Fourth: as to emphasis.
The metre is produced by an artistic mode of breathing (in addition to our ordinary and permanent mode), marked by regular repetitions of a given order of inspirations and expirations which can be "measured" as to the time consumed in their enunciation, and are therefore, not incorrectly, called "feet."
The metre is a product or outcome of the will, a force which presides over material-spiritual issues. It changes with our inclinations and moods, and is expressive thereof. We can pass from one metre to another at will, as the occasion may require. It is the material part of speech, as we can measure it and account for it as to time in space, supposing time to be incorporated. The metre expressive of joy, for instance, being quick, that of sorrow slow; the former, if incorporated, would take up less space than the latter, in the same proportion as it consumes less time in being uttered.
The rhythm is that characteristic quality which distinguishes one language from another, the basis upon which it is built and around which all its elementary words cluster; its fundamental principle, its idiomatic expression, the music pervading its every syllable; the inflection, the rise and fall, the cadence of the voice; the spirit of a language, which is permanent and unchangeable.
The rhythm is an outcome of the mind; an influence which presides over spiritual-material issues. As harmony is the first law of nature, so is that harmony which pervades our native tongue the law upon which our individual and national characteristic expressions and actions are based. We exercise it intuitively. It is innate in, and unalterably connected with, our native tongue. It cannot be eliminated therefrom, or put into it by a foreigner, except when acquired in childhood, or by the study of such principles as I have attempted to lay down in this book. It is inborn in every language as its spirit, and is as enduring as that language itself. It is not subject to change by the dictates of the will.
The accent represents that element which distinguishes between the character and meaning of words, and has no reference to parts thereof or their relation to other words; the same word being pronounced in as many different ways and with as many different accents as it denotes different senses or meanings; while different words, embodying the same idea, are uttered with precisely the same accent.
The accent or intonation is an outcome of the soul; an influence which dominates over our spiritual nature and over spiritual issues. "The rose by any other name would smell as sweet." It is equally true that any other name given to the rose would be pronounced by the same indefinable intonation as its present name, with that same embodiment of the mystery of the soul signifying the flower called "a rose." The word "rose," which is the same, or nearly the same, in so many different languages, though possessing the same spiritual elements in them all, varies as to measure and rhythm in every one of them.
If the influence of the soul, embodying an idea in a word, through the intonation we give it, were not the same for all languages, it would not be possible to translate poetry, and retain, to some extent at least, that which is commonly called "the rhythm" of the original; nor would it be possible to sing a song in another language, and retain, even approximately, the spiritual elements of the original. We would not be impressed with it, would not be thrilled by it.
The intonation of a word, expressive of the soul in the embodiment of an idea, is a bond which unites all humanity; not alone the human souls of any special day and generation, but of all days and all generations. But for the fact that the Greek soul is in us to-day, that the native intonation of their words is native with us and with all mankind, their dead tongue would be absolutely dead for us. We could find no meaning in it, no beauty, no spirit, no soul. Think of the melody pervading the soul of Homer and emanating from his lyre still living and finding an echo in our souls! Think of the harmony pervading the soul of Schiller or Tennyson continuing to live, and pervading the souls of the latest generations! Nor could Luther's famous translation of the Bible or its beautiful English version ever have been produced, and after production have made the same impression on the mind, or been read with the same expression of the voice, as the words of this same Bible made upon the minds, and were expressed by the voice, of its original composers, but for the fact that words of the same meaning, in every language (aside from metre and rhythm), are pronounced precisely the same. It is this universal comprehension of their beauty which gives immortality to the strains of great singers, whether they appear in their original form or are translated (that is, if well translated) into foreign languages, or are set to music and sung either in the one or the other.
If the performances of creating original compositions and their translations were of a mere mechanical order, or were explainable from a mechanical standpoint, no such soul effects could ever be produced. The word, as such, is a mechanical contrivance; but its intonation is of the soul, being an emanation of the idea it represents. If our ears were so schooled that by their "intonation" we could comprehend the meaning of words, we could understand every language upon simply hearing it spoken.