intellect alone will never touch the heart. Rhythm may proceed with
regularity, yet that regularity be so relieved from monotony and so
modified in its actual effects, that however regular may be the
structure of parts, what is composed of them may be infinitely various.
Milton's exquisite poem, 'Comus,' is an example of perfect rhythm with
ceaseless intricacy and great variety. It would indeed be a fatal
mistake to suppose that _proportion_ cannot be susceptible of great
variety, since the whole meaning of the term has reference to the
adjustment and proportional correspondence of _variable_ properties.

The appreciation of rhythm is universal, pertaining to no region, race,
nor era, in especial. Even those who have never _thought_ about it,
_feel_ order to be the law of life and happiness, and in the marking of
the _proportioned_ flow of time and the regular accentuation of its
_determinate_ portions find a perpetual source of healthful pleasure.

If we will but think of it, we will be astonished how many ideas already
analyzed we may find exhibited through rhythm. We may have: similarity,
variety, identity, repetition, adaptation, symmetry, proportion,
fitness, melody, harmony, order, and unity; in addition to the varied
feelings of which it becomes the symbolic utterance. The Greeks placed
rhythms in the hands of a god, thus testifying to their knowledge of
their range and power.

Wordsworth asserts that

'More pathetic situations and sentiments, that is, those which have
a greater proportion of pain connected with them, may be endured in
metrical compositions than in prose.'

The reason of this seems to be that the bright beams forever raying from
the Divine Sun of unity and order, shine through the measured beat of
the rhythm, and are always felt as life and peace, even when their
golden light is broken by the wild and drifting clouds of human woe, or
seen athwart the surging and blinding mists of mortal anguish.

Rhythm lurks in the inmost heart of language, accenting our words that
their enunciation may be clear and distinct; lengthening and shortening
the time of our syllables that they may be expressive, emotional, and
musical. Let the orator as well as the poet study its capabilities; it
has more power over the sympathies of the masses than the most labored
thought.

Although through the quantitive arrangement and determinate accentuation
of syllabic sound, rhythm may be exquisitely man