the constraint of obvious regular recurrence, and displays ingenuity on the part of the writer.

Verses are coördinated into the larger and more complex group of rhythmical units, called Stanzas. A stanza is a group of any number of verses, and is named from the number of verses it contains. A grouping of stanzas into a poem constitutes the most complex rhythmical unit.

Another phase of rhythm should not be overlooked, for it has great poetic charm; and that is, what is known as rhythmical fullness. This is the formal characteristic feature of Hebrew poetry, and is illustrated by almost any verse from the Psalms; as, “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.” In this it will be observed that the last half is a restatement of the meaning of the first. It is a kind of swinging movement of thought. This is a marked source of beauty in both Tennyson and Longfellow. Note it in these:

1. “Comrades, leave me here a little, while as yet ’t is early

morn; Leave me here, and when you want me, sound upon the

bugle horn."

2. “ The day is cold, and dark, and dreary;

It rains, and the wind is never weary;
The vine still clings to the mouldering wall,
But at every gust the dead leaves fall,
And the day is dark and dreary."

Still another form of rhythm is Alliteration, which is the repetition of a sound at the beginning of two or more successive words; as, “ Apt alliteration's artful aid.” The following examples illustrate its nature and value to style :

“ That would his rightful ravine rend away.”
“ With hideous horror both together smight,
And souce (strike) so sore, that they the heavens affray:

The wise soothsayer, seeing so sad sight.” “ Friendless, homeless, hopeless, they wandered from city to

city; From the cold lakes of the North to sultry Southern savannas.”

“ A pilgrim wanting a pin or a pistol, a cucumber or a camel, a house or a horse, a loan or a lentil, a date or a dragoman, a melon or a man, a dove or a donkey, has only to inquire at the Joppa Gate.”

There should be such variety in all the points of the poetic form as not to suggest constraint on the part of the writer or the spirit within the writing. There should be variety in the kinds and the number of feet, and in their arrangement; in the kinds and succession of rhymes; and in the number and kinds of verses in the stanzas. There must seem to be no constraint to set form, but the greatest variety within the limit of rhythmical movement. The theme itself demands such variety. The varying sentiment sometimes requires a quick, sprightly movement, and sometimes the slow, heavy tread of the stately march.

Let the following be tested and explained in all the points of poetic form, noting carefully the means of securing variety and adaptation to the varying sentiment: —

1. “ Half a league, half a league,

Half a league onward
All in the Valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.”

2. “ Build me straight, O worthy Master,

Staunch and strong, a goodly vessel,
That shall laugh at all disaster,

And with wave and whirlwind wrestle.”

3. “ There's a dance of leaves in that aspen bower,

There 's a titter of winds in that beechen tree,
There 's a smile on the fruit, and a smile on the flower,

And a laugh from the brook that runs to the sea.”

4. “ So live that when thy summons comes to join

The innumerable caravan, which moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night, .
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave,
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams."

5. “ I saw him once before,

As he passed by the door,

And again
The pavement stones resound,
As he totters o'er the ground,

With his cane."

6. “A little lowly heritage it was,

Down in a dale, hard by a forest's side,
Far from resort of people, that did pass
In travel to and fro; a little wide
There was an holy chapel edified,

Wherein the hermit duly went to say
His holy things each morn and eventide ;
Thereby a crystal stream did gently play,
Which from a sacred fountain welled forth alway."

7. “ And what is so rare as a day in June?

Then, if ever, come perfect days :
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,

And over it softly her warm ear lays.
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten ;
Every clod feels a stir of might,

An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And groping blindly above it for light,

Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers."

8. “I wooed the blue-eyed maid

Yielding, yet half afraid,
And in the forest's shade

Our vows we plighted.
Under its loosened vest
Fluttered her little breast,
Like birds within their nest,

By the hawk frighted.”

9. “ Fear death ? — to feel the fog in my throat,

The mist in my face,
When the snows begin and the blasts denote

I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,

The post of the foe,
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form?

Yet the strong man must go ;
For the journey is done and the summit attained,

And the barriers fall,
Though a battle 's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,

The reward of it all.”

10. “ Many a morning on the moorland did we hear the copses

ring, And her whisper throng'd my pulses with the fullness of

the spring.” II. “ Ye who believe in affection, that hopes and endures and

is patient, Ye who believe in the beauty and strength of woman's

devotion,
List to the mournful tradition still sung by the pines of

the forest;
List to a Tale of Love in Acadie, home of the happy."

THE DIRECT RELATION OF LANGUAGE TO THOUGHT.

As already observed, this phase of language has two aspects : one that of the direct back-and-forth relation of expression to idea, and the other the relation of the language to the organization of the ideas into a thought whole. Thus there are two phases in the process of interpreting language under the present heading: one that of gathering the material of thought from the vehicle of thought, and the other that of organizing the material gathered into a thought whole. Of course all the interpreting acts move simultaneously; but logically they are conditioned in the order named. Observing the language form conditions the gathering of the ideas which constitute the material of the discourse; which material must be gathered before it can be organized. Yet these acts move simultaneously through the discourse. Thus we are brought next to the discussion of the language qualities which make language effective through the association of language form with ideas.