And first for the origin of metre.  This I would trace to the balance in the mind effected by that spontaneous effort which strives to hold in check the workings of passion.  It might be easily explained likewise in what manner this salutary antagonism is assisted by the very state which it counteracts, and how this balance of antagonism becomes organised into metre (in the usual acceptation of that term) by a supervening act of the will and judgment consciously and for the foreseen purpose of pleasure.

I will not swear to understand precisely what Coleridge means here, though I believe that I do.  But at any rate, and on the principle that of two hypotheses, each in itself adequate, we should choose the simpler, I suggest in all modesty that we shall do better with our own than with Coleridge’s, which has the further disadvantage of being scarcely amenable to positive evidence.  We can say with historical warrant that Sappho struck the lyre, and argue therefrom, still within close range of correction, that her singing responded to the instrument:  whereas to assert that Sappho’s mind ’was balanced by a spontaneous effort which strove to hold in check the workings of passion’ is to say something for which positive evidence will be less handily found, whether to contradict or to support.

Yet if you choose to prefer Coleridge’s explanation, no great harm will be done:  since Coleridge, who may be presumed to have understood it, promptly goes on to deduce that,

     as the elements of metre owe their existence to a state of increased
     excitement, so the metre itself should be accompanied by the natural
     language of excitement.

which is precisely where we found ourselves, save that where Coleridge uses the word ‘excitement’ we used the word ‘emotion.’

Shall we employ an illustration before proceeding?—­some sentence easily handled, some commonplace of the moralist, some copybook maxim, I care not what.  ’Contentment breeds Happiness’—­That is a proposition with which you can hardly quarrel; sententious, sedate, obviously true; provoking delirious advocacy as little as controversial heat; in short a very fair touchstone.  Now hear how the lyric treats it, in these lines of Dekker—­

  Art thou poor, yet hast thou golden slumbers? 
     O sweet content! 
  Art thou rich, yet is thy mind perplex’d? 
     O punishment! 
  Dost thou laugh to see how fools are vex’d
  To add to golden numbers golden numbers? 
     O sweet content!  O sweet, O sweet content! 
  Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
  Honest labour wears a lovely face;
     Then hey, nonny nonny—­hey, nonny nonny!

  Canst drink the waters of the crystal spring? 
     O sweet content! 
  Swim’st thou in wealth, yet sink’st in thine own tears? 
     O punishment! 
  Then he that patiently want’s burden bears
  No burden bears, but is a king, a king! 
     O sweet content!  O sweet, O sweet content! 
  Work apace, apace, apace, apace;
  Honest labour wears a lovely face;
     Then hey, nonny nonny—­hey, nonny nonny!