Thrive under evil, and work ease out of pain.

ii. 261.

A pillar of state; deep on his front engrav'n.

Perhaps thy capital seat, from whence had spread.

xi. 343.

And fear of God, from whom their piety feign'd. 799.

In these lines, all the words printed in Italic characters are contracted into one syllable, except capital and piety. These are to be confi dered as dissyllables.

Such contractions are, in general, harsh and unmusical.

ELISIONS,

When the next word begins with a vowel:

To set himself in glory above his peers.

i. 39.

That were an ignominy, and shame beneath.

115.

The pleasant valley of Hinnom, Tophet thence,

404.

O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp.

ii, 620..

This line does not confift of twelve syllables, as fome have imagined; but of ten, with two elisions. If the word many before a vowel is not to be confidered as a monofyllable, a great number of lines, in Milton and other poets, would contain eleven syllables; for instance:

In heav'n by many a tow'red structure high.

i. 733.

Besides, if many is made a dissyllable in this line, the measure will be entirely deftroyed.

OTHER ELISIONS.

He also against the house of God was bold.

i. 470.

Shoots invisible virtue ev'n to the deep.

iii. 586.

No ingrateful food, and food alike those pure.

V. 207.

God made thee of choice his own, and of his own. x. 766.

In fome of the later editions of Paradise Loft the foregoing contractions and elisions are generally marked by an apostrophe, thus: fpi'rit, glory', many', &c.

The

The termination ed, in verbs and participles

frequently forms a fyllable, and should be observed in the pronunciation.

EXAMPLES.

With fixed anchor in his scaly rind.
Invests the fea, and wished morn delays.
Of that inflamed sea, he stood and call'd.
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts.
From ev'ry band, and squared regiment.
In this abhorred deep to utter woe.
With armed watch, that render all access.

i. 206.

208.

300.

328.

758.

ii. 87.

130.

The termination ed, being a languid and un

important fyllable, has a bad effect in poetry. The fame may be observed of fome words which are extended, contrary to the usual custom of the best poets; as the word heaven in the following line:

Of pow'rs, that erst in heaven sat on thrones.

§ XVI.

In reading, it may frequently be neceffary to favour the rhyme, more especially when ancient usage, etymology, or the folemnity of the style, may be supposed to justify a deviation from the common pronunciation.

EXAMPLES.

WIND..

High in the midst upon his urn reclin'd,
His fea-green mantle waving with the wind.

Pope, Wind. F. 347.

The time shall come, when free as air or wind,
Unbounded Thames shall flow for all mankind.

Ib. 395. Eff. on Crit. 207.

Wind, in familiar pronunciation, rhimes to

finn'd; but in mind, bind, blind, and every other word in English, terminating in ind, the i is pronounced as a long vowel.

DRAUGHT.

The daily anodyne, the nightly draught,
To kill those foes to fair ones, time and thought.

Mor. Eff. ii. 11.

The

The luscious wine th' obedient hérald brought,
Around the mansion flow'd the purple draught.

Odyf. xiii. 68.

Draught, in common conversation, is pro

nounced as a rhyme to raft, craft.

FAULT.

Before his facred name flies ev'ry fault;
And each exalted stanza teems with thought.

Eff. on Crit. 422. 1691.
Mor. Eff. ii.73.

Eumæus at the sylvan lodge he fought,
A faithful servant, and without a fault.

Odyf. xiv. 5.

The I is now very generally pronounced in fault; and there is no reason why it should be omitted. It is universally pronounced in malt, falt, affault, &c.

SHEW.

८

Of ev'ry star, the sky doth shew,
And ev'ry herb, that sips the dew.

SATELLITES.

Or ask of yonder argent fields above,
Why Jove's Satellites are less than Jove.

Milt.

Eff. on Man. i. 41.

Satellites,