they are in _Virgil_ and _Milton_) little think what it is to write 10
or 12 thousand Lines, and to vary the Sound of them in such manner as
to entertain the Ear from the Beginning to the End of the Work.


IX. I come now to the _Alliteratio_.

And 1. To speak of the single _Alliteratio_. This is so common in
_Milton_, that you need but begin the Poem, or open any Page of it,
and you will meet with it.

"Of Man's _first_ Disobedience, and the _Fruit_
Of that forbidden _Tree_, whose mortal _Taste_
Brought Death into the _World_, and all our _Woe_.

Again,

"_Restore_ us, and _Regain_ the blissful Seat.

And

"_Sing_ Heav'nly Muse! that on the _Secret_ Top.

And a little lower,

"That _Shepherd_ who first taught the chosen _Seed_.

But I will produce an Example or two of this kind out of our Author's
juvenile Poems. His Verses upon the Circumcision are addressed to the
Angels that appear'd to the Shepherds, and begin thus,