Sed. IV; BEMJTY Ob LANGUAGE ■ 3iy
L’autre pour la douceur, la grace, & la teudresie ,
Celui-cipour Dieu seul,l’autre pourl’homme encorei
Here the sense is fairly transsated , die words are
os equal power , and yet how inserior the melody !
Many attempts have been made to introduce
Hexameter verse into the living languages, but
without success. The English language, I am in-
clined to think, is not susceptible of this melody :
and my reasons are these. First, the polysyllables
in Latin and Greek are finely diversified by long
and short syllables, a circumslance that qualisies
them sor the melody of Hexameter verse : ours
are extremely ill qualified for that service , because
they superabound in short syllables. Secondly,
the bulk of our monosyllables are arbitrary with
regard to length, which is an unlucky circurastance
in Hexameter : for although custom , as observed
above , may render familiar a long or a short pro-
nunciation of the same word , yet the mind waver-
ing between the two sounds , cannot be so much
affefted with either, as with a word that hath al-
ways the same sound ; and for that reason , arbi-
trary sounds are ill sitted for a melody which is
chiessy supported by quantity. In Latin and Greek
Hexameter , invariable sounds direfl and aseertain
the melody. English Hexameter would be desli-
tute of melody, unless by artful pronunciation ;
because of necessity the bulk of its sounds must be