Tasso had done the same; nay, more, that all the sonnets in that language are on the turn of the first thought—which Mr. Walsh, in his late ingenious preface to his poems, has observed. In short, Virgil and Ovid are the two principal fountains of them in Latin poetry. And the French at this day are so fond of them that they judge them to be the first beauties; _delicate_, _et bien tourné_, are the highest commendations which they bestow on somewhat which they think a masterpiece. An example of the turn of words, amongst a thousand others, is that in the last book of Ovid’s “Metamorphoses”:— “_Heu_! _quantum scelus est_, _in viscera_, _viscera condi_! _Congestoque avidum pinguescere corpore corpus_; _Alteriusque animantem animantis vivere leto_.” An example on the turn both of thoughts and words is to be found in Catullus in the complaint of Ariadne when she was left by Theseus:— “_Tum jam nulla viro juranti fæmina credat_; _Nulla viri speret sermones esse fideles_; _Qui_, _dum aliquid cupiens animus prægestit apisci_, _Nil metuunt jurare_, _nihil promittere parcunt_: _Sed simul ac cupidæ mentis satiata libido est_, _Dicta nihil metuere_, _nihil perjuria curant_.” An extraordinary turn upon the words is that in Ovid’s “Epistolæ Heroidum” of Sappho to Phaon:— “_Si_, _nisi quæ formâ poterit te digna videri_, _Nulla futura tua est_, _nulla futura tua est_.” Lastly a turn, which I cannot say is absolutely on words—for the thought turns with them—is in the fourth Georgic of Virgil, where Orpheus is to receive his wife from hell on express condition not to look on her till she was come on earth:— “Cum subita incautum dementia cepit amantem; Ignoscenda quidem, scirent si ignoscere Manes.” I will not burthen your lordship with more of them, for I write to a master who understands them better than myself; but I may safely conclude them to be great beauties. I might descend also to the mechanic beauties of heroic verse; but we have yet no English Prosodia, not so much as a tolerable dictionary or a grammar (so that our language is in a manner barbarous); and what Government will encourage any one, or more, who are capable of refining it, I know not: but nothing under a public expense can go through with it. And I rather fear a declination of the language than hope an advancement of it in the present age. I am still speaking to you, my lord, though in all probability you are already out of hearing. Nothing which my meanness can produce is worthy of this long attention. But I am come to the last petition of Abraham: if there be ten righteous lines in this vast preface, spare it for their sake; and also spare the next city, because it is but a little one.