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If it must be a Man's Misfortune to labour "under fuch hard Circumstances as mine, it is "no fmall Mitigation of them, that he pleads "his Caufe before fuch Judges, who, he knows, "will decide it with the ftricteft Impartiality, "Equity, and Honour." Pag. 348, 9.

This Eloquence is then weak and corrupt, from the loofe Members, the infinite Flow, the bad Phrafeology, fulfome Flattery, and for want of due Difpofition and Numbers. I would not be thought to reflect on this Speech in any other Place, but in these two Paffages; and in what the Doctor mentions from his own Sermons or printed Expreffions, Pag. 342, which is of a fimilar loofe Stile with these two Paffages; and I cannot imagine how these Paffages, which are fo loofe and rough in their Compofition, could ever be inferted in this Harangue, which, in all other Places, has a most sweet and harmonious Flow, and is moft excellent in Diction and Thought.

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Dr. Clark's Compofition is very unequal: His Attributes are the most correct of his Works, tho' not fo correct as he might have made them: His Sermons want a fevere Correction, not only in the Stile, but in the Mat

We way find in his Attributes a sweet Flow, a good Difpofition, and a musical Clause; but then this Flow is an infinite Flow, and fo exceedingly crouded with Matter, that we lose the Matter as faft as we find it, nor can the Memory, tho' never fo great, come up to the Matter; and as the Doctor was unacquainted

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with the Art of the Numbers, his Claufes are only accidentally good.

Bishop Sprat has tuneful Flows, and natural Lengths. His Difpofition is good, but not the beft, tho' the best, perhaps, that was in his Time. He had an excellent Ear, but wanted the Knowledge and Art of the Numbers.

I have now explained what is the Art of Harmony and Numbers in the English Tongue, which is what no one, as yet, has ever attempted; and this I have done; 1st, By proving, from Cicero and others, that this is an Art, and a very great Art, tho' eafily learn'd from proper Inftructions. 2dly, By fpecifying the several Numbers with their Proportions. 3dly, By fhewing what is the Place and Ufe of thefe Numbers, or what Numbers are proper for the Beginning and End of Periods; and 4thly, What are the Defects of our English Orators for want of thefe Numbers. I fhall now proceed to the Principles of Harmony in Englife Poetry.

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CHA P. IV.

Of the PRINCIPLES of HARMONY in English POETRY.

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NGLISH Poetry is from the same Principles of Harmony, as the Greek and Latin Iambic Metre; and this Poetry begins and ends as the Latin and Greek Iambic Metre, either with a half, or a whole Foot, according to the mufical Concord it imitates, which may begin either with a half or a whole Tone; for our Verfification, as the Greek and Latin Iambic Metre, is made according to the Diatonic Scale, which consists of half and of whole Tones. I fhall fpecify this first in the Feet, and then in the Metre.

The Iambic and Trochee, which are made up of a half and a whole Time, are, as the Concord of Mufic, called the Tierce Minor, which confifts of a half and a whole Tone; when the half Time is firft, as in the Iambick u -, then is this Foot as the Tierce Minor when the half Tone, is firft, in this Tierce Minor; but when the half Time ftands laft in the Foot, as in the Trochee - u, then is this Foot as the Tierce Minor, when the half Tone is laft in this Tierce Minor. The Spondee, confifts of two long Times, is as Major, which has two full Tones. F 2

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the Tierce The Bac

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chic which confifts of a half Time, and two whole Times, is as the fourth in Mufic, which confifts of a half Tone and two whole Tones; and the Palimbacchic is as this fourth when the half Tone is laft; and the Cretic -U,is as this fourth when the half Tone is in the Middle of the Concord.

There are no Diatonic Intervals which answer to the Anapaft, Dactyl, or Pyrrhic, or to any other Foot, which have two or more short Syllables one after another; for the Diatonic Scale will not admit of two-half Tones one after another. All Feet, then, of five or fix Syllables, where there are two or more fhort Syllables, one after another, are to be compared with Confonants of five or fix Sounds, as in the Chromatic and Enbarmonic Mufic. I fhall now compare these Concords firft with the Metre,

and then with the Verfe.

There is this Diftinction betwixt Metre and Verfe. Metre is a Syftem of one Concord, but Verfe is a Syftem of two or more Concords. The leaft Metre, which confifts of a Foot and a half, is as the leaft Concord, which is a Tone and a half. Metre of two Feet are as Tierce Major, which confifts of two full Tones; and Metres of two whole Feet and a half, answer to the fourth, which is made up of two whole Tones and a half. Thefe three kinds are fimple Metre, as the Concords they answer to, are fimple Concords, and do not admit of any Divifion. When the Compofition has feven half Feet, this is Verfe, for these feven half Feet, as

feven

feven half Tones, confift of two Concords, a Tierce Major and Minor. In making this Verfe, the firft Member of the Verse must be the Ending of a Word, where the Concord ends; if the Tierce Minor is first, the Verfe muft begin with half a Foot, as the Tierce Minor begins with half a Tone, so that the first Member will end in a full Foot, as this Tierce Minor ends in a full Tone; the second Member of this Verfe muft, therefore, confift of two full Feet, as the Tierce Major confifts of two full Tones. When the Verfe has eight half Feet, the Division is then into three and five, that is, into a Tierce Minor and a fourth. This Verfe, therefore, begins and ends in a half Foot. Verses of nine half Feet have their Division into five and four, or four and five, that is, into a Tierce Major and a fourth. If the first Member of the Verfe is as the Tierce Major, then will this Member begin and end in a full Foot, as the Tierce Major begins and ends in a full Tone; and as the fecond Member is as the fourth, this Member will end in a half Foot, as the fourth ends in a half Tone. The Pentametre, which confifts of ten half Feet, and which is the Measure of English Heroics, may be divided into three and seven, or seven and three; for this Verfe is as the feventh in Mufic, which is made up of a fifth and a Tierce Minor.

This Verse may be alfo divided into two fourths, as it often is, that is, into five and five half Feet, which is a Concord repeated, fo that in this Divifion the Beginning and Ending is

in

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