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 This is a special edition of an established title widely used by colleges and
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Designed for individuals of all skill levels, Whetten and Cameron’s Developing Management

Developing Management Skills

Skills focuses on what effective managers do consistently. The text is based on a

Developing
pioneering, five-step “active” learning model that helps aspiring managers translate
academic theories and principles into personal practice. With this essential guide to hands-
on management, Whetten and Cameron keep the emphasis firmly on employability and
learning through self-analysis and practice.
The tenth edition retains its focus on the personal, interpersonal, and group skills that
are critical for successful management and leadership. Chapters feature contemporary
examples of management challenges and effective practices; new skill assessments and
Management
cases; updated research; and tangible, relevant goals for students to work toward.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS
Skills
• This edition features new sections on topical workplace issues including sexual
harassment in Chapter 5, diagnosing and correcting unacceptable performance in
Chapter 6, and negotiations in Chapter 7.
• The Skill Analysis sections feature new, relevant case studies that help identify the TENTH EDITION
defining competencies of effective managers. For instance, in Chapter 2, a new case
study focuses on stress and its management among millennials.
• Revised Skill Practice exercises, a set of end-of-chapter assignments and activities
that help practice management skills in a classroom setting, include cases and scenarios

EDITION
TENTH
that reflect current issues.

Available separately for purchase is MyLab Management for Developing Management Skills,
the teaching and learning platform that empowers instructors to personalize learning
for every student. This includes video exercises and Personal Inventory Assessments,
a collection of exercises designed to promote self-reflection and engagement. When David A. Whetten
Cameron
Whetten
combined with Pearson’s trusted educational content, this optional suite helps deliver the
desired learning outcomes. Kim S. Cameron

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 Personal Inventory Assessments is a
collection of online exercises designed to promote
self-reflection and engagement in students,
enhancing their ability to connect with
management concepts.

“I most liked the Personal Inventory Assessments because they gave me a deeper
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 DEVELOPING
MANAGEMENT
SKILLS
TENTH EDITION
GLOBAL EDITION

David A. Whetten
BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY

Kim S. Cameron
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN

A01_WHET7741_10_GE_FM.indd 3 18/12/22 2:40 AM

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Authorized adaptation from the United States edition, entitled Developing Management Skills, 10th Edition, ISBN 978-0-
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1 21

Typeset in Weidemann ITC Pro and 10 pt by Integra Software Service

Printed and bound by B2R Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
 B R I E F TA B L E O F C O N T E N T S
Preface 19
Introduction 27

PART I PERSONAL SKILLS 61

1 Developing Self-Awareness 63
2 Managing Stress and Well-Being 109
3 Solving Problems Analytically and Creatively 155

PART II INTERPERSONAL SKILLS 209

4 Building Relationships by Communicating Supportively 211
5 Gaining Power and Influence 249
6 Motivating Performance 285
7 Negotiating and Resolving Conflict 331

PART III GROUP SKILLS 393

8 Empowering and Engaging Others 395
9 Building Effective Teams and Teamwork 429
10 Leading Positive Change 469

Appendix I Glossary 511

Appendix II References 521
Index 545

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 CONTENTS
Preface 19

INTRODUCTION 27

THE CRITICAL ROLE OF MANAGEMENT SKILLS 29

The Importance of Competent Managers 30
The Skills of Effective Managers 31
What Are Management Skills? 33
Improving Management Skills 34
An Approach to Skill Development 34
Leadership and Management 35
Contents of the Book 37
Organization of the Book 39
Diversity and Individual Differences 40
Summary 40

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 41
Diagnostic Survey and Exercises 41
Personal Assessment of Management Skills (PAMS) 41
What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 45
SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 47

SCORING KEY AND COMPARISON DATA 58

Personal Assessment of Management Skills 58
Scoring Key 58
Comparison Data 59
What Does It Take to Be an Effective Manager? 59
SSS Software In-Basket Exercise 59

PART I PERSONAL SKILLS 61

1 DEVELOPING SELF-AWARENESS 63

SKILL ASSESSMENT 64
Diagnostic Surveys for