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Miscellanies in Prose and Verse

By Mrs. Catherine Jemmat
 

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QUESTION, on the Art of Writing.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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QUESTION, on the Art of Writing.

Tell me what genius did the art invent,
The lively image of a voice to paint!
Who first the secret how to colour sound,
And to give shape to reason, wisely found!
With bodies how to cloathe ideas taught,
And how to draw the pictures of a thought!
Who taught the hand to speak, the eye to hear,
A silent language roving far and near!

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Whose softest notes out-strip loud thunder's sound,
And spread their accents through the world's vast round!
Yet with kind secrecy securely roll,
Whispers of absent friends from pole to pole.
A speech heard by the deaf, spoke by the dumb,
Whose echo reaches far in time to come,
Which dead men speak as well those that live!
Tell me what genius did this art contrive?