missed their guides, who departed on a pathless journey of 300 miles to the Pawnee villages on the Platte. Hitherto the soil consisted of a deep light sand, which rendered travelling laborious; and timber was so scarce, that their fuel had chiefly consisted of driftwood. From the 12th to the 15th of August the grass grew more luxuriant, but wood was still scarce. The temperature was the highest they had yet experienced, being 999; but the heat was extremely oppressive. They had now exhausted their little stock of meal, which they had husbanded with the utmost frugality. From this time to the 31st, they continued their progress, occasionally endeavouring, but in vain, to quit the confined valley of the river, and make their way over the prairie, and higher ground. The country became gradually more wooded, till they found themselves entangled in a thick forest. At this period they suffered a severe loss, in consequence of the desertion of three of their soldiers, who robbed them of some of their manuscript journals, and three of their best horses. They were also in want of provisions, and greatly debilitated by privations and fatigue. On the 1st of September they were visited by a party of Indians, from a village in the vicinity, who supplied them with refreshments, and offered to assist in apprehending the deserters; but proved more intent on plunder, than on fulfilling their promises. They therefore continued their route, and on the 5th reached a trading house, near the Ver digrise river, where they once more enjoyed some of the comforts of civilized life. On the 9th, they concluded their peregrination at Fort Smith, the appointed place of rendezvous. Some account is afterwards given of an excursion to the hot springs of the Waschita, and to Cape Girardeau, and a brief description of the Red River, as far as its course has been traced. Annexed is also a general description of the country, traversed by the Expedition, in an official report from Major Long to the Secre tary of War; and, finally, a Series of Observations on the Mineralogy and Geology of the Regions west of the Mississippi. The work is illustrated with a map, and a few aquatinta plates, very indifferently executed. In closing these volumes, we can not but applaud the zeal, perseverance, and intelligence of the gentlemen composing the Expedition; and though the narrative is presented in the unstudied form of a diary, we have no hesitation in saying that it will be perused with pleasure and satisfaction, and will supply an ample fund of information on many points, to which the limits of this analysis will scarcely permit us even to advert. We think it necessary, however, to add, that we have had before us only the London edition; and we are informed by a gentleman on whose authority we can rely, that this is but a mutilated reprint of the American edition, which is much volume copious, and illustrated by a atlas of plates; and that even the map has been copied in a very imperfect manner. SONNET. FAITH. It is a glorious thing, when all is said, Lapsing away and lost. These things in mirth Borne on the wings of angels, or bright dreams, Sometimes, from perilous thoughts to Heaven-convincing themes. B. OF THE COMBINATIONS OF VERSES (continued). THE other combinations are those of different kinds of verse; viz. the iambic with the three others; the trochaic with the anapestic and dactylic; and the two last together. These combinations are made according to the fancy of the writer, in a variety of degrees; sometimes no greater than single verses, or even parts of a verse; as in this of Dryden's Öde, the anapestic with the iambic: And amazed he stares around. The latter half is anapestic; so the first may be, but it reads and scans better as trochaic: These are Grecian | ghosts that in battle were slain. Another line in the same ode is of ambiguous measure. Such combinations are to be observed as matters of curiosity rather than imitated. The two following lines exhibit a combination of the anapestic with the dactylic: More sweet than the pleasure the muses can give ; Come, smile, damsels of Cardigan.-Sir William Jones. The ode just quoted has, within the compass of six lines, half as many combinations: Behold a ghastly band, Each a torch in his hand : These are Grecian ghosts that in battle were slain, And unburied remain Inglorious on the plain : In the poems attributed to Shakspeare is a lyric piece, intitled, Love's La bour Lost: the stanza is formed by a curious combination of verses; some of them of a measure very uncommon; being trochaics of five feet, the last curtailed: Trochaic five feet. Clear wells spring not, sweet birds sing not, All our pleasure known to us poor swains, Farewell, sweet love, thy like ne'er was, For as sweet content, the cause of all my woe; Other help for him, I see, that there is none. But the most extraordinary combination of English verse that is, perhaps, any where to be found, is this song by T. Campion, whom we have had occasion to quote already. Campion was eminent as a musician, as well as a poet; which may account for so singular a specimen of metre. What if a day, or a month, or a year, Crown thy delights with a thousand wish'd contentings; Cross thy delights with a thousand sad tormentings? Alex, Gill's Logonomia Anglica, p. 27. Other combinations of larger portions than these are sometimes made; which it is needless, for the present, to specify.* In every combination there should be a design of producing some effect: to introduce a combination without any design is a mark of carelessness, or inability to keep the just rules of versification. The effect designed may be merely to please, by a change of the measure, for the sake of variety; but the change is made more properly, when it is done to accommodate the verse to the sentiments; to express, for example, what is grave by a suitable kind, as the iambic; what is sprightly by the trochaic, and the like., Gray, in his Ode on the Progress of Poesy, has produced a very striking and happy effect by such a combination of verses: the tripping measure which represents the frisky dance of the Cupids, is finely contrasted with the smooth iambic which describes the gentle gait of Venus. Now pursuing, now retreating, Now in circling troops they meet: Slow melting strains their queen's approach declare: In gliding state she wins her easy way. But combinations would produce a disagreeable effect, if they were made contrariwise to this: i. e. if, in this instance, the trochaic and iambic should change places. Again, combinations may be esteemed good or bad, according as they preserve, or break, the measure and flow of the verse. The following is good: The listening muses all around her Think 'tis Phoebus' strains they hear.