g Monosyllable Lines. For Example:

"Arms and the Man I sing, who forc'd by Fate.

Here _Arms_, _the_, _I_, _who_, _by_, appear to be shorter in their
Sound than _and_, _man_, _sing_, _forc'd_, _fate_.

Again,

"Breathe soft or loud, and wave your Tops, ye Pines.

In this Line the same Difference is perceiv'd between _breathe_, _or_,
_your_, _ye_; and _soft_, _loud_, _wave_, _tops_, _pines_.

Whence it is evident that these Lines are perfectly Iambick.

The Particle _and_, as well as some other Monosyllables, may be said
to be common, like many Words in _Latin_; they submit themselves to be
alter'd by the Voice in reading, and may be pronounced either long or
short: But this is not so in other Words. And here it may be proper to
observe, that _Milton_ has a very artful Way of varying his Numbers,
by putting a Trochaick Foot at the Beginning of a Verse; and the
Reason why he could do it, is, that the Verse is not enough form'd in
that place for the Ear to perceive the Want of the proper Measure. The
Examples of this kind are very numerous: I will mention but two.

"_Angels_, for ye behold him, and with Song.

And again,

"_Fountains_, and ye that warble as ye flow.

Nov. 27. 1736.

_I am_, SIR, _&c._

LETTER IX.

_SIR,_

To reply to the Opinion that _Vossius_ has given in favour of _French_
Verse compared with _English_, I would observe in the first Place that
what the _French_ call Heroick Verse, is the very worst Sort of Verse
that can be contriv'd. If the Excellence of Verse consists chiefly in
varying the Pause, as I have shewn it does in the _Latin_, and could
do the same in the _Greek_ and other Languages; what must be thought
of that Sort of Versification in which the Pause is most strictly
preserv'd in the same Place in every Line, be it for 10 or 20 thousand
together, especially in Verses of 12 Syllables? Perhaps an
_Englishman_ may not be a very proper Person to make this Objection to
_French_ Verse: I will therefore produce the Opinion of several of
their own Writers.

_Ronsard_, in the Preface to his _Franciade_, owns that their
_Alexandrine_ Lines have too much prattle (_ils ont trop de caquet_)
and that it is a Fault in their Poetry that one Line does not run into
another, and therefore he wrote his _Franciade_ in Verses of ten
Syllables, and broke the Measure. The Author of the History of
_French_ Poetry confesses, tha