[Footnote 97: The Reader will observe, that nothing has been said in this Essay on the regularity of the measure of Pindar’s Odes. This subject is treated so fully in the preface of Mr. West’s Translation, that we need only here to refer the curious to his remarks. The Ancient Odes are always to be considered as songs which were set to musick, and whose recital was generally accompanied with dancing. If we may be permitted to form an idea of this music, from the nature and composition of the Ode, it must have been a matter of great difficulty to excel in it, as it is certain that poems which abound with sentiments are more proper to be set to music, than those which are ornamented with imagery. These sister-arts usually keep pace with each other, either in their improvement or decay. Ne ci dobbiamo (says an ingenious Foreigner, speaking of the modern Italian music) maravigliare, ce corrotta la Poesia, s’e anche corrotta la musica; perche come nella ragior poetica accennammo, tutte le arti imitative hanno una idea commune, dalla cui alterazione si alterano tutte, e particolarmenti la musica dall alterazion del la poesia si cangia come dal corpo l’ombra. Onde corrotta la poesia da e soverchi ornamenti e dalla copia delle figure, ha communicato anche il suo morbo alla musica, ormai tanto sfigurata, che ha perduta quasi la natural est pressione. Gavina della Traged. p. 70.] I am afraid, that your Lordship is now thinking it high time to bring the whole of this detail to a period.----Upon reviewing the observations made on the Lyric Poetry of the Ancients through the preceding part of this Essay, you will find that the subject has been considered under the three following heads. In the first part I have attempted to lay before your Lordship, the state of Lyric Poetry in the earliest ages, as it appears from what we can collect either of the character of the writings of Amphion, Linus, Orpheus, Museus, and Hesiod. In the course of this enquiry I have had occasion to assign the causes, whose concurrence rendered this branch of the poetic Art less perfect at its first introduction than any of the other species. --Upon advancing a little further, a richer and more diversified prospect opened to the imagination. In _the first dawn_ of this more enlightened period, we meet with the names of Alcaeus and Sappho, who, without altering _the original character_ of the Ode, made a considerable change on the _subjects_ to which it was appropriated; and in _the full meridian_ of Science, we find this second form of Lyric Poetry brought to its highest perfection in the writings of Horace. --Some remarks on the nature of those beauties which are peculiarly characteristic of the _higher species_ of the Ode, and on the part which Imagination particularly claims in its composition, led me to mention, a few rules,