In the first pair of fyllables the accent may deviate from the rigour of exactnefs, without any unpleafing diminution of harmony; as may be obferved in the lines already cited, and more remarkably in this.

-Thou alfo mad'ft the night,

Maker omnipotent! and thou the day.

But, excepting the first pair of fyllables, which may be confidered as arbitrary, a poet who, not having the invention or knowledge of Milton, has more need to allure his audience by musical cadences, fhould feldom fuffer more than one aberration from the rule in any fingle verse.

There are two lines in this paffage more remarkably unharmonious.

-This delicious place,

For us to large; where thy abundance wants
Partakers, and uncropp'd falls to the ground.

Here the third pair of fyllables in the first, and fourth pair in the fecond verfe, have their accents retrograde or inverted; the firft fyllable being strong or acute, and the fecond weak. The detriment which the measure fuffers by this inverfion of the accents, is fometimes lefs perceptible, when the verfes are carried into one another; but is remarkably striking in this place, where the vicious line concludes a period; and is yet more offenfive in rhyme, when we regularly attend to the flow of every fingle line. This will appear by reading a couplet, in which Cowley, an author not fufficient

ly

ly ftudious of harmony, has committed the fame

fault.

His harmless life

Does with fubftantial blessedness abound,
And the foft wings of peace cover him round.

In these lines the law of metre is very grofsly violated, by mingling combinations of found directly oppofite to one another; as Milton expreffes it in his fonnet, by committing fhort and long, and setting one part of the verfe at variance with the rest. The ancients, who had a language more capable of variety than ours, had two kinds of verfe; the Iambic, confifting of short and long fyllables alternately, from which our heroic measure is derived; and the Trochaic, confifting in a like alternation of long and fhort. These were confidered as oppofites, and conveyed the contrary images of speed and flowness. To confound them therefore, as in thefe lines, is to deviate from the ancient practice. But where the fenfes are to judge, authority is not neceffary; the ear is fufficient to detect diffonance: por fhould I have brought auxiliaries against any name but that of Milton.

Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinofus, amator,
Nemo adeò ferus eft, ut non mitefcere poffit,
Si modò cultura patientem commodet aurem.

T

HOR.

Hat few things are fo liberally bestowed, or fquandered with fo little effect, as good advice, has been generally obferved; and many fage pofitions have been advanced concerning the reafons of this general complaint, and the YOL. IV.

I

means

means of removing it. It is indeed an important and noble inquiry; for little would be wanting to the happiness of life, if every man could conform to the right as foon as he was fhown it.

This perverfe neglect of the most falutary precepts, and ftubborn refiftance of the most pathetic perfuafion, is ufually imputed to him by whom the counsel is received; and we therefore often hear it related as a fign of hopeless and abandoned depravity, that though good advice was given, it has wrought no reformation.

Others who imagine themselves to have quicker fagacity and deeper penetration, have found out, that the inefficacy of advice is usually the fault of the counsellor; and rules have therefore been laid down, by which this important duty may be fuccefsfully performed. We are directed by what tokens to discover the favourable moment at which the heart is difpofed for the operation of truth and reafon; with what addrefs to administer, and with what vehicles to difguife, the cathartics of the foul.

But, notwithstanding this fpecious expedient, we find the world yet in the fame state. Advice is ftill given, and still received with difguft: nor has it appeared, that the bitterness of the medicine has been yet much abated, or its power increased by any methods of preparing it.

If we confider in what manner those who affume the office of directing the conduct of others, perform what they have undertaken, it will not be very wonderful, that their labours, however zealous or actionate, are frequently ufelefs. For what is

the

the advice that is commonly given, but a few general maxims, enforced with vehemence, and inculcated with importunity; but failing for want of particular reference, and immediate application?

It is not often that any man can bave that knowledge of another, that is neceffary to make inftruction ufeful. We are fometimes not ourselves confcious of the original motives of our actions; and when we know them, our first care is, to hide them from the fight of others, and often from those most diligently, whofe fuperiority, either of power or understanding, may entitle them to infpect our conduct. It is therefore very probable, that he who endeavours the cure of our intellectual maladies, mistakes their caufe; and that his prescriptions avaid nothing, because he knows not which of the paffions or delires is vitiated.

Advice, as it always gives a temporary appearance of fuperiority, can never be very grateful, even when it is most neceflary or moft judicious. But, for the fame reafons, every one is eager to instruct his neighbours. To be wife or to be virtuous, is to buy dignity and importance at a high price; but when nothing is neceffary to elevation, but detection of the follies or the faults of others, no man is fo infenfible to the voice of fame as to linger on the ground.

-Tentanda via eft, quâ me quoque poffim
Tollere bums, victorque virum volitare per ora.

Vanity is fo frequently the apparent motive of advice, that we, for the most part, fummon our