_That Author's Name has undeserved Praise,_ _Who pall'd the Appetite he meant to raise._
Where he observes the Advantage the Verse had in the _Ed_, for without it it must have hobled on Nine Feet instead of Ten. _What does that Ed_, says he, _in +undeserved+ do there? I know no Business it has, unless it be to crutch a Lame Verse, and each out a scanty Sense; for the Word that is now used is Undeserv'd. I shou'd not take notice of such a Thing as this, but that I have to do with a giver of Rules, and a Magisterial Corrector of other Men; tho' upon the observing such little Niceties, does all the Musick of Numbers defend. But the Refinement of our Versication is a sort of Criticism, which the +Essayer+, if we may judge of his Knowledge by his Practice, seems yet to learn; for never was there such a Pack of Stiff ill sounding Rhimes put together as his Essay is stuff'd with: To add therefore to his other Collections, let him remember hereafter, that Verses have Feet given 'em either to walk gracefully and smooth, and sometimes with Majesty and State like +Virgils+, or to run light and easy like +Ovid+'s, not to stand stockstill like Dr. +Donne+'s, or to hobble like indigested Prose: That the counting of the Syllables is the least Part of the Poets Work, in the turning either of a soft or a Sonorous Line; that the +Ed's+ went away with the +For to's+, and the +Until's+ in that general Rout that fell on the whole Body of the +thereon's+, the +therein's+, and +thereby's+, when those useful +Expletives+, the +altho's+ and the +Unto's+, and those most convenient +Synalæpha's+ +'midst+, +'mongst+, +'gainst+, and +'twixt+, were every one +cut off+; which dismal Slaughter was follow'd with the utter Extirpation of the ancient House of the +hereof's+ and the +therefrom's+, &c. Nor is this Reformation the Arbitrary Fancy of a Few, who would impose their own Private Opinions and Practices upon the rest of their Countrymen, but grounded on the Authority of +Horace+, who tells us in his Epistle +de arte Poetica+, that Present Use is the final Judge of Language, (the Verse is too well known to need quoting) and on the common Reason of Mankind, which forbids us those antiquated Words and obsolete Idioms of Speech, whose worth Time has worn out, how well soever they may seem to stop a Gap in Verse, and suit our shapeless Immature Conceptions; for what is grown Pedantick and unbecoming when 'tis spoke, will not have a jot the better grace for being writ down._ This Gentleman's Opinion, and that of others, which agrees with his, justify'd by the Example of all the Polite Writers in King _Charles_ the Second's Reign, which probably may be the _Augustan_ Age of _English_ Poetry, is not to warrant the Affectation of such as are for the _Can'ts_, the _Don'ts_, the _Won'ts_, the _Shan'ts_, &c. but to refer to the Ear the cutting off those useless Syllables the _Ed's_ and _Eth's_ both in Verse and Prose; and I question whether any one wou'd not be better pleas'd to hear _disturb'd_ read than _disturbed_, and _rebuk'd_ than _rebuked_, tho' the Doctor wonders how it can be endur'd.