-Hughes. Here is an iambic line, with a redundant syllable, followed by a trochaic. This satisfies the ear; for the verses flow smoothly on to the end of the period, because the iambic measure is continued unbroken. The combination below is bad: A mind that's truly brave Stands despising And can't be made a slave. The last line, being an iambic, which follows a trochaic, (not curtailed, but full) produces an unpleasing effect; for it seems to have a syllable too much. It offends the ear, because the measure is broken: strike out that syllable, and the offence will be removed; the trochaic measure will be preserved to the end. In fact, the objectionable line is owing to a mistake of Bysshe. In his Art of Poetry, he quoted the passage from Dryden incorrectly: in that author, the last line runs thus: And can ne'er be made a slave, which is a trochaic verse, and gives the measure contended for. In serious poetry the combination is bad (generally speaking) which subjoins a short line to a long one, especially if they rhyme together; as, Be thou thine own approver: honest praise די *Such combinations fill up the poem called the Cantata; where the recitative is in one kind of verse, and the airs in some other: they are not unfrequently made in the drama, by the introduction of lyrical verses for music: in the epic they are not allowable; though Cowley has admitted them into his Davideis, without authority or example," as he acknowledges. But here we may refer to Aristotle, who condemns such a practice, and gives his reason for it. "To write a long narrative poem (he means an epic) in any other verse than hexameter, or in a variety of measures, would be evidently improper; for the hexameter is the most stately and majestic of all." Treatise on Poetry, Sect. 41. Now what the hexameter was to the Greeks, the iambic of five feet is' to us; viz. the most stately verse in which an English poem can be written. One reason is, that such a combination wants dignity; which is the more apparent, in this instance, because the preceding line is the stately heroic verse. To give another example: and By Euphrates' flowery side When poor Sion's doleful state, In these lines the quick return of the rhyme nearly destroys the gravity of the matter. Another reason why these combinations are bad, is the disproportion between the length of the lines. And, upon this account, if lines as dispro portionate as these were set in a contrary order, the combination would be faulty; as here: As if great Atlas from his height Should gape immense, and, rushing down, o'erwhelm this nether ball.—Dryden. ; But a good combination is made by two lines, or more, increasing, as they proceed, in a moderate degree: i. e. by one or two feet; example: All real here the bard had seen The glories of his pictured queen: The tuneful Dryden had not flatter'd here, His lyre had blameless been, his tribute all sincere.-T. Warton. It is this gradual increase above the preceding lines which makes the alexandrine so graceful in the close; for it has no beauty if set in the beginning of a poem, or stanza, as it has been by some of our poets, particularly Ambrose Philips. After this manner the verse of fourteen syllables may be brought in, and follow the alexandrine with good effect: The sylvans to their shades retire; Those very shades and streams new shades and streams require, And want a cooling breeze of wind to fan the raging fire.-Dryden. A singular example of the gradation we mean occurs in Sir John Beaumont's Epithalamium to the Lord Marquis of Buckingham: Severe and serious Muse, Whose quill the name of love declines, Be not too nice, nor this dear work refuse; Here Venus lights no flame, nor Cupid guides thy lines, But modest Hymen shakes his torch, and chaste Lucina shines. The lighter sorts of poetry are not to be considered as necessarily subject to this rule. In epigrams, for instance, where wit is often most happily expressed by brevity, the point or concluding line may very properly be shorter than the preceding; as in this: ( difference is, first, between the consonants d and b: second, between having some consonant there and none; bale, ale. Rhymes then are syllables or words similar in sound, but not identical. Rhymes are of one syllable, or more; which latter are called double rhymes, and will be separately considered hereafter. The great and extensive use of rhymes makes it necessary to treat of them under divers heads; and first of their quality. SECTION L Of the Quality of Rhymes. It might seem, from the description of rhymes just given, that it is easy to decide upon all syllables which may be brought into question, that they are either rhymes, or not; and that to class them accordingly would be sufficient. But the difficulty of rhyming in English is such, that some indulgence is due to words which profess to be rhyme, though they do not exactly answer that description. To distinguish, according to their quality, the rhymes which offer themselves to notice, in the works of our poets, it will be proper to divide them into those which are disallowed and bad; those which are defective, but admissible; and those which are good and perfect. Were there; the butcher, armourer, and smith, Who forges sharpen'd falchions, or the scythe.-Ibid. Second, those in which the consonants preceding the vowel are of the same sound; as, But this bold lord, with manly strength She with one finger and a thumb subdued. These are called identical rhymes: they were allowed, and common, in our early poetry.* Third, those in which the preceding consonants have the same sound, but the vowel, and what follows it, differ And for misjudging some unhappy scenes, Butler upon Critics. See Chalmers, vol. viii. p. 199. tical which should differ, and that In this example that part is idenwhich should be identical differs. It would be hard to produce any thing which passes for a rhyme, that is more exceptionable than this. ed are those made by polysyllables ; Upon his back a heavy load he bare There may be an exception to this, when the last syllables of such words are long; and, at least, one of them accented: but it is a case that very rarely happens. Here is an instance: By deep surmise of others' detriment, SECTION III. Of Rhymes defective but admissible. * We are inclined to think that identical rhymes were dismissed from English poetry rather by fashion than any other cause: by fashion, we mean the custom of poets. For at one time they were in frequent use, and admitted without scruple: and if another custom of rhyming had not prevailed to exclude them, they might have been still as agreeable to an English ear as to a Frenchman's; with whom, to make identical rhymes, is called rhyming richly. The reason of our opinion is, that identical rhymes are some times found in our most correct versifiers, as in Pope repeatedly. Whether or not they were unperceived by his ear, may be a doubt; but certainly they did not offend it. We believe that Cowley is the latest who avows the use of these rhymes; at the same time, however, he apologizes for it, saying, that he admits them only into his free kind of poetry (his Pindaric Odes), and there into triplets, when, beside the identical rhyme, he has put another. |