pation of the absurd idea that each verse must be or could be-scanned separately.

The idea of continuing the rhythm of the verse, neglecting the linear divisions and the capital letters, however, was not new with him, although it may have been, and presum ably was, new to him. Guest gave it substantial recognition before 1838.

Our objections to the following quasi feet —the spondee and the pyrrhic—are different from those to the trochee and the dactyl. The latter are not feet at all; while the former have some shadow of claim to be so rankedare, as we have called them, quasi feet. The former are nonentities. The latter are monstrosities merely. The former have no existence, while the latter have; but are inartistic expedients in use, which tend to prose as far as they go, and arise from either the inflexibility of our language, or the clumsy use of it by lazy or ignorant artists.

The SPONDEE (--) consists, we are told, of two strong syllables, and is to be found in such words as amen, hardware and churchyard. It is generally found, the prosodists

tell us, among anapests and dactyls. In this verse from Mrs. Hemans:

"By the prim❘ rose stars | in the shadowy grass,

they call "rose stars" a spondee, and in Moore's

"One spirit at least will not bend to his sneer,

they tell us that "One spir" is a spondee. Both are iambs, taking the place of anapests for variety. Occasionally, however, it ap pears among iambs; as in Milton's

"As in him per | ish all | men, so | in thee |

As from from a second root | shall be restored | As many as are | restored; without | thee none. [

Here they find two spondees-men, so" and thee none." These so-called spondees are merely clumsy iambs, or iamboids. The poet might have found better iambs, but he did not; and his shortcoming is no especial concern of ours. There are iamboids and anapestoids, according to the system in which they appear. An iamb may give variety to an anapestic rhythm, as may also a mone and a fourth pæon; but a so-called spondee merely interrupts the flow. This fact, that spondees interrupt the rhythm by jarring it rather than vary it with rhythmical variety,

shows that they are unrhythmical, and therefore prosaic. They do not harmonize with any system but obstruct all; except when they are onomatopoetic, but that is another and a wholly different matter. Pope's wellknown Alexandrine,—

"That like a wounded snake | drags | its slow length along |

illustrates the retarded dragging motion produced by these inflexible syllables; but, as the system is iambic, the feet are also iambs or iamboids, save the "drags," which is a mone, and the "its slow length," which is an anapest.

In Longfellow's Evangeline there are many of these so-called spondees. The poem is written in so-called dactylic hexameters; an experiment which is generally felt to be-we do not mean to say is acknowledged to be—a metrical failure. We share in that feeling, and have reasons to give for it. But here we are dealing with the spondees mainly. These three lines furnish a fair specimen of the rhythm of Evangeline:

"Written their history stands on tablets of stone in the churchyards.

Long among them was seen a maiden who waited and wandered,

Lowly and meek in spirit, and patiently suffering all things."

We give Mr. Longfellow's scanning of these lines, as best we can, in order to present his spondees. It is this:

"Written their | history | stands on ¦ tablets of stone in the churchyards. }

Long among them was seen a maiden who | waited and wandered,

Lowly and meek in ¦ spirit, and ¦ patiently | suffer. ing all things. | "

Our underscorings indicate his spondees, as we understand them. That they are not spondees we think can be shown in several ways; and of these ways we select the one that seems shortest and most conclusive. It is to give the proper-that is, the natural— scanning, from which it will be manifest that the change in the division of the lines obviates the main trouble. The lines arc anapestic, with here and there an iamb, and at long intervals a mone. We scan the passage thus:

"Written their history stands on tablets of stone | in the church | yards. Long among them was seen a maiden who wait; ed and wan] dered, Lowly and meek in spirit, and pa tiently suffering all things."

The "Writ" and the "things" are not mones, for the former completes the iamb begun in the preceding verse, and the latter belongs to one that ends in the following verse. Even with his own words, we think our iambs are better than his spondees.

The PYRRHIC (~~) consists of two weak syllables; and from our definition of a foot it is clear that we cannot make this one at all. The sine-qua-non element of a foot is one strong syllable which, from its definition, the pyrrhic has not. In such verses as this from Milton :

"He ceased, and Satan stayed | not to | reply, | those who claim for this the rank of a foot assure us that the syllables "not to" make a pyrrhic. Our view of the matter is that these syllables make either an imperfect iamb or a mone and the first syllable of an anapest, as we shall show by and by. Had the poet not been in too great a hurry he could have written

"He ceased and Sa | tan stayed not then | to make | Reply,["

or could have avoided the fault in some other way. It is not to be denied, however, that