to
find that _we have no work on which he can rely as authority on this
subject_. In the other modern languages, the most learned philologers have
treated of the subject of versification, in all its parts. In English
alone, in a language which possesses a body of poetical literature more
extensive, as well as more valuable than any other modern language, not
excepting the Italian, _the student has no rules to guide him_, but a few
meagre and incorrect outlines appended to elementary text-books." Then
follows this singularly inconsistent exception: "We must except from this
remark two works, published in the latter part of the sixteenth century.
But as they were written before the poetical language of the English tongue
was fixed, and as the rules of verse were not then settled, these works can
be of little practical utility."--_Preface_, p. 1. The works thus excepted
as of _reliable authority without practical utility_, are "a short tract by
_Gascoyne_," doubtless _George Gascoigne's_ 'Notes of Instruction
concerning the making of Verse or Rhyme in English,' published in 1575, and
Webbe's 'Discourse of English Poetry,' dated 1586, neither of which does
the kind exceptor appear to have ever seen! Mention is next made,
successively, of Dr. Carey, of Dryden, of Dr. Johnson, of Blair, and of
Lord Kames. "To these _guides_," or at least to the last two, "the author
is indebted for many valuable hints;" yet he scruples not to say, "Blair
betrays a paucity of knowledge on this subject;"--"Lord Kames has slurred
over the subject of Quantity," and "shown an unpardonable ignorance of the
first principles of Quantity in our verse;"--and, "Even Dr. Johnson speaks
of syllables in such a manner as would lead us to suppose that he was in
the same error as Kames. These inaccuracies," it is added, "can be
accounted for only from the fact that Prosodians have not thought
_Quantity_ of sufficient importance to merit their attention."--See
_Preface_, p. 4-6.

OBS. 18.--Everett's Versification consists of seventeen chapters, numbered
consecutively, but divided into two parts, under the two titles Quantity
and Construction. Its specimens of verse are numerous, various, and
beautiful. Its modes of scansion--the things chiefly to be taught--though
perhaps generally correct, are sometimes questionable, and not always
consonant with the writer's own rules of quantity. From the citations
above, one might expect from this author such an exposition