Reflections on Aristotle's treatise of poesie containing the necessary, rational, and universal rules for epick, dramatick, and the other sorts of poetry : with reflections on the works of the ancient and modern poets, and their faults noted / by R. Rapin.

XXXVII.

BEsides the graces that Poetry finds in displaying the Manners and the Passions: there is a certain I know not what in the Numbers, which is under∣stood by few, and notwithstanding gives great del••ght in Poetry. Homer hath ex∣celled generally all the Poets by this Art; whether the nature of his lan∣guage was favourable to him, by the va∣riety in the numbers, and by the noble sound of the words: or that the delica∣cy of his ear made him perceive this grace, whereof the other Poets of his time were not sensible; for his Verse sound the most harmoniously that can be imagin'd. Atheneus pretends that no∣thing is more proper to be sung than the verses of Homer, so natural is the harmo••y of them; 'tis true, I never read this Poet, or hear him read, but I feel, what is found in a Battel, when the Trumpets are heard. Virgil, who had a nice ear, did not imitate Homer in this, further than the harshness, or rather the heaviness of the Latin Tongue permitted him. Ennius had not then in his dayes

discover'd this grace, which is in the numbers, whereof appears no footstep in his verse. Lucretius perceived it first, but gave only the imperfect strokes of this beauty in versification, which Virgil finish'd so far as the language was capa∣ble. The other Poets, as Ovid in his Metamorphoses, Statius in his two Po∣ems, Valerius Flaccus in his Argonautes, Silius Italicu•• in his Hannibal, Claudian in his Ravishment of Proserpina never went so far. Among the modern Poets that have writ in Latin of late dayes, those who could attain to the numbers and cadence of Virgil in the turn of their verse, have had most reputation; and because that Buchanan, who other∣wise had wit, fancy, and a pure stile, per∣ceiv'd not this grace, or neglected it, he hath lost much of his price: perhaps nothing was wanting to make him an accomplish'd Poet, but this perfection, which most certainly is not Chi••erical; and whoever shall reflect a little on the power of the Dorian, Lydian and Phry∣gian Ayrs, whereof Aristotle speaks in his Problems▪ and Athenaeus in his Ban∣quets, he may acknowledge what ver∣tue there is in number and harmony: It is a beauty unknown to the French

Tongue, where all the syllables are counted in the verses, and where there is no dive••sity of cadence.