| whoso- | ever | liveth, and be- | lieveth in | me, | shall |

3.

[Goldsmith.]

have en- | deavored to show and | not in the | objects |

Sentiment, in Didactic Style. "Writers of | every | age | that pleasure is in | us, | | offered for our a- | musement. happily dis- | posed, || everything | |of af-|fording | enter- tainment; will almost want a | name.

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If the | soul be be- comes | capable

and dis- | tress |▼ Every occurrence |

passes in re- | view | like the | figures of a pro- | cession; || some may be | awkward, || others |ill| dressed; but | none but a | fool | is for | this, |

| with the master of the | ceremonies. ||

enraged

[Burke's Description of Marie Antoinette.]

"It is now, | sixteen or | seventeen | years since I | saw the Queen of | France, then the | Dauphiness, at Ver- | saillesand | surely | never | lighted on this | orb, which she | hardly | seemed to | touch, a more de- | lightful vision. I saw her | just a- | bove the ho- | rizon, | | decorating and | cheering the | elevated | sphere |

glittering, like the

she just be- | gan to move in: | morning star; || full of life,and | splendor,

joy.91

Oh! what a revo- | lution! ||

and

and | what a | heart|

the smoothness of | flattery | rugged and awful | crisis.

time for | adu- | lation: || cannot save us

in this | It is now | necessary to in- | struct the | throne | in the | language of | truth. | We | must, if possible, dis- | pel the de- | ludarkness | which envelope it ; |

sion and play,

in its | full | danger | and | genuine | colors, ruin | which is | brought to our | doors." ||99|

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and dis

6.Sentiment, in Didactic Style. [Addison.]

by se- | curing to my- | self

the

a- |

and|

I know but | one | way of | forti- | fying my | soul | gainst gloomy | presages and | terrors of | mind; that is, the | friendship | and pro- | tection of | that | Being | who disposes of events and governs fu- | turity. ||| He sees at | one | view, the whole | thread of my ex- istence, |not | only | that | part of it | which I have al- | ready | passed | through, | ▾ but | that | which runs forward | into | all the I | depths of e- | ternity. | When I | lay me | down to | sleep, I recom- | mend myself |▾ to his | care; |▾ 19 when I a- | wake, |I| give myself | up to his di- | rection. | || Amidst | all the | evils that | threaten me, I will look

| up to him for | help;|

will either a- | vert them,

and question not but he or | turn them | to my ad- | van

tage. || |Though I | know | neither the time nor the | manner | of the death | I am to | die, I am not at all

so- | licitous a- | bout it; |

| he knows them | both, |

because I am sure that and that he will not | fail to

| comfort | and support me | under them.” |

"Kindness is pre- | served by a | constant | recipro- | cation of benefits or interchange of pleasures; but | such benefits only | can be be- | stowed, as others | are | capable of receiving, | and | such pleasures im- | parted, I |as| others | are qualified to en- | joy. 91991

|

By this de- | scent from the pinnacles of | art |no| honor will be | lost; || for the | conde- | scensions of | learning are always | over- | paid | by | gratitude.

he re- | mits his |

| An | elevated | genius | em- | ployed in little | things, | ap- pears, to use the simile of Lon- | ginus, like the sun in his evening | decli- | nation : || splendor, but re- | tains his | magnitude; | pleases more,

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though he | dazzles | less." 199

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and |

The difference of effect in " rhythmical accent," it will be perceived, on closely examining the style of the preceding passages, is greatly dependent on the number of syllables included within each " bar," and, not less, on the pauses, which are also included in the "rhythm," and therefore enclosed within the bars; since the "time" of the voice necessarily includes its rests and intermissions as well as its sounds. Rhythm depends farther on the position of the accented syllable which takes on the emphasis of a phrase, as well as on the different species of accent, as "radical," concrete," or temporal.' Compare, particularly, the contents of the "bars" in the last few lines of the last two examples. They will be found to imbody the expressive genius of each author, and "clothe his thought in fitting sound." The meek and quiet spirit of Addison, breathes in the plain, conversational, and comparatively uniform style of "rhythm," in the close of the paragraph quoted from him; and the noble soul, but mechanical ear, of Johnson, are equally expressed in the sweeping "rhythm" of "quantity" and pause, and measured antiphony, in the cadence of the last sentence extracted from the Rambler. The limits of an elementary work like the present, will not admit the details of analysis by which the peculiar character of each of the authors quoted might be verified by his peculiar "rhythm." But in the statements already made on quantity," "pause," "movement," "accent." and "rhythm," the implements of analysis have been furnished; and the exercise of applying them may be left to the teacher and the student.

