[27] Vide, e.g., Addison, “Spectator” papers on “Paradise Lost” (No. 285, January 26, 1712).
[28] Essay, “Poetry Distinguished from other Writing” (Miscellaneous Works, 1820, Vol. IV, pp. 408-14).
[29] Ibid., p. 22.
[30] “Lives,” Hill, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 420.
[31] “Lives”: Cowley; cp. “The Rambler,” No. 158.
[32] Cp. Boswell’s “Life” (1851 edition), Vol. I, p. 277: “He enlarged very convincingly upon the excellence of rhyme over blank verse in English poetry”; also ibid., Vol. II, p. 84.
[33] “Lives,” ed. Hill, op. cit., Vol. III, pp. 416 foll.
[34] Ibid., p. 341.
[35] This is of course exemplified in his own poetic practice, and it has been held sufficient to explain the oft-debated scantiness of his literary production. But for remarkable examples of his minuteness and scrupulosity in the matter of poetic diction see the letter to West referred to above; to Mason, January 13, 1758 (Tovey, op. cit., II, p. 12), and to Beattie, March 8, 1771 (ibid., II, p. 305).
[36] Cp. Courthope, “History of English Poetry,” Vol. V, pp. 218 foll.