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Lectures on the Art of Reading Prose and Verse
Lectures on the Art of Reading Prose and Verse Author:Thomas Sheridan General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1775 Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million book... more »s for free. Excerpt: A DISSERTATION H I M E. .. :.,'.. t Extracted from the ninth chapter of the fecond book of British Education. -',' ' NO T HIN G has contributed fo much to deftroy all true tafte for poetry as theeftablifhmentof rhime. Afoolifh admiration of this trifling and artificial ornament, has turned people's thoughts from the contemplation of the real and natural beauty of numbers. Like the Ifraelites, we have gone Y 2 whoringwhoring after our own fancies, and wor- fhipped this idol with fo infatuated a zeal, that our language has in a great meafiire fallen a facrifice to it. Hear what a candid Frenchman has ingenuoufly faid upon this fubjecl:, notwithftanding that their tongue is incapablee of any tolerable poetic meafure without rhime. ' There is no rule in poetry, whofe obfervance cofts fo much trouble, and produces fo few beauties in verfe, as ' that of rhiming. Rhirne frequently maims, and almoft always enervates the fenfe of . . . JL -f '' ' .'. i adifcourfe. For one bright thought which ' the paffion of rhiming throws in our way by chance, it is certainly every day the caufe of a hundred others, which people ' would blufh to make ufe of, were it not for the richnefs or novelty of the rhime, ' with which thefe thoughts are attended. w I , ''£ Du Bos, Crit. Ref. vol. i. c. j$. ;, ' Some ' Some perhaps will fay, that there muft certainly be a much greater beauty in rhime than I pretend to allow. The con- fent of all nations (they will add) is a fen- fible proof in favour of rhime; the ufe ' of which is at prefent univerfally adopted. My anfwer is, in the firft place, that 1 ...« less