56. Far-fetched though this idea will perhaps be thought, a
little introspection will countenance it. That we do take advantage
of metrical language to adjust our perceptive faculties to the force
of the expected articulations, is clear from the fact that we are
balked by halting versification. Much as at the bottom of a flight
of stairs, a step more or less than we counted upon gives us a shock;
so, too, does a misplaced accent or a supernumerary syllable. In
the one case, we _know_ that there is an erroneous preadjustment;
and we can scarcely doubt that there is one in the other. But if
we habitually preadjust our perceptions to the measured movement
of verse, the physical analogy above given renders it probable
that by so doing we economize attention; and hence that metrical
language is more effective than prose, because it enables us to do
this.

57. Were there space, it might be worthwhile to inquire whether
the pleasure we take in rhyme, and also that which we take in
euphony, axe not partly ascribable to the same general cause.




PART II.

CAUSES OF FORCE IN LANGUAGE WHICH DEPEND UPON ECONOMY OF THE MENTAL
SENSIBILITIES.



i. The Law of Mental Exhaustion and Repair.