discern the difference. The division of poetry into its peculiar lines, is
therefore not a mere accident. The word _verse_, from the Latin _versus_,
literally signifies a _turning_. Each full line of metre is accordingly
called a verse; because, when its measure is complete, the writer _turns_
to place another under it. A _verse_, then, in the primary sense of the
word with us, is, "A _line_ consisting of a certain succession of sounds,
and number of syllables."--_Johnson, Walker, Todd, Bottes_, and others. Or,
according to _Webster_, it is, "A poetic _line_, consisting of a certain
number of long and short syllables, disposed according to the rules of the
species of poetry which the author intends to compose."--See _American
Dict._, 8vo.

OBS. 2.--If to settle the theory of English verse on true and consistent
principles, is as difficult a matter, as the manifold contrarieties of
doctrine among our prosodists would indicate, there can be no great hope of
any scheme entirely satisfactory to the intelligent examiner. The very
elements of the subject are much perplexed by the incompatible dogmas of
authors deemed skillful to elucidate it. It will scarcely be thought a hard
matter to distinguish true verse from prose, yet is it not well agreed,
wherein the difference consists: what the generality regard as the most
essential elements or characteristics of the former, some respectable
authors dismiss entirely from their definitions of both verse and
versification. The existence of quantity in our language; the dependence of
our rhythms on the division of syllables into long and short; the
concurrence of our accent, (except in some rare and questionable
instances,) with long quantity only; the constant effect of emphasis to
lengthen quantity; the limitation of quantity to mere duration of sound;
the doctrine that quantity pertains to all _syllables_ as such, and not
merely to vowel sounds; the recognition of the same general principles of
syllabication in poetry as in prose; the supposition that accent pertains
not to certain _letters_ in particular, but to certain _syllables_ as such;
the limitation of accent to stress, or percussion, only; the conversion of
short syllables into long, and long into short, by a change of accent; our
frequent formation of long syllables with what are called short vowels; our
more frequent formation of short syllables with what are called long or
open vowels; the necessity of some order in the