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winning (I say perhaps); but at times again the elements of this
literal melody stand more boldly forward and usurp the ear. It
becomes, therefore, somewhat a matter of conscience to select
examples; and as I cannot very well ask the reader to help me, I
shall do the next best by giving him the reason or the history of
each selection. The two first, one in prose, one in verse, I chose
without previous analysis, simply as engaging passages that had
long re-echoed in my ear.
'I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and
unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but
slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run
for, not without dust and heat.' {4} Down to 'virtue,' the current
S and R are both announced and repeated unobtrusively, and by way
of a grace-note that almost inseparable group PVF is given entire.
{5} The next phrase is a period of repose, almost ugly in itself,
both S and R still audible, and B given as the last fulfilment of
PVF. In the next four phrases, from 'that never' down to 'run
for,' the mask is thrown off, and, but for a slight repetition of
the F and V, the whole matter turns, almost too obtrusively, on S
and R; first S coming to the front, and then R. In the concluding
phrase all these favourite letters, and even the flat A, a timid
preference for which is just perceptible, are discarded at a blow
and in a bundle; and to make the break more obvious, every word
ends with a dental, and all but one with T, for which we have been
cautiously prepared since the beginning. The singular dignity of
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