perverse an order, as those gentlemen would call it ? The passage is as follows: Now, according to those gentlemen, the natural and proper arrangement is that which a schoolboy learning Latin is ordered by his master to put the words in. As thus: Sacer paries indicat tabulâ votivâ me suspendisse uvida vestimenta potenti Deo maris. If this be elegant and beautiful, then indeed the Greeks and Romans were in a great mistake when they studied a composition the very reverse of this; for we are not to imagine, that it was the necessity of the verse, and not choice, that made them use such a composition. For, as shall be shown afterwards, it is as common in their prose writings as in their verse. And indeed it was one of the chief beauties of the Attic dialect, and which distinguished, perhaps more than any thing else, the Attic from the other Greek writers. This beauty the Romans, particularly in later times, imitated very much; for not only Horace is full of it, but even in Virgil's eclogues, where one should have expected more simplicity of style, there is a great deal of it to be found. I shall give but one instance out of many: Hinc tibi, quæ semper vicino ab limite sepes Of this artificial composition in English I will give an example from Milton; it is from the speech of Satan in the beginning of the second book of Paradise Lost: Me, tho' just right and the fix'd laws of Heaven 1 Here many objections may be made by the advocates for the natural order. In the first place Milton has taken advantage of the pronoun I having an accusative, and has placed it at the head of the sentence, at a great distance from its verb established; so that we do not know what he would be at, till we come to the sixth line; and instead of saying plainly, and naturally, "That the loss they had sustained had established him "much more firmly than ever in his throne," he has contrived to express it in the most perplexed way, throwing in betwixt the verb and the word it governs, which naturally ought to have followed it immediately, whole sentences concerning the laws of Heaven, the free choice of his subjects, the atchievements in battle and in council, and the recovery of their loss so far; and some of these are parentheses, such as, with what besides, &c. and, thus far at least recovered, which might be both left out in the reading, having no necessary connection with what goes before and follows, and serving only to make the connection more remote betwixt the verb and the pronoun which it governs, and by consequence the composition more intricate. This, I think, is the opinion of those gentlemen fairly stated, and applied to one of the finest passages of our greatest poet, and which, according to my notions of style, is a perfect pattern of rhetorical composition, hardly to be equalled in English. The pronoun, that in the passage I quoted from Horace, and in this from Milton, is so far separated from its verb, and which is the great objection to the composition, is, I think, in both passages, most properly placed in the beginning, because it is of himself that the person is speaking; and therefore the pronoun is naturally made the leading word. And what is thrown in betwixt, in both passages, particularly in the English poet, is not idle words, but such as fill up the sense most properly, and give a solidity and compactness to the sentence, which it otherwise would not have. And as to the parentheses in the passage from Milton, it is well known to those who understand any thing of speaking, that if paren theses be not too long, or too frequent, and be spoken with a proper variation of voice, they produce a wonderful effect, with respect both to the pleasure of the ear and to the sense, which is often thrown, or, as it were, darted in, with more force than it could be in any other way. To be convinced of the truth of what I say, let this period be taken down in the manner that a schoolboy construes the passage of Horace above quoted. Suppose, for example, it were to be put into this form: "This loss, which we have so far recovered, hath "established me in my throne more firmly than the "laws of Heaven, which ordained me your leader, or "than even your own free choice, and all that I have "atchieved in council or in battle." Now I ask any reader of taste or judgment, whether the period, thus frittered down, does not lose one half of the strength and vigour of the expression, as well as of the beauty and pomp of sound? And whether there be not wanting in it, not only that soundness which fills and pleases the ear so much of a popular assembly, but likewise that density of sense which makes such an impression, and which the critics praise so much in Demosthenes ? In short, it appears to me, that by such a change, one of the most beautiful periods that ever was composed, by which Milton has deserved the praise which Cicero bestows upon poets, of studying the beauty of oratorical composition, though under the fetters of strict numbers, is rendered flat and languid, losing not only its oratorical numbers, but enervated in its sense.-(Vol. ii. pp. 353-359.) Setting aside all consideration of the accents, the arrangement of the words is what gives a turn to a sentence, that is either pleasing to the ear, or uncouth and disagreeable. That this is the case in high composition must be evident to any one who will take the trouble to put the words out of the order in which the author has placed them, and take down the sentence in the manner I have taken down that fine period of Milton, in the beginning of the second book of Paradise 66 Lost, by which not only the pleasure of the ear is lost, but the sense and spirit of the composition flattened and enervated. I will give another example from the prose writings of the same author: it is the period with which he begins his Eiconoclastes, or answer to King Charles's Εικων βασιλικη. It runs thus: "To descant on the "misfortunes of a person fallen from so high a dignity, "who hath also paid his final debt both to nature and "his faults, is neither of itself a thing commendable, nor the intention of this discourse." Now, let the order of the words be altered in this manner: 'It is 'not in itself a thing commendable, nor is it the 'intention of this discourse, to descant on the mis'fortunes of a person fallen from so high a dignity, 'who hath also paid his final debt both to nature and 'his faults.' Here the words are not only the same, but the order likewise is preserved, except that the first and last members of the sentence have changed their places. The period also is preserved; and yet what a change there is in the composition! How flat, insipid, and, as it were, supine it becomes, instead of flowing, rounded, and spirited! (Vol. iii. page 50.) I will here add the sequel of this passage: "Neither was it fond ambition, or the vanity to get a name, present, or with posterity, by writing against 'a king. I never was so thirsty after fame, nor so 'destitute of other hopes and means, better and more 'certain to attain it; for kings have gained glorious ' titles from their favourers by writing against private men, as Henry VIII. did against Luther: but no 'man ever gained much honor by writing against a king, as not usually meeting with that force of argument in such courtly antagonists, which to convince, might add to his reputation. Kings most commonly, though strong in legions, are but weak at arguments; as they who ever have been accustomed, 'from the cradle, to use their will only as their right 'hand, their reason only as their left; whence, unexpectedly constrained to that kind of combat, they prove but weak and puny adversaries. Ne 6 6 6 vertheless, for their sakes, who, through custom, simplicity, or want of better teaching, have not more seriously considered kings than in the gaudy name ' of majesty, and admire them and their doings as if they breathed not the same breath with other mortal men, I shall make no scruple to take up (for it seems to be the challenge both of him and all his party) this gauntlet, though a king's, in the behalf of liberty and the commonwealth." This, I think, is a specimen of noble and manly eloquence. For, not to mention the weight of matter that it contains, and the high republican spirit which animates it, I ask those gentlemen, who despise the Greek and Roman learning, and admire only the French Authors, or some later English Writers, that they are pleased to set up as models (for Milton, I know, they think uncouth, harsh, and pedantic), whether they can produce any thing themselves, or find any thing in their favourite authors, which they can set against this passage in Milton, either for the choice of the words, or the beauty and variety of the composition? It may be considered as a gauntlet, that Milton, for the honor of ancient literature, has thrown down to those gentlemen, which he must be a bold man among them who will venture to take up. (Vol. iii. note, page 51.) If my reader is not learned, let him have recourse to Milton, and study the speeches in the Paradise Lost, particularly those in the second book; there he will find that fine period, in the beginning of Satan's first speech, which I have elsewhere quoted and commented upon. And there is another in the beginning of Belial's speech in the same book, also worthy of his attention. It runs thus: I should be much for open war, O peers! And if he further wants an example of a good period |