OBS. 1.—­Verse, in the broadest acceptation of the term, is poetry, or metrical language, in general.  This, to the eye, is usually distinguished from prose by the manner in which it is written and printed.  For, in very many instances, if this were not the case, the reader would be puzzled to discern the difference.  The division of poetry into its peculiar lines, is therefore not a mere accident.  The word verse, from the Latin versus, literally signifies a turning.  Each full line of metre is accordingly called a verse; because, when its measure is complete, the writer turns to place another under it.  A verse, then, in the primary sense of the word with us, is, “A line consisting of a certain succession of sounds, and number of syllables.”—­Johnson, Walker, Todd, Bottes, and others.  Or, according to Webster, it is, “A poetic line, consisting of a certain number of long and short syllables, disposed according to the rules of the species of poetry which the author intends to compose.”—­See American Dict., 8vo.

OBS. 2.—­If to settle the theory of English verse on true and consistent principles, is as difficult a matter, as the manifold contrarieties of doctrine among our prosodists would indicate, there can be no great hope of any scheme entirely satisfactory to the intelligent examiner.  The very elements of the subject are much perplexed by the incompatible dogmas of authors deemed skillful to elucidate it.  It will scarcely be thought a hard matter to distinguish true verse from prose, yet is it not well agreed, wherein the difference consists:  what the generality regard as the most essential elements or characteristics of the former, some respectable authors dismiss entirely from their definitions of both verse and versification.  The existence of quantity in our language; the dependence of our rhythms on the division of syllables into long and short; the concurrence of our accent, (except in some rare and questionable instances,) with long quantity only; the constant effect of emphasis to lengthen quantity; the limitation of quantity to mere duration of sound; the doctrine that quantity pertains to all syllables as such, and not merely to vowel sounds; the recognition of the same general principles of syllabication in poetry as in prose; the supposition that accent pertains not to certain letters in particular, but to certain syllables as such; the limitation of accent to stress, or percussion, only; the conversion of short syllables into long, and long into short, by a change of accent; our frequent formation of long syllables with what are called short vowels; our more frequent formation of short syllables with what are called long or open vowels; the necessity of some order in the succession of feet or syllables to form a rhythm; the need of framing each line to correspond with some other line or lines in length; the propriety of always making each line susceptible