dy_, p. 18. Here the prosodist has made his own
examples; and the last one, which unjustly impeaches all dactylics, he has
made very badly--very prosaically; for the word "_Dactylic_," though it has
three syllables, is properly no dactyl, but rather an amphibrach.

OBS. 7.--By the Rev. David Blair, this order of poetic numbers is utterly
misconceived and misrepresented. He says of it, "DACTYLIC verse consists of
a _short syllable_, with one, two, or three feet, _and a long syllable_;
as,

'D~istr=act~ed w~ith w=oe,
'I'll r=ush ~on th~e f=oe.' ADDISON."--_Blair's Pract. Gram._, p. 119.

"'Y~e sh=eph~erds s~o ch=eerf~ul ~and g=ay,
'Wh~ose fl=ocks n~ev~er c=arel~essl~y r=oam;
'Sh~ould C=or~yd~on's h=app~en t~o str=ay,
'Oh! c=all th~e p=oor w=and~er~ers h=ome.' SHENSTONE."--_Ib._, p. 120.

It is manifest, that these lines are not dactylic at all. There is not a
dactyl in them. They are composed of iambs and anapests. The order of the
versification is Anapestic; but it is here varied by the very common
diversification of dropping the first short syllable. The longer example is
from a ballad of 216 lines, of which 99 are thus varied, and 117 are full
anapestics.

OBS. 8.--The makers of school-books are quite as apt to copy blunders, as
to originate them; and, when an error is once started in a grammar, as it
passes with the user for good learning, no one can guess where it will
stop. It seems worth while, therefore, in a work of this nature, to be
liberal in the citation of such faults as have linked themselves, from time
to time, with the several topics of our great subject. It is not probable,
that the false scansion just criticised originated with Blair; for the
Comprehensive Grammar, a British work, republished in its third edition, by
Dobson, of Philadelphia, in 1789, teaches the same doctrine, thus:
"Dactylic measure may consist of one, two, or three Dactyls, introduced by
a feeble syllable, and terminated by a strong one; as,

M~y | d=ear Ir~ish | f=olks,
C=ome | l=eave ~off y~our | j=okes,
And | b=uy ~up m~y | h=alfp~ence s~o | f=ine;
S~o | f=air ~and s~o | br=ight,
Th~ey'll | g=ive y~ou d~e | -l=ight:
Ob | -s=erve h~ow th~ey | gl=ist~er ~and | sh=ine. SWIFT.

A | c=obl~er th~ere | w=as ~and h~e | l=iv'd ~in ~a | st=all,
Wh~ich | s=erv'd h~im f~or | k=itch~en, f~or | p=arl~our ~and | hall;
N~o | c=oin ~in h~is | p=ock~et, n~o | c=are ~in h~is | p=at