The poet here designs to describe the length of the night, and the music of the Nightingale's song. The first he does by two slow Spondees, and the last by four very rapid syllables. The following lines, from Gray's Elegy, written in a country church yard, are distinguished by a happy choice of words. "For who, to dumb forgetfulness a prey, This pleasing anxious being e'er resign'd? Left the warm precincts of the cheerful day, Nor cast one _longing lingering_ look behind?" The words _longing_ and _lingering_ express most forcibly the reluctance with which mankind quit this state of existence. Pope has many beauties of this kind. "And grace and reason, sense and virtue split, With all the rash dexterity of wit." The mute consonants, with which these lines end, express the idea of _rending asunder_, with great energy and effect. The words _rash_ and _dexterity_ are also judiciously chosen. In describing the delicate sensations of the most refined love, he is remarkable for his choice of smooth flowing words. There are some passages in his Eloisa and Abelard, which are extended to considerable length, without a single mute consonant or harsh word. _Of_ READING VERSE. With respect to the art of reading verse, we can lay down but a few simple rules; but these may perhaps be useful. 1. Words should be pronounced as they are in prose and in conversation; for reading is but rehearsing another's conversation. 2. The emphasis should be observed as in prose. The voice should bound from accent to accent, and no stress should be laid on little unimportant words, nor on weak syllables. 3. The sentential pauses should be observed as in prose; these are not affected by the kind of writing, being regulated entirely by the sense. But as the cesural and final pauses are designed to encrease the melody of verse, the strictest attention must be paid to them in reading. They mark a suspension of voice without rising or falling. To read prose well it is necessary to understand what is read; and to read poetry well, it is further necessary to understand the structure of verse. For want of this knowlege, most people read all verse like the Iambic measure. The following are pure Iambics. "Above how high progressive life may go! Around how wide, how deep extend below!" It is so easy to lay an accent on every second syllable, that any school boy can read this measure with tolerable propriety. But the misfortune is, that when a habit of reading this kind of meter is once formed, persons do not vary their manner to suit other measures. Thus in reciting the following line, "Load _the_ tall _bark_, and launch in_to_ the main," many people would lay the accent on every second syllable; and thus read, our poetry becomes the most monotonous and ridiculous of all poetry in the world. Let the following line be repeated without its pauses, and it loses its principal beauty. "Bold, as a hero,, as a virgin, mild."