t the constant Pause in their Lines
makes the Poetry tedious; and the judicious and learned Translator of
_Quintilian_ says directly, that it is owing to the continual Sameness
of Numbers that their Verse cannot please long. In reality, it is a
kind of Stanza, and ought to be so writ.

_Jeune & vaillant Heros
Dont la haute sagesse
N'est point le fruit tardif
D'une lente vieillesse._

Not to insist upon the _Prattle_ (as _Ronsard_ calls it) of these two
celebrated Lines; for what does _Vaillant_ add to _Heros_, or _haute_
to _sagesse_, and what is the Difference between _tardif_ and _lente_?
I say to let this pass, the eternal Repetition of the same Pause is
the Reverse of Harmony: Three Feet and three Feet for thousands of
Lines together, make exactly the same Musick as the ting, tong, tang
of the same Number of Bells in a Country-Church. We had this wretched
sort of Metre amongst us formerly, and _Chaucer_ is justly stil'd the
Father of _English_ Verse, because he was the first that ever wrote in
rhym'd Couplets of ten Syllables each Line. He found, by his Judgment,
and the Delicacy of his Ear, that Lines of eight Syllables, such as
_Gower_ his Cotemporary wrote in, were too short, and the twelve
Syllable-Lines too long. He pitch'd upon the other Sort just
mentioned, and that is now found, by the Experience of so many Ages,
to be the most majestick and most harmonious kind of Verse. Just the
same Obligation the _Romans_ had to _Ennius_: He first introduc'd the
Hexameter Line, and therefore is properly called the Father of their
Poetry; and it is judiciously said, that if they had never had
_Ennius_, perhaps they had never had _Virgil_. If the _French_ had
taken _Ronsard_'s Advice instead of following _Malherbe_, perhaps they
might, and indeed they certainly would have arriv'd at a better Art of
Versification than we see now amongst them: But they have miss'd their
Way; tho' had it happen'd otherwise, they could never have equall'd
the _English_ in Poetry, because their Language is not capable of it,
for two Reasons which I shall mention, and many others that I could
add to them.

_1st_, Their Words do not sound so fully as ours, of which these Nouns
are Examples, _God_, _Dieu_. _Man_, _L'Homme_. In both the _English_
Words every Letter is perceiv'd by the Ear. In the _French_ the first
Word is of a very confused Sound, and the latter dies away in the _e_
mute. So _Angels_, _Ange_. _Head_, _Tete_. And i