Page:Virgil's Pastorals, Georgics and Aeneis - Dryden (1709) - volume 2.djvu/72

 to this Model, Horace writ his Odes and Epods: For his Satires and Epistles, being intended wholly for instruction, requir'd another Style:

And therefore as he himself professes, are Sermoni propiora, nearer Prose than Verse. But Virgil, who never attempted the Lyrick Verse, is every where elegant, sweet and flowing in his Hexameters. His words are not only chosen, but the places in which he ranks them for the sound; he who removes them from the Station wherein their Master set them, spoils the Harmony. What he says of the Sybils Prophecies, may be as properly apply'd to every Word of his: They must be read, in order as they lie; the least breath discomposes them, and somewhat of their Divinity is lost. I cannot boast that I have been thus exact in my Verses, but I have endeavour'd to follow the Example of my Master: And am the first Englishman, perhaps, who made it his design to copy him in his Numbers, his choice of Words, and his placing them for the sweetness of the Sound. On this last Conside­ration, I have shun'd the Cæsura as much as possibly I cou'd. For wherever that is us'd, it gives a roughness to the Verse; of which we can have little need, in a Language which is over-stock'd with Conso­nants. Such is not the Latin, where the Vowels and Consonants are mix'd in proportion to each other: yet Virgil judg'd the Vowels to have somewhat of an over-balance, and therefore tempers their sweet­ness with Cæsura's. Such difference there is in Tongues, that the same Figure which roughens one, gives Majesty to another: and that was it which Virgil studied in his Verses. Ovid uses it but rarely; and hence it is that his Versification cannot so properly be call'd sweet, as luscious. The Italians are