All other "feet" than
those which I have specified are, if not impossible at first view,
merely combinations of the specified; and, although this assertion
is rigidly true, I will, to avoid misunderstanding, put it in a
somewhat different shape. I will say, then, that at present I am aware
of no rhythm- nor do I believe that any one can be constructed- which,
in its last analysis, will not be found to consist altogether of the
feet I have mentioned, either existing in their individual and obvious
condition, or interwoven with each other in accordance with simple
natural laws which I will endeavour to point out hereafter.
We have now gone so far as to suppose men constructing indefinite
sequences of spondaic, iambic, trochaic, dactylic, or anapaestic
words. In extending these sequences, they would be again arrested by
the sense of monotone. A succession of spondees would immediately have
displeased; one of iambuses or of trochees, on account of the
variety included within the foot itself, would have taken longer to
displease, one of dactyls or anapaests, still longer; but even the
last, if extended very far, must have become wearisome. The idea first
of curtailing, and secondly of defining, the length of a sequence
would thus at once have arisen. Here then is the line of verse
proper.* The principle of equality being constantly at the bottom of
the whole process, lines would naturally be made, in the first
instance, equal in the number of their feet; in the second instance,
there would be variation in the mere number; one line would be twice
as long as another, then one would be some less obvious multiple of
another; then still less obvious proportions would be adopted-
nevertheless there would be proportion, that is to say, a phase of
equality, still.
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