Page:Reflections upon ancient and modern learning (IA b3032449x).pdf/74

 Feet which was anciently used by the Greeks and Romans, in Modern Poems. The Guide of Verses is not now Length of Syllable, but only Number of Feet, and Accent: Most of the French Accents are in the last Syllable; Ours, and the Italian, in the fore-going. This fits French for some sorts of Poems, which Italian and English are not so proper for. Again, All Syllables, except the Accented one in each Word, being now common in Modern Languages, we Northern People often make a Syllable short that has two or three Consonants in it, because we abound in Consonants: This makes English more unfit for some Poems, than French and Italian; which having fewer Consonants, have consequently a greater Smoothness and Flowingness of Feet, and Rapidity of Pronunciation.

I have brought these Instances out of Modern Languages, whereof Sir William Temple is so great a Master, to prove my first Assertion; namely, That though a very great deal is to be given to the Genius and Judgment of the Poet, which are both absolutely necessary to make a good Poem, what Tongue soever the Poet writes in; yet the Language it self has so great an Influence, that if Homer and Virgil had been Polanders, or High-