Accented
syllables are, of course, always long, but where unencumbered with
consonants, must be classed among the unnaturally long. Mere custom
has declared that we shall accent them- that is to say, dwell upon
them; but no inevitable lingual difficulty forces us to do so. In
fine, every long syllable must of its own accord occupy in its
utterance, or must be made to occupy, precisely the time demanded
for two short ones. The only exception to this rule is found in the
caesura- of which more anon.
The success of the experiment with the trochees or iambuses (the one
would have suggested the other) must have led to a trial of dactyls or
anapaests- natural dactyls or anapaests- dactylic or anapaestic words.
And now some degree of complexity has been attained. There is an
appreciation, first, of the equality between the several dactyls or
anapaests, and secondly, of that between the long syllable and the two
short conjointly. But here it may be said, that step after step
would have been taken, in continuation of this routine, until all
the feet of the Greek Prosodies became exhausted. Not so; these
remaining feet have no existence except in the brains of the
scholiasts. It is needless to imagine men inventing these things,
and folly to explain how and why they invented them, until it shall be
first shown that they are actually invented.
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