Page:Rudiments of Grammar for the English-Saxon Tongue (Elstob 1715).djvu/35

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xxviii
The Preface.

And on the Marriage of the Lord Dungannon,

May the vast Sea for your fake quit his Pride,
And grow so smooth, while on his Breast you ride,
As may not only bring you to your Port,
But shew how all things do your Virtues court.

To Gilbert Lord Archbishop of Canterbury,

That the same Wing may over her be cast,
Where the best Church of all the World is plac'd.

Mrs. Wharton upon the Lamentations of Jeremiah;

Behold those Griefs which no one can repeat,
Her Fall is steep, and all her Foes are great.

And my Lady Winchelsea in her Poem entituled, The Poor Man's Lamb;

Thus wash'd in Tears, thy Soul as fair does show
As the first Fleece, which on the Lamb does grow.

Sir, from these numerous Instances, out of the Writings of our greatest and noblest Poets, it is apparent, That had the Enmity against Monosyllables, with which there are some who make so great a Clamour, been so great in all Times, we must have been deprived of some of the best Lines, and finest Flowers, that are to be met with in the beautiful Garden of our English Posie. Perhaps this may put our Countreymen upon studying with greater Niceness the use of these kind of Words, as well in the Heroick Compositions, as in the softer and more gentle Strains. I peak not this, upon Confidence of any Judgment I have in Poetry, but according to that Skill, which is natural to the Musickof