and even the
Preference of it to _rhym'd_ Verse, may be determined by comparing two
Writers of Note, who have undertaken the same Subject; that is,
_Virgil_'s AEneid.

Now I will take all the Passages of that Poem mentioned in my Letters
to you, and compare them in these two Translations: And if it shall
appear by the Comparison that the _rhym'd_ Verses have not only more
Harmony and Conciseness, but likewise that they express _Virgil_'s
Sense more fully and more perspicuously than the _blank_ Verse, will
it not be easy to determine which of these two Sorts ought to be
preferr'd?

Octob. 22. 1736.

_I am_, SIR, _&c._

* * * * *

_P.S._

When I was taking notice of _Virgil_'s Arts of Versification, I should
not have omitted his sudden varying the Tense of the Verb from the
Preterperfect to the Present.

"_Non tua te nobis, Genitrix pulcherrima talem_
Promisit, _Graiisque ideo bis_ vindicat _armis_.

This is very agreeable both as to the Verse and the Sense; for it
makes the thing described more immediately present than it would be
otherwise. I cannot just now recollect an Example in _Milton_ of this
nature, but I remember one in _Fairfax_, in a Couplet already cited.

"Their jolly Notes they _chanted_ loud and clear,
And horrid Helms high on their Heads they _bear_.

This is much more lively and peinturesque than if he had writ _bore_,
and you will easily perceive it. It may be said, perhaps, that
_Fairfax_ used _bear_ here for the sake of the Verse; let that be
allow'd, but then it must be likewise granted, that _Virgil_ uses
_vindicat_ instead of _vindicavit_, for the sake of his Verse, which
he would not have done, if it had not been more beautiful than the
common Prose way of writing: And as it is an Excellency in _Virgil_,
so it is in _Fairfax_.

LETTER VII.

_SIR,_

I am now to collect the Passages of the _AEneid_, mentioned in my
former Letters, and bring them together with the _rhym'd_ and _blank_
Verse Translations.

The first Passage is this (not to take notice of the very first Lines,
which Mr. _Pit_ has translated in two different manners)

"_Sic cunctus pelagi cecidit fragor, aequora postquam
Prospiciens genitor, coeloque invectus aperto
Flectit equos, curruque volans dat lora secundo._

Dr. _Trapp_,

"So all the hurry of the Ocean ceas'd,
Soon as its God appear'd above the