hand, the impression of smooth sounds resembles that of gentle motion. The following is an example of both:

Two craggy rocks projecting from the main,
The roaring wind's tempestuous rage restrain;
Within, the waves in softer murmurs glide,

And ships secure without the halsers ride.-Odyssey, iii. 118.

Another example of the latter:

Soft is the strain when Zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows.

Essay on Crit. 366. Fifthly, Prolonged motion is expressed in an Alexandrine line. The first example shall be of slow motion prolonged:

A needless Alexandrine ends the song;

That like a wounded snake, drags its slow length along.

The next example is of forcible motion prolonged :
The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide-rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the shore.

The last shall be of rapid motion prolonged :

Ibid. 856.

Iliad, xiii. 1004.

Not so when swift Camilla scours the plain,
Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main.

Essay on Crit. 873.

Again, speaking of a rock torn from the brow of a mountain:

Still gath'ring force, it smokes, and urged amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain.

Iliad, xiii. 197. Sixthly, A period consisting mostly of long syllables, that is, of syllables pronounced slow, produceth an emotion that which is produced by gravity and solemnity. of the following verse:

Olli sedato respondit corde Latinus.

resembling faintly Hence the beauty

It resembles equally an object that is insipid and uninteresting.
Tædet quotidianarum harum formarum.

Terence, Eunuchus, Act ii. Sc. 8. Seventhly, A slow succession of ideas is a circumstance that belongs equally to settled melancholy, and to a period composed of polysyllables pronounced slow; and hence by similarity of emotions, the latter is imitative of the former:

In those deep solitudes, and awful cells,

Where heavenly pensive Contemplation dwells,

And ever-musing Melancholy reigns.-Pope, Elosia to Abelard. Eighthly, A long syllable made short, or a short syllable made long, raises, by the difficulty of pronouncing contrary to custom, a feeling similar to that of hard labor :

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow.

Essay on Crit. 870.

Ninthly, Harsh or rough words pronounced with difficulty, excite a feeling similar to that which proceeds from the labor of thought to a dull writer:

Just writes to make his barrenness appear,
And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a year.

Pope's Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot, I. 181.

455. I shall close with one example more, which of all makes the finest figure. In the first section mention is made of a climax in sound; and in the second, of a climax in sense. It belongs to the present subject to observe that when these coincide in the same passage, the concordance of sound and sense is delightful: the reader is conscious not only of pleasure from the two climaxes separately, but of an additional pleasure from their concordance, and from finding the sense so justly imitated by the sound. In this respect no periods are more perfect than those borrowed from Cicero in the first section.

The concord between sense and sound is no less agreeable in what may be termed an anticlimax, where the progress is from great to little; for this has the effect to make diminutive objects appear still more diminutive. Horace affords a striking example:

Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus.

The arrangement here is singularly artful: the first place is occupied by the verb, which is the capital word by its sense as well as sound; the close is reserved for the word that is the meanest in sense as well as in sound. And it must not be overlooked that the resembling sounds of the two last syllables give a ludicrous air to the whole.

I have had occasion to observe, that to complete the resemblance between sound and sense, artful pronunciation contributes not a little. Pronunciation, therefore, may be considered as a branch of the present subject; and with some observations upon it the section shall be concluded.

In order to give a just idea of pronunciation, it must be distinguished from singing. The latter is carried on by notes, requiring each of them a different aperture of the windpipe: the notes properly belonging to the former, are expressed by different apertures of the mouth, without varying the aperture of the windpipe. This, however, doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from singing, as one sometimes is naturally led to do in expressing a vehement passion.

In reading, as in singing, there is a key-note: above this note the voice is fiequently elevated, to make the sound correspond to the

454. Emotions raised by a succession of syllables.-Successive motion imitated. Slow motion. Swift motion. Laborious interrupted motion. Rough or tumultuous motion. Prolonged motion.-Gravity and solemnity.-Melancholy.-Feeling of hard labor.-Labor of thought imitated.

elevation of the subject: but the mind in an elevated state is disposed to action; therefore, in order to a rest, it must be brought down to the key-note. Hence the term cadence.

The only general rule that can be given for directing the pronunciation is, To sound the words in such a manner as to imitate the things they signify. In pronouncing words signifying what is elevated, the voice ought to be raised above its ordinary tone; and words signifying dejection of mind, ought to be pronounced in a low note. To imitate a stern and impetuous passion, the words ought to be pronounced rough and loud; a sweet and kindly passion, on the contrary, ought to be imitated by a soft and melodious tone of voice. In Dryden's ode of Alexander's Feast, the line Fal'n, fal'n, fal'n, fal'n, represents a gradual sinking of the mind; and therefore is pronounced with a falling voice by every one of taste, without instruction. In general, words that make the greatest figure ought to be marked with a peculiar emphasis. Another circumstance contributes to the resemblance between sense and sound, which is slow or quick pronunciation for though the length or shortness of the syllables with relation to each other, be in prose ascertained in some measure, and in verse accurately; yet, taking a whole line or period together, it may be pronounced slow or fast. A period, accordingly, ought to be pronounced slow when it expresses what is solemn or deliberate; and ought to be pronounced quick when it expresses what is brisk, lively, or impetuous.

In this chapter I have mentioned none of the beauties of language but what arise from words taken in their proper sense. Beauties that depend on the metaphorical and figurative power of words, are reserved to be treated chapter xx.

[It seems desirable here to introduce some fine thoughts and illustrations from Hazlitt, upon topics treated in this chapter.-Ed.

456. Poetry, in its matter and form, is natural imagery or feeling combined with passion and fancy. In its mode of conveyance it combines the ordinary use of language with musical expression. There is a question of long standing-in what the essence of poetry consists; or what it is that determines why one set of ideas should be expressed in prose, another in verse. Milton has told us his idea of poetry in a single line:

Thoughts that voluntary move
Harmonious numbers.

As there are certain sounds that excite certain movements, and the song and dance go together, so there are, no doubt, certain thoughts that lead to certain tones of voice, or modulations of sound, and change "the words of Mercury into the songs of Apollo." There is a striking instance of this adaptation of the movement of

455. Coincidence of climax of sound and of sense in a passage.-Effect of anticlimax.Pronunciation; distinguished from singing. General rule for pronunciation. Illustrations. How it contributes to a resemblance between sound and sense.

sound and rhythm to the subject, in Spenser's description of the Satyrs accompanying Una to the cave of Sylvanus :

So from the ground she fearless doth arise,
And walketh forth without suspect of crime.
They, all as glad as birds of joyous prime,
Thence lead her forth, about the dancing round,
Shouting and singing all a shepherd's rhyme;

And with green branches strewing all the ground,
Do worship her as queen with olive garland crown'd.
And all the way their merry pipes they sound,
That all the woods and doubled echoes ring:
And with their horned feet do wear the ground,
Leaping like wanton kids in pleasant spring:
So towards old Sylvanus they her bring,
Who with the noise awaked, cometh out.

Faery Queen, b. i. c. vi.

On the contrary, there is nothing either musical or natural in the ordinary construction of language. It is a thing altogether arbitrary and conventional. Neither in the sounds themselves, which are the voluntary signs of certain ideas, nor in their grammatical arrangements in common speech, is there any principle of natural imitation or correspondence to the individual ideas, or to the tone of feeling with which they are conveyed to others. The jerks, the breaks, the inequalities, and harshnesses of prose, are fatal to the flow of a poetical imagination, as a jolting road or stumbling horse disturbs the reverie of an absent man. But poetry makes these odds all even. It is the music of language answering to the music of the mind; untying, as it were, "the secret soul of harmony." Wherever any object takes such a hold of the mind, by which it seeks to prolong and repeat the emotion, to bring all other objects into accord with it, and to give the same movement of harmony, sustained and continuous, or gradually varied according to the occasion, to the sounds that express it-this is poetry. There is a deep connection between music and deep-rooted passion. In ordinary speech we arrive at a certain harmony by the modulations of the voice in poetry the same thing is done systematically by a regular collocation of syllables.-Lect. i.]

SECTION IV.
Versification.

457. THE music of verse, though handled by every grammarian, merits more attention than it has been honored with. It is a subject intimately connected with human nature; and to explain it thoroughly, several nice and delicate feelings must be employed. But before entering upon it, we must see what verse is, or, in other

456. Poetry in its matter and form. In its mode of conveyance.-Milton's idea of poetry. -The ordinary construction of language. Illustration of poetry.

words, by what mark it is distinguished from prose; a point not so easy as may at first be apprehended. It is true, that the construction of verse is governed by precise rules; whereas prose is more loose, and scarce subjected to any rules. But are the many who have no rules, left without means to make the distinction? and even with respect to the learned, must they apply the rule before they can with certainty pronounce whether the composition be prose or verse? This will hardly be maintained; and therefore instead of rules, the ear must be appealed to as the proper judge. But by what mark does the ear distinguish verse from prose? The proper and satisfactory answer is, That these make different impressions upon every one who hath an ear. This advances us one step in our inquiry.

["Poetry," remarks Sir Joshua Reynolds, "addresses itself to the same faculties and the same dispositions as painting, though by different means. The object of both is to accommodate itself to all the natural propensities and inclinations of the mind. The very existence of poetry depends on the license it assumes of deviating from actual nature, in order to gratify natural propensities by other means, which are found by experience full as capable of affording such gratification. It sets out with a language in the highest degree artificial, a construction of measured words, such as never is, and never was, used by man. Let this measure be what it may, whether hexameter or any other metre used in Latin or Greek-or rhyme, or blank verse, varied with pauses and accents, in modern languages, -they are all equally removed from nature, and equally a violation of common speech. When this artificial mode has been established as the vehicle of sentiment, there is another principle in the human mind to which the work must be referred, which still renders it more artificial, carries it still further from common nature, and deviates only to render it more perfect. That principle is the sense of congruity, coherence, and consistency, which is a real existing principle in man, and it must be gratified. Therefore, having once adopted a style and a measure not found in common discourse, it is required that the sentiments also should be in the same proportion elevated above common nature, from the necessity of there being an agreement of the parts among themselves, that one uniform whole may be produced.

To correspond, therefore, with this general system of deviation from nature, the manner in which poetry is offered to the ear, the tone in which it is recited, should be as far removed from the tone of conversation, as the words of which that poetry is composed, &c. Works, vol. ii. Discourse xiii.]

Taking it then for granted, that verse and prose make upon

the

457. Verse, as distinguished from prose. The car discriminates.-Remarks of Sir Joshus Reynolds.--How a musical impression is produced by language. The names given to s period producing such impression.