;

"And mighty Mars for war renown'd,

"In adamantine armour frown'd;

"By him the childlefs Goddess rofe,
"Minerva, ftudious to compofe

"Her twisted threads; the web fhe ftrung,
"And o'er a loom of marble hung;

"Thetis, the troubled ocean's queen,

"Match'd with a mortal next was feen,

V.

ACCORDING to the view which I have given of the nature of CHA P. Wit, it prefuppofes not only peculiar habits of affociation, but a mind stored with a great variety of ideas: and, accordingly, it has been remarked by Dr. Warton *, that "the chief of "those who have excelled in works of wit and humour, have "been men of extenfive learning." He inftances Lucian, Cervantes, Quevedo, Rabelais, Butler, and the members of the Scriblerus club.

II. Of Rhyme.

THE pleasure we receive from rhyme, feems also to arise, partly, from our furprise at the command which the Poet must have acquired over the train of his ideas, in order to be able to express himself with elegance, and the appearance of ease, under the restraint which rhyme impofes. In witty or in humorous performances, this surprise serves to enliven that which the wit or the humour produces, and renders its effects more fenfible. How flat do the livelieft and moft ludicrous thoughts appear in blank verfe? And how wonderfully is the wit of Pope heightened, by the eafy and happy rhymes in which it is expreffed?

Ir mut not, however, be imagined, either in the cafe of wit or of rhyme, that the pleasure arifes folely from our surprise at the uncommon habits of affociation which the author difcoIn the former cafe, there must be presented to the mind,

vers.

Effay on the Genius and Writings of POPE.

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CHA P. an unexpected analogy or relation between different ideas: and perhaps other circumftances must concur to render the wit perfect. If the combination has no other merit than that of bringing together two ideas which never met before, we may be furprised at its oddity, but we do not confider it as a proof of wit. On the contrary, the want of any analogy or relation between the combined ideas, leads us to fufpect, that the one did not fuggeft the other, in confequence of any habits of affociation; but that the two were brought together by study, or by mere accident. All that I affirm is, that when the analogy or relation is pleasing in itself, our pleasure is heightened by our furprise at the author's habits of affociation when compared with our own. In the cafe of Rhyme, too, there is undoubtedly a certain degree of pleasure arising from the recurrence of the fame found. We frequently observe children amuse themselves with repeating over fingle words which rhyme together and the lower people, who derive little pleafure from poetry, excepting in fo far as it affects the ear, are so pleased with the echo of the rhymes, that when they read verses where it is not perfect, they are apt to fupply the Poet's defects, by violating the common rules of pronunciation. This pleasure, however, is heightened by our admiration at the miraculous powers which the Poet muft have acquired over the train of his ideas, and over all the various modes of expreffion which the language affords, in order to convey instruction and entertainment, without tranfgreffing the established laws of regular verfification. In fome of the lower kinds of poetry; for example, in acroftics, and in the lines which are adapted to

3

bouts

Even

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bouts-rimés, the merit lies entirely in this command of CHA P.. thought and expreffion; or in other words, in a command of ideas founded on extraordinary habits of affociation. fome authors of a fuperior class, occafionally fhew an inclination to display their knack at rhyming, by introducing, at the end of the first line of a couplet, fome word to which the language hardly affords a corresponding found. Swift, in his more trifling pieces, abounds with inftances of this; and in Hudibras, when the author ufes his double and triple rhymes, many couplets have no merit whatever but what arifes from difficulty of execution.

THE pleasure we receive from rhyme in ferious compositions, arifes from a combination of different circumftances which my present subject does not lead me to investigate particularly *. am perfuaded, however, that it arifes, in part, from our fur

I

* In Elegiac poetry, the recurrence of the fame found, and the uniformity in the ftructure of the verfification which this neceffarily occafions, are peculiarly fuited to the inactivity of the mind, and to the flow and equable fucceffion of its ideas, when under the influence of tender or melancholy paffions; and, accordingly, in such cases, even the Latin poets, though the genius of their language be very ill fitted for compofitions in rhyme, occafionally indulge them-

felves in fomething very nearly approaching to it.

"Memnona fi mater, mater ploravit Achillem,

"Et tangant magnas triftia fata Deas;

"Flebilis indignos Elegeia folve capillos,

"Ah nimis ex vero nunc tibi nomen erit."

Many other instances of the fame kind might be produced from the Elegiac verfes of Ovid and Tibullus.

302

CHA P. prife at the Poet's habits of affociation, which enable him to

V.

convey his thoughts with ease and beauty, notwithstanding the narrow limits within which his choice of expreffion is confined. One proof of this is, that if there appear any mark of constraint, either in the ideas or in the expreffion, our pleasure is proportionally diminished. The thoughts must seem to fuggest each other, and the rhymes to be only an accidental circumftance. The fame remark may be made on the measure of the verfe. When in its greatest perfection, it does not appear to be the refult of labour, but to be dictated by nature, or prompted by inspiration. In Pope's beft verfes, the idea is expreffed with as little inversion of style, and with as much concifeness, precifion, and propriety, as the author could have attained, had he been writing profe: without any apparent exertion on his part, the words feem fpontaneously to arrange themselves in the moft musical numbers.

"While still a child, nor yet a fool to fame,

" I lifp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."

This facility of verfification, it is true, may be, and probably is, in most cafes, only apparent: and it is reafonable to think, that in the most perfect poetical productions, not only the choice of words, but the choice of ideas, is influenced by the rhymes. In a profe compofition, the author holds on in a direct course, according to the plan he has previously formed; but in a poem, the rhymes which occur to him are perpetually diverting him to the right hand or to the left, by fuggesting ideas which do not naturally rise out of his fubject. This, I prefume, is Butler's meaning in the following couplet:

"Rhymes