them, are, as will appear, by the foregoing insta nces uncommonly flowing and harmonious. If the proposition required additional support, we might adduce numberless parallel passages, from Apollonius Rhodius.-A few may not be amiss, to show the similarity of his versification to that of Virgil. σε Καλλιοπη θρηικι φαλίζεται ευνηθείσα σε Οιαγρω σκοπιης πιμπληιδα αγχι τεκεσθαι σε Ακλης θρηικιης ζωνης επι τηλεθόωσαι· 66 Ωδίνων μεροπΘ περκωσις εκγεγαυία σε Κλεΐδη ευπλοκαμα σε Δαρδανίην δε λιπονίες, επιπροσεβαλλον Αβύδω σε Ωθρυν Apollonius and Virgil having provided for the harmony of their verses, in the first instance, by the adoption of such words as, even standing by themselves, are not only poetical and noble, but also musical, proceeded yet further to the attainment of this end, by the artful collocation of words, in the judicious construction of their rhythm. It is well known, what close and intimate bonds of connexion formerly existed, between metre and music. The poet and the musician were, a long time, one and the same-such were King David, who who sung and danced before the ark-such were Orpheus and Arion. And poems used to be committed to memory, and sung to flute or lyre, long before they existed in writing. This alliance early led poets, to attend to the power, properties, and differences of musical time, and -the effects, and their observations on this subject, were particularly directed to the construction of hexameter verse, which was the eldest kind of poetical measure in use, as we are informed by Plutarch.* This measure was called Delphic, from Delphic Apollo, who first employed it in his oracles; and Theologic, from Orpheus and Musaus, who, like the Druids in Britain, were not only bards but priests, and employed this measure in their hymns, and solemn invocations of the deity. It, at length, obtained the name of heroic verse, which it has exclusively preserved, from its being employed by Homer, in epic song, which celebrated the acts of heroes, and used by the Cyclic poets, who treated similar subjects. This, which was the earliest measure, was also the only measure cultivated among the Greeks, as long as the Diatonic division of music was in fashion. New measures in poetry were introduced, along with new strains of music; as appears by a decree of the Spartans against Timotheus,† who is charged with having changed the Diatonic strain into the Chromatic, and the inharmonic, or hexameter song, into the antistrophic, in which a lighter, a quicker, a more varied and broken measure, more susceptible of musical divisions prevailed. As this kind of song was of extreme simplicity; to avoid the tiresomeness, which too much similitude in the strain, and a constant recurrence of the same kind of melody *See Plutarch. De Musicâ. + See Plotius. De Metris inter veteres Grammaticos. -Putschii 2629. would would induce, the ancient musicians devised two expedients, the intermixture of different feet, and another, which was still more ingenious and exquisite, the greatest imaginable variety in the disposition of the pause, and the management of the Casura,* as it is called by grammarians; by which is meant, such a selection or division of the verse, as, after a foot is completed, ends in a succeeding syllable, and shuts in the voice, and gives, as it were, a breathing space. This pause most usually takes place, after the second or third foot is completed; but it sometimes is placed after the second, or the fourth. The use of the cesura invariably occurs, in every hexameter verse, and in the variation of it, so that the ear shall not be palled with a repetition of similar sounds, much of the art of versification consistsfrom thence the happiest effect results. In addition to the cesura, it has the happiest effect imaginable, when, in scanning the line, all the feet are found to run into each other, and thus to be so mutually linked together, that the whole line forms, as it were, a chain, where every intermediate part is inserted into that which precedes, and that which follows-whereas, no structure of hexameter verse is so bad, as that where all the feet stand separate and independent of each other; indeed, such is the force and beauty of the cesura, that a verse can hardly be considered, as legitimate without it.-From what has been said, the reader will perceive the importance, of employing polysyllable words in poetical composition; how much it contributes, not only to facilitate the observation and proper disposition of the cesura, but, also, in addition, to promote the graceful enchain * The cesura has place in every language, and in the learned languages, in every kind of metre, the anapæstic excepted, and verses of that sort. ment ment, or mutual implication of the feet. In a verse, wholly composed of monosyllables, it is self-evident, that there can be no cesura, and, of course, that such a verse can scarcely be admitted in correct composition. As the harmony of verse is considerably assisted, by varying the pause, so the verse is damaged, by the use of low and feeble words; and monosyllables most frequently are such. "Ten low words oft creep in one dull line."* Dryden observes, a line of monosyllables is always harsh. This implication of the feet, one with another, produces, of course, a second pause, or cesura, falling near the close of the line, which gives an inconceivable grace and sweetness to the versification. The force and effect of this must strike the ear of every judicious reader. He will perceive, in reading over a number of Greek or Latin hexameters, that those are the most perfect and sweet sounding lines, where the second cesura occurs. And he will perceive, also, by recurring to Apollonius and Virgil, that a great proportion of their lines are of this description; a proof of their attention to harmonious versification.- -Every page affords instances of this; and it will appear, that the lines which exhibit the double cesura, are, uniformly, the most flowing and melodious.-As, for example σε Αργόθεν αν Ταλας και Αρης υιε Βιανί 46 Ταίναρον αι επι τοισι λίπων Πολύφημο κανε * See Dr. Johnson's excellent essay on versification, in the Ramblers. « Ζήλης ἀν Καλαις τε βορηίοι υιες ικολο “ “Οι δε τεως μακάρεσσι Θεοῖς Τίκσιν ανάσσον.”. "Multa viri virtus animo multusq; recursat"Verbaque nec placidam membris dat cura quietem." "Credo equidem, nec vana fides genus esse deorum "Si non pertæsum Thalami tædæque fuisset.”. "Sola ne perpetuâ, morens carpere juventâ "Legiferæ Cereri, Phaboque, patrique Lyao"Talibus orantem dictis arasque tenentem "Enumerare vales nunquam regina negabo.” The reader will also observe, that, by way of varying the pause, and giving greater compass to the modulation, lines of this description, are intermixed with those which have but one cesura; and this is not done at random, or carelessly, but, with an exquisite attention to the general effect, in the production of harmony. In addition to this artifice of verifications, we learn, from the precepts of Dionysius of Halicarnassus, of Cicero, and Quintilian, how exact the ancients were, in the choice and disposition of words, to consult harmony, and gratify the refined ear, by the succession and intermixture of different vowels, and the more frequent recurrence of such as give a full and more lofty sound. The inspection of a few pages of Apollonius and Virgil, will demon. strate how critical and attentive they were, in this particular; so as to guard against all cacophony, by a sedulous choice, and judicious arrangement of words."And that the syllables themselves are so chosen, as "to flow smoothly into each other, by a proportionate "mixture of vowels and consonants, and by tempering "the mute consonants with liquids and semivowels."* *See Dr. Johnson's observations on versification, in the Rambler. Yet, |