The rule of rhythm in prose is not so intricate. Here, too,
we write in groups, or phrases, as I prefer to call them, for
the prose phrase is greatly longer and is much more
nonchalantly uttered than the group in verse; so that not
only is there a greater interval of continuous sound between
the pauses, but, for that very reason, word is linked more
readily to word by a more summary enunciation. Still, the
phrase is the strict analogue of the group, and successive
phrases, like successive groups, must differ openly in length
and rhythm. The rule of scansion in verse is to suggest no
measure but the one in hand; in prose, to suggest no measure
at all. Prose must be rhythmical, and it may be as much so
as you will; but it must not be metrical. It may be
anything, but it must not be verse. A single heroic line may
very well pass and not disturb the somewhat larger stride of
the prose style; but one following another will produce an
instant impression of poverty, flatness, and disenchantment.
The same lines delivered with the measured utterance of verse
would perhaps seem rich in variety. By the more summary
enunciation proper to prose, as to a more distant vision,
these niceties of difference are lost. A whole verse is
uttered as one phrase; and the ear is soon wearied by a
succession of groups identical in length. The prose writer,
in fact, since he is allowed to be so much less harmonious,
is condemned to a perpetually fresh variety of movement on a
larger scale, and must never disappoint the ear by the trot
of an accepted metre.
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