banished, and nothing but grimace and affectation prevail in its room, leads to a fimpler and easier expreffion, and does not require to diftinguish it from profe, any of A golden medal, worth two hundred livres, Of founding free eftablishments, or schools, For drawing and mechanicks. The academy Adjudg'd the prize unto the Sieur Defchamp.- Wheat rofe in price two fhillings in the quarter.— She would fit down in the back parlour :”—There She waited half an hour, then took her leave, Having with art conceal'd-(oh, fhameful art!) A fmall of Lexiphanes's hard words, or Thomson's ill-jointed, worse-sounding compounds. Your fentiments and mine are, in this article, totally confonant and entirely confentaneous. For in order to maintain the dignification of blank verfe, and support its requifite exaltation over prose, our poets have been neceffitated to have recurrence, to an inverted collocation of words, retrogradation of accents, an abfcifion of vowels, a detruncation of fyllables, and a diametrical aberration from all the legitimate A fmall tea canister-(oh, fie!) of filver, + I beg leave to take notice (by way of commentary) that my poetical friend (warm'd, I fuppofe, by the diftrefs of that laft article, which, I obferve, he hath dignified by two or three apoftrophe's) was naturally tempted by his fubject to rife above lifelefs blank verfe; and he hath accordingly quite forgot" the news-paper, and foared into the Addifanian regions of downright rhyme. modes of fpeech, without the smallest relaxation of metrical rigour, repugnant and difcordant to the genius of our language, and of which there are multifarious exemplifications in the productions of the immortal Milton himself *.. SECOND PHYSICIAN. Good heavens! what language is this? Why 'tis worse than I could have imagined. CRITICK. I told you fo, but you made light of all I faid. Can any thing be done in this melancholy cafe? Had I not met you by accident, I intended calling at your lodgings, to confult you on this bufinefs. And in * 'Tis worth taking notice of, that most of the hard words in this fpeech are to be found in No. 86 and 88 of the Rambler, where Lexiphanes treats of Milton's Verfification, and profeffing his defire to be generally understood, ftudioufly declines the dialect of grammarians, and if any where obfcure, begs it may be imputed to that voluntary interdiction. F fhould be glad to know what dialect he writes in, or of what art thefe hard words are the proper terms! The above fpeech, however, is faid to contain his real fentiments with refpect to rhyme and blank verfe. deed deed had done it before now, but the adventure of the rehearfing poet drove it out of my head. I believe you like hard words as little as I do, nay, am told you have written against them*. But you must be fenfible, this inveterate difeafe, or rather epidemical madnefs, will not yield to that alone. More powerful remedies must be applied, and I fhould be glad to know whether Apothecary's Hall furnishes any antidote against it. The ancients purged the brain of madness and choler, by means of white Hellebore: then why fhould not our modern Efculapiufes poffefs fome fpecifick to clear the ftomach and inteftines of the filth and trash of hard words? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. SECOND PHYSICIAN. I know not; but I have a draught in my pocket here, I was going to carry to one of my mad, patients. 'Tis a member of parliament, who loft his wits together with his I remember to have feen a fmali treatife of that nature ascribed to Dr. Armstrong, how truly I cannot fay. place, place, at the laft change of miniftry. He has been very furious indeed, and we have had much ado to prevent his dying the death of an old Roman or modern Englishman; befides, he used to be continually raving about Dubeity and Totality, which he would have it, occafioned him the lofs of his office. This makes me think, there is fomething not unlike between his cafe and Mr. J-n's, and that this potion may do our friend fome service, for I obferve, since the mad member has taken it, he has been altogether filent as to thofe hard words I spoke of. It works upwards, and with great violence. What do ye fay? Shall we try it upon Lexiphanes ? CRITICK. By all means. 'Twere to be wifhed we could only recover him fo far, as to enable him to translate his own Ramblers into tolerable good English, such English, I mean, as a common reader might understand, without the help of a dictionary. For, after all, this may be a bookseller's project at bottom; he might write his Ramblers to |