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 of quantity, as nobody could either mistake or gainsay; but, as the following platform will show, his treatment of this point is singularly curt and incomplete.  He is so sparing of words as not even to have given a definition of quantity.  He opens his subject thus:  “VERSIFICATION is the proper arrangement of words in a line according to their quantity, and the disposition of these lines in couplets, stanzas, or in blank verse, in such order, and according to such rules, as are sanctioned by usage.—­A FOOT is a combination of two or more syllables, whether long or short.—­A LINE is one foot, or more than one.—­The QUANTITY of each word depends on its accent.  In words of more than one syllable, all accented syllables are long, and all unaccented syllables are short.  Monosyllables are long or short, according to the following Rules:—­1st.  All Nouns, Adjectives, Verbs, and Participles are long.—­2nd.  The articles are always short.—­3rd, The Pronouns are long or short, according to emphasis.—­4th.  Interjections and Adverbs are generally long, but sometimes made short by emphasis.—­5th.  Prepositions and Conjunctions are almost always short, but sometimes made long by emphasis.”—­English Versification, p. 13.  None of these principles of quantity are unexceptionable; and whoever follows them implicitly, will often differ not only from what is right, but from their author himself in the analysis