44. "I am a Royalist, I blushed for the degradation of the crown. I am a Whig, I blushed for the dishonour of Parliament. I am a true Englishman, I felt to the quick for the disgrace of England. I am a man, I felt for the melancholy reverse of humar. affairs in the fall of the first power in the world.”—BURKE. 45. For a good opinion begets security; security begets negligence; temptation a fall; and (if unrepented) a fall into that state where our wish will be that we never had been born."-YOUNG. 47. 66 46. That he is mad 'tis true, 'tis pity; May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust A grave the sun his light! and heaven a God!"-BYRON'S Cain. 48. "As for me,' says Luther, I do not cease the cry of the Gospel! Gospel! Christ! Christ! And my opponents are ready with their answers: Custom! Custom! Ordinances! Ordinances! Fathers! Fathers!'"-D'Aubigné. 49. Of heaven, if thou wouldst reach a gleam, On humblest object fix thy eyes; So travellers in a picturing stream, Look down, indeed, but see the skies." 50. "When young-eyed Spring profusely throws To Summer tells her tender tale; At every season, let my ear Thy solemn whispers, Fancy, hear." 51. "Let the bugles sound the Truce of God to the whole world for ever. Let the selfish boast of the Spartan women become the grand chorus of mankind, that they have never seen the smoke of an enemy's camp. Let the iron belt of martial music, which now encompasses the earth, be exchanged for the golden cestus of Peace, clothing all with celestial beauty."-CHARLES SUMNER. 52. "Other nations may boast of their magnificent gems and monster diamonds. Our Kohinoor is our common school system. This is our 'mountain of light,' not snatched, indeed, as a prize from a barbarous foe, nor destined to deck a royal brow, or to irradiate a Crystal Palace; but whose pure and penetrating ray illumines every brow, and enlightens every mind, and cheers every heart and every hearthstone in the land, and which supplies 6 ornaments of grace' unto the head, and chains upon the necks, of every son and daughter of the land." 53. "Hope and fear alternate sway'd his breast, Like light and shade upon a waving field, 54. "One from a thousand feather'd deaths he chose." 55. "James (the royal poet) is evidently worthy of being enrolled in that little constellation of remote, but never-failing luminaries, who shine in the highest firmament of literature, and who, like the morning stars, sang together at the dawning of British poetry."-W. IRVING. 56. "The mind of England's Elizabeth was like one of those ancient Druidical monuments called rocking-stones. The finger of Cupid, boy as he is painted, could put her feelings in motion; but the power of Hercules could not have destroyed their equili brium."-SCOTT. 57. "Our present repose is no more proof of inability to act, than the state of inertness and inactivity in which I have seen those mighty masses that float in the waters above your town is a proof that they are devoid of strength, and incapable of being fitted for action. You well know how soon one of these stupendous masses, now reposing on their shadows with perfect stillness; how soon, upon any call of patriotism or of necessity, it would assume the likeness of an animated thing, instinct with life and motion; how soon it would ruffle, as it were, its swelling plumage; how quickly it would put forth all its beauty and bravery, collect its scattered elements of strength, and awaken its dormant thunders. Such is one of those magnificent machines when springing from inaction into a display of its might; such is England herself; while apparently passive and motionless, she silently concentrates the power to be put forth on adequate occasion."-CANNING. SYNTHESIS. 1. Compose a passage which shall contain an Allegory. 2. Compose a sentence which shall contain an Allusion. 3. Compose a sentence which shall contain an Anacœnosis. 4. Compose, in like manner, in succession, sentences which shall severally contain all the figures of speech described in this work. PART VIII. POETICAL FORMS. CHAPTER I. PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS. SECTION DCXVI.-DEFINITIONS. POETICAL FORMS are those combinations of language which are characterised by certain specific differences between them and composition in general. These differences relate to the laws of Prosody. Poetry, besides holding much in common with Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric, has certain laws of its own. Grammar aims at the correct use of language, for the common understanding of those who speak and write it. Logic addresses the reasoning faculty. Rhetoric endeavours to persuade the will to action. The aim of Poetry is to please, by addressing the imagination, the taste, the sensibilities. In order to give pleasure, it uses the forms of Grammar, of Logic, of Rhetoric, and also those PECULIAR FORMS WHICH ARE INDICATED BY PROSODY. Thus a dactyl, a verse, and a stanza are Poetical forms. SECTION DCXVII.-PROSODY. PROSODY, from the Greek_pós (for), won (song), Latin accentus, originally signified accent. It is now used in a wider sense, and includes not only the doctrines of Accent and Quantity, but also the laws of metrical arrangement. SECTION DCXVIII.-ACCENT. ACCENT or Stress bears the same relation to poetry in modern languages which Quantity does to that of the Sanscrit, the Greek, and Latin. In the great family of languages called the Indo-European, three made time the index of their rhythm, while all the rest employed accent. It is remarkable that those dialects which now represent the Sanscrit, the Greek, the Latin, have lost their Temporal, and possess merely the Accentual rhythm. So gradual was the change in the Greek, that even as late as the eleventh century there were authors who wrote indifferently in either rhythm. "Et can/tārě pǎ/rēs ēt / rēspōn/dērě pă/rātī.”—VIRGIL. Here the rhythm is formed by Long and Short syllables. "She taught' / the weak' / to bend', / the proud' / to pray'."-POPE. Here the rhythm is formed by Accented and Unaccented syllables. SECTION DCXIX.