nes are mean and
senseless? Or on the other, that they are not prosaic, and for that
reason unpoetic? This poet's well-merited epithet is that of the
'_well-languaged Daniel_'; but likewise, and by the consent of his
contemporaries no less than of all succeeding critics, the 'prosaic
Daniel.' Yet those, who thus designate this wise and amiable writer,
from the frequent incorrespondency of his diction to his metre in the
majority of his compositions, not only deem them valuable and
interesting on other accounts, but willingly admit that there are to
be found throughout his poems, and especially in his _Epistles_ and in
his _Hymen's Triumph_, many and exquisite specimens of that style
which, as the neutral ground of prose and verse, is common to both. A
fine and almost faultless extract, eminent, as for other beauties, so
for its perfection in these species of diction, may be seen in Lamb's
_Dramatic Specimens_, &c., a work of various interest from the nature
of the selections themselves, (all from the plays of Shakespeare's
contemporaries), and deriving a high additional value from the notes,
which are full of just and original criticism, expressed with all the
freshness of originality.

Among the possible effects of practical adherence to a theory that
aims to identify the style of prose and verse,--(if it does not indeed
claim for the latter a yet nearer resemblance to the average style of
men in the viva voce intercourse of real life)--we might anticipate
the following as not the least likely to occur. It will happen, as I
have indeed before observed, that the metre itself, the sole
acknowledged difference, will occasionally become metre to the eye
only. The existence of prosaisms, and that they detract from the
merit of a poem, must at length be conceded, when a number of
successive lines can be rendered, even to the most delicate ear,
unrecognizable as verse, or as having even been intended for verse, by
simply transcribing them as prose; when if the poem be in blank verse,
this can be effected without any alteration, or at most by merely
restoring one or two words to their proper places, from which they
have been transplanted[5] for no assignable cause or reason but that
of the author's convenience; but if it be in rhyme, by the mere
exchange of the final word of each line for some other of the same
meaning, equally appropriate, dignified and euphonic.

[5] As the ingenious gentleman under the influence of th