But we are told that Blank Verse is not enough distinguished from Prose. The Answer must be, It is according as it is. That of our _English_ Tragedies, I confess, is not; tho' very proper for the Purpose to which it is apply'd. This indeed is what the _French_ rightly call _Prose mesurée_, rather than Verse. But much worse is to be said of _any_ Poem, which is only written in the Shape of Metre, but has no more of Verse in it, than of Rhime; no Harmony, or Prosody, no true Metrical Cadence; half the Lines concluding with double Syllables, as _Torment_, _Greatness_, and the Participles ending in _ing_. This deserves not so much as the Name of _Prose on Horseback_; 'Tis Prose upon Crutches; and of all Prose the vilest. But if Blank Verse be laboured, as it ought to be; it is sufficiently distinguished from Prose. We have no Feet, nor Quantities, like the Ancients; and nothing in our poor Language will ever supply That Defect: Rhime is at least as far from doing it, as the more Advantageous Variety of Cadences in Blank Verse: Which requires so much the more Care, and Art, to work it up into Numbers, and Support it from groveling into Prose. Which naturally leads us to observe further, that many Imperfections, both in Thought, and Expression, will be overlooked in Rhime, which will not be endured in Blank Verse: So that the same may be said of This, which _Horace_ applies to Comedy; _Creditur----habere Sudoris minimum; sed habet----tanto Plus oneris, quanto veniæ minus----_ I do not say, Rhime is, all things considered, more easy than the other: That Point cannot be well determined; because it relates to the particular Genius's of particular Persons. For my own part, if I never made one good Verse, I have made many good Rhimes: But supposing Both to be equally easy, I should chuse Blank Verse, for the Reasons already alledged. After all which, if some Gentlemen are resolved that _Blank Verse shall_ be _Prose_; they have my free Leave to _enjoy their Saying_: provided I may have Theirs to think they mean nothing by it; unless they can prove that Rhime is essential to Metre; consequently that the _Goths_, and _Monks_ were the first Inventers of Verse; and that _Homer_, and _Virgil_, as well as _Milton_, wrote nothing but Prose. _Milton_ indeed has _too many_ of those looser and weaker Verses; as he has some Lines which are no Verses at all. These for Instance, _Burnt after them to the bottomless Pit:_ _In the Visions of God; It was a Hill:_