produce one, two, three, or even four unaccented impulses of voice for the purposes of speech, be-. tween two accented impulses of voice; but it cannot produce two accented impulses in immediate succession, without either an intervening unaccented impulse, or a silent interval in which an unaccented impulse might have been produced. It must, unless there are pauses, produce at least one accented to every four unaccented impulses; so that, according to the vocal organs, fixed laws of action, the periodic occurrence of accented impulses, (or of pauses where they would occur), is an organic condition under which a succession of vocal sounds is produced.

The English poet composes so that an accent shall periodically recur, in a word, he writes verse. Now the rhythmist, like the musician, adjusts his bars in such a way, that while they divide the verse into equal measures, they also indicate the accented syllables, by being placed immediately before them; and the accent and the measure together constitute the rhythmus of the verse. The twofold purpose of the bars occasions most verse to begin and end with imperfect measures, the former with the unaccented and the latter with the accented parts of the measure. Thus, in scanning, we cut off the

imperfect foot at the beginning, which makes the verse headless, akepaλov, as the metricians term it in Greek prosody.

It has been already stated that by drawing a line to precede the accented syllables of a verse, we divide it into measures of equal times, as

Immortal | nature | lifts her | changeful | form |

which is a verse in common time: and

The small birds rejoice in the | green leaves returning |

These specimens may

is a verse in triple time. serve to give a notion of the simple rhythmus of verse produced by periodic recurrence of an accented syllable. It will be observed in reading these verses as mechanical as the ti tum ti style of a school-boy, that the rhythmus is a metrical or measured arrangement of syllables, embracing syllabic accent and syllabic quantity. Now if it be doubted whether syllabic quantity is a constituent of English rhythmus, it may be asked, how is it that an accent recurs at equal periods of time? But to describe the constituents of rhythmus.

1. The two syllables | mortal | constitute a measure of common time. The line

Immortal | nature | lifts her | changeful | form |

consists of four measures, and two distinct fractions of measures; one of which, consisting of the syllable Im is at the beginning, the other consisting of the syllable form is at the end of the line.

2. The accented syllable | mor is said to be in thesis; the other syllable of the measure is in arsis. In beating time, the syllable in thesis is pronounced while setting down the hand or foot, and the arsis, while raising it.

In triple time the measures consist of three syllables, as in the illustration | small birds re | of the line,

The small birds rejoice in the | green leaves returning |

which consists of three whole measures, and of two fractional parts, one of which is at the beginning, and the other at the end of the line. It will be observed that there are two syllables in

arsis, and only one in thesis in triple time measures *.

The measure considered as an integer may consist of syllables of different values; thus in the measure mortal | it consists of two syllables of about equal length; and in the example | small birds re | the syllables are each respectively shorter than the preceding. The syllables contained in a measure are called a foot: and prosodians give various names to feet, according to the relative quantities of the constituent syllables. Thus the syllables | mortal | being nearly of equal length, and both long, constitute a spondee: and the syllables | small birds re I being progressively shorter, constitute a dactyle. By this mode of scanning verse, prosodists will agree in estimating the feet; because the foot and the measure will coincide, and both will begin immediately after the bar. And on this principle of scanning, the number of feet in English versification will be less than what is given to Greek and Latin versification: but it does not follow as a necessary conse

* From the laws of organic action, which cannot here be described, only one syllable can be uttered in a thesis, although several may be uttered in an arsis of the voice.

quence that our means of prosodial effect are less than theirs.

The verse receives various names, according to the number of measures it contains; thus dimeter, trimeter, pentameter, hexameter verse, contain two, three, five and six measures respectively of either common or triple time, as the case may be. The verse may not have the required number of whole measures, as in the example

Immortal nature | lifts her | changeful | form |

which is a hexameter, for although it has only four whole measures, it has besides two distinct parts, which together make six measures. English heroics are hexameters; and thus the number of syllables is not the test, but only the number of measures. Milton and other poets frequently give eleven syllables instead of ten, and some critics object to the redundant syllable, but such verses are still hexameters; as in the examples

The cock's shrill | clarion | or the | echoing | horn. | * Ungrateful offering | to the immortal | powers. †