5. Propriety requires a proper adaptation of words and thoughts to the subject, and also a correspondent adaptation of sounds. Hence the sounds, or numbers, should be various in different kinds of composition, as the subject, subject matter, or sentiments expressed, are various. And hence, in the various kinds of verse, epic, didactic, descriptive, satiric, pensive, plaintive, tragic, pathetic, &c. in these, as various topics are treated of, and various scenes described, the numbers should be correspondently various in the different kinds of verse.

Of this, we have some examples in some of our poets; but to cite examples of the various flow of numbers pertaining to the different kinds of verse, and in different circumstances, giving different descriptions, various and diverse, appealing to the different passions, &c., would be an arduous task, would occupy many pages, and might also be unnecessary. To excel in this particular, a knowledge of this should be intuitive; but some general knowledge of it may be attained by reading the poets. It may also be proper, in this connection, to cite a few examples, and also to refer to some others. In Shakespeare, whose genius was equal to the task, we have examples of this kind, which are many and various. In the following we have an example of plaintive numbers.

"All dark and comfortless!

Where are those various objects, that but now
Employ'd my busy eyes? Where those eyes?
Dead are their piercing rays, that lately shot
O'er flow'ry vales to distant sunny hills,
And drew with joy the vast horizon in.
These groping hands are now my only guides,
And feeling all my sight.

O misery! what words can sound my grief?
Shut from the living whilst among the living;
Dark as the grave amidst the bustling world;
No more to view the beauties of the spring,

Or see the face of kindred or of friend."-Trag. of Lear.

In these lines, in which King Lear is represented as bewailing his loss of sight, the bard has given us a specimen of his genius for this kind of composition, in which he excelled all others. The verse is plaintive, and with numbers corresponding to the sentiments uttered.

The following, from the same author, is an example of numbers pensive and pathetic.

"Cromwell, I did not think to shed a tear
In all my miseries; but thou hast forced me,

Out of the honest truth, to play the woman.-
Let's dry our eyes, and thus far hear me, Cromwell.
And when I am forgotten, as I shall be,
And sleep in dull cold marble, where no mention
Of me will more be heard, say then, I taught thee;
Say, Wolsey, that once rode the waves of glory,
And sounded all the depths and shoals of honor,
Found thee a way, out of his wreck, to rise in;
A sure and safe one, though thy master miss'd it.
Mark but my fall, and that which ruin'd me:
Cromwell, I charge thee, fling away ambition;
By that sin fell the angels; how can man, then,
(Though the image of his Maker) hope to win by it?
Love thyself last; cherish those hearts that wait thee!
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace,
To silence envious tongues. Be just, and fear not.
Let all the ends thou aim'st at, be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's; then, if thou fall, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr.

Shakespeare's Wolsey.

These lines, though deficient in some instances in point of harmony, are a good example of verse, in which the numbers correspond to the sense, and to the sentiments expressed. And, as respects the harmony, it comes up to the standard for this kind of verse, except in a few instances. To different kinds of verse pertain different standards of harmony, as well as different numbers.

In the following lines we have an example of numbers corresponding to the sentiments, which are plaintive and pathetic.

"Ah, think, thou favor'd of the powers divine!
Think of thy father's age, and pity mine;
In me thy father's reverend image trace,
Those silver hairs, that venerable face,
His trembling limbs, his helpless person see,
In all my equal, but in misery.
Yet now perhaps some turn of human fate
Expels him helpless from his peaceful state.
Think, from some powerful foe thou seest him fly,
And beg protection with a feeble cry.
Yet still one comfort in his soul may rise :
He hears his son still lives to glad his eyes,
And hearing, still may hope some better day
May send him thee, to chase that foe away.
No comfort to my griefs, no hopes remain:
The best, the bravest of my sons are slain.
Nineteen one mother bore - dead - all are dead!

How oft, alas, has wretched Priam bled!
Still one was left his loss to recompence,
His father's hope, his country's last defence;
Him too thy rage has slain; beneath thy steel,
Unhappy, in his country's cause he fell.
For him, through hostile camps, I took my way:
For him, thus prostrate at thy feet I lay,
Suppliant, my children's murderer to implore,
And kiss those hands yet reeking with their gore."

Pope's Homer.

In the following lines, expressing terror and surprise, the numbers, corresponding to the sense, are different and diverse from those in the examples above cited.

"How ill this taper burns! - Ha! who comes here?
I think it is the weakness of mine eyes
That shapes this monstrous apparition!
It comes upon me - Art thou any thing?
Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil,
That mak'st my blood cold, and my hair to stand?
Speak to me, what art thou?"- Unknown.

In the following lines, expressing wonder and awe, at beholding the antient pyramids, the numbers are different from those in the foregoing.

