LI. Keen sentences, wit, airy pleasantry, and lively conceits, are the precise ornaments of poetry; but they should not be introduced into a poem, as if they had been studiously sought after; on the contrary, they should seem as if they were always in waiting, and ready either for the poet to lay his hand on them, or to obey his command; who should pursue the rout he has chalked out for himself, and as he proceeds on, gather such flowers as he meets on his way, and which grow naturally in the road through which he travels. This was the practice of Virgil, Ovid, Horace, and all the illustrious poets of antiquity. To make couplets, which are no more than an unformed mass of little conceits, is a thing very easy, and at the same time very useless; because there is not in them, nor are they capable of containing, any of the sublime excellences of poetry. Why do I say sublime excellences? Not even the lowest requisites which are of its essence. LII. But I have not even yet mentioned the worst part belonging to the divine canticles; which is, that if not all, a great many of them are composed in a burlesque stile. This is certainly done with great discretion; because by this practice, the things appertaining to God, are converted to things of interlude. What idea can a thousand extravagances, put in the mouths of Gill and Pasquil, give of the ineffable mystery of the incarnation? I shall leave it here, for the thoughts of such an absurdity put me out of all patience; and he to whom such an indignant abuse, does not of itself appear disgusting, I shall never be able to persuade or convince, by any arguments whatever. The following, which is extracted from the learned Letters of FEYJOO, is an Answer of the Author’s to a Letter from a Friend on the Subject of Music. The Title he gives to the Letter, is, THE WONDERFUL EFFECTS OF MUSIC, AND A COMPARISON OF THE ANTIENT WITH THE MODERN. DEAR SIR, I. Before I ceased to be a young man, or indeed before I became one, the difficulty you now propound occurred to me, and is, in my humble opinion, a very grave one. It seems beyond a doubt, that the music of these times, does not produce the admirable effects which are related of the music of antiquity, and it seems also as if this argued a greater degree of perfection in the antient than the modern. On the other hand, it appears difficult to explain, in what this superior degree of perfection in the antient consisted; not so much for the reason you mention, as for another, which I shall point out in the sequel.