equal to a long syllable. Short syllables are made by the short-timed pronunciation of indefinite syllables, or by immutable ones. Now there is nothing in this account of ancient quantity, which is not true of the English language. But further, not only are these general principles of syllabic construction the same in Greek, Latin, and English, but the very syllables themselves are common to these three languages; nay, Ι may say to all languages. If the reader will run over any or every line of Homer and of Horace, he will find very few syllables that do not form the whole, or part of some word belonging to his own tongue; both as regards the elemental sounds, and the most exact coincidence of quantity. But it is on the nature of syllables alone, that the doctrine of quantity is founded, in every language. When, therefore, we deny that the genius of the English tongue admits of the temporal measure, we must come to this absurd conclusion, that identical sounds have, in Greek type, the most finished fitness for quantity, and in English have none at all. * The remarks here made refer principally to the sound of syllables separately considered. There may be some differences in the several words of these languages, that may render it easier to construct a rythmus of quantity in one than in another but we speak now of the admission of the system of quantity into English, and not of the comparative ease of its * That it may not be thought I have exaggerated this conclusion, I give the following substantial support to it. In the chapter on versification, in Baron Bielfeld's 'Elements of Universal Erudition,' after many remarks on the subject of ancient quantity and modern accent, which in nowise qualify the following extraordinary assertion, the author says-' Properly speaking, there are not, therefore, in modern languages, any sensible distinctions of long and short syllables, but many that are to be lightly passed over, and others on which a strong accent, or inflection of the voice, is to be placed.' This was written towards the close of the last century, by the 'Preceptor to a European Prince, and the chancellor of all the universities in the Prussian dominions.' Even before his time, some prosodians were not without the sense of hearing; and though, since the epoch of his deep deafness, the existence of long and short syllables in modern languages has been generally admitted, yet it is still held to be impossible to make agreeable measure out of their relations. In candour, it should be stated that the Baron was a mere compiler; but such writers generally represent current opinions, and they always know more of books and other men's notions, than is either known or coveted by original observers and autocrats in thought. execution when adopted. There may be some facilities in the Greek for certain kinds of measure, arising out of the greater length of the generality of words in this language. The Greek has certainly an advantage over the English in some of the purposes of vocal expression, and poetic quantity, by the majority of its syllables being indefinite, and by its making less use of the abrupt elements in those positions which produce an immutable time. Greek syllables have, in general, fewer letters than English; and they more frequently end with a tonic element. The employment of quantity, in the harmonious composition of English prose writers, produces portions of the regular measure of Greek and Latin lines. If these occasional passages of temporal rythmus are well accommodated to the genius of the English language, I aver, I do not see why the studied contrivance of a poet might not use those existing quantities, in the continued course of verse. The following sentence has not the accentual form of any of our established metres, and is therefore, in its rythmus, purely English prose :-Rome, in her downfall, blazoned the fame of barbarian triumphs. This sentence derives its impressiveness, from the position of its long and short quantities. Now the position is exactly that of a Latin and of a Greek hexameter line, as may be seen by comparison. Dactyl Dactyl Ey Si SETI | 01 nihil ex tant | ā Rōme in her Spondee Spondee downfall | blazon'd the | fame of bår | bārian | triumphs. If this last sentence be read with its proper pauses, and with deliberate pronunciation, it will correspond in measure with the long and short times of the superscribed Latin and the Greek. I would not, however, think it strange, for anticipation takes off the edge of surprise, if a classic scholar should deny the identity of its temporal impression, with that of the collated lines. We are so little accustomed to regard English syllables in reference to their quantity, that it is difficult, at first, to make it even a subject of auricular perception. For he who, according to vulgar persuasion, believes that there in an openness in the senses to receive all the objects which are brought near them, greater than that which exists in the mind for the reception of new subjects of reason or reflection, plainly indicates that he has no more than common-place knowledge of the ways and powers of both the senses and the mind; since the senses have equally their ignorance, obstinacy, and prejudice; they equally see plainly what has been seen, and for a long time can see no more. A well cultivated eye and ear are as rarely found as a well disciplined mind; and a wise master in human policy and morals, would not find more difficulty, where interest is not inimical, in effecting his designs of melioration, than an original observer in physical science would experience, from the mass of the world, upon soliciting an immediate assent to the reality of the most manifest developments of nature, or the most useful inventions of art. It is an easy and a passive thing to look and to listen; but, if I may make an antithesis of these words, it is another and a difficult exertion to see and to hear. In speaking of the indefinite syllables of the English language, it was said that their time might be varied