390 Mk munro, on a metrical 



■we have agreement throughout the first four places; disagreement in both the last. 

 It may be said that Arcadius sus is an unusual cadence ; so it is, but certainly not on 

 account of the accents. Such cadences are comparatively unfrequent in Homer also. They 

 are avoided by Virgil, except when he wishes to produce some particular effect. But as 

 we have already said, he eschews still more for reasons already hinted at such termina- 

 tions of a verse as vis animai, saecla animantum, which are very common in Homer ; 

 and where accent and ictus coincide in Latin. He makes a striking exception to this rule 

 in the case of Greek words, in grateful recognition probably of Homer's movement : and 

 delights in such cadences as luctu miscere hymenaeos, molli fultus hyacintho, neque Aoniae 

 Aganippe. Once or twice indeed, in acknowledgement of his obligations to Lucretius, he 

 ends a verse with a cadence like this, magnam cui mentern animumque. But as a general 

 rule rhythms like these are much more carefully avoided by Virgil, than others in 

 which accent and ictus are opposed. The natura tua vi, fortis equi vis, et horrens Ar- 

 cadius S7is of Lucretius may easily be paralleled by the other's legitque virum vir, et odora 

 canum vis, sub ilicibus stis, and the like. His motives for so doing can hardly be doubt- 

 ful : accent had nothing to do with the matter in either case. He avoided the former 

 kind of movement as weak and unimpressive, except in the case of Greek words ; the latter 

 he often purposely sought in order to produce some peculiar effect. It was clearly too 

 for the sake of the rhythmical movement, not the unusual accents, that he so often in- 

 dulges in hypermetral cadences, like robora totdsque, ipsique nepoUsque, and the like ; 

 and that we sometimes find in him such verses as 



Quam plus Aeneas et quam m&gni Phrjges et quam. 



If he really ended two lines in the Georgics with arbutus horrida and vivdque sulpura, 

 the last foot with its accent on the first syllable is much more harsh than in the other 

 kind of hypermetral lines. Take this other verse of Lucretius, 



Pr6xima ftrt humanum in pictus tempMque mentis. 



Here again we have agreement in the first four places, and disagreement in the fifth ; 

 and had Lucretius seen fit to write, as surely he might have done, so far as rhythm is 

 concerned, templdque circum Mentis; there would have been agreement neither in the fifth 

 nor sixth foot. Indeed there are hundreds of excellent and regularly constructed verses 

 in Virgil and the other poets where we have this contradiction between accent and ictus 

 either in both the last places or in one or other of them. I will not needlessly cite 

 many instances, but what can be finer than the following verses from the first Georgic, 

 perhaps the most consummate model of rhythm in the whole of Latin poetry ? 



Spicea jam campis cum messis inhorruit, et cum 

 Frumenta in viridi stipula lactentia turgent. 

 At Boreae de parte trucis cum fulminat, et cum 

 Eurique Zephyrique tonat domus. 



In these two examples ictus and accent are in violent contradiction in the sixth, per- 

 haps the most important part of the verse. Then again there are many scores of lines 

 in Virgil, the fifth foot of which is formed in some such way as this Lavinaque, where the 



