On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. loi 



mer analogy, therefore, will perhaps be the mofl fimple and ob- 

 vious, and the moft eafily applied. 



The meafure of a verfe, or the number, according to which 

 it is intended that the combinations fhould be formed, may be 

 eafily intimated to the reader, by writing them in feparate 

 lines. This contrivance, however, can be of no fervice to the 

 hearer. Some other means muft be ufed to direcfl his attention 

 to the number propofed, or to make him flop and begin anew, 

 after that number of equal times has been exprefled. The very 

 name of verfe implies a return. I formerly mentioned three 

 different means by which this may be efFeded, namely, the re- 

 turn of fimilar combinations and divifions of the times, or, in 

 other words, the return of fimilar arrangements of long and 

 fhort founds, the return of founds fimilar in kind or in 

 quality, and paufes. All thefe means have been employed in 

 conflrudling verfes. 



The return of fimilar fucceflions of long and fhort fyllables 

 at equal intervals, naturally leads the hearer to account the times 

 which have been expreffed during one of thofe intervals, as one 

 parcel or combination. This fimilarity may either take place 

 through the whole line, or only in a particular part of it. In 

 the firfl cafe, when each fingle combination is exadlly fimilar 

 throughoxit, or, in the language of the grammarians, when 

 every line contains the fame number of feet difpofed in the 

 fame order, the return is abundantly clear and obvious, provided 

 the fuccefTion of long and fhort, or of ftrong and feeble fylla- 

 bles in the meafure, be in any degree diverfified. We have an 

 example of this in the afclepiadsan verfes of the ancients. 

 Such meafures feem to have been confidered by them as deficient 

 in variety, and proper only for fhort pieces. Horace has 

 been very fparing of them. Of all his odes, there are only fix, 

 in which every line is fcanned by the fame feet taken in the 

 fame order. When the cadence of the line, or the arrange- 

 ment of the fyllables, Is fuch as to Itrike the hearer, or engage 



his 



