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Louis XIII. built here a hunting feat, which Louis XIV. 

 enlarged into a palace, in a foreft 30 miles in circumference, 

 which became a place of frequent refidence of the royal 

 family till the revolution. The palace is magnificent, with 

 beautiful gardens, adorned with ftatues, canals, fountains, 

 &c. and a park five miles in circumference, furrounded with 

 a wall. Since the revolution, it has been eredcd into a 

 bilhop's fee ; 3 polls S. W. of Paris. N. lat. 48' 49'. E. 

 long. 2° 1 1'. 



Versailles, a towndiip of Pennfylvania, in the county 

 of Alleghany; containing 883 inhabitants. — Alfo, a town 

 of Woodford county, in the ftate of Kentucky ; containing 

 488 inhabitants. 



VERSAK, a diftrid of Afiatic Turkey, in the S. part 

 »( Carainania, fo named from a mountain, 60 miles S.E.of 

 Cogni. 



VERSAMEYRA, a town of Hindooftan, in Cutch ; 

 20 miles E. of Boogebooge. 



VERSARA, a town of Hindooftan, in Guzerat ; 32 

 miles S. of Amedabad. 



VERSAUL, a town of Hindooftan, in Guzerat; 6 

 miles N. of Pernalla. 



VERSCHORISTS, in Ecdefajlkal Hiftory, a rehgious 

 feft, deriving its denomination from Jacob Verfchoor, a na- 

 tive of Fluihing, who, in the year 1680, out of the tenets 

 of Coccius and Spinofa, produced a new form of religion ; 

 for the leading tenets of which fee Hattemist.s. 



The difciples of Verfchoor were alfo called Hebrews, on 

 account of the zeal and diligence with which they applied 

 themfelves to the fludy of the Hebrew language. 



VERSE, Versus, in Poetry, a hne or pan of a dif- 

 courfe, confifting of a certain number of long and fhort 

 fyllables, which run with an agreeable cadence ; the like 

 being alfo reiterated in the courfe of the piece. 



This repetition, according to F. BolTu, is necefl'ary to 

 diftinguifh the notion of verfe from that of profe ; for in 

 profe, as well as verfe, each period and member are parts 

 of difcourfe, confifting of a certain number of long and 

 fhort fyllables ; only, profe is continually diverfifying its 

 meafures and cadences, and verfe regularly repeats them. 



This repetition of the poets appears even in the manner 

 of writing ; for one verfe being finilhed, they return to the 

 beginning of another line to write the verfe following : and 

 it is to this return that verfe owes its name ; -verfus coining 

 from •verlere, to turn or return. 



Accordingly, we find the fame word ufed to fignify any 

 thing that is placed in a certain regular order : Cicero ufes 

 ■verfus for a line in profe ; Virgil for a row of trees, and 

 even of oars in a galley. But as the regularity of verfe 

 carries with it more charms, and requires a greater degree 

 of exadlnefs, the word has, in time, become appropriated 

 to poetry. 



To make verfe, it is not enough that the meafures and 

 quantities of fyllables be obferved, and fix juft feet put, one 

 after another, in the fame line; there are fartiier required 

 certain agreeable cadences, particular tcnfes, moods, regi- 

 mens, and even lometimes words unknown in profe. 



But what is cliiefly required, is an elevated, bold, figura- 

 tive manner of diftioii ; tiiis manner is a thing fo peculiar 

 to this kind of writing, tiiat, without it, the moft cxaft ar- 

 rangement of longs and Ihorts does not conftitute verfe fo 

 much as a fort of meafured profe. See Poetry. 



Dr. Blair ( Leftures, vol. iii. ) obferves, that nations, whofe 

 language and pronunciation were of a mufical kind, refted 

 their verfification chiefly upon the quantities, that is, the 

 length or (hortnefs of their fyllaliles. Others, who did not 

 make the quantities of their fyllables to be fo diftimftlv per. 



Vol. XXXVII. 