-QUANTITY. Moreover, in the Classical languages, quantity was measured by the length of the Syllables, while in the English language quantity is measured by the length of the Vowels. Thus, both syllables of the word index in Latin are long; both vowels of the same word in English are short. Accordingly, the word forms a Spondee in Latin, and, being accented on the first syllable, a Trochee in English. It ought, however, to be added, that while there is a difference in respect to Quantity and Accent in Classical versification and English, there is also an agreement, which, in the common statements, is apt to be lost sight of. In both Classical versification and English, time and accent enter as elements, but in different proportions; though in the one quantity, and in the other, accent or stress, predominates. This may be the better understood from the following statement. SECTION DCXX.-ELEMENTS OF MUSICAL COMPOSITION. There are three elements of musical composition: 1. Time; 2. Acuteness, or its opposite, Gravity; 3. Loudness. Now, it is certain that the early poems in Greece were sung, and this must have had an influence on the poetry by the introduction of the three elements of music just mentioned. The same was true in ancient English. CHAUCER, in his address to Troilus and Cressida, tells us that it was intended " to be read or elles sung," which must relate to the chanting recitation of the minstrels. The same qualities exist in spoken sounds. In these sounds, as in music, they are distinct from one another, and no two are necessarily united. Still, there are natural causes which make it likely that they will be combined under certain conditions. Muscular effort, when made to give loudness, naturally requires time; so that loudness and length often go together. Again, if two syllables of the same time are pronounced with the same quantity of breath, there is a mechanical cause why the acute should be the louder. Acuteness and loudness will then go together. Equality of time is a condition of this result. The Greek language differed from the English in one important point. The quantity or time of separate syllables was far more distinctly ascertained, and measured, and expressed in common pronunciation than it is in English. It is indeed true that in English some verses are longer than others; for every addition of a consonant must lengthen the syllable, whether the consonant be added at the beginning of a syllable, as Ass, lass, glass; or at the end, as Ask, asks, ask'st. The poet, if his ear is good, will avail himself of the difference in the length of syllables to vary the rhythm of his verse; but, though the effect of his skill may be felt by the reader, the management of quantity in English verse cannot be reduced to technical rules: accent must form the law of his rhythm. See Part III., Chapter IV. SECTION DCXXI.-METRE. METRE OF METER is a general term for the recurrence, within certain intervals, of syllables similarly affected. The metres of the Classical languages consist essentially in the recurrence of similar quantities. English metre essentially consists in the recurrence of syllables similarly accented. VERSE has been defined as a succession of articulate sounds, regu lated by a rhythm so definite that we can readily foresee the results which follow from its application. There is, indeed, also a rhythm met with in prose; but in the latter its range is so wide that we can never anticipate its flow,, while the pleasure we derive from verse is founded on this very anticipation. The metrical arrangement of articulate sounds in verse, and not the superior beauty of thought or expression, is the distinctive characteristic of poetry. "Heap on / more wood' ! / the wind' is chill' ; But let'/it whis'/tle as' / it will', We'll keep our Christ'/mas mer'/ry still': Here every other syllable is accented, and every other syllable unaccented. When we understand that this is the law of the rhythm, we know what to expect in each successive syllable. It should be added, that it is more important to preserve the same number of accents in lines intended to be of the same measure than the same number of syllables. "Patience is a virtue that shines' bright' in adversity." Here the accent follows no law, but falls on the 1st, 5th, 8th, 9th, 12th. You cannot predict the character of the successive syllables from the law of the rhythm. The measured extract is POETRY; the unmeasured is PROSE. "There is, however, a partial exception to this law in our ballad metres, where feet of three syllables are frequently intermingled with the ordinary feet of two syllables. When this is the case, the redundant syllables must be devoid of stress and very short, so that they may be pronounced rapidly, and make the time of the trisyllabic foot equal to the time of the common foot. We will take an example from Scorr's Bridal of Triermaine,' from the description of the tournament : "They all' / arise' / to fight' / that prize', They all'arise' / but three'; And still' those lov'/ers' fame' / survives', There were two of them loved' / their neigh'/bours' wives', When this license is taken frequently, the metre becomes of that species which Mr. GUEST has described under the very disrespectful name borrowed from King James of Scotland, who called them 'tumbling metres.' These tumbling metres seem to have led the way to the construction of verse with a regular anapestic rhythm, of which we have a noble specimen in CAMPBELL'S Lochiel.” ”—Professor MALDEN. A VERSE is a single line of poetry. A DISTICH or couplet consists of two verses. A triplet consists of three verses. Versification is the act of making verses in accordance with the doctrines of accent and quantity, and the laws of metrical arrange ment. SECTION DCXXII.-MEASURES. For every accented syllable in the following line write the letter a, and for every unaccented one, the letter x, so that a stands for an accent, and x for the absence of one : "Hast thou' / a charm' / to stay' / the morning star!"-COLERIDGE. Or, expressed symbolically : x : x α, xa, x а, x α, x α. When a coincides with hast, and a with thou, you may determine the length of the line in two ways: you may either measure by the syllable, and say that the line consists of ten syllables; or by the accents, and say that it consists of five accents. In this latter case, |