is exaltation is moral matter
in motion. It makes no difference _whither_ tends the motion--whether
for him or against him--and it is absolutely of _no_ consequence
"_what_ is the matter."

* * * * *

In Colton's "American Review" for October, 1845, a gentleman, well
known for his scholarship, has a forcible paper on "The Scotch School
of Philosophy and Criticism." But although the paper is "forcible," it
presents the most singular admixture of error and truth--the one
dovetailed into the other, after a fashion which is novel, to say the
least of it. Were I to designate in a few words what the whole article
demonstrated, I should say "the folly of not beginning at the
beginning--of neglecting the giant Moulineau's advice to his friend
Ram." Here is a passage from the essay in question:

"The Doctors [Campbell and Johnson] both charge
Pope with error and inconsistency:--error in
supposing that _in English_, of metrical lines
unequal in the number of syllables and pronounced
in equal times, the longer suggests celerity (this
being the principle of the
Alexandrine:)--inconsistency, in that Pope himself
uses the same contrivance to convey the contrary
idea of slowness. But why in English? It is not and
cannot be disputed that, in the Hexameter verse of
the Greeks and Latins--which is the model in this
matter--what is distinguished as the 'dactylic
line' was uniformly applied to express velocity.
How was it to do so? Simply from the fact of being
pronounced in an equal time with, while containing
a greater number of syllables or 'bars' than the
ordinary or average measure; as, on the other hand,
the spondaic line, composed of the minimum number,
was, upon the same principle, used to indicate
slowness. So, too, of the Alexandrine in English
versification. No, says Campbell, there is a
difference: the Alexandrine is not in fact, like
the dactylic line, pronounced in the common time.
But does this alter the principle? What is the
rationale of Metre, whether the classical hexameter
or the English heroic?"

I have written an essay on the "Rationale of Verse," in which the
whole topic is surveyed _ab initio_, and with reference to general and
immutable principles. To this essa