If we confider the foregoing paffages with respect tomelody fingly, the paufes are undoubtedly out of their proper place; but being united with thofe of the sense, they inforce the expreffion, and enliven it greatly; for, as has been more than once obferved, the beauty of expreffion is communicated to the found, which, by a natural deception, makes even the melody appear more perfect than if the mufical paufes were regular..

To explain the rules of accenting, two general obfervations must be premifed. The firft is, that accents have a double effect: they contribute to the melody, by giving it air and fpirit: they contribute not lefs to the fenfe, by diftinguishing important words from others These two effects can never be separated, without impairing the concord that ought to fubfift between the thought and the melody: an accent, for example, placed on a low word, has the effect to burlesque it, by giving it an unnatural elevation; and the injury thus done to the fenfe does dot reft there, for it feems alfo to injure the melody. Let us only reflect what a ridiculous figure a particle muft make with an accent or emphafis put upon it, a particle that of itself has no meaning, and that ferves only, like cement, to unite words fignificant. The other general obfervation is, That a word of whatever number of fyllables, is not accented upon more than one of them. The reason is, that the object is fet in its beft light by a fingle accent, fo as to make more than one unneceffary for the sense: and if another be added, it must be for the found merely; which would be a tranfgreffion of the foregoing rule, by feparating a mufical accent from that which is requifite for the fenfe.

Keeping in view the foregoing obfervations, the doc trine of accenting English Heroic verfe is extremely fimple. In the first place, accenting is confined to the long Tyllables; for a fhort fyllable is not capable of an accent. In the next place, as the melody is enriched in proportion to the number of accents, every word that has a long fyllable may be accented; unless the fense in terpofe,

* An accent confidered with reip.ct to fense is termed emphafis.

terpofe, which rejects the accenting a word that makes
no figure by its fignification. According to this rule, a
line
may admit five accents; cafe by no means rare.
But fuppofing every long fyllable to be accented,
there is, in every line, one accent that makes a greater
figure than the reft, being that which precedes the ca-
pital paufe. It is diftinguished into two kinds; one that
is immediately fucceeded by the pause, and one that is
divided from the paufe by a fhort fyllable. The former
belongs to lines of the firft and third order: the latter
to thofe of the fecond and fourth. Examples of the
first kind:

Smooth flow the waves the zephyrs gently play,
Belinda fmîl'd || and all the world was gay.
He rais'd his azure wând and thus began.
Examples of the other kind:

There lay three garters half a pair of gloves,
And all the trophies of his former loves.
Our humble province | is to tend the fair,
Not a lefs pleafing though lefs glorious care:
And hew triumphal ârches | to the ground.

Thefe accents make different impreffions on the mind; which will be the fubject of a following fpeculation: In the mean tine, it may be safely pronounced a capital defect in the compofition of verfe, to put a low word, incapable of an accent, in the place where this accent thould be: this bars the accent altogether; than which I know no fault more fubverfive of the melody, if it be not the barring a paufe altogether. I may add affirmatively; that no fingle circumftance contributes more to the energy of verfe, than to have the place where this accent fhould be, occupied by a word of an important fig nification, fuch as merits a peculiar emphafis. To fhow the bad effect of excluding the capital accent, I refer the reader to fome inttances given above*, where particles are separated by a paufe from the capital words that make them fignificant; and which particles ought, for the fake of the melody, to be accented, were they

* Page 136.

capable

capable of an accent. Add to these the following inftances from the effay on Criticifimm.

line 448.

Of leaving what is natural and fit.
Not yet purg'd off, of fpleen and four difdain.
No pardon vile | obfcenity fhould find.
When love was all || an easy monarch's care.
For 'tis but half || a judge's taík, to know.

. 528. 1. 531.

1.537.

1 562.

'Tis not enough, || tafte, judgment, learning, join.

1. 563.

That only makes fuperior fenfe belov❜d.

1.578.

Whose right it is, || uncenfur'd, to be dull.

'Tis best sometimes || your cenfure to restrain.

597.

When this fault is at the end of a line that clofes a couplet, it leaves not the least trace of melody: But of this frame the bearings, and the ties, The ftrong connections, nice dependencies.

In a line expreffive of what is humble or dejected, it improves the refemblance between the found and fenfe to exclude the capital accent. This, to my tafte, is a beauty in the following lines.

