harmony which refults from this difficult measure. He must be a fool who contents himself with overcoming difficulties for the meer pleasure of gaining fuch a victory; but he that draws from thefe very obftacles, beauties that are univerfally pleasing, must be a man of exquifite parts and judgment. It is extremely dif ficult to draw fine pictures, to carve fine ftatues, to compofe good mufic or to write good verses, and therefore the name of the few great men who have furmounted all thefe obftacles, will probably laft longer than the kingdoms where they were born.

I might take the liberty to dispute with Mr. de la Motte on fome other points; but that perhaps would look like a design of attacking him perfonnally, and make me fufpected of malice towards him, which, in fact, I am as remote from, as I am from his opinions. I am much better pleased to avail myself of the ingenious obfervations he has interspersed in his book, than to undertake confuting fome which I do not take to be fo well-founded as the rest.

21

It

It is enough, that I have endeavoured the defence of an art I am fond of, and which he ought to have defended himself.

I will add one word more, relative to an ode in favour of harmony, in which Mr. de la Faye attacks in fine poetry, the system of Mr. de la Motte, who has anfwered him only in profe. I'll quote a single stanza which unites almost all the reasons that I have alledged in my fa

vour ::

De la contrainte rigoureufe
Où l'efprit femble refferré,
Il reçoit cette force heureuse,
Qui l'éleve au plus haut dégré..
Tellé, dans des canaux preffée,
Avec plus de force élancée,
L'onde s'éleve dans les airs;

Et la régle qui semble austere,

N'eft qu'un art plus certain de plaire

Inféparable des beaux vers

From thefe very rigourous laws

By which, we think ourselves reftrain'd,
The mind it's ftrength and beauty draws,
And profiteth by being chained:

Mr.

Mr. de la Motte who should have an fwered this just and graceful comparison by following the example of its author, enters into an enquiry whether the nar ronefs of the conduits contributes to the afcent of liquids, or whether that afcent is not, rather, in proportion to the height from which the waters first descend; and "Can we find, fays he, in verse more than in profe, this primary elevation of thoughts, &c."

I believe Mr. de la Motte mistakes, as a philofopher; for it is certain, that without the constraint in which the water is held in pipes, it would not afcend, tho' it fhould have defcended from ever fo great an elevation; and I think he is still

So, in narrower conduits preft,

Th' afcent of water's manag'd beft,
Jetteaus form, fo much in fashion.
The rules, which feem fo very hard,
Are rules to pleafe, which guide the bard
To poetry's perfection.

Thefe english lines are inferted merely to give the fenfe of the original, without the leaft attempt to equal it in harmony or expreffion.

in

in a greater error as a poet; for, it is very plain, that as the constraint of verfification causes that harmony which is pleasing to the ear; in like manner, from the kind of prison in which the waters flow, jetteaus refult, which are agreeable to the eye. Is not the comparison both juft and pleafing? Mr. de la Faye certainly took a better method with Mr. de la Motte than I have done: He followed the example of as ancient philofopher, who, in answer to a fophifter that denied motion, began to walk in his prefence. Mr. de la Motte denies the harmony of verfe; Mr. de la Faye fends him harmonious verfes: a circumstance that alone fhould put me in mind to finish my prose,

PREFACE

PREFACE

To HEROD and M ARIAMNE*.

tremble in giving this edition. I have remarked fo many plays applauded on the stage, which have been afterwards despised in the closet, that I am afraid left mine fhould meet with the fame fate. One or two interesting fituations, the actors art, and the readiness which I fhewed to own and correct my faults, might have gained me fome approbation, when it was acted. But many more qualifications are neceffary to fatisfy the cool deliberate reader. A plot regularly con

ducted

* Mariamne was firft acted in the year 1723. Baron, who was firnamed the Æfop of the French, performed the part of Herod; but he was then too old to support this vehement character. Adrianne Le Couvreur, the best actress that ever existed, played the part of Mariamne. This princess was to die by poifon which she was to take upon the ftage. It was about the feftival of the kings or twelfth night that this play first appeared, and a young coxcomb, who was in the pit, on feeing the

empoisoned