V E R 



ceived in pronouncing them, refted the melody of their vcric 

 upon the number of fyllables it contained, upon the proper 

 difpofition of accents and paufcs in it, and frequently upon 

 that return of con-efponding founds which we call rhyme; 

 which fee. The former was the cafe with the Greeks and 

 Romans ; the latter is the cafe with us, and with mofl; mo- 

 dern nations. 



The Greek and Latin verfes confift of a certain number 

 of feet, difpofed in a certain order ; fo that every fyllable, 

 or the greateft number at leaft, was known to have a fixed and 

 determined quantity ; and their manner of pronouncing 

 rendered this fo fenfible to the ear, that a long fyllable was 

 counted precifely equal in time to two fhort ones. Upon 

 this principle, the number of fyllables contained in their 

 hexameter verfe was allowed to vary. The mufical time, 

 however, was precifely the fame in every fuch verfe, and was 

 always equal to that of twelve long fyllables. In order to 

 afcertain the regular time of every verfe, and the proper 

 mixture and fncceffion of long and fhort fyllables which 

 ought to compofe it, were invented what the grammarians 

 call metrical feet, daftyles, fpondees, iambics, &c. And 

 the hexameter verfe was fcanned or meafured by fix me- 

 trical feet, either daftyles or fpondees, with this reftric- 

 tion, that the fifth foot was regularly to be a daftyle, and 

 the laft a fpondee. And fome have attempted to make 

 French and EngHfh verfes on the fame foundation, but with- 

 out fuccefs. 



The iiitroduftion of thefe feet into Englifh verfe would 

 not fiiit the genius of our language, which does not corre- 

 fpond, in this refpeft, to the Greek or Latin. Hence mere 

 quantity is of little effed in Englifh verfification. The only 

 perceptible difference among our fyllables is owing to that 

 ftronger percufhon of voice, called accent, with which fome of 

 them are uttered : and accordingly, the melody of our verfe 

 depends much more upon a certain order and fucceffion of 

 accented and unaccented fyllables, than upon their being 

 long or (hort. 



If we take any of Mr. Pope's lines, and, in reciting them, 

 alter tiie quantity of the fyllables as far as our quantities are 

 fenfible, the mufic of the verfe will not be much altered ; 

 but if we do not accent the fyllables as the verfe diftatcs, its 

 melody will be totally deflioyed. (See Lord Monboddo's 

 Treatife of the Origin and Progrefs of Language, vol. ii.) 

 In the conllitution of our verfe, the cafural paufe is an 

 eflential circumftaiice, and this falls towards the middle of 

 each line. In the French heroic verfe this is very fenfible. 

 This is a verfe of twelve fyllables, and in every line, jull after 

 the iixth fyllable, there falls, regularly and indifpenfably 

 a csefural paufe, dividing the hne into two equal hemiftichs. 

 Thus the one-half of the line always anfwers to the other, 

 and the fame chime returns inceffantly on the ear, without 

 intermilfion or change ; which is, without doubt, a dcfeft in 

 tlieir verfe, and renders it unlit for the freedom and dignity 

 of heroic poetry. For the difference of the Englifh verfe 

 in this refped, fee Pause. See alfo Accent, Pkosodv, and 

 Quantity. 



VofTius is very fcverc on the modern verfe, and makes it 

 altogether unfit for mufic : our verfes, fays he, run all, as it 

 were, on one foot, without diftinftion of members or parts, 

 and without regard to the natural quantities of fyllables. 

 We have no rhythmus at all ; and we mind nothing, but to 

 have a certain number of fyllables in a verfe, of whatever 

 nature, and in whatever order. 



Mr. Malcolm vindicates our verfe from this imputation. 



It is true, he fays, we do not follow the metrical co^ipofi- 



tion of the ancients ; yet we have fuch a mixture of ftrong 



,ind foft, long and ftiort fyllables, as makes our verfe flow 



L fraootJi 