III. Prosodial Accent or Metre.

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The term "metre," or 66 measure," is applied, in prosody and in elocution, to that exact gauge of "rhythm," which is furnished in the process of prosodial analysis termed "scanning," by which a verse,' or line of poetry, is resolved into its constituent quantities" and "accents."

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"Metre," as a branch of prosody, comprehends, in our language, both "quantity and accent." The ancient languages, and those of modern Europe, generally, are less favorable than ours, to this union. The Greek and the Latin seem to have leaned chiefly on "quantity"; and we discern a similar tendency, though in an inferior degree, in the European continental languages, particularly those of the South. A language abounding in long "quantities " of various sound, needs less aid from

"accent," ," whether for distinctive enunciation or expression of feeling, than one redundant, like the English, in the number and force of its consonants. The racy energy of English enunciation is owing to the comparative force, spirit, and brilliancy of its accent, which strikes so instantaneously on the ear, with a bold "radical movement" and absorbing power, that compel the attention to the determining syllable of every word. It bespeaks at once the practical and energetic character of the people with whom it originated. — Other modern languages seem to distribute the accent among all the syllables of a word, and to leave the ear doubtful to which it is meant to apply, unless in the case of long vowels, in which they greatly excel, as regards the uses of music and of " expressive speech, or impassioned modes of

voice.

In emphatic utterance, however, the firm grasp which our numerous hard consonants allow to the organs, in the act of articulation, gives a peculiar percussive force of explosion to the vowels that follow them in accented syllables; and the comparatively short duration of our unaccented sounds, causes those which are accented, when they possess long "quantity," to display it with powerful effect in the utterance of "expressive" emotion. Our poets sometimes, turn this capability of the language to great account; and none abounds more in examples than Milton, whose ear seems to have detected and explored every element of expressive effect which his native tongue could furnish.

Syllables have been classed, in prosody, as long or short, accented or unaccented; and the prosodial characters, (long,) and (short,) have been used to designate them to the eye. The same marks have been arbitrarily used to denote accented and unaccented syllables

The "rhythm" of verse, as measured by "long" and "short" or by "heavy," (accented,) and "light," (unaccented,) syllables, has the following metrical designations.

I." Iambic Metre."

This form of verse takes its name from the circumstance of its being constituted by the foot, or sequence of syllables, called an "iambus.' The words "foot" and "feet are arbitrarily used in prosody, to express a group of syllables constituting a distinct and separable portion of verse. The "iambus" is a "foot" consisting of two syllables: the first, short, or unaccented, or both; the second, long, or accented, or both; as in the word repeal.

"Iambic "metre is exemplified in "epic" or "heroic " poetry, whether in the form of "blank verse,' so called from its not furnishing rhymes, and its consequent blank effect on the ear, as in Milton's Paradise Lost, or of rhyming "couplets," SO called from the lines rhyming in couples, as in Pope's transla

tion of Homer. Each line, in "blank verse and the "heroic couplet," contains five "iambuses," or ten syllables, alternating from short to long, or from unaccented to accented; as in the following examples.

"Blank" Verse.

"Advanced in view, they stand, | ǎ hōr | rid frōnt | Of dread | fül length, | ănd dāz | zling ārms, | in guise Ŏf warriors ōld, | with ōr | dered spear | and shield. į

"Heroic Couplet.”

"Like leaves on trees | the life | of man | is found; | (* 1.) Now green | in youth, | (* 2.) now with | (* 3.) ĕring on the ground; |

Another race | the fol | (* 4.) lowing spring | supplies:
They fall succēs | (* 5.) sive, and | successive rise."

"Iambic " verse is exemplified, also, in octosyllabic lines, in rhyming "couplets," and in quatrain, or four-line "stanzas." The following are examples.

Octosyllabic Couplet.

"The way was lōng, | the wind | was cold; | . The minstrel was | infirm | ănd ōld:

Quatrain Stanza:

Octosyllabic Couplets.

"The spacious fir | măment | on high |

With all the blue | ĕthe real skỹ, |

And spangled hēavens, | ǎ shin | ing fiāme, |

Their great Ŏrīg | înăl | proclaim." |

Quatrain Stanza: Octosyllabic Lines, rhyming alternately.

"The heavens | declare | thy glō | rỹ, Lōrd, | in every star | thy wis | dom shīnes; | But when | our eyes | běhōld | thỹ wōrd, | We read thy name | in fair | er līnes." |

*Irregular feet used as substitutes for the "iambus," according to the "license" of versification. These feet are called, (1. & 2.) the "spondee," -two long syllables; (3.) the "tribrach," three short syllables; (4.) the "anapest," two short syllables, and one long; (5.) the "pyrrhic," two short syllables.