76 On RYTHMICAL MEASURES. 



The grammarians, led by the fyftem of half-feet, would not 

 probably confider the divifion which I have made of the fifth 

 line of Virgil's firft Eclogue, quoted above, as the juft one. 

 They would rather fuppofe that the break took place at the end 

 of the word doces. They would alfo fuppofe a fubordinate di- 

 vifion at the word formofam. 



The divifion of the units into twos and fours, which takes 

 place in the hexameter verfe, feems beft fuited to the flructure 

 of the Latin and Greek languages. Pure trochaic or iambic 

 verfes, where every alternate fyllable is profodically long, and 

 the others are fhort, occur but rarely in their works. Our lan- 

 guage, again, feems fcarcely to admit of fuch divifions. In 

 our poetry, the fyllables are arranged lefs according to their 

 real quantity, than according to the accent* with which we are 

 accuftomed to pronounce them. An accented fyllable has afc- 

 ways the effect of a long one, and is qualified for being placed 

 in the leading or accented part of a poetical meafure. An un- 

 accented fyllable, on the other hand, gives us the impreflion of 

 a fhort one, though by the common rules of profody it ought 

 to be long, and though it is, in reality, pronounced long. It 

 is alfo difqualified for being placed in the accented part of a 

 meafure. We have few inftances of a real dactylus in fingle 

 words, though three fhort fyllables, from the accent with which 

 the firft is pronounced, often affumes the appearance of one. 

 English verfes are conftrucled for the molt part by feet of two 

 fyllables. The proportion which thefe two fyllables bear to 

 one another is feldom perceived with accuracy ; neither is it of 

 great importance that it fhould be fo perceived, provided the 

 times of the entire feet, or of the two fyllables taken together, 

 be nearly equal. The impreflion, however, which thefe feet, 



for 



* When I apply the term accent to fyllables, I ufe it in its grammatical acceptation, 

 to denote that fuperior force of articulation, and that inflection of the voice, with which 

 we always mark in our pronunciation fome particular fyllable or fyllables of every 

 word. 



