Setting aside for the present the old Teutonic alliterative line, in which a 'bar' might permissibly consist of a single syllable, we may retain the names of the feet of the classical quantitative versification for the 'bars' of modern versification, using them in modified senses. A group consisting of one unaccented followed by an accented syllable may be called an _iambus_; one accented followed by an unaccented syllable a _trochee_; two unaccented syllables followed by an accented syllable an _anapaest_; one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables a _dactyl_. These four measures might also be described according to the length of the intervals separating the accents, and according as the rhythm is _ascending_ (passing from an unaccented to an accented syllable) or _descending_ (passing from an accented to an unaccented syllable). We should then have the terms, (1) _ascending disyllabic_ (iambus), (2) _descending disyllabic_ (trochee), (3) _ascending trisyllabic_ (anapaest), and (4) _descending trisyllabic_ (dactyl).[7] But we may agree with Prof. Mayor that 'it is certainly more convenient to speak of iambic than of ascending disyllabic'.[8] It is, however, only in the case of these four feet or measures that it is desirable to adhere to the terminology of the ancient metres, and as a matter of fact iambus, trochee, anapaest, and dactyl are the only names of classical feet that are commonly recognized in English prosody.[9] As to the employment in the treatment of English metre of less familiar technical terms derived from classical prosody, we agree with Prof. Mayor, when he says: 'I can sympathize with Mr. Ellis in his objection to the classicists who would force upon us such terms as _choriambic_ and _proceleusmatic_ to explain the rhythm of Milton. I do not deny that the effect of his rhythm might sometimes be represented by such terms; but if we seriously adopt them to explain his metre, we are attempting an impossibility, to express in technical language the infinite variety of measured sound which a genius like Milton could draw out of the little five-stringed instrument on which he chose to play.' The use of these and other classical terms is justifiable only when we have to deal with professed imitations of ancient forms of verse in English.