Which verses have nothing disagreeable in their structure but the pause, which in the first of them must be observed at the eighth syllable, in the second at the second; and so unequal a division can produce no true harmony. And for this reason too, the pauses at the third and seventh syllables, though not wholly to be condemned, ought to be but sparingly practised.
The foregoing rules ought indispensably to be followed in all our verses of ten syllables; and the observation of them, like that of right time in music, will produce harmony; the neglect of them harshness and discord; as appears by the following verses:—
"None think Rewards render'd worthy their Worth.
And both Lovers, both thy Disciples were."
In which, though the true number of syllables be observed, yet neither of them have so much as the sound of a verse. Now their disagreeableness proceeds from the undue seat of the accent. For example, the first of them accented on the fifth and seventh syllables; but if we change the words, and remove the accent to the fourth and sixth, the verse will become smooth and easy; as,
"None think Rewards are equal to their Worth."
The harshness of the last of them proceeds from its being accented on the third syllable, which may be mended thus, by transposing only one word:
"And Lovers both, both thy Disciples were."
In like manner the following verses,
"To be massacred, not in Battle slain."—Blac.