Slow from his seat arose the Pylian sage." "Next Comus, reverend sire, went footing slow." "Olli sedato respondit corde Latinus." Eneid. Millon, 237. Harsh and disagreeable sounds suggest the same emotions, which arise from beholding any exertion performed imperfectly, or with difficulty: "When they list their lean and flashy songs, Harsh grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw." Milton's Lycidas. 238. Virgil, with much modesty, thus characterises his own poetry in his Eclogues. "Nam neque adhuc Varo videor, nec dicere Cinna Digna, sed argutos inter strepere anser olores." 239. The frequent repetition of the letter r in the last verse is very descriptive of the rudeness and harshness of bad verses. Thus, Pope: "Just writes to make his barrenness appear, And strains from hard-bound brains eight lines a-year." Letter to Arbuthnot. 240. Smooth and easy verses generate an emotion allied to joy and vivacity. It is difficult to decide whether the sentiment, or the versification of the following example is more sprightly. "Bright as the sun her eyes the grazers strike ; Yet graceful ease, and sweetness void of pride Look on her face, and you'll forget them all." Rape of the Lock. 241. The slow and solemn sound of the subsequent verses prompts an emotion similar to melancholy. "In these deep solitudes and awful cells, Where heavenly pensive contemplation dwells, And ever-musing melancholy reigns." Eloisa to Abelard. 242. INVERSION is a branch of ornament, and of that species of it which belongs both to the sound and the sense. It belongs to the sound, because by transposing the natural and grammatical order of the words, arrangements may be formed more agreeable to the ear than could otherwise be obtained. It is connected with the sense, because by suspending the appearance of some capital word or circumstance, curiosity may be excited, and artfully prolonged, till the conclusion of the period discloses the mystery, and impresses the sense deeper on the mind. Illus. 1. The object of inversion, then, is to attain some beauty or impulse that cannot be obtained by preserving the natural order. This attainment is the same with that of grammatical perspicuity; and hence arises an invariable principle, to limit the extent of inversion; namely, it must seek no embellishment which would be bought too dear; it must admit no modulation which may produce obscurity. 2. Different kinds of composition, and different languages, admit different degrees of inversion. All discourse addressed to the understanding, seldom permits much inversion. More of it is allowed in works addressed to the imagination, and most of all in those productions which are intended to rouse and interest the passions and emotions of the heart. The cool and philosophical construction of modern languages, also, renders them much less susceptible of inversion than the ancient. (Art. 24-30. and 171.) 243. There are several words, however, in all languages, which cannot easily be separated from one another, and which cannot therefore admit much inversion. Illus. One substantive depending on another is seldom, in prose at least, in any language, disjoined from it. "The beauty of virtue," via virtutis,ades aperns.' But in the poetry of Greece and Rome, such words are frequently separated. "Arina virumque cano Troja qui primus ab oris." *See Example 1. Art. 249. 2. A preposition is seldom disjoined from its substantive. From east to west; ava olparev; ex sententia. (Art. 71.) 3. An adjective is almost always associated with its substantive in the modern languages, and very frequently in the ancient. (Art. 59. and Illus. 143.) 4. An adverb is generally adjoined to its verb or adjective both in ancient and modern languages, because, having no infection, juxta-position only can denote its relation. (Art. 145.) Corol. These observations circumscribe the subject of inquiry within certain limits, and discriminate the parts of speech, in the disposition of which we have most reason to expect inversion. It appears, then, that they are the principal parts of sentences, the agent and the action, or the nominative and the verb. (Art. 144. and 134.) 5. In the languages of Greece and Rome, it seems perfectly arbitrary in what part of the sentence the nominative is placed. We fiud it in the beginning of the sentence, or separated by half, sometimes by the whole sentence, from the verb it governs. (Art. 143. Illus. 2. Art. 23.) 6. The verb undergoes the same variety of positions. It stands in the beginning, sometimes in the middle, but most frequently in the end of the sentence. Obs. Of these positions examples are so numerous, that we shall not produce any. The variety of terminations which inflection furnishes to the ancient languages is sufficient, in all these circumstances, to distinguish the relations of the agent and the action and to preserve perspicuity. 