"Then let us haste towards those piles of wonder,
That scorn to bow beneath the weight of years.
Lo! to my view, the awful mansions rise,

The pride of art, the sleeping place of death."-Freneau.

In the following lines, the numbers, as also the verse, are pensive, expressing melancholy sensations.

"There is a stupid weight upon my senses,
A dismal sullen stillness, that succeeds
The storm of rage and grief, like silent death
After the tumult and the noise of life.

Love was the informing active fire within;

Now that is quench'd, the mass forgets to move,
And longs to mingle with its kindred earth."-Spencer.

In the following lines, the numbers are adapted to the scene which the bard was describing - the pleasant and affectionate discourse of a female friend.

"To whom thus Eve, with perfect beauty adorn'd:
My author and disposer, what thou bidst
Unargu'd I obey; so God ordains.

With thee conversing, I forget all time;
All seasons and their change, all please alike :
Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet,
With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun,
When first on this delightful land he spreads
His orient beams, on herb, tree, fruit, and flower,
Glist'ring with dew; fragrant the fertile earth
After soft showers; and sweet the coming on
Of grateful evening mild; then silent night,
With this her solemn bird, and this fair moon,
And these, the gems of heaven, her starry train.
But neither breath of morn, when she ascends
With charm of earliest birds; nor rising sun
rising
On this delightful land; nor herb, fruit, flower,
Glist'ring with dew; nor fragrance after showers;
Nor grateful evening mild; nor silent night
With this her solemn bird; nor walk by moon,
Or glitt'ring star-light, without thee is sweet.
But wherefore all night long shine these? for whom
This glorious sight, when sleep hath shut all eyes?"

Milton.

In the following lines, as the subject is different, a different scene being described, the numbers are different.

"'Tis done! dread winter spreads his latest glooms,
And reigns tremendous o'er the conquer'd year.
How dead the vegetable kingdom lies!
How dumb the tuneful! Horror wide extends
His desolate domain. Behold, fond man!
See here thy pictur'd life: pass some few years,
Thy flowering spring, thy summer's ardent strength,
Thy sober autumn fading into age,

And pale concluding winter comes at last,
And shuts the scene.-

" Thomson.

In the former part of this quotation, the bard, in describing the desolations of winter, has adapted his numbers to the scene he was describing. In the closing part, in his apostrophe to man, as the subject is changed, the numbers change, and flow more smoothly.

In the following lines, which are descriptive of an awful scene, the numbers are adapted to the subject.

"Another plague of more gigantic arm
Arose, a monster never known before
Rear'd from Cocytus its portentous head.
This rapid fury not, like other pests,
Pursu'd a gradual course, but, in a day,
Rush'd as a storm o'er half th' astonish'd isle,
And strew'd with sudden carcases the land."

Armstrong.

These lines are descriptive of an awful plague with which England was visited several centuries ago. Its sudden approach (as well as its dire effects in its progress) was awful and alarming; which the bard here describes in the four last lines, and with numbers adapted to the subject.

These last cited lines, as well as those from Milton and others, are not perfectly harmonious, in every part; nor are they cited as examples of harmony merely; but, in this respect also, they come nearly to the standard of English verse, in compositions of those kinds.

In the following stanzas, of another kind of verse, being descriptive of a tragic scene, the numbers are adapted to the subject.

"He springs from his hammock, he flies to the deck;
Amazement confronts him with images dire;
Wild winds and mad waves drive the vessel a-wreck;
The masts fly in splinters, the shrouds are on fire!
Like mountains the billows tremendously swell;
In vain the lost wretch calls on mercy to save;
Unseen hands of spirits are ringing his knell,
And the death-angel flaps his broad wing o'er the wave."

Dimond.

The subject of the poem, from which these stanzas were cited, was a sailor boy on board of a vessel, who was waked in the dead of night by a sudden crash of thunder, the vessel being struck by the lightning, and wrecked in the violent storm which arose, the boy was hurried from the pleasant dreams of his midnight slumbers to a watery grave.

I could go on and cite many more examples, in which the numbers are adapted to the subject; but that may be unnecessary, as the foregoing may be sufficient to illustrate the principles we are aiming to inculcate.

Nor would it be proper to refer to our English verse generally as examples of this kind: our English verse generally is more or less deficient in this respect; and we find many compositions in verse, in which the numbers are not well adapted to the subject. It may not be necessary to cite many examples of this kind. Of this kind we find examples in the compositions of our minor bards, and some also in those of some merit.

In Armstrong's poem on "The Art of Preserving Health," we have an example of verse, in which the style and numbers are not well adapted to the subject. Armstrong was not deficient in learning and genius, but his style, like some of our physicians, was rather high and bombastic for common use and didactic composition. And his numbers also were better adapted to some awful descriptions, than to subjects more common and useful. To some others also of our English bards, the same or similar remarks may be applicable.