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[ 196 3
Though the opinion o f fome men
o f learning, that writing in verfe has
been more early praclifed in Europe
than writing in profe, may at firil appear
extraordinary, yet it feems more
probable upon nearer examination.
The poets among the Greeks and
Romans were more antient than their
hiilorians and moil celebrated orators.
The time Avhen profe firil began
to be wrote among thefe nations
maybe afcertained with tolerable accuracy
; but it is almoil impoifible to determine
the age of poetry among them,
as it Is far more antient than the fiege
o f Troy and the Olympic games. In
the fame manner we know that the firil
work in profe among the Romans was
the fpeech o f Appius Caegius to the
fenate and Roman people in the 125th
Olympiad ; in which he advifes them
to refufe the conditions o f peace offered
by Pyrrhus, when it is certain
that poetry had been known and cultivated
among them long before.
This need not be wondered at, when
we recoiled: that long before the knowledge
t 197 3
ledge o f letters could have become general
in Europe, many adions might,
however, have been thought worthy to
be configned to poflerity. How great
an ailiilance muil it have been to the
memqry, when the remembrance o f
an event, deilined to be refcued from
oblivion, was preferved in words,
compofed according to a certain meafure,
where it might be determined,
even by the ear alone, i f any word
had been omitted or altered ! The
laws o f the antient Germans were
written in verfe, and the itanzas in
which they were compofed were generally
fung. The French monarch,
induced by the favourable reception
given to every poetical work, caufed
the Bible to be tranflated into verie
in the ninth centu ry : and from the
fame motive Ottfried, a Benedidine
monk in Alfatia, tranflated the four
Evangelifts into German verfe about
the fame period.
Thus we fee that poetry is extremely
antient among all nations; and in
Sweden it may be confidered as a legacy
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