In thêfe deep folitudes and awful cells

The poor inhabitant. beholds in vain

To conclude this article, the accents are not, like the fyllables, confined to a certain number: fome lines have no fewer than five, and there are lines that admit not above one. This variety, as we have feen, depends entirely on the different powers of the component words: particles, even where they are long by pofition, cannot be accented; and polyfyllables, whatever space they occupy, admit but one accent. Polyfyllables have another defect, that they generally exclude the full pause. It is shown above, that few polytyllables can find place in the construction of English verfe; and here are reafons for excluding them, could they find place.

I am now ready to fulfil a promife concerning the four forts of lines that enter into English Heroic verse. That thefe have, each of them, a peculiar melody dif tinguishable by a good ear, I ventured to fuggelt, and promifed to account for ; and though the fubject is ex

tremely

tremely delicate, I am not without hopes of making good my engagement. But firft, by way of precaution, warn the candid reader not to expect this peculiarity of modulation in every inftance. The reafon why it is not always perceptible has been mentioned more than once, viz. that the thought and expreffion have a great influence upon the melody; fo great, as in many inflances to make the pooreft melody pafs for rich and fpirited. This confideration makes me infift upon a conceffion or two that will not be thought unreasonable: firft, That the experiment be tried upon lines equal with refpect to the thought and expreffion; for otherwise one may eafily be mifled in judging of the melody: and next, That these lines be regularly accented before the paufe; for upon a matter abundantly refined in itself, I would not willingly be embarraffed with faulty and irregular lines.

Thefe preliminaries being adjusted, I begin with fome general obfervations, that will fave repeating the same thing over and over upon each particular cafe. And, first, an accent fucceeded by a paufe, as in lines of the first and third order, makes a much greater figure than where the voice goes on without a stop. The fact is fo certain, that no perfon who has an ear can be at a lofs to diftinguish that accent from others. Nor have we far to feek for the efficient caufe: the elevation of an accenting tone produceth in the mind a fimilar elevation, which continues during the paufe *: but where the paufe is feparated from the accent by a fhort fyllable, as in lines of the fecond and fourth order, the inpreffion made by the accent is more flight when there is no ftop,

and

* Hence the livelinefs of the French language as to found, above the English; the laf fyllable in the former being generally long and accented, the long fyllable in the latter being generally as far back in the word as poffible, and often without an accent. For this difference I find no cause so probable as temperament and difpofition; the French being brifk and lively, the English fedate and referved: and this, if it hold, is a pregnant intance of a refemblance between the character of a people and that of their language.

and the elevation of the accent is gone in a moment by the falling of the voice in pronouncing the fhort fyllable that follows. The pause alfo is fenfibly affected by the pofition of the accent: in lines of the firft and third order, the clofe conjunction of the accent and paufe, occafions a fudden ftop without preparation, which roufes the mind, and beftows on the melody a fpirited air: when, on the other hand, the paufe is feparated from the accent by a fhort fyllable, which always happens in lines of the fecond and fourth order, the pause is soft and gentle; for this fhort unaccented fyllable fucceeding one that is accented, must of course be pronounced with a falling voice, which naturally prepares for a pause; and the mind falls gently from the accented syllable, and flides into reft as it were infenfibly. Further, the lines themselves derive different powers from the pofition of the paufe, which will thus appear. A paufe after the fourth fyllable divides the line into two unequal portions, of which the largest comes laft: this circumstance refolving the line into an afcending feries, makes an impreffion in pronouncing like that of mounting upward; and to this impreffion contributes the redoubled effort in pronouncing the largest portion, which is laft in order. The mind has a different feeling when the paufe fucceeds the fifth fyllable, which divides the line into two equal parts: thefe parts, pronounced with equal effort, are agreeable by their uniformity. A line divided by a paufe after the fixth fyllable, makes an impreffion oppofite to that first mentioned: being divided into two unequal portions, of which the fhortest is laft in order, it appears like a flow defcending feries; and the fecond portion being pronounced with lefs effort than the first, the diminished effort prepares the mind for reft. And this preparation for reft is ftill more fenfibly felt where the paufe is after the feventh fyllable, as in lines of the fourth order.

To apply thefe obfervations is an easy task. A line of the first order is of all the most spirited and lively: the accent, being followed inftantly by a paufe, makes an illuftrious figure: the elevated tone of the accent elevates the mind: the mind is fupported in its elevation by the fudden unprepared paufe which roufes and ani

mates: