savoury Odour _blown_.

Again,

"Immediately the Mountains huge appear
Emergent, and their _broad bare Backs_ upheave
Into the Clouds.--

Again,

"--Scarce from his Mould
_Behemoth, biggest born_ of Earth, upheav'd
His Vastness.--

Spirited sly Snake.--Boughs blown.--Broad bare Backs.--_Behemoth_
biggest born.

All these Passages are in the same Stile of Sound as _Virgil_'s--
_Metuens_, _Molem_, _Montis_.

"_Hoc metuens, molemque & montis insuper altos
Imposuit._--

Observe how the _molemque_ & _montis_ labour in the Verse exactly in
the same manner as

Broad, bare Backs, and _Behemoth_ biggest born.

But here let me give you a few more Instances of the _Allusio
Verborum_, or the mixing of Sounds of Words in rhym'd Verse.

"As o'er th'Aerial _Alps_ sublimely spread
Some aged Oak uprears his reverend Head.
_Pit_'s AEneid.

A Gentleman justly esteemed for his great Learning and excellent Skill
in Criticism, but not of so delicate an Ear as Mr. _Pit_, would have
had him writ, _As on th'Aerial Alps_.

But then the Verse would have wanted much of its Harmony, because
_O'er_ mingles in Sound with _A'er_ which _On_ does not; and the same
thing would have happen'd in the next Line, if it had stood thus--
_Some aged Oak uplifts his mighty Head_.--Because _uplifts_ and
_mighty_ have no Resemblance in Sound to each other, or to _Aged_ and
_Head_; but as the Line stands,

"Some aged Oak uprears his Reverend Head,

the Words all melt into one another, and the Musick dies along the
Verse from the Beginning to the End. This is the greatest Delicacy of
Poetry, neither are the other Graces wanting in this Verse. The Pause
is properly varied, the first Line is entirely suspended. There is in
it a double Alliteration, _Aerial Alps, sublimely spread_: And to
conclude all, the Rhyme is as perfect as possible.

Octob. 11. 1736.

_I am_, SIR, _&c._

* * * * *

_P.S._

In looking over this Letter I observe a Passage in _Milton_, which
merits a very particular Consideration, and which I ought to have
taken notice of before, when I was speaking of the Collocation of
Words; the Passage I mean is, _For since I first_, &c. The entire
Passage runs thus,

"_Eve, easily_ may Faith admit that all
The Good which we enjoy, from Heav'n descends;
_But_, tha