The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1845-02-08

mony are the product of human knowl.
edge, why not rhyme, which is the mere
collection of words, rhythmecal rela-
lion2
awe produce melody" says Crabbe,
"by the rules OF art" and harmony'' says
Dr. Watts, sis compound idea, made up
of different sounds united" and I should
like much TO know what Unsuitable rea-
sons b T b can give 10 show that rhyme
is strictly Gods art But, to return, if
there be good authority for asserting chat
the Hebrews wrote their poetry rhythmic
cally, readily confess my ignorance of
it. Bishop Lowth, considered the highest
authority on this point, states, at must be
allowed tina, no one has been able to re-.
duce the Hebrew poems to any kind of
harmony" sit is certain" SAYS Mr..
Mon gomery, celebrated English poet in
his lectures before the Royal Institu,lon,'
"that Hebrew verse did not include rhyme;
the termination of the lines, when they
are most distinct, never manifesting any,
thing OF the kind" But in speaking of
rhyme, 'B. II. B." holds the following:
1.-The first rude number OIL re soundedn-
"the sound lingering not, has gone ,hro'
each successive age" and sit tarried for
time DER Greece".-Homer awoke and
IN poetic Numbers told the tale of the
Trojan war, and while the magic of his
song was yet, in one wild wave, DER
whelmng all the Earth Virgil, IIesiod
and Horace sprang phenix-like from 9TH
er lands and bore the echo on.n In this
paragraph there appears 10 be great
solccism, glazing absurdily and a will
iu! anachronism. Homer's song DER
whelmed all the T rth, the whole. the
entire, universal Globe! Ifths be so how
could Virgil, Hesiod and Horace have
borne the echo on, when the entirety of
the Earth was completely enyelopcd in
one wild wave2" Where, to what place.
region Or country did they bear liz The
Earth was overwhelmed with the song
but they bore the echo on!! Virgil and
Horace were coetaneous writer's and i,
was through the influence of Virgil tn It
Horace was recommended to Macenas
through whom he was noticed by Angus
tus, and had his estate, which had been
forfeited, restored to him, by that Emper.
or. But Hesod, a very ancient Greek
poet, is placed after Virgil, while it yet
remains disputed point among the learn
ed, whether he was contemporary with, OIL
der, OF younger than Homer. He flour
ished long before the foundation of Rome
was laid. Although of the same, he is
made to spring from "other lands" and
bear the echo on," when Homer, the
high priest of nature, who uttered the
the sonnd, may have lived subsequently to
the lime of Hesod! The Milford Bard
one OF our most accomplished prosaic
writer's IN his "Triumphs of Learning,',
makes Hesod contemporary with Homer
in the following sentence-"When Ho-
mer sung and Hesiod wrote, Greece was
ascending that plnacle from whence gush-
ed her flood ofglory which still CLEANS u
pom the minds of men.'
Homer, according to numerous author
ty, lived about 900 years before Christ,
while Hesiod was coeval, and yet "B. T.
B." brings the latter after Virgil, who died
about Is years A. c. There is Calinus,
the inventor of elegiac verse, who sang
his pensive songs nearly 500 years before
Virgil2 Where is Sappho, the famous
poetess of antiquity2 Where are the in
termediate poets, between Homer and Vir-
gil, who rose, hourished and "passed"
away on the classic ground Of Greece,
the relics Of whose writings point to their
former greatness? They are PASSED thro'
neglect, and our writer brings us to the
Christian era. where the Sun of universal
liberty first burst upon degraded world
and Virgil, Hesiod and Horace, "solilary
and alone" are dragged forth to bear on
the echo Of the song which was sung near
a thousand years before the advent of the
redeeming Son.-Nor less is the impro-
priety in the following sentence.-"lt"
(the sound) ''came with increased might
down through revolving time to later
years; and when Shakspear passed, Mil
ton, Byron, Pope, and Y Dung stepped from
their dusty lanes" SC. True it is that,