coincide, and that opposition which is the life of verse would
instantly be lost. We have here a clue to the effect of
polysyllables, above all in Latin, where they are so common and
make so brave an architecture in the verse; for the polysyllable is
a group of Nature's making. If but some Roman would return from
Hades (Martial, for choice), and tell me by what conduct of the
voice these thundering verses should be uttered--'Aut Lacedoe-
monium Tarentum,' for a case in point--I feel as if I should enter
at last into the full enjoyment of the best of human verses.

But, again, the five feet are all iambic, or supposed to be; by the
mere count of syllables the four groups cannot be all iambic; as a
question of elegance, I doubt if any one of them requires to be so;
and I am certain that for choice no two of them should scan the
same. The singular beauty of the verse analysed above is due, so
far as analysis can carry us, part, indeed, to the clever
repetition of L, D, and N, but part to this variety of scansion in
the groups. The groups which, like the bar in music, break up the
verse for utterance, fall uniambically; and in declaiming a so-
called iambic verse, it may so happen that we never utter one
iambic foot. And yet to this neglect of the original beat there is
a limit.


'Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts,' {3}


is, with all its eccentricities, a good heroic line; for though it
scarcely can be said to indicate the beat of the iamb, it certainly
suggests no other measure to the ear. But begin