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syllable may image the cessation of action, or the pause of discourse; and Milton has very happily imitated the repetitions of an echo:

 

I fled, and cried out death:  Hell trembled at the hedious name, and sigh'd  From all her caves, and back resounded death.

 

The measure of time in pronouncing may be varied so as very strongly to represent, not only the modes of external motion, but the quick or slow succession of ideas, and consequently the passions of the mind. This at least was the power of the spondiack and dactylick harmony, but our language can reach no eminent diversities of sound. We can indeed sometimes, by encumbering and retarding the line, show the difficulty of a progress made by strong efforts and with frequent interruptions, or mark a slow and heavy motion. Thus Milton has imaged the toil of Satan struggling through chaos;

 

So he with difficulty and labour hard  Mov'd on: with difficulty and labour he ———

 

Thus he has described the leviathans or whales;

 

Wallowing unwieldy, enormous in their gait.

 

But he has at other times neglected such representations, as may be observed in the volubility and levity of these lines, which express an action tardy and reluctant.

 

Descent and fall  To us is adverse. Who but felt of late,  When the fierce foe hung on our broken rear  Insulting, and pursu'd us through the deep,  With what confusion and laborious flight  We sunk thus low? Th' ascent is easy then.