Just as the body, in receiving a series of varying concussions,
must keep the muscles ready to meet the most violent of them, as
not knowing when such may come; so, the mind in receiving unarranged
articulations, must keep its perceptives active enough to recognize
the least easily caught sounds. And as, if the concussions recur
in a definite order, the body may husband its forces by adjusting
the resistance needful for each concussion; so, if the syllables
be rhythmically arranged, the mind may economize its energies by
anticipating the attention required for each syllable.
56. Far-fetched though this idea will perhaps be thought, a
little introspection will countenance it. That we do take advantage
of metrical language to adjust our perceptive faculties to the force
of the expected articulations, is clear from the fact that we are
balked by halting versification. Much as at the bottom of a flight
of stairs, a step more or less than we counted upon gives us a shock;
so, too, does a misplaced accent or a supernumerary syllable.
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