different ways, and variously at different times. 'Lord of the Ísles' could be cut in four ways, monosyllable and anapaest, trochee and iamb, dactyl and monosyllable; and it could be called a choriambic foot (''). My own ear cuts the phrase thus: 'Lord of the Ísles', simply because | the last three words are grammatically one group. Granting such a principle, such variations would not count much in the long run, and ought not much to affect the figures soon to be given.

3. The four types differ much in frequency, import, and emphasis. Mr. Clark (Prose Rhythm in English, p. 18) speaks of the 'trochaic movement as pervading the whole sentence' in English. This, as I shall suggest in Section III, is partly true if we think of the 'cadence', but not true if we think of the 'foot-scansion', i. e. of the prose feet as made up of entire words. Rising and waved rhythm are the working types of foot for English prose. In other words, the great majority of feet do not begin with an accent. This will appear from the statistics, and it is also what we should expect in a language where articles precede nouns and pronouns verbs, and where light conjunctions or particles so often begin a clause. The iamb is the commonest foot (as in Greek); and the anapaest and amphibrach are commoner than the longer feet of the same character.

Falling rhythm is rarer than rising or waved. Trochee, dactyl, &c., therefore arrest the ear at once, and also arrest the pace, and exist in order to do so. Level rhythm is rarer still. Spondees and monosyllables arrest the ear and the pace still more, and exist in order to do so. The force of falling rhythm in the midst of waved is at once felt in this:

But the iniquity | of oblívion | blindly | scáttereth | her póppy'; and of level and falling rhythm succeeded by iambs and amphibrach in this of Newman's: Spring, súmmer, aútumn, winter,| have brought | their gífts | and dóne their útmost.'

These are the main principles, as regards the single feet. Disregarding sequences at present, can we get any further by mere counting? Can we thus throw light on the special rhythm, the distinctive beauty or pleasure, furnished by different writers or by different sorts of prose? Professor Saintsbury's History is one long effort to discriminate such effects and to find words for them. He has much that is new to teach, and he will sharpen many impressions that were dim before, if indeed they were present to us at all. I have put the matter in more scholastic and positive form, and am not always sure how far our conclusions are the same (see his Appendix III, a provisional statement of ' axioms, inferences, and suggestions'). To bear out mine, I now quote three long passages, one from Gibbon, one from De Quincey, and one from a living master. The favouritism of these authors in the matter of feet will reveal something; it will be seen more definitely that their variations are not introduced wantonly, or for the mere ends of convenience, but in correspondence with some transition, in the nature of the imagery or passion'. The first passage is from chap. lxxi of The Decline and Fall. The reader will please to neglect at first the roman numerals set in brackets, and to turn back to them if he ever reaches Section II; for these numerals indicate the classically-descended sequences, or cursus. It should be noted, however, that the scansion marked in this passage is that of the single feet, not of the cursus, which may cut across the words.

'The art of mán | is áble | to constrúct | mónuments | fár móre pérmanent (? iv) | than the narrow | spán | of his ówn | exístence (iii); yét thése | mónuments, like himsélf, are périshable and frail; and, in the boundless | ánnals of tíme, his life and his lábours (i) | must équally be measured (12) | as a fleéting | móment. Of a símple and sólid | édifice (iv), it is not easy, howéver (i), to circumscríbe the durátion (i). As the wónders of ancient | dáys, | the pýramids | attracted (i2) |

the cùriósity | of the ancients: an hundred | gènerátions (13), the leaves of autumn, have dropped into the grave; | and, after | the fall of the Pharaohs and Ptólemies (ii), the Caesars and Caliphs (1), the same | pýramids | stánd | eréct | and únshaken (?i) | above the floods of the Níle. . . . Fire is the most powerful | ágent | of lífe | and death; the rapid mischief | may be kindled and propagated (iii ?) | by the industry or négligence (ii2) of mankind; and évery | périod of the Roman | annals is marked by the repetition of símilar | calamities (ii2). A mémorable cónflagration. | the guilt or misfórtune (í) of Néro's | reign, | contínued, | though with unéqual fúry (? iii), | either six or nine | dáys. | Innúmerable buildings (12) | crowded in close and crooked | streéts, supplíed | perpétual | fúel (i) | for the flames; and, whén they ceased, four only of the fourteen | régions | were léft | entíre ; | threé | were totally | destroyed, | and séven were deformed by the relics of smoking (i) | and lácerated ¦ édifices. | In the fúll | meridian | of empire (i2), | the metrópolis | aróse | with fresh | beaúty | from her áshes (i2); yet the mémory | of the old | deplored | their irréparable | lósses (i2), | the árts | of Greece, | the trophies of víctory (ii), ¦ the mónuments | of prímitive | or fábulous antíquity (ii2).'

