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make it impossible to take a single step in their favour. You will (without sending him my letter) take some method of conveying these sentiments from me to that gentleman, whose condition I sincerely pity. Jenny and Dick, and so do the Doctor and Will, join me in our most sincere and affectionate regards to Roche's country. I shall soon write to my friend at Bloomfield.

I am, my dear uncle, most affectionately yours,

Thursday, Nov. 6th, 1766.

VI.

E. BURKE.

MY DEAR SIR, I am almost apprehensive that my long silence has put even your goodnature and forgiveness to a trial, and that you begin to suspect me of some neglect of you. I assure you that there are but very few things which could make me more uneasy than your entertaining such a notion. However, to avoid all risque of it, though I have very little to say, I will trouble you with a line or two, if it were only to tell you, that we always keep a very strong and very affectionate memory of our friends in Roche's country. Katty and our friend Courtney, I believe, can tell you that we never passed a day without a bumper to your health, which, if it did you no good, was a real pleasure to ourselves. I take it for granted that the party was not much worse for their ramble, nor totally grown foppish by their travels-I mean to except Garrett, who certainly will be undone by his jaunt ; he will be like those ingenious farmers in Gulliver who carry on their husbandry in the most knowing manner, in the world, but never have any crop. To complete his ruin, you will tell him, I have not forgot the young bull, which I mentioned to him; but I find I antedated my promise a little; for he was not calved when Garrett was here. However, my Lord Rockingham has had one of the finest bull calves that can be; he is of an immense size, though, when I left Yorkshire, he was not more than seven weeks old. His sire is one of the largest I have ever seen, and before he was bought by his present owner, was let to cover at half-a-guinea a time. He is of the short-horned Holderness breed; and undoubtedly his kind would not do for your pastures; but he will serve to cross the stem and mend your breed. I take the calf to be too young to travel; but by the time he is a year old, I fancy the best method of sending him will be to get some careful fellow who comes from your country to harvest in England, to take charge of him on his return. Let this man, if such can be found, call upon me, and he shall have further directions. You see I encourage Garrett in his idle schemes; my use of this phrase puts me in mind of my uncle James, (indeed I wanted nothing to put me in mind of him ;) I heard lately from Ned Barret of his illness, which gives me a most sincere concern; I hope to hear shortly that he is better. I am told too, that poor James Hennessy, of Cork, is in a bad way. He was as sensible and gentlemanlike a man as any in our part of the country-and I feel heartily for him and for his wife.

Be so good to remember us all most affectionately to John, to Mr. Courtney and Mrs. Courtney-thank them for the pleasure we had in their company last summer. Give Garrett the enclosed memorandum ; if you should find it inconvenient to give us a line yourself, he will be so good as to let us hear from him soon; not but that we are much obliged VOL. X. No. 58.-1825.

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to him for the letters he has written to us, and to our friend Englishassure him that when we have any good news, he will be the first to hear it. Farewell, my dear Sir,-all here are very truly yours; and believe me your ever affectionate nephew,

Oct. 21st, 1767.

EDM. BURKE.

Pat Nagle behaves very well, is exceedingly attentive to his business; and upon my word, from what I see of him, I think him a decent and intelligent young fellow. He has repaid me the twenty guineas he had from me.

The remainder of our collection is addressed exclusively to Garrett Nagle, Esq., with the first letter to whom we take leave of it for the present, promising the reader a continuation of the same fare.

VII.

MY DEAR GARRETT,-I received your last from Ballyduff with the most sincere sorrow. Indeed, on the return of my uncle's complaints I gave up all hope, considering the nature of his disorder, and the time of his life. I did not neglect to apply to Doctor Nugent; but at this distance, and with no full detail of circumstances and symptoms before him, he would not venture to prescribe. I make no doubt that he has skilful assistance in his own neighbourhood; and Doctor Nugent would cheerfully have added to it, but from fear of attempting any thing in a case which he cannot fully be master of. I suppose this letter will hardly find my dear friend alive. We shall all lose, I believe, one of the very best men that ever lived; of the clearest integrity, the most genuine principles of religion and virtue, the most cordial good-nature and benevolence, that I ever knew, or, I think, ever shall know. However, it is a comfort that he lived a long, healthy, unblemished life, loved and esteemed by all that knew him, and left children behind him who will cultivate his memory, and, I trust, follow his example; for of all the men I have seen in any situation, I really think he is the person I should wish myself, or any one I greatly loved, the most to resemble. This I do not say from the impression of my immediate feeling, but from my best judgment; having seen him at various times of my life, from my infancy to the last year, having known him very well, and knowing a little (by too long habits) of mankind at large. In truth, my dear Garrett, I fear I have said this or something to the same purpose to you before; but I repeat it again, for my mind is full of it.

