of Racine and the Henriad of Vol|taire, are in the same verse with
Thus said to my lady the knight full of care.The burlesque verse in French, on the con|trary is pretty much the same with the heroic verse of ten syllables in English. Cus|tom has made the one nation associate the ideas of gravity, sublimity and seriousness, to that measure which the other has connected with whatever is gay, flippant and ludicrous. Nothing would appear more absurd in Eng|lish than a tragedy written in the Alexandri•••• verses of the French; or in French, than a work of the same kind in verses of ten syl|lables.
An eminent artist will bring about a con|siderable change in the established modes of each of those arts, and introduce a new fashion of writing, music, or architecture. As the dress of an agreeable man of high rank recommends itself, and how peculiar and fantastical soever, comes soon to be ad|mired and imitated; so the excellencies of an eminent master recommend his peculia|rities, and his manner becomes the fashion|able stile in the art which he practises. The taste of the Italians in music and architecture has, within these fifty years, undergone a con|siderable
