is derivation_, which has led to _the
error_ of our writers upon prosody;" that, "_It is this_ which _has seduced
them_ into regarding the _line_ itself--the _versus_, or turning--as an
essential, or principle of metre;" that, "Hence the term _versification_
has been employed as sufficiently general, or inclusive, for treatises upon
rhythm in general;" that, "Hence, also, [comes] the precise catalogue of a
few varieties of English _lines_, when these varieties are, in fact, almost
without limit;" that, "_I_," the aforesaid Edgar Allan Poe, "_shall dismiss
entirely_, from the consideration of the principle of _rhythm_, the idea of
_versification_, or the construction of verse;" that, "In so doing, _we_
shall avoid _a world of confusion_;" that, "_Verse_ is, indeed, an
_afterthought_, or an _embellishment_, or an _improvement_, rather than an
element of rhythm;" that, "_This fact_ has induced the easy admission, into
the realms of Poesy, of _such works_ as the 'Telemaque' of Fenelon;"
because, forsooth, "In the elaborate modulation of their sentences, THEY
FULFIL THE IDEA OF METRE."--_The Pioneer, a Literary and Critical Magazine_
(Boston, March, 1843,) Vol. I, p. 102 to 105.

OBS. 4.--"Holding these things in view," continues this sharp connoisseur,
"the prosodist who rightly examines that which constitutes the external,
or most immediately _recognisable_, form of Poetry, will commence with the
definition of _Rhythm_. Now _rhythm_, from the Greek [_Greek: arithmos_],
_number_, is a term which, in its present application, very nearly _conveys
its own idea_. No more _proper_ word could be employed to present _the
conception intended_; for _rhythm_, in prosody, is, in its _last analysis_,
identical with _time_ in music. _For this reason_," says he, "I have used,
throughout this article, as synonymous with _rhythm_, the word _metre_ from
[Greek: metron], _measure_. Either the one or the other may be defined as
_the arrangement of words into two or more consecutive, equal, pulsations
of time_. These pulsations are _feet_. Two feet, at least, are requisite to
constitute a _rhythm_; just as, in mathematics, two units are necessary to
form [a] _number_.[486] The syllables of which the foot consists, when the
foot is not a syllable in itself, are subdivisions of the pulsations. No
equality is demanded in these subdivisions. It is only required that, so
far as regards two consecutive feet at least, the sum of the times of the
syllab