eyond all doubt; and the same is as true
of all the living Tongues that are distinguished in the learned World.

It is no wonder that _Verse_ without _Rhyme_ has so many Advocates
amongst the Dealers in Poetry, because of its Facility. _Rhym'd_
Verse, with all its Ornaments, especially the artful Way of varying
the Pause, is exceeding difficult; and so are all the curious
Productions of Art. Fine Painting, fine Musick or Sculpture, are all
very hard to perform; it is the Difficulty that makes those Performances
so deserving of Applause when they attain the highest Perfection. As to
the Matter before us; _Rhyme_ (as Mr. _Dryden_ justly observes) never
was _Milton_'s Talent: This appears from his juvenile Poems. And when
he sate down to write the _Paradise lost_, his Imagination was too
vigorous, too lofty to be shackled by _Rhyme_. It must be own'd that a
thousand Beauties would have been lost, which now shine with amazing
Splendor in that Poem, if _Milton_ had writ in the most exquisite
_Rhyme_. But then on the other hand, it is as certain that upon the
whole it would have been a more agreeable Poem to the Generality of
Readers than it is at present. Of this Opinion was the learned
Foreigner mentioned in a former Letter, a judicious Critick both in
the ancient and modern Languages.

"Quicquid tamen ejus sit, ostendunt Miltoni scripta virum vel in
ipsa juventute: quae enim ille adolescens scripsit carmina Latina,
una cum Anglicis edita, aetatem illam longe superant, qua ille vir
scripsit poemata Anglica, sed sine rythmis, quos, ut pestes carminum
vernaculorum, abesse volebat, _quale illud decem libris constans,
The Paradise Lost_, plena ingenii & acuminis sunt, sed insuavia
tamen videntur ob _rythmi_ defectum; quem ego abesse a tali carminum
genere non posse existimo, quicquid etiam illi, & Italis nonnullis,
& nuper Isaaco Vossio in libro _de Poematum cantu_, videatur."
_Polyhist._

However, we must take _Paradise Lost_ as it is, and rejoice that we
have in it, one of the finest Works that ever the Wit of Man produc'd:
But then the Imperfection of this Work must not be pleaded in favour
of such other Works as have hardly any thing worthy of Observation in
them. Placing _Milton_ with his blank Verse by himself (as indeed he
ought to be in many other respects, for he certainly has no Companion)
this Dispute about the Excellency of _blank_ Verse,