rofessedly imitated Pindar, are much more correct and faultless
than these of his Master. It would, perhaps, be saying too much, to
affirm with some Critics, that the judgment of the Roman Poet was
superior to that of his Rival; but it is obvious, that the operation of
this Faculty is more remarkable in his writings, because his imagination
was more ductile and pliable. --Upon the whole, therefore, we shall not
do injustice to these two great men, if we assign to their works the
same degree of comparative excellence, which the Italians ascribe to the
pieces of Dominichino and Guido. The former was a _great_ but an
_unequal Genius_; while the more corrected performances of the latter
were _animated by the Graces_, and _touched by the pencil of
Elegance_[97].

[Footnote 97: The Reader will observe, that nothing has been said
in this Essay on the regularity of the measure of Pindar's Odes.
This subject is treated so fully in the preface of Mr. West's
Translation, that we need only here to refer the curious to his
remarks. The Ancient Odes are always to be considered as songs
which were set to musick, and whose recital was generally
accompanied with dancing. If we may be permitted to form an idea
of this music, from the nature and composition of the Ode, it must
have been a matter of great difficulty to excel in it, as it is
certain that poems which abound with sentiments are more proper to
be set to music, than those which are ornamented with imagery.
These sister-arts usually keep pace with each other, either in
their improvement or decay. Ne ci dobbiamo (says an ingenious
Foreigner, speaking of the modern Italian music) maravigliare,
ce corrotta la Poesia, s'e anche corrotta la musica; perche come
nella ragior poetica accennammo, tutte le arti imitative hanno
una idea commune, dalla cui alterazione si alterano tutte,
e particolarmenti la musica dall alterazion del la poesia si cangia
come dal corpo l'ombra. Onde corrotta la poesia da e soverchi
ornamenti e dalla copia delle figure, ha communicato anche il suo
morbo alla musica, ormai tanto sfigurata, che ha perduta quasi la
natural est pressione. Gavina della Traged. p. 70.]

I am afraid, that your Lordship is now thinking it high time to
bring the whole of this detail to a period.----Upon reviewing the
observations made on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients through the
preceding part