tions, either before Coleridge or since, to the general law which that poet no more violated than did Longfellow, whose Wreck of the Hesperus, and most of his other poems for that matter, are constructed on this so-called new principle. The poem just named begins with this four-three measured stanza :

"It was the schooner Hesperus

That sailed the wintry sea;

And the skipper had taken his little daughter,
To bear him company."

Here we have eight, six, twelve, and six syllables; that is, the first verse has eight syllables and four accents, whereas the third and corresponding verse has twelve syllables and still only four accents. Coleridge as a critic, and our other critics seem to be merely ignorant of the fact that syllables are never counted and accents always are.

ET CETERA -We give in this part-the second of the two supplemental ones-some examples taken, first, from Murray's Grammar as representative of the prosodies of the older school; and, secondly, from Edgar Poe's discussions of the prosodies. We thus show the extent of our departure from both the older and the newer prosodists of our

language. In most cases we prefer merely to put the examples side by side for contrast; but in some instances we have added a few words explanatory.

First, as to Murray.

Murray's Grammar gives the conclusions upon prosody that were generally accepted at that time (1795), and which are not in any sense obsolete to-day. He refers to Sheridan's Art of Reading (1775) as the source of many of his own rules and observations respecting prosody. We pass by the author's rather confused ideas of quantity, accent and time, and turn directly to his scanning.

First. It is inferable from what we have said that our differences begin with the feet to be used. Murray's list embraces eight— four dissyllable, and four trisyllable, as follows:

A Trochee

An Iambus ~

A Spondee

A Pyrrhic ༦

A Dactyl .་

An Amphibrach~-~

An Anapest

A Tribrach

Of these we need but two-the iambus and

the anapest-which alone can be used as the bases of systems of verse; and to these two we add two others whose only function is to give variety to the other two. Our list embraces four, as follows:

A Mone

An Iamb

An Anapest

A Fourth Pæon

Second. In giving the various kinds of trochaic verse, the author quotes the following, as a species consisting of three trochees with an additional long syllable. We give the verses first with his so-called trochees noted:

"Rēstless | mōrtăls | tōil för | nought; |
Bliss in vain from earth is sought; |

Bliss, a native of the sky,
Never wanders. | Mortals, | try; |
There you cannot | seek in | vain; |
For to seek her | is to gain." |

Here we find an anomalous syllable at the

end of every verse. ble at the beginning; but it is not anomalous, being simply and legitimately a mone replacing an iamb. We scan the verses thus :

We have the same sylla

"Restless mor | tals toil | for nought; | Bliss in vain | on earth | is sought; |

Bliss, a native of the sky, |
Never wanders. Mor | tals, try; |
There you can not seek in vain; |
For to seek her is to gain." |

Third. Of the dactyl-we confine our examples to one for each foot-Murray says, briefly: "The dactylic measure being very uncommon, we shall give only one example of one species of it," and quotes this verse and a half, giving the following division of it: "From the low | pleasure of | this făllen | nātŭre, ¡ Rise wě to higher, | etc."

We discover no rhythm of any kind in the verse. It is merely prose. If, however, we assume Murray's quantities to be natural and therefore true, which we deny squarely, the proper scanning is of course this :

"From the low pleasure of this fallen na | ture, rise we to high | er, etc."

But, evidently, the father of English grammars, like good Homerus, was nodding.

Fourth. Murray quotes this line as consisting of one dactyl and four iambics:

"Mūrmuring, and with | him fled the shades of night."!

The fact to start with here is that the verse is not rhythmical-is prose-at the begin

ning; and is not to be scanned. The fault did not lie at the grammarian's door, but at that of the poet. If, however, called upon to scan it, we do so, under protest, as follows: "Murmuring, and with | him fled | the shades of night." |

making the first foot a mone, the second a fourth pæon, and the others iambs. We are aware that this is prosodial nonsense; but not such utter nonsense as putting, as Murray does, conflicting movements in the same line. Fifth. Murray quotes this verse from the Paradise Lost:

"O'er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp"and says: "This line contains three amphibrachs (~~) mixed with iambics." That is to say, the feet in the line are these:

· | ~--| ~ ~ ~|~~~|~~

and the verse must be divided in this wise: "O'er manỹ | ǎ frō | zěn, mānỹ | ǎă fie | rỷ Alp." | That is Murray's meaning. It is only at rare intervals that anything in literature can be more absurd than this; for, although the accentuation of the line is correct, the blending of amphibrachs-an impossible foot in any