I wish you would let our friends at Ballylegan know that poor Patrick Nagle is out of all danger, and recovering fast. He had a sharp struggle for it. They will rejoice in his recovery. I take him to be a very worthy and valuable young man in all respects. Here we have nothing new. Politics have taken no turn that is favourable to us, but, just now, I do not feel the more unpleasantly for being, and for my friends being, out of all office. You are, I suppose, full of bustle in your new elections; I am convinced all my friends will have the good sense to keep themselves from taking any part in struggles, in the event of which they have no share and no concern. Adieu, my dear Garrett, and believe me to you and to all with you at Ballyduff and Bloomfield, a most sincere and affectionate friend and kinsman,

March 6, 1768.

EDM. BURKE.

How does Ned Nagle go on? It is time now to think of sending him to sea, and we are considering of the best means for doing it. I suppose you have got Mr. W. Burke's letter.

MY BOOKS.-NO. II.

Originality of Milton's harmonious use of Proper Names.

DR. BLACK, who has obliged the lovers of poetry with a life of Tasso in two volumes quarto (would that we had a life of Ariosto in four, and of Shakspeare in eight!) gives an account of the uses to which Milton has turned his intimacy with the works of that poet. Among others, he traces to him his fondness for heaping together those sonorous proper names, which, if they had no other beauty, are so managed as to charm and exalt the ear with an organ-like music.

"Nothing in the style of Milton," says Dr. Black, "is more peculiar and characteristic, than the aggregation of a number of beautifully sounding names of places, winds, &c. as in the following example:

Not that fair field

Of Enna, where Prosèrpine gathering flowers,
Herself a fairer flower, by gloomy Dis
Was gather'd,' &c. &c. &c.

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"This aggregation of melodious names, is so characteristic of Milton, that Philips in his 'Splendid Shilling,' written as a burlesque of the style of Paradise Lost,' has availed himself of it more than once; and indeed, those passages in the Splendid Shilling' are the features which principally, and perhaps alone, stamp the resemblance of the caricature with the original." The Doctor then quotes "Not blacker tube," &c. &c.

"This collection of a number of names," continues the Doctor, occurs very often in the Sette Giornate of Tasso, and I have little doubt, that from that work, its use was adopted by Milton. The following is an example from Tasso's poem.

'Ma quel canuto pescatore, e lasso

Ch' appo le rive del Tirreno invecchi,
O del mar d' Adria, o dell' Egeo sonoro,
O lungo 'l Caspio, o lungo 'l ponto Eussino,
O'n su' lidi vermigli, o dove inonda
Il gran padre Ocean Germani e Franchi,
Scoti e Britanni, od Etiopi ed Indi.'

"I shall only solicit the attention of my reader to two other instances. In the first, the poet is describing the phoenix preparing materials for its conflagration.

'Quinci raccoglie dell' antica selva
I dolci succhi, e più soavi odori,
Che scelga 'l Tiro, o l' Arabo felice,
O pigmeo favoloso, od Indo adusto;
O che produca pur nel molle grembo
De' Sabei fortunati aprica terra...
Ne Cassia manca, o l'odorato acanto,
Ne dell' incenso lagrimose stille

E di tenero nardo i nuovi germi.'

"The first five of these verses seem to me to have a wonderful resemblance to the manner of Milton. The latter three are also much in

his style, as he often uses the verb wanted in the way here employed by Tasso."

'His stature reached the sky, and on his crest
Sat horror plumed; nor wanted in his grasp,
What seem'd both spear and shield.

Nor gentle purpose, nor endearing smiles
Wanted, nor youthful dalliance.'

"The following is the other example, to which I request the reader's attention, as I think it can hardly be doubted that Milton had the passage of Tasso in his mind while composing it.

-Tralascio di Sfingi e di Centauri

Di Polifemo e di Ciclopi appresso,
Di Satiri, di Fauni, e di Silvani,
Di Pani, e d' Egipani, e d' altri erranti
Ch' empier le solitarie inculte selve
D'antiche maraviglie; e quell' accolto
Esercito di Bacco in Oriente,

Ond' egli vinse e trionfo' degl' Indi
Tornando glorioso a' Greci lidi,
Siccom'è favoloso antico grido.

