Our poets before the time of Milton, sometimes wrote with a fine instinctive melody, Shakspeare in particular: and in lyrical poetry, they could not help thinking of modulation. The lyrics of Beaumont and Fletcher almost set themselves to music. But no one, except Milton, appears to have had this beauty perpetually before him; to have been conscious of the high service he was performing at the altar of the muses, dressed (as he describes the poet) in his "garland and singing robes." Chaucer, though he had a finer ear than some of his imitators have been willing to acknowledge, does not think it necessary to have recourse to it, when he comes to a set of names. He takes no more heed of a list in poetry, than he would have taken of an abbey roll. Spenser, from a luxurious indolence, heeds it as little. Yet now and then he seems on the verge of discovering the secret. There is a dreary piece of British history in his poem, of which I recollect a magnificent passage: Let Scaldis tell, and let tell Hania And let the marsh of Estambruges tell, What colour were their waters that same day, And all the moor 'twixt Elversham and Dell, To avoid a multitude of quotations for the sole purpose of illustrating sound, and those quotations of necessity none of the best, I must content myself with asserting, that in the discovery of these new islands of poetical beauty, Full of sweet sounds that give delight and hurt not, Milton has had no precursor, Greek, Latin, or Italian. The curious reader may consult the list of the ships in Homer, (book 2,) of the forces in Virgil (book 7,) of dogs in Ovid (book 3); the proper names in the Persæ of Eschylus; in Petrarch's Trionfi; in Ariosto's enumeration of the Este family; and in the Divina Commedia of Dante, who thinks with Mr. Crabbe, that a name's a name, and a christian and surname as good as a name and an epithet. L'altro ch' appresso me la vena trita, E Tegghiaio Aldobrandin— Ed io che posto son con loro in croce, Dante, as well as Mr. Crabbe, may have had good reasons for giving his cog and ag-nomens ; but it is clear, that harmony is not thought of. The first quatrain of Petrarch's 115th sonnet is taken up with a list of rivers, remarkable for its indifference to the musical. Yet Petrarch was renowned for his fine ear, and used to try his verses on the lute. Till the time of Milton, names appear to have had a privilege of exemption from harmony. The following water-piece would not have been unworthy of Guthrie's Geography. Non Tesin, Pò, Varo, Arno, Adige, e Tebro, The couplet in the Rejected Addresses is full of crumb and relish, compared with this: John Richard William Alexander Dwyer, NOW PUBLISHING BY S. H. PARKER, 12 CORNHILL, BOSTON. Prospectus OF THIS CHEAP AND ELEGANT EDITION OF THE WORKS OF MARIA EDGEWORTH IN TWELVE OCTAVO VOLUMES, VIZ. VOL. I.-Practical Education. VOL. 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