Next in order comes the pause. At the end of every Hexameter line, no ear but must be sensible of a complete close or full pause. This effect is produced by the following means. Every line invariably is finished with two long syllables preceded by two short; a fine preparation for a full close. Syllables pronounced slow, resemble a slow and languid motion tending to rest. The mind put in the same tone by the pronunciation, is naturally disposed to a pause. And to this disposition the two preceding short syllables contribute; for these, by contrast, make the slow pronunciation of the final syllables the more conspicuous. Beside this complete close or full pause at the end, others are also requisite for the sake of melody. I discover two clearly, and perhaps there may be more. The longest and most remarkable, succeeds the 5th portion, according to the foregoing measure. The other, which being more faint, may be called _the semipause_, succeeds the 8th portion. So striking is the pause first mentioned, as to be distinguished even by the rudest ear. The monkish rhymes are evidently built upon it. In these, it is an invariable rule, to make the final word chime with that which immediately precedes the pause:
De planctu endo || mitrum cum carmine nudo Mingere cum bumbis || res est soluberrima lumbis.
The difference of time in the pause and semipause, occasions another difference not less remarkable. The pause ought regularly to be at the end of a word; but it is lawful to divide a word by a semipause. The bad effect of dividing a word by the pause, is sensibly felt in the following examples.
Effusus labor, at||que inmitis rupta Tyranni
Observans nido im||plumes detraxit; at illa
The dividing a word by a semipause has not the same bad effect:
Jamque pedem referens || casus e|vaserat omnes.
Qualis populea || mœrens Philo|mela sub umbra
Ludere quæ vellem || calamo per|misit agresti.
Lines, however, where words are left entire to be pronounced as they ought to be, without being divided even by a semipause, run by that means much the more sweetly.
Nec gemere aërea || cessabit | turtur ab ulmo.
Quadrupedante putrem || sonitu quatit | ungula campum.
Eurydicen toto || referebant | flumine ripæ.