Weekly national intelligencer. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1841-1869, 1852-09-18

much forbearance and selfsacrce its relations to the
old tongue which had grown up under heather auspices
been had the eaven Of the Word of Life mingled with and
wrought in it from the first instead Of coming in later
addition to it now, at the end Of time
We have quoted these observations of Mr. Trench at
length because it us impossible form any ade
ouate idea of the function which the Christian church had
to perform in using the Latin tongue and Of the
in which she performed it, without recognising and APP
precating their justice Still the body of medieval La
tin bears the majestic impress of the old tongue
spoken by conscrpt fathers and the conquerors of the
world Du Gauge has collected those words and phrases
of the later writer's which present much difficulty to the
merely classical scholar though many might doubt
less still be found in the urgies and of those
times which viii never be known save to moths, book
worms, and mice.
1t cannot fail to have struck the most inattentive
reader of Latin remarkable fact that the CLASH
cal poets of ancient Rome Tin this initiating the
ample of their Grecian models) abstain carefully
from the use of rhyme. We say abstain carefully,
for that they were ignorant of the resources of their
language for the production of rhyme, Gas some have
fancied or that they knew nothing Gas others have
charged) of its power as instrument of poetic art
are suggestions as unphilosophical and improbable
in theory they groundless in fact for nothing
can be more clearly proved than that there was an
early and therefore native tendency in ancient Latin
poetry-such as the Saturnian verse and other frag
ments of uncertain authorship--to the employment
of rhyme as means of melody The following lines
of old Ennius have been frequently quoted in proof
and their number could be increased by examples
equally conclusive if our limits admitted of their
Insertion:
Haze omnia vidi, inaammari, a
Priamo "a eitam, eyitari
Jovis sanguino turpari.
Before advancing further, however, in the discus
sion of this subject and in order that we may APP
proach it in the proper direction, we beg to preface
our subsequent observations by the following i'm
portant statement, which we extract from Guests
History Of English Rhythms:
"When the same modification Of sound recurs at def
mite intervals the coincidence very readily strikes the
ear and when it is found in accented sylabes such
syllables fix the attention strongly than if they
ly received the accent Hence may perceive the i'm
portance of rhyme iaccentua is not it is
sometimes asserted, mere ornament it marks and de-
fines the accent and thereby strengthens and supports
the rhythm It's advantages have been felt strongly
that no people have adopted accentual rhythm
without also adopting rhyme
In attempting therefore, to trace the rise and
growth of rhyming Latin verse, we must first OBJ
dical system" of the elder Latin poetry, by which
accent was almost imperceptibly substituted for
quantity insomuch that the number of the sylables
and not their etre came at least to be regarded
the prevalent standard of poetca notation. Follow
ing Mr. Trench, therefore, as closely as we find he
has himself followed Ampere, Portage &c., Though
regret to state that he has not any where acknowledged
his obligations TO the latter of those named may state
several reasons for the gradual and at last complete dis
placement Of the old metrca forms under the influence
of the religion And, in the first place, may be
said that the very genius of the classical prosody adapt
ed it expressly embody and mirror forth the
objective elements of beauty in and in art was
utterly alien to the subjective and mystical the aiguid
immensun iantumque, which first began fairly dawn
upon the minds of at the beginning of the Christian
era. Beauty of outline, says Mr. Trench, beauty of
form, land what food of light does that word lorna
in Latin equivalent to beauty, pour the difference
between the heather and the christian ideal of beauty
this all that the old poetry yearned after and
to express and this all which its metrical frame
works perfectly fitted for expressing" But the
Christian Revelation opened fountains Of Inspiration
from whose depths issued streams of mighty volume that
could find passage through the artificial conduits which
had conveyed the waters Of Casa and therefore carved
for themselves channels. The relation which
subts between the metrca forms of the heather and
the christian obtains equally between their respective
the graceful Ionian temples and
the majestic Gothic cathedrals those poems in stone
they have been called In the former each line and
tacery and moulding comprise and define shapes Of SEN
suous beauty which enchant the eye in the latter it is
the massive the complex and the infinite which do not
so much charm the fill the soul with images that
solemnize while they soothe.
The metres Of the classical yersfcaon moreover were
associated and identified with all that was impure and
profane in the pagan worship and for this reason alone
would have been disasefu the poets and adherents
the new evange These very airs redoent of the
gay religions, full of pomp and god, to whose idola-
tries and sorceres they had pandered and in whose
vice they had contracted faint and contamination Of
which they could never be Invested The Christian mo-
ralty therefore, well the Christian taste nstnc-
lively revoted from that which exhaled the atmosphere
OF heahenism and early began seek other metrica
forms than those which had been prostituted false
religion.
1t must further be remembered that the lyric measures
Of the classical prosody never native to the Latin
tongue but had been imported from Greece to the genius
Of whose language they much better adapted The
old Saturnian verse have already said sometimes
affected rhyme and this alone would be almost concu-
sive evidence that its poetca notation was rhyhmiea
rather than metrca The metre Of saturnan verse never
has been setteda pretty proof that it never had
any II was not until puch later period that the lyric
metres were engrafted the Latin tongue by Catuus
and Horace, and how uncongenal they always remain
ed to II is amply attesed by the familiar and trenchant
remark of a critic Of their own Quintilan who saws
"of our lyrical poets Horace is almost the only one t