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.