to represent the basis of English versification to be, not the distinction of long and short quantities, but the recurrence of accent at certain intervals.  Such is the doctrine of Butler, Felton, Fowler, S. S. Greene, Hart, Hiley, R. C. Smith, Weld, Wells, and perhaps others.  But, in this, all these writers contradict themselves; disregard their own definitions of accent; count monosyllables to be accented or unaccented; displace emphasis from the rank which Murray and others give it, as “the great regulator of quantity;” and suppose the length or shortness of syllables not to depend on the presence or absence of either accent or emphasis; and not to be of much account in the construction of English verse.  As these strictures are running to a great length, it may be well now to introduce the poetic feet, and to reserve, for notes under that head, any further examination of opinions as to what constitutes the foundation of verse.

SECTION III.—­OF POETIC FEET.

A verse, or line of poetry., consists of successive combinations of syllables, called feet.  A poetic foot, in English, consists either of two or of three syllables, as in the following examples: 

1.  “C=an t=y | -r~ants b=ut | b~y t=y | -r~ants c=on | -qu~ered
          
                                     b=e?”—­Byron.

2.  “H=ol~y, | h=ol~y, | h=ol~y! | =all th~e | s=aints a | -d=ore
          
                                     thee.”—­Heber.

3.  “And th~e br=eath | of the D=e | -ity c=ir | -cl~ed th~e
          
                                     ro=om.”—­Hunt.

4.  “H=ail t~o th~e | chi=ef wh~o in | tr=iumph ad |-v=ances!”—­Scott.

EXPLANATIONS AND DEFINITIONS.

Poetic feet being arbitrary combinations, contrived merely for the measuring of verses, and the ready ascertainment of the syllables that suit each rhythm, there is among prosodists a perplexing diversity of opinion, as to the number which we ought to recognize in our language.  Some will have only two or three; others, four; others, eight; others, twelve.  The dozen are all that can be made of two syllables and of three.  Latinists sometimes make feet of four syllables, and admit sixteen more of these, acknowledging and naming twenty-eight in all.  The principal English feet are the Iambus, the Trochee, the Anapest, and the Dactyl.

1.  The Iambus, or Iamb, is a poetic foot consisting of a short syllable and a long one; as, b~etr=ay, c~onf=ess, d~em=and, ~intent, d~egr=ee.

2.  The Trochee, or Choree, is a poetic foot consisting of a long syllable and a short one; as, h=atef~ul, p=ett~ish, l=eg~al, m=eas~ure, h=ol~y.

3.  The Anapest is a poetic foot consisting of two short syllables and one long one; as, c~ontr~av=ene, ~acqu~i=esce, ~imp~ort=une.