E lascio gli Aramaspi, e quei ch' al sole

Si fan col piè giacendo, e scherno, ed ombra,
Ei Pigmei favolosi in lunga guerra

Colle grà rimarransi, e quanto unquanco
Dipinse 'n carta l'Affrica bugiarda.'

-For never since created man

Met such embodied force as, nam'd with these,
Could merit more than that small infantry
Warr'd on by cranes: though all the giant brood
Of Phlegra with the heroic race were join'd
That fought at Thebes and Ilium, on each side,
Mix'd with the auxiliar gods, and what resounds,
In fable or romance of Uther's son,
Begirt with British and Armoric knights,
And all who since, baptized or infidel,
Jousted in Aspramont or Montalban,
Damasco, or Marocco, or Trebisond,

Or whom Biserta sent from Afric shore
When Charlemain, with all his peerage, fell
By Fontarabia.'

"In some papers of the Rambler, on the subject of Milton's versifi cation, Dr. Johnson remarks that poet's custom of heaping up a number of softly sounding proper names, for which he assigns what he considers to be the reason. Milton,' says he,' whose ear had been accustomed, not only to the music of the ancient tongues, which, however vitiated by our pronunciation, excel all that are now in use, but to the softness of the Italian, the most mellifluous of all modern poetry, seems fully convinced of the unfitness of our language for smooth versification, and is therefore pleased with an opportunity of calling in a softer word to his assistance: for this reason, and I believe, for this only, he sometimes indulges himself in a long series of proper names, and introduces them, where they add little but music to his poem.

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"The critic then proceeds, not very consistently, to blame Milton, on account of his roughening his style by his uncommonly frequent use of elisions. The great peculiarity of Milton's versification (says he) compared with that of later poets, is the elision of one vowel before another, or the suppression of the last syllable of a word ending with a vowel, when a vowel begins the following word. As,

'Knowledge

Oppresses else with surfeit, and soon turns
Wisdom to folly, as nourishment to wind.'

"Milton (adds Dr. Johnson) therefore seems to have mistaken the nature of our language, of which the chief defect is ruggedness and asperity, and has left our harsh cadences still harsher.' The same objection was made by the critics of Tasso, and with full as little sensibility to true poetical harmony."

So far Dr. Black. His concluding observation is very true. But Dr. Black himself, whom this finer perception of the beautiful might have enabled to discern it, has missed the real beauty of these nomenclatures in Milton. It is not that the names are merely beautiful or sounding in themselves, but that they are so grand and full of variety in their collocation. And for this the poet is certainly not indebted to the author of the Sette Giornate, nor, I believe, to any author ancient or modern. It is a discovery of his own elaborate and harmonious spirit, ever prepared to better what he finds, and make his "" assurance doubly sure."

Dryden had secrets of versification which he professed himself unwilling to divulge. He was afraid they would be turned to bad account by the unskilful. Surely he need not have been alarmed. A poor hand may play the finest piece of music after another, and yet still remain and be recognized as a poor hand. To hide his secret effectually, Dryden should not have written his verses. I am much mistaken if it has not been discovered in our own times; and yet nobody can write the heroic measure as he did.

The great secrets of a noble and harmonious versification appear to consist in varying and contrasting the vowels, distributing the emphasis, diversifying and nicely measuring the pauses, and bringing together as many emphatic syllables as possible without heaviness. The last requisite corresponds with nerve and muscle; the next with spirit and grace of action: the second with fervour of intention; the first with harmony of utterance. Dryden excelled in them all, as far as the shackle of rhyme allowed him. Indeed he gathers his golden chains about him, like a vassal superior to his destiny. But Milton is as much greater, as an invincible spirit roaming at large.

There can be no doubt that Milton made use of Tasso in various instances, or that while composing his first book he had in his mind the striking passage pointed out by Dr. Black. But in no instance is Milton indebted to him for the variety and loftiness of his modulation; and in these consists the charm of his proper names. The Italian language, which is so adapted for music in all other respects, is haunted with monotonous vowels. These, one would think, it would be the first business of a great versifier to endeavour to avoid; yet Tasso has not done it in the present instance; he has even commenced his Jeru

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