first and fourth lines are brought nearer together, thus increasing the effect of rapidity as well as the emphasis at the end of the latter line. Moreover, all four lines are then heard at regular intervals, thus increasing also the effect of regularity. The consequence is, that the slow and therefore judicial, the unemphatic and therefore doubtful, the irregular and therefore hesitating impression conveyed by the thought of the poem, as arranged in its present form, almost disappears, giving place to the easy and even flow of unwavering assurance. Those who doubt whether poetic sound has much to do with poetic representation, may learn a lesson by examining the following stanzas in these two forms. Read these first:

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:

Thou madest man he knows not why;
He thinks he was not made to die;
And thou hast made him: thou art just.

Thou seemest human and divine,

The highest, holiest manhood, thou:
Our wills are ours, we know not how;
Our wills are ours to make them thine.

Our little systems have their day;

They have their day and cease to be:
They are but broken lights of thee,
And thou, O Lord, art more than they.

We have but faith: we cannot know:
For knowledge is of things we see ;
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
A beam in darkness: let it grow.

And now read these:

Thou wilt not leave us in the dust:

Thou madest man he knows not why;
And thou hast made him: thou art just:
He thinks he was not made to die.

Thou seemest human and divine,

The highest, holiest manhood, thou:
Our wills are ours to make them thine;
Our wills are ours, we know not how.

Our little systems have their day;

They have their day and cease to be:
And thou, O Lord, art more than they :
They are but broken lights of thee.

We have but faith; we cannot know,
For knowledge is of things we see ;
A beam in darkness: let it grow ;

And yet we trust it comes from thee.

Where rhymes are used, these effects of unity, regularity, and rapidity are always present to some extent, and all, if continued too long, become monotonous and tiresome, besides being unfitted for the representation of varying moods and scenes. Therefore, for long productions, poets usually prefer blank-verse,-either regular, as in Shakespear's plays and the "Paradise Lost "; e. g. :

My tongue shall hush again this storm of war,
And make fair weather in your blust'ring land.

-King John, v., I: Shakespear.

or irregular or broken, as in Goethe's Faust and Southey's Thalaba; e.g.:

How beautiful is night!

A dewy freshness fills the silent air;

No mist obscures, nor cloud nor speck nor stain

Breaks the serene of heaven:

In full-orbed glory yonder moon divine

Rolls through the dark blue depths.

-Thalaba, 1: Southey.

Blank-verse, in a sense not true of verse that rhymes, admits of irregular accents; as, for instance, in the following, in which only the last line is absolutely regular:

Upon our sides it never shall be broken.
And noble Dolphin, albeit we swear
A voluntary zeal and an unurged faith
To your proceedings, yet believe me, prince,
I am not glad that such a sore of time
Should seek a plaster by contemned revolt.

-King John, v., 2: Shakespear.

It is not necessary to argue that verse admitting of changes like these can be continued almost indefinitely without becoming monotonous, and can be used in describing almost all possible varieties of moods and scenes, without ceasing to be representative.

CHAPTER XI.

ELOCUTIONARY AND POETIC QUALITY.

Quality represents the Emotive Nature of the Soul as influencing and influenced by both Instinctive and Reflective Tendencies-Kinds of Quality, and what each represents in Elocution-Letter-Sounds used in Verse to produce Effects of the Aspirate Quality-Guttural-PectoralPure-Orotund-Illustrations of Poetic Effects of all these Kinds when

combined.

THE last elocutionary element, the influence of which

upon poetic form we have to consider, and the second that has to do with the tunes of verse, is quality; or, as it is sometimes called, on account of that to which it corresponds in painting, tone-color. Its different varieties are determined by the relative proportions in which noise and music are combined in them; or, in other words, by the different actions of the organs of utterance in causing more or less of the breath, while leaving the lungs, to be vocalized and rendered resonant.

What different kinds of quality are fitted to represent, it needs but little observation to discover. It certainly is not physical energy. When Patti passes from a loud to a soft, or from an abrupt to a smooth tone, she changes greatly the kinds of energy, but her voice still retains the same Patti-quality. Nor does quality represent mere intellectuality. A man, without changing in the least an habitual nasal or wheezing quality, may give every inflection needed in order to represent the merely mental

phases of that which actuates him. But if we frighten him severely, we may make it impossible for him to use any other sound than a whisper; if in connection with this, we anger him, he will hiss; or, if at length he recovers his voice, he will use the harsh, jarring, interrupted hard-g quality of tone, termed the guttural; or, if that which he would repel is too great to make anger appropriate, it may widen and stiffen his throat so as to produce the hollow, almost inarticulate indication of awe and horror given by what is termed the pectoral quality. Release him now from the influence of affright, anger, or horror, and put him into a gently satisfied mood, and he will use his nearest approach to pure quality. Stir him then to profound emotion, inspired by what is deeply satisfying, and all his vocal passages will expand again, and he will produce his nearest approach to the full, round, resonant quality termed orotund.

For these reasons, it seems indisputable that quality represents the feelings, the temper, the spiritual condition of the higher emotive nature,-what I have termed the soul, by which is meant, as needs scarcely be said again, the principle of life holding body and mind together, influencing and influenced by both. The soul communicates with the external world never wholly through the instinctive nature, nor wholly through the reflective, but always through one of the two modified by its connection with the other. The quality of sound, therefore, represents the quality of the feeling that vivifies the soul. This feeling, on its physical side, and with its most physical coloring, gives us, first, the serpent-like hissing aspirate; next, with an intellectual coloring the guttural quality; and last, with an emotional coloring, the pectoral. On its intellectual side, it gives us first, with a physical