Here there are 137 feet. Of these 27, or nearly one-fifth, are iambs: this proportion is probably not above the average for English prose. There are eight anapaests, but 21 amphibrachs; this always common foot is much favoured by Gibbon. He has few level rhythms-only two spondees, and eight monosyllabic feet ( spán ', ‘dáys', ‘fíre ', ‘reígn', &c., all emphatic); but more falling rhythms-twelve trochees, six dactyls, one first paeon ('édifices'). There are three cases of the rarer trisyllabic feet; one doubtful cretic, 'like himself'; one bacchic, 'foúr ónly'; one antibacchic, ‘ of mánkind', which approaches an anapaest (of mankind'). This accounts for all the feet, 87 in number, of less than four syllables. Fifty are left, consisting of four or more syllables. It needs no prosodist to tell us that Gibbon loves these polysyllabic groups, but the analysis yields something further.

Some of the rarer feet of four syllables are just represented. There is one double trochee, 'cónflagrátion'; one 'antispast', 'and únsháken', almost a third paeon, ‘and ùnsháken'; and one (?) ionic a minore', of the fourteen'. The remaining feet of four, five, and six may be resolved into the various paeons or into extensions of them, which, as remarked before, may be described as one or other form of the paeon, preceded by one or more extra light syllables. Gibbon is fond of a first paeon thus prefaced; there are six examples, such as 'a mémorable', 'innúmerable'. In two of these, and propagated', 'and lácerated', a second stress begins to be set up. The fourth paeon is rare, there are two cases into the grave', and 'above the floods' to which may be added 'to circumscríbe'. It is rare, because, as noticed above, the English ear dislikes a run of many unaccented syllables in a foot; in all these three instances a second stress struggles to be heard. Gibbon, however, positively revels in second paeons ('the pýramids'), and in extensions of them like the metrópolis' (a longer one is 'the curiosity'); these taken together come to eighteen. Third paeons are equally favoured; and also their extensions, of which 'and in the boundless' is one kind, and 'by the repetition' another. The sum here is nineteen. The last sentence closes on four paeonic movements running: 'the monuments | of a prímitive | or fábulous | antíquity.'1

The reader must bear with a little more arithmetic presently. What is the aesthetic effect of such a rhythm? It is in long, little broken undulations; the tide is neither fast nor slow the movement is the right one for Gibbon's task, and carries him easily over the centuries. It shows its pattern, but it is not 'monotonous'. There is a due measure of salience, of little arrests and cunning stresses, in the care

1 In the first 73 feet at the opening of Chap. xxxvi of the Decline and Fall, the second and third paeons, with their extensions, number together thirty-one. There are fourteen iambs, six amphibrachs, seven anapaests, and six trochees.

fully spaced trochees, dactyls, and monosyllabic feet; and these come often upon the dignified words, 'pérmanent', 'mónuments', 'édifice', édifice', 'pýramid', 'ánnals', 'spán', 'reígn-impersonal words, making for space and grandeur, not for passion, unless it be a certain large, diffused intellectual passion. Such a prose needs no violence; it recites itself, and carries its own emphasis. It might be uttered aloud in the Capitol, where Gibbon conceived his Decline and Fall, while the bárefooted | fríars | were singing véspers in the témple | of Júpiter'.

In the passage now to be quoted from De Quincey (The Affliction of Childhood) the rhythm is audibly more intricate and varied. There are more pauses, arrests, and reversed accents, and more feet of an unusual sort: 'while this túmult' (antispast), 'upon those clouds' (antibacchic), 'the total stórm' (double iamb); and, of the longer groups, ' of my sórrow-haúnted' (double trochee prefaced by two light syllables), 'the trànsfigurátions', and 'under intolerable', are examples. In general, the feet are shorter than in the Gibbon passage; the proportion 2

1 Of course these may usually be resolved; it is a matter of ear and rhetoric whether we divide 'upon those | cloúds', 'the tótal | stórm'; but the effect differs, and the difference matters.

2 In a footnote, I may perhaps profane this passage with percentages, for the sake of a comparison with Gibbon.

De Quincey

Feet of less than four syllables

Feet of four or more

Iambs

Amphibrachs

Anapaests

Trochees

Monosyllables

Second and third paeons with extensions

Gibbon (137 feet)

(200 feet)

This contrast of Gibbon with De Quincey was suggested by a passage in Mr. Shelly's article; where he is referring, however, to the cadences, not to the foot-scansion'.