Elements of the philosophy of the human mind. By Dugald Stewart. Rev. and abridged, with critical and explanatory notes, for the use of colleges and schools. By Francis Bowen ...

174 RHYME.
the poet must have acquired over the train of his ideas, in order
to be able to express himself with elegance, and the appearance
of ease, under the restraint which rhyme imposes. In witty or
in humorous performances, this surprise serves to enliven that
which the wit or the humor produces, and renders its effects
more sensible. How flat do the liveliest and most ludicrous
thoughts appear in blank verse? And how wonderfully is the
wit of Pope heightened, by the easy and happy rhymes in which
it is expressed?
Other sources of pleasure in wit and in rhyme. - It must not,
however, be imagined, either in the case of wit or of rhyme,
that the pleasure arises solely from our surprise at the uncommon habits of association which the author discovers. In' the
former case, there must be presented to the mind, an unexpected
analogy or relation between different ideas; and perhaps other
circumstances must concur to render the wit perfect. If the
combination has no other merit than that of bringing together
two ideas which never met before, we may be surprised at its
oddity, but we do not consider it as a proof of wit. On the
contrary, the want of any analogy or relation between the combined ideas, leads us to suspect, that the one did not suggest the
other in consequence of any habits of association; but that the
two were brought together by study, or by mere accident. All
that I affirm is, that when the analogy or relation is pleasing in
itself, our pleasure is heightened by our surprise at the author's
habits of association when compared with our own. In the case
of rhyme, too, there is undoubtedly a certain degree of pleasure
arising from the recurrence of the same sound. We frequently
observe children amuse themselves with repeating over single
words which rhyme together; and the lower people, who derive
little pleasure from poetry excepting in so far as it affects the
ear, are so pleased with the echo of the rhymes, that when they
read verses where it is not perfect, they are apt to supply the
poet's defects by violating the common rules of pronunciation.
This pleasure, however, is heightened by our admiration at the
miraculous powers which the poet must have acquired over
the train of his ideas, and over all the modes of expression