To proceed then;--as the choice of proper matter, and of suitable words to express it, depends upon the judgment of the Speaker, but that of agreeable sounds, and harmonious numbers, upon the decision of the ear; and because the former is intended for information, and the latter for pleasure; it is evident that reason must determine the rules of art in one case, and mere sensation in the other. For we must either neglect the gratification of those by whom we wish to be approved, or apply ourselves to invent the most likely methods to promote it. There are two things which contribute to gratify the ear,--agreeable _sounds_, and harmonious _numbers_. We shall treat of numbers in the sequel, and at present confine ourselves to _sound_.--Those words, then, as we have already observed, are to have the preference which sound agreeably;--not such as are exquisitely melodious, like those of the Poets, but such as can be found to our purpose in common language.--_Qua Pontus Helles_ is rather beyond the mark:--but in _Auratos aries Colchorum_, the verse glitters with a moderate harmony of expression; whereas the next, as ending with a letter which is remarkably flat, is unmusical, _Frugifera et ferta arva Alfiae tenet_, Let us, therefore, rather content ourselves with the agreeable mediocrity of our own language, than emulate the splendor of the Greeks; unless we are so bigotted to the latter as to hesitate to say with the poet, _Qua tempestate Paris Helenam, &c_. we might even imitate what follows, and avoid, as far as possible, the smallest asperity of sound, _habeo istam ego PERTERRICREPAM_; or say, with the same author, in another passage, _versutiloquas MALITIAS_. But our words must have a proper _compass_, as well as be connected together in an agreeable manner; for this, we have observed, is another circumstance which falls under the notice of the ear. They are confined to a proper compass, either by certain rules of composition, as by a kind of natural pause, or by the use of particular forms of expression, which have a peculiar _concinnity_ in their very texture; such as a succession of several words which have the same termination, or the comparing similar, and contrasting opposite circumstances, which will always terminate in a measured cadence, though no immediate pains should be taken for that purpose. Gorgias, it is said, was the first Orator who practised this species of _concinnity_. The following passage in my Defence of _Milo_ is an example. "Est enim, Judices, haec non _scripta_, fed _nata_ Lex; quam non _didicimus, accepimus, legimus_, verum ex Natura ipsa _arripuimus, hausimus, expressimus_; ad quam non _docti_, sed _facti_; non _instituti_, sed _imbuti_ simus."