less pleasing as the Notes are more or less varied, that is, raised or
sunk, prolonged or shortned. In order to judge of the varying of
_English_ Versification, I first endeavour'd (as I have already said,
with respect to the _Latin_) to find out the common Pause in _English_
Verse, that is, where the Voice naturally makes some sort of Stop when
a Verse is read. To this purpose I look'd into Mr. _Cowley_'s
_Davideis_ (for it would be of no use to quote such Authors as
_Quarles_ and _Ogilby_, who never had any Reputation for Poetry; but
this Gentleman has been stil'd, and is at present recorded in
_Westminster-Abbey_, as _Anglorum Pindarus_, _Maro_, _Flaccus_) and
there I soon found the common Pause to be upon the last Syllable of
the second Foot. For Example:

"I sing the Man | who _Judah_'s Sceptre bore
In that Right-hand, | which held the Crook before;
Who from best Poet, | best of Kings _did_ grow:
The two chief Gifts | Heav'n could on Man bestow.
Much Dangers first, | much Toil did he sustain,
Whilst _Saul_ and Hell | crost his strong Fate in vain.
Nor did his Crown | less painful Work afford--

Here we have seven Lines, and all of them, except the third, paus'd in
the same place.

Thus I discovered from _Cowley_ in _English_ what I perceived from
_Ovid_ in _Latin_. I then turned to the _Paradise Lost_, and there I
found _Milton_ even surpasses _Virgil_ in this particular. _Virgil_
uses the common Pause at the fifth Line of the _Georgicks_, but
_Milton_ does not use it till he comes to the sixth Line in his
_Paradise Lost_.