he sate down to write the _Paradise lost_, his Imagination was too
vigorous, too lofty to be shackled by _Rhyme_. It must be own'd that a
thousand Beauties would have been lost, which now shine with amazing
Splendor in that Poem, if _Milton_ had writ in the most exquisite
_Rhyme_. But then on the other hand, it is as certain that upon the
whole it would have been a more agreeable Poem to the Generality of
Readers than it is at present. Of this Opinion was the learned
Foreigner mentioned in a former Letter, a judicious Critick both in
the ancient and modern Languages.

"Quicquid tamen ejus sit, ostendunt Miltoni scripta virum vel in
ipsâ juventute: quæ enim ille adolescens scripsit carmina Latina,
unà cum Anglicis edita, ætatem illam longè superant, quâ ille vir
scripsit poëmata Anglica, sed sine rythmis, quos, ut pestes carminum
vernaculorum, abesse volebat, _quale illud decem libris constans,
The Paradise Lost_, plena ingenii & acuminis sunt, sed insuavia
tamen videntur ob _rythmi_ defectum; quem ego abesse à tali carminum
genere non posse existimo, quicquid etiam illi, & Italis nonnullis,
& nuper Isaaco Vossio in libro _de Poematum cantu_, videatur."
_Polyhist._

However, we must take _Paradise Lost_ as it is, and rejoice that we
have in it, one of the finest Works that ever the Wit of Man produc'd:
But then the Imperfection of this Work must not be pleaded in favour
of such other Works as have hardly any thing worthy of Observation in
them. Placing _Milton_ with his blank Verse by himself (as indeed he
ought to be in many other respects, for he certainly has no Companion)
this Dispute about the Excellency of _blank_ Verse, and even the
Preference of it to _rhym'd_ Verse, may be determined by comparing two
Writers of Note, who have undertaken the same Subject; that is,