244. The inversions of modern languages are much less frequent and violent, and the following are the most common of which our language is susceptible. 245. A circumstance is sometimes situated before the nominative. Example. "In order," says Addison, "to set this matfer in a clear light to every reader, I shall, in the first place, observe, that a metaphor is a simile in one word." This arrangement is more agreeable, and perhaps more perspicuous, than the natural one. shall, in the first place, observe, in order to set this matter in a clear light to every reader, that a metaphor is a simile in one word." “I 246. Sometimes a circumstance is inserted after the nominative, and before or between the auxiliary and the verb. (Illus. 7. and 3. p. 83.) Example. "I have formerly, with a good deal of attention, considered the subject upon which you commanded me to communicate my thoughts." This is, perhaps, not inferior to the natural order. "I have formerly considered, with a good deal of attention, the subject on which you command me to communicate my thoughts." 247. The nominative is placed after the verb. But this inversion is restricted almost entirely to poetry, where it has often a pleasing effect; witness the following examples from the fourth Book of Paradise Lost. "Sweet is the breath of morn, her rising sweet With charm of earliest birds; pleasant the sun, 248. The placing of the nominative after the verb is one of the most easy inversions of which our language is susceptible; and, as it affords an agreeable variety, and is perfectly consistent with perspicuity, it should not be permitted to fall into disuse. It was formerly frequent in prose, and still appears in that species of composition with dignity and grace. Example 1. "There exists not in nature a more miserable animal, than a bad man at war with himself." 2. In splendid robes appeared the Queen." 3. The following quotations are found in Hume's History of England, Speaking of Charles I. "He had formed one of the most illustrious characters of his age, had not the extreme narrowness of his genius in every thing but war sullied the lusture of his other talents." "Had the limitations on the prerogative been in his time quite fixed, his integrity, had made him regard as sacred the boundaries of the constitution." 249. Another very frequent inversion, in poetry, stations the subject in the beginning of a sentence, and sometimes throws in a circumstance between the subject and its verb. Example 1. The first verses in the Iliad are thus translated by Pope : "Achilles' wrath, to Greece the direful spring Of woes unnumber'd, heavenly Goddess, sing." Example 2. Paradise Lost opens in a similar mauner : "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Brought death into the world, and all our woe Restore us, and regain the blissful seat, Sing, heavenly muse!" Example 3. Thomson's Autumn commences in the following strain: "Crown'd with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Illus. This inversion, though proper and beautiful in poetry, appears scarcely tolerable in prose. (See Art. 171. in the example, from Gordon's Translation of Tacitus.) 250. A nous preceded by a preposition very frequently appears before a verb. Example. "By these we acquired our liberties," said the Scotch nobles, laying their hands on their swords," and with these we will defend them*.?? Analysis. This order is much preferable in point of emphasis to the natural one. How tame is the natural order! "We acquired our liberties by these, and we will defend them with these." (See Art. 124. Illus. 20. p. 72.) Schol. 1. These inversions deviate little from the order of ideas, or the grammatical order of the words; and, though they suspend the meaning, they hurt not the perspicuity. This analogy between the succession of ideas, and the arrangement of words, is one of the principal beauties of modern languages, which the ancients relinquish in order to attain other beauties in point of melody; and it is perhaps impossible to propose any general principle by which the preference of these beauties may be decided. (Obs. Art. 27.) 2. The ancients would complain, perhaps, of the tameness and simplicity of our arrangement, while we might reprehend the artifice and obscurity of their inversion. They would reprobate our neglect of harmony, while we might expose their apparent attachment to sound more than to sense. Such, at least, is the power of habit, that a period of Latin or Greek, arranged in grammatical order, would excite disgust, and a period of English in the order of Greek or Latin would appear ridiculous or unintelligiblet. *Robertson's History of Scotland. + In conjunction with these articles on Inversion, the student should peruse Chapter IV. Book I. |