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Give an example of its violation--correct it.

In what part of a sentence should a circumstance be placed? Give an example of its violation--correct it.

What is the rule respecting the close of a sentence?

Give the substance of this and the foregoing sections in a single observation.

What is the rule concerning inversion?

What is observed of inversion in the Greek and Roman tongues?

SECTION III.-Beauty of Language from a resemblance between Sound and Signification.

This beauty has escaped none of our critical writers. There being frequently a strong resemblance of one sound to another, it will not be surprising to find an articulate sound resembling one that is not articulate: thus the sound of a bow-string is imitated by the words that express it:

The string let fly,

Twang'd short and sharp, like the shrill swallow's cry. ODYSSEY, xxi. 449. On this principle, falling timber is said to crash, and wind to whistle; thus, causes that have no resemblance, may produce resembling effects; and by a number of syllables in succession, an emotion is sometimes raised similar to that caused by successive motion; as walking, galloping, running, can be imitated by a succession of long or short syllables, or by a due mixture of both. For example, slow motion may be justly imitated in a verse where long syllables prevail; especially when aided by a slow pronunciation. A line composed of monosyllables makes an impression, by the frequency of its pauses, similar to what is made by laborious, interrupted motion:

With many a weary step, and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone.

ODYSSEY, Xi. 736.

First march the heavy mules securely slow;
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks, they go.

ILIAD, Xxiii. 138. The impression made by rough sounds in succession, resembles that made by rough or tumultuous motion: on the other hand, the impression of smooth sounds

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resembles that of gentle motion. The following is an example of both:

Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring wind's tempestuous rage restrain;
Within, the waves in softer murmurs glide,
And ships secure without their halsers ride.

ODYSSEY, iii. 118. Prolonged motion is expressed in an Alexandrine line, and forcible prolonged motion in the same; and a period consisting mostly of long syllables, produces an emotion resembling faintly that which is produced by gravity and solemnity.

A slow succession of ideas is a circumstance that belongs equally to settled melancholy, and to a period composed of polysyllables pronounced slow; and hence, by similarity of emotions, the latter is imitative of the former:

In those deep solitudes, and awful cells,

Where heavenly-pensive Contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing Melancholy reigns.

POPE.-Eloisa to Abelard.

A long syllable made short, or a short syllable made long, raises, by the difficulty of pronouncing contrary to custom, a feeling similar to that of hard labor:

When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw,
The line too labors, and the words move slow.

ESSAY ON CRIT. 370.

Harsh or rough words pronounced with difficulty, excite a feeling similar to that which proceeds from the labor of thought to a dull writer:

Just writes to make his barrenness appear,

And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a-year.
POPE'S EPISTLE TO DR. ARBUTHNOT, l. 181.

It belongs to the present subject to observe, that when these coincide in the same passage, the concordance of sound and sense is delightful: the reader is conscious not only of pleasure from the two climaxes separately, but of an additional pleasure from their concordance, and from finding the sense so justly imitated by the sound.

The concord between sense and sound is no less

agreeable in what may be termed an anticlimax, where the progress is from great to little; for this has the effect to make diminutive objects appear still more diminutive.

Pronunciation, therefore, may be considered as a branch of the present subject; and with some observations upon it, the section shall be concluded.

In order to give a just idea of pronunciation, it must be distinguished from singing. The latter is carried on by notes, requiring each of them a different aperture of the windpipe: the notes properly belonging to the former, are expressed by different apertures of the mouth, without varying the aperture of the windpipe. This, however, doth not hinder pronunciation to borrow from singing, as one sometimes is naturally led to do, in expressing a vehement passion.

In reading, as in singing, there is a key-note. Above this note the voice is frequently elevated, to make the sound correspond to the elevation of the subject: but the mind in an elevated state is disposed to action; therefore, in order to a rest, it must be brought down to the key-note. Hence the term cadence.

The only general rule that can be given for directing the pronunciation, is, To sound the words in such a manner as to imitate the things they signify.

REVIEW.

Give examples of resemblance between sound and signification. How is slow motion imitated?-laborious, interrupted motion?rough, tumultuous motion?-prolonged motion?-a slow succession of ideas?-hard labor?-labor of thought?

What is anticlimax ?-what is its effect?
What is the general rule for pronunciation ?

SECTION IV.-Versification.

To explain the music of verse, several nice and delicate feelings must be employed, and the distinction between it and prose arises from the difference of the melody, though that difference cannot with any accu

racy be explained in words; all that can be said, is, that verse is more musical than prose, and its melody more perfect. The difference between verse and prose, resembles the difference, in music properly so called, between the song and the recitative: and the resemblance is not the least complete, that these differences, like the shades of colors, approximate sometimes so nearly as scarce to be discernible: the melody of a recitative approaches sometimes to that of a song; which, on the other hand, degenerates sometimes to that of a recitative. Nothing is more distinguishable from prose, than the bulk of Virgil's hexameters: many of those composed by Horace, are very little removed from prose: Sapphic verse has a very sensible melody: that, on the other hand, of an Iambic, is extremely faint.

This more perfect melody of articulate sounds, is what distinguisheth verse from prose. Verse is subjected to certain inflexible laws: the number and variety of the component syllables being ascertained, and in some measures the order of succession.

To verse of every kind, five things are of importance. 1st. The number of syllables that compose a verse line. 2d. The different lengths of syllables, i. e. the difference of time taken in pronouncing. 3d. The arrangement of these syllables combined in words. 4th. The pauses or stops in pronouncing. 5th. The pronouncing syllables in a high or low tone. The three first mentioned are essential to verse: if any of them be wanting, there cannot be that melody which distinguisheth verse from prose. To give a just notion of the fourth, it must be observed, that pauses are necessary for three different purposes: one, to separate periods, and members of the same period, according to the sense; another, to improve the melody of verse; and the last, to afford opportunity for drawing breath in reading. A pause of the first kind is variable, being long or short, frequent or less frequent, as the sense requires. A pause of the second kind, being deter

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mined by the melody, is not arbitrary. The last sort is arbitrary, depending on the reader's command of breath. With respect then to the pauses of sense and of melody, it may be affirmed that their coincidence in verse is a capital beauty; but as it cannot be expected that every line should be so perfect, the pause necessary for the sense must often be sacrificed to the verse pause, and the latter sometimes to the former.

The pronouncing syllables in a high or low tone, contributes also to melody. In reading either prose or verse, a certain tone is assumed, which may be called the key-note; and in that tone the bulk of the words are sounded. Sometimes to humor the sense, and sometimes the melody, a particular syllable is sounded in a higher tone; and this is termed accenting a syllable, or gracing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent, is the cadence, one of the requisites of verse, because it is regulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation to verse. The cadence is a falling of the voice below the key-note at the close of every period; and so little is it essential to verse, that in correct reading the final syllable of every line is accented, that syllable only excepted which closes the period, where the sense requires a cadence.

Though the five requisites above-mentioned are governed by different rules, peculiar to each species, upon quantity only one general observation may be premised, because it is applicable to every species of verse: That syllables, with respect to the time taken in pronouncing, are long or short; two short syllables, with respect to time, being precisely equal to a long one. These two lengths are essential to verse of all kinds; and to no verse is a greater variety of time necessary in ргоnouncing syllables. The voice is frequently made to rest longer than usual upon a word that bears an important signification; but this is done to humor the sense, and is not necessary for melody. A thing not more necessary for melody occurs with respect to accenting, similar to that now mentioned: A word signi

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