without blemish of pronunciation; and it was formerly shown, that the abrupt elements, which generally terminate immutable syllables, have necessarily, after the occlusion of their sound, a pause that allows an immutable syllable to hold the place, and fulfil the function of a long one. With these legitimate materials for the construction of a temporal rythmus in English versification, nothing but deafness or prejudice, prevents our perceiving that its institution has been strongly prompted by nature, and is already half established in our poetry. We allow a reader full liberty over the quantity of syllables, for the sake of expression in speech; and song employs the widest ranges of time on tonic sounds; why should we refuse to the measure of poetry a less striking departure from the plain pronunciation of the language. Mr: Sheridan, who does not overlook the existence of quantity in the English language, and its use in the expression of speech, but who, nevertheless, maintains that the genius of our tongue is exclusively disposed to the accentual measure, seems to ground his opinion, on the special rules of Greek and Latin prosody not being applicable to the phenomena of varying time in English pronunciation. He might as fairly have con S cluded that the good English style of his own lectures could not be as perspicuous as the Latin, because his natural mode of construction is different from the appropriate inversions of the latter tongue. The broad inquiry on this subject is,-Are there both long and short syllables in the English language; and can these varying quantities be so arranged as to produce an agreeable rythmus? The brief answer to this question is,-That we have, equally with the Greeks and Romans, the variation of long and short, in syllables; and it requires other arguments against the practicability of employing it in metre, than that derived from its having never yet been done. I would not choose to contend with him who doubts that quantity necessarily belongs to every spoken language. The ancients not only recognized it in theirs, but by a deep attention to its nature, availed themselves of its uses in the creations of literary taste. If Greek and Roman prosodists, in recording their special rules for the quantity of particular words, had furnished us with a little of that philosophy of elemental and syllabic sounds, which authorized or instinctively produced the rules of their scansion, the moderns would, in all probability, have seen its application to their own languages. There is some ground for the opinion, though this part of history is not altogether clear, that the restricted melodial nature of Greek music, its relation to song, together with the care therein taken to adjust the temporal correspondence of syllables with notes, and its forming part of the liberal education of Grecian orators, poets, and philosophers, led to the close investigation of quantity, and finally effected its adoption as the basis of the poetical composition of the Greeks. The modern extension of the science of music to the principles and resources of the ingenious system of harmony, has rendered it independent of the support of words; and the nice measurement of their time has been neglected, since the separation of the formerly united duties of the composer and the poet. I can not pass by the conjecture, but I leave others to determine its truth, that the establishment of Greek rythmus on the function of quantity, did contribute, with other causes, to the improvement of the euphony of that language. We know what alteration rhyme, and the accentual measure have made in the pronunciation of English; and there is fair reason to believe, that one means of working a change to greater harmony, would be, to found its versification on quantity. The occasional wants of poets would prompt them to change many of our immutable syllables to indefinites; would suggest the elision of atonic or abrupt elements from the ends of syllables; and thus, by those large labours which the mere critic seems not to contemplate, and certainly never has accomplished, our language might be invited towards that condition of syllabication which constitutes, in part, the harmony of the Greek. We know that the diæresis and other licenses of Greek versification, to say nothing of the dialects, were constantly used for facilities of poetic quantity, in that language; and we might inquire, whether the addition to its alphabet of the Heta and Omega, was not part of the contribution, suggested and afforded by the circumstances of the temporal measure. Those who are in the habit of poetical composition, in the common accentual method, know how readily words of suitable accents are associated with the demands of versification. Nay, the fluency of the ear, if I may so call it, is in this matter so unfailing, that if the sense of words be disregarded, there will be no hesitation in sorting such unmeaning discourse into any assumed accentual measure. I mean, that a person with a quick poetical ear, and a free command of language, will find no difficulty in carrying on, for any duration, an extempore rythmus of mere unrelated words or phrases. But a person who is not in the practice of metrical composition, even if he be aware, from rule, of the requisite succession of accents, will show as much delay in gathering words to fulfil his accentual purposes, as the former would have, under the present state of the English ear, in aptly furnishing syllables for a temporal rythmus. Habit must have given to the extemporising poets of Greece, the same elective affinity of ear, if I may speak so, for the appropriate quantity of their verses, as the Improvisatori of later Italy had for their required accents. At least twothirds of the accented syllables of English words are indefinite in their time, and may, at pleasure, be made either long or short. This resource for measure may be employed. Until, therefore, we have a larger experience upon the rythmus of quantity, in modern versification, and until the English ear |