able Minister is the pillar of the State. All nature smiled with loveliness. Come, gentle Sleep, how much longer must I wait for thee? She shed a flood of tears. Hope is the anchor of the soul. Fortune favours the brave. All the world's a stage. Prosperity gains friends, but adversity tries them. My enemies, like a cloud, encompass me. Saul and Jonathan were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions. I have been reading Homer. Elijah said unto the priests of Baal, Cry aloud, for he is a god either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. Ten thousand voices shall hereafter proclaim the dreadful deed. Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death! where is thy sting? O Grave! where is thy victory? The whole nation is dissolved in tears. It is a crime to put a Roman citizen in bonds; it is the height of guilt to scourge him; little less than parricide to put him to death: what name, then, shall I give to the act of crucifying him?

CATO'S SOLILOQUY ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.
It must be so-Plato, thou reason'st well-

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality?

Or whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us,
And intimates eternity to man.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!

Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass !

The wide, th' unbounded prospect lies before me;

But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it.
Here will I hold. If there's a Power above us

(And that there is all nature cries aloud

Through all her works), He must be happy,

But when, or where ?-this world was made for Cæsar ;
I'm weary of conjectures-this sword must end them.

Thus am I doubly arm'd; my death and life,

My bane and antidote, are both before me.
This in a moment brings me to an end;
But this informs me I shall never die:
The soul, secur'd in her existence, smiles
At the drawn dagger and defies its point.
The stars shall fade away, the sun himself
Grow dim with age, and nature sink in years,
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth,
Unhurt amidst the war of elements,

The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds.

Joseph Addison.

PART IV

PROSODY.

1. Prosody is that part of Grammar which treats of the sound and quantity of words and syllables, and the measure of verses. Poetry is said to be language restrained to harmonious sounds. But it is a great deal more than that. Perhaps no definition has ever been given comprehending all that poetry is. It is the highest and grandest development of human language. All language restrained to harmonious sounds is not poetry. Some prose contains a great deal of poetry, while some rhyme contains none. Still it is not the business of the grammarian to deal with the inner life of poetry, but with its outward covering, versification.

2. Verse is of two kinds, rhyme and blank verse. When the last sound of one line or verse corresponds with the last sound of another line, it is called rhyme.

3. There are three rules for a perfect rhyme; namely,

(1) The vowel sound and the part which follow it must be the same.

(2) The parts which precede the vowel must be different. (3) The rhyming syllables must be accented alike.

4. Blank Verse is without rhyme, and has ten syllables in a line.

5. Versification is the arrangement of a certain number of syllables in such a manner, that those similarly accented may recur at regular intervals.

Give

Note. It may be observed that correspondence of letters is not always enough. It must be of sound; so that the letters may be different. and dive are not rhymes. Bow (verb) and plough are rhymes.

6. Single rhymes are of one syllable; as, thine and mine. Double rhymes are of two syllables; as, living and giving. Triple rhymes are of three syllables; as, dutiful and beautiful, dignify and signify.

Observation.—The rhymes may occur in the middle of a line, as well as at the end; thus, The knights will ride, in all their pride, Along the streets to-day.

7. Alliteration consists in the frequent recurrence of the the same initial letter; as,

The mighty master smiled to see
That love was in the next degree;
'Twas but a kindred sound to move,

For pity melts the mind to love.

8. Alliteration in Old English poetry was its chief ornament. In each couplet three emphatic words, two in the first line, and one in the second, commenced with the same consonant, or with vowels. If with the latter, the initial letters were generally different. The position of the alliterated words in the first line was not fixed, and varied according to the requirements of the poet. But the alliteration in the second line fell on the first emphatic word.

9. This kind of verse was used as late as the fourteenth century. The following specimen is from Piers Ploughman :Pilgrims and palmers

10.

Metre or

Plighten hem togider
For to seeken Saint Jame

And saintes at Rome.

Measure is an

arrangement of words measured off in lines of equal or varying length.

