cannon; the "shriek" of the blast; the "roar" of a tempest; the "wail" of a child.

"The spray was hissing hot, and a huge jet of water burst up from its midst."

This is much more vivid than if the following statement were made:

The water was boiling, and threw up a great fountain from its midst.

He "plunged" into the river, is better than "he threw himself." The horse came "galloping" down the road, is better than the horse came "quickly."

Such is the nature of language that, if the best possible word be chosen, it will often prove to be one of this description. This choice of the best word means precision, and hence the effort to be precise will often lead to excellence of another and very different kind. Pope, who is remarkable for precision, abounds in onomatopœia.

$297. THE LATIN ELEMENT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE IS

INVALUABLE FOR PURPOSES OF HARMONY.

Reference has already been made to the combination of Latin and Saxon in English, and it has been said that for purposes of perspicuity the Saxon is superior. It now remains to say that for purposes of harmony the Latin is invaluable, and for high pomp and majesty it is superior to the Saxon.

The Latin language is superior to the Saxon, and all other members of the Teutonic family, in point of euphony. In its words we find vowels and consonants in equal number, a large proportion of liquids, and a striking exhibition of sonorous music and magnificence. If we examine the finest passages in English literature, we shall find that the Latin words employed confer indescribable beauty and splendor, which are heightened by their contrast with the Saxon words. The character of the Saxon is tenderness, earnestness, simplicity; that of the Latin grandeur and stateliness. The value of the Latin element in our language may be seen by examining familiar passages from our chief poets. The following are from Shakespeare:

"Such harmony is in immortal souls."

"Fit for treasons stratagems and spoils."

"Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war.”

"On horror's head horrors accumulate."

"It will discourse most eloquent music.”

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased?"
"Sweet oblivious antidote."

"Even-handed justice

Commends the ingredients of our poisoned chalice
To our own lips."

"Vaulting ambition.”

"Her infinite variety."

"Whose conscience with injustice is corrupted."
"Uses of adversity."

"Of imagination all compact."

"My hand will rather

The multitudinous seas incarnadinc."

Milton's style is far more Latinized than that of Shakespeare, and many of his most magnificent lines consist chiefly of Latin words. The following are examples:

"Thrones, dominations, prinçedoms, virtues, powers."

"Sonorous metal blowing martial sounds."

"Deep on his front engraven

Deliberation sat, and public care."

"The palpable obscure."

"Devil with devil damn'd.
Firm concord holds, men only disagree
Of creatures rational."

"Ruin upon ruin, rout on rout,
Confusion worse confounded."

"Vernal bloom."

"Human face divine."

"Necessity, the tyrant's plea."

"Vacant interlunar cave."

"Embattled armies."

"Heaven opened wide

Her ever-during gates, harmonious sound."

This subject may be further illustrated by examples from other poets:

"In those deep solitudes and awful cells,

Where heavenly pensive Contemplation dwells,
And ever-musing Melancholy reigns."-POPE.

"An elegant sufficiency, content,

Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Ease and alternate labor, useful life,

Progressive virtue and approving heaven."-THOMSON.

Superfluous lags the veteran on the stage."-JOHNSON.

"Storied urn or animated bust."-GRAY.

"The intelligible forms of ancient poets,
The fair humanities of old religion,

The power, the beauty, and the majesty."-Coleridge.

"The vision and the faculty divine."-WORDSWORTH.

In a poem by William Wetmore Story on the English Language there is a description of the various elements which contribute towards its formation, while the poem itself is an example of onomatopoeia :

"Give me of every language first my vigorous English,
Stored with imported wealth, rich in its natural mines,

Grand in its rhythmical cadence, simple for household employment,
Worthy the poet's song, fit for the speech of man.

Thou hast the sharp, clean edge and the downright blow of the Saxon ;
Thou the majestical march and the stately pomp of the Latin ;
Thou the euphonious swell, the rhythmical roll of the Greek;
Thine is the elegant suavity caught from sonorous Italian;
Thine the chivalric obeisance, the courteous grace of the Norman ;
Thine the Teutonic German's inborn guttural strength.

Now clear, pure, hard, bright, and one by one like to hailstones,
Short words fall from his lips fast as the first of a shower;
Now in a twofold column, spondee, iamb, and trochee,
Unbroke, firm-set, advance, retreat, trampling along;

Now with a sprightlier springiness bounding in triplicate syllables
Dance the elastic dactylics in musical cadences on;

Now their voluminous coil intertangling like huge anacondas
Roll overwhelmingly onward the sesquipedalian words.

Therefore it is that I praise thee, and never can cease from rejoicing,
Thinking that good stout English is mine and my ancestor's tongue;
Give me its varying music, the flow of its free modulation-

I will not covet the full roll of the glorious Greek,
Luscious and feeble Italian, Latin so formal and stately,

French with its nasal lisp, nor German inverted and harsh;
Not while our organ can speak with its many and wonderful voices,
Play on the soft lute of love, blow the loud trumpet of war,
Sing with the high sesquialtro, or drawing its full diapason,
Shake all the air with the grand storm of its pedals and stops."

CHAPTER VI.

RHYTHM.

§ 298. RHYTHM IN POETRY.

TONE or sound in style, when referring to the arrangement of words, is called rhythmus or rhythm.

Rhythm means a recurrence of sound at regular intervals, and was formerly applied to the movement of measured versification. The term has been extended in its meaning, so as to include more than metre; and it is frequently used to designate such things as the roll of the surf, the rise and fall of the wind, the reverberations of thunder, or the swell of tones from an Æolian harp. In poetry the word now signifies something very different from the formal divisions of lines into feet, and refers to that harmony and cadence which arise from the general flow of verses, and are marked by emphatic words and cæsural pauses. Thus Milton's Paradise Lost is written in the iambic metre, but the rhythm of that poem is something quite distinct from that metre, and is very different from the rhythm of any other iambic poem. The truth of this may be illustrated by the following passage:

"If thou be'st he-but O, how fallen, how changed
From him who in the happy realms of light,
Clothed with transcendent brightness, didst outshine
Myriads, though bright! If he, whom mutual league,

United thoughts and counsels, equal hope
And hazard in the glorious enterprise,

Joined with me once, now misery hath joined

In equal ruin :-into what pit thou seest,

From what height fallen :-so much the stronger proved
He with his thunder; and till then who knew

The force of those dire arms?”

The difference between the rhythm and the metre is here very strongly marked, especially in the last four lines. It is also discernible in all good poetry, and to make this manifest to the ear is the chief work of the elocutionist.

§ 299. RHYTHM IN PROSE.

The greatest writers of ancient and modern times have sought to infuse into their style something which should appeal to the musical sensibility, and many noble passages in prose literature exert an influence difficult to define, yet so powerful that they affect the heart and cling to the memory. Their meaning is in such cases enlarged and reinforced by the subtle yet potent aid of harmony; and while the thought affects the mind, the music charms the ear. Two things are to be observed in such writings: first, the sound of the individual words; and, secondly, their arrangement, with the recurrence of pauses at such intervals as shall produce a certain harmonious rise and fall of tone. These constitute rhythm in prose.

Many passages in the English Bible exhibit a matchless beauty of rhythm:

"Or ever the silver cord be loosed-or the golden bowl be broken-or the pitcher be broken at the fountain-or the wheel broken at the cistern. Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was-and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it."

“Lord-thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations.

"Before the mountains were brought forth-or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world-even from everlasting to everlasting-thou art God."

"These are they which came out of great tribulation-and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb."

If these passages be read with attention to the rhetorical pauses, as marked, their euphonious flow and solemn and varied rhythm will not fail to be apparent. It would be difficult to