It is positively certain that we not only naturally and intuitively
_associate_ distinctive feelings with different orders of rhythmical
sounds, but that varied emotions are _awakened_ by them. Some rhythms
inspire calmness, some sublime and stately courage, some energy and
aggressive force, some stir the spirit to the most daring deeds, some,
as in our maddening Tarantulas, produce a restless excitement through
the whole nervous system, some excite mere joyousness, some whisper love
through every fibre of the heart, and some lead us in their holy calm
and unbroken order to the throne of God. Why is this? We need not look
in the region of the understanding for the philosophy of that which is
to be found only in the living tide of basic emotions. The pleasure we
receive from Rhythm is a feeling. Alternate accentuation and
non-accentuation are facts in the living organism of the universe; this
may be expressed, not explained. There is an order in the living
succession of musical sounds or poetic emotions, which order is
expressed by the words 'equality and proportion.' These things _are_.
What more can be said? Do comparisons help us? the waves in the eternal
ocean of vitality--the shuttle strokes of the ever-moving loom of
creation! Let us take it as it is, and rejoice in it. We cannot tell you
why we live--let us be glad that our life is music through every
heart-throb!

Rhythm is a species of natural but inarticulate language, in which the
_thought_ is never disengaged from the _feeling_; in language its aim
should be to awaken the _feeling_ properly attached to the thought it
modulates; it should be the _tune_ of the thought of the Poet. To write
a love song in alexandrines, an idyl in hexameters, would be to
incarnate the shy spirit of a girl in the brawny frame of a Hercules, to
incase the loving soul of a Juliet in a gauntleted Minerva. Genius and
deep sympathy with human nature can alone guide the Poet aright in this