11. Measures are divided into Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter, Tetrameter, Pentameter, Hexameter, Heptameter, and Octameter; according as they have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight feet in a line.

Notes.-(1) A verse which has a syllable too much is called hypermetrical or redundant. (2) A verse which has a syllable too little is called catalectic, or deficient. (3) A verse which is complete is called acatalectic.

12. Poetry has been popularly divided into two parts, namely, Lyric and Epic (or heroic) poetry. Dramatic is a sort of epic poetry.

Observations.—(1) Lyrics are poetical compositions in which the poet expresses his emotions in a direct manner. The predominance of feeling in Lyric poetry is what distinguishes it from dramatic poetry, in which action and character predominate; and from Epic poetry, of which a series of actions and characters, as contemplated and exhibited by the poet, is the characteristic. (2) Lyric poetry is such as is sung to the harp or lyre. It was much cultivated among the ancients. In modern times the term lyric is applied to all kinds of verse partaking in any degree of the same nature as that to which it was at first applied.

(3) Epic poems are those which narrate a story, representing in an elevated style, some signal action, or series of actions and events, generally

the achievements of some illustrious hero; and intended to affect the hearts and morals of the people, by inspiring them with a love of justice, virtue, bravery, and noble deeds.

(4) Among the ancients, Horace is the most celebrated of lyric poets. He lived in the reign of Augustus Cæsar, and therefore about the time of Christ. Homer was the most illustrious among the ancient epic poets. It is said that he lived eight hundred years before Christ.

13. Rhythm, which is of more importance than rhyme, consists of the undulations of sound produced by the succession of accented and unaccented syllables.

14. In versification, the accented syllables are treated as long; the unaccented as short.

15. Words of two syllables have one accented and one unaccented syllable. The word ámén is the exception, for it has

both syllables accented.

16. A verse is divided into feet, so called from the resemblance of the movement of the tongue in reading verse to that of the feet in walking.

17. Dividing a verse into the several feet of which it is composed is called scanning.

18. All poetical feet have either two or three syllables, and they may be reduced to eight sorts-four of two syllables, and four of three; thus,

19. Some of these are called principal feet; because pieces of poetry may be found principally or wholly of them.

20. The iambus, trochee, and anapæst are principal feet. The remainder are called secondary feet, because they are chiefly used to diversify the numbers, and improve the verse.

IAMBIC VERSE.

21. Iambic verse may be divided into the following kinds :(1) The shortest form of the iambic verse consists of one iambus, with an additional syllable; as,

Disdaining,
Complaining, etc.

as,

(2) Of two feet or four syllables; as,

I know not why

I could not die.

(3) Of three feet, or six syllables; as,

Away my needless fears,

And doubts no longer mine.

(4) Of four iambic feet, or eight syllables; as,

In distant countries have Ĭ been
And yet I have not often seen
Ă healthy man, ǎ mãn full grōwn,
Weep in the public roads ǎlōne.

(5) of five feet or ten syllables, called heroic or tragic verse;

There studious let me sit

Ånd hold high converse with the mighty dead;
Sages of ancient time, as gods revered,
As gods beneficent, who blessed mankind

With arts and arms, and humanised a world.

(6) Of six feet, or twelve syllables, called the Alexandrine verse, from the fact that some old French poems in praise of Alexander were written in this metre; as,

When spring unlocks the flowers to paint the laughing sõil,
When summer's bālmỹ shōwers refresh thě mōwer's tōil.

(7) Of seven iambic feet, or fourteen syllables; as, Could we but climb where Mōses stood, and view the landscape ō'er, Not Jōrdan's streams, nor death's cold flōod should frīght ŭs frōm the shōre.

(8) Of eight feet, or sixteen syllables; as,

The spacious firmăment on high, with all the blue ethereal sky,
Ånd spāngled heavens, ǎ shining frame, their great Ŏrīgināl proclaim.

These two last kinds of iambic verse are now usually broken up; the former into lines of four and three feet alternately; the latter into those of four feet successively. The former is the common metre, and the latter the long metre of hymns.