BOOK II PART II
one would condemn so strange a mixture, and
would accuse him of the neglect of all rules of
art and criticism. These rules of art are founded
on the qualities of human nature; and the qual-
ity of human nature, which requires a consis-
tency in every performance is that which ren-
ders the mind incapable of passing in a mo-
ment from one passion and disposition to a
quite different one. Yet this makes us not blame
Mr Prior for joining his Alma and his Solomon
in the same volume; though that admirable
poet has succeeded perfectly well in the gai-
ety of the one, as well as in the melancholy of
the other. Even supposing the reader should
peruse these two compositions without any in-
terval, he would feel little or no difficulty in
the change of passions: Why, but because he
considers these performances as entirely differ-
ent, and by this break in the ideas, breaks the