A curious instance of involuntary rhythm occurs in President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:—
Fondly do we hope,
Fervently do we pray,
That this mighty scourge of war
May speedily pass away:
Yet if be God’s will
That it continue until—
but here the strain abruptly ceases, and the President relapses into prose.
In the course of a discussion upon the involuntary metre into which Shakspeare so frequently fell, when he intended his minor characters to speak prose, Dr. Johnson observed;
“Such verse we make when we are writing prose;