This excited the anger of Voss, the translator of Homer in the original meter of dactylic hexameters. Voss ridiculed Goethe and Schiller for their bad versification in a distich, which he intentionally made even worse than the worst of theirs, using the words with a wrong accentuation: “In′ Weimar und′ in Jena′ macht man′ Hexa′meter wie′ der; A′ber die Pen′tameter′ sind′ doch noch ex′cellenter′!” [In′ Weimar and′ in Jena′ they make′ hexame′ters such as′ this; But′ the Pen′tameters′ are′ even more′ excellent′.] In spite of some awkwardness and lack of elegance in diction, the Xenions became very popular in Germany on account of the profound ideas embodied in many of them. The shortcomings of their form have been forgotten on account of their intrinsic value, and there is perhaps no poetry quoted more frequently than these pithy aphorisms. They have become household words in Germany and deserve a place of honor in the literature of the world. The Elegiac Distich. The form of the Xenions is, like their Roman prototype, the elegiac distich. The elegiac distich has rarely, if ever, been used in English poetry, although there is much classical beauty in its rhythm. It consists of alternate dactylic hexameters and pentameters which in ancient Greece were recited to the accompaniment of the flute, and went by the name of “elegies,” the etymology of which has nothing to do (as has been assumed) with lamentations, but probably means flute-songs. A meter in Greek prosody is comparable to the musical bar, while a foot is a rhythmic figure. Some meters, such as the iambic (◡–◡–) and trochaic (–◡–◡), consist of two feet, but the dactylic meters(–◡◡) consist of one foot only.[C] Accordingly a trochaic trimeter consists of three meters or six feet; while six dactyls, the last one of which is always catalectic, are called a dactylic hexameter. Catalectic means “ending” or “terminating,” signifying that every line is mutilated at the end. A catalectic meter lacks the last syllable, which, musically considered, is to be regarded as a pause so as to make a musical halt between the lines. According to another rule, the last syllable is always indifferent, i. e., it may be either long or short (̲◡). [C] The name “dactyl” or “finger” (Greek δάκτυλος) indicates that, like a finger, it consists of one long and two short members. The dactylic (or, as it is also called, the heroic) hexameter is too long to be read in one breathing, so it is divided into two, sometimes into three parts, and the division is called a _caesura_, i. e., a cut or incision. This division of the line is irregular and we do not hesitate to say that to its irregularity the hexameter owes a peculiar charm, for it breaks the monotony of the dactylic rhythm.