'I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and
unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but
slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run
for, not without dust and heat.' {4} Down to 'virtue,' the current
S and R are both announced and repeated unobtrusively, and by way
of a grace-note that almost inseparable group PVF is given entire.
{5} The next phrase is a period of repose, almost ugly in itself,
both S and R still audible, and B given as the last fulfilment of
PVF. In the next four phrases, from 'that never' down to 'run
for,' the mask is thrown off, and, but for a slight repetition of
the F and V, the whole matter turns, almost too obtrusively, on S
and R; first S coming to the front, and then R. In the concluding
phrase all these favourite letters, and even the flat A, a timid
preference for which is just perceptible, are discarded at a blow
and in a bundle; and to make the break more obvious, every word
ends with a dental, and all but one with T, for which we have been
cautiously prepared since the beginning. The singular dignity of
the first clause, and this hammer-stroke of the last, go far to
make the charm of this exquisite sentence. But it is fair to own
that S and R are used a little coarsely.
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