62 On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 



We may be -eafily fatisfied, however, that this is not always 

 'Owing to any real inequality in the force of the founds ; be- 

 caufe we can often reverfe this order, by fixing the attention 

 upon one of our feeble founds, and confidering it as the firft of 

 a parcel. After we have liftened for fome time to the beats, 

 according to this new arrangement, we ftill find that the firft 

 of each pair is ftrong, and the other feeble. We can tell off 

 the beats, not only by pairs, but alfo by parcels of three, four 

 and other numbers ; and in every cafe we uniformly imagine 

 the firft of each parcel to be more forcible than the others. We 

 form thefe aggregates with greateft eafe, according to the fame 

 proportions in which we make the divifions formerly defcribed. 

 We count off the fucceffive equal intervals, marked by repeated 

 founds, moft eafily, by parcels of two and of four. When the 

 -fingle intervals are not large, we can alfo make parcels of eight. 

 Thefe arrangements give what the muficians call common 

 time. We can alfo, with fufficient eafe, reckon them by par- 

 cels of three and of fix, thus obtaining what is called triple 

 time. We can do more : we can even form aggregates of five 

 equal intervals. We feem to do this by firft telling off two 

 pairs, then accounting the fifth a feeble found, fixing the at- 

 tention upon the fixth, and making that the firft of the next 

 two pairs, and fo proceeding. We might, in the fame manner, 

 form aggregates of feven. As, however, by counting oft 

 three fucceffive pairs, the mind has in a manner eftablifhed the 

 arrangement of ftrong and feeble founds, it becomes greatly 

 more difficult to confider the feventh as a feeble found, and to 

 fall into the new arrangement. Even when we reckon by par- 

 cels of five, we are defirous of having fome little time to efta- 

 blifh our new arrangement ; and when the intervals marked by 

 the fucceffive founds are perfectly equal, we always feel as if 

 the fixth came upon us too foon ; we wifh that it might be 

 fufpended till the time of the third pair is completed. Aggre- 

 gates of five occur frequently in poetry. They have fome- 



times, 



