OBS. 2.—­Everett, who divides our trochaic tetrameters into two species of metre, imagines that the catalectic form, or that which is single-rhymed, “has a solemn effect,”—­“imparts to all pieces more dignity than any of the other short measures,”—­“that no trivial or humorous subject should be treated in this measure,”—­and that, “besides dignity, it imparts an air of sadness to the subject.”—­English Verses., p. 87.  Our “line of four trochees” he supposes to be “difficult of construction,”—­“not of very frequent occurrence,”—­“the most agreeable of all the trochaic measures,”—­“remarkably well adapted to lively subjects,”—­and “peculiarly expressive of the eagerness and fickleness of the passion of love.”—­Ib., p. 90.  These pretended metrical characteristics seem scarcely more worthy of reliance, than astrological predictions, or the oracular guessings of our modern craniologists.

OBS. 3.—­Dr. Campbell repeats a suggestion of the older critics, that gayety belongs naturally to all trochaics, as such, and gravity or grandeur, as naturally, to iambics; and he attempts to find a reason for the fact; while, perhaps, even here—­more plausible though the supposition is—­the fact may be at least half imaginary.  “The iambus,” says he, “is expressive of dignity and grandeur; the trochee, on the contrary, according to Aristotle, (Rhet.  Lib.  Ill,) is frolicsome and gay.  It were difficult to assign a reason of this difference that would be satisfactory; but of the thing itself, I imagine, most people will be sensible on comparing the two kinds together.  I know not whether it will be admitted as a sufficient reason, that the distinction into metrical feet hath a much greater influence in poetry on the rise and fall of the voice, than the distinction into words; and if so, when the cadences happen mostly after the long syllables, the verse will naturally have an air of greater gravity than when they happen mostly after the short.”—­Campbell’s Philosophy of Rhetoric, p. 354.

MEASURE VI.—­TROCHAIC OF THREE FEET, OR TRIMETER.

Example I.—­Youth and Age Contrasted.

   “Crabbed | age and | youth
      Cannot | live to | -gether;
    Youth is | full of | pleasance,
      Age is | full of | care: 
    Youth, like | summer | morn,
      Age, like | winter | weather;
    Youth, like | summer, | brave;
      Age, like | winter, | bare. 
      Youth is | full of | sport,
      Age’s | breath is | short,
    Youth is | nimble, | age is | lame;
      Youth is | hot and | bold,
      Age is | weak and | cold;
    Youth is | wild, and | age is | tame.”
        The Passionate Pilgrim; SINGER’S SHAKSPEARE, Vol. ii p. 594.

Example II—­Common Sense and Genius.

    3.

    “While I | touch the | string,
    Wreathe my | brows with | laurel;
    For the | tale I | sing,
    Has, for | once, a | moral!