"And if our _Substance_ be _indeed Divine_.--

Let this be alter'd,

"And indeed Divine if be our Substance.--

Is not the Verse quite destroy'd by this Alteration? And does it not
appear to be so, because _Indeed_ and _Divine_, which are Iambick
Feet, are plac'd as if they were Trochaick, and _Substance_, which is
a Trochaick Foot, is plac'd as if it were an Iambick? But I might have
omitted the altering of this Line of _Milton_'s, if I had thought of
one in _Cowley's Davideis_, which is as barbarous as it is possible
for the Wit of Man to make a Verse.

"To Divine Nobé directs then his Flight.
_Lib. 3. v. 3._

_Nobé_, Mr. _Cowley_ says in his Notes, he puts instead of _Nob_,
because that Word seem'd to him to be _unheroical_. But that is not
what I am chiefly to take notice of. _Divine_ and _Directs_ are both
Iambicks, but Mr. _Cowley_ has made them both Trochaicks, which makes
this Line so terrible to the Ear.

It is plain that _Vossius_, who came into _England_ when he was pretty
much advanc'd in Years, and in all probability convers'd chiefly in
_Latin_ or _French_, knew nothing at all of the Pronunciation of
_English_ Words. We have as certainly Feet or Numbers in our Language,
as in the _Latin_; and indeed the _Latin_ seems to me to be rather
more arbitrary in this respect than the _English_. What Reason can be
given why _ma_ in _manus_ is short, and _ma_ in _manes_ long? Why is