PKA CBIT POETJiY. 421 



Each kind comprehends a great variety of possible 

 metres according to the different modes in which long 

 and short syllables, as well as pauses, may be distri- 

 buted: and since the four quarters of each stanza may 

 be either all alike, or only the alternate similar, pr alj 

 df^Tent, the variety of possible metres is almost infi- 

 nite. PiNGALA, however, gives directions for compu- 

 ting the number of species, and for finding their places, 

 or that of any single one, in a regular enumeration of 

 them; or conversely the metre of any species of which 

 the ) lace is assigned : and rules have been given eve^ 

 for calculating the space which would be requisite for 

 writing down all the various species. 



In the fiiSt class, or kind, wherein the verse consists 

 of six syllables, 64 combinations are computed on the 

 syllables of each verse; 4096* on those of the half 

 stanza; and 1 6,777,21 6 -{- on the 24 syllables which 

 cohst'tute the complete stanza of this class* In the 

 last of liie twenty-one kinds, 67, 103364 combinations 

 are computed on 26 syllables within each verse; nearly 

 4^503,62 1,000,000,000, on 52 syllables; and more 

 than 20,282,388,000,000,000,000,000 000,000,000, 

 on a hundred and four syllables which form the stanzti.:|: 



The different sorts, which have been used by poets, 

 are few in comparison ivirh the vail multitude of possible 

 metres. Still they are too numerous to be all described 



* Viz. 64 uniform and 40,32 half equal, 



f Viz. 04 unirorm ; 4032 half eqanl : and i6,773,120 unequal 

 or dt-similar. 



X A mode of calculating the possible varieties of metre is also 

 taught in the Lilu'vati, a treatise of arithmetick and geometry by 

 Bha'scaba. This trul)' learned astronomer was also a poet; nnd 

 his m^itliematical works are composed in highly p'^lished snetre. i If 

 the reade; figure to iiimfelf Euclid Jn'alcaick meafure, Diophan-- 

 TU3 in anuprest;, or the Almagest vc'sified -with all the variety of 

 Horatian luetre, he willfomj .m adequate notion of this incongruity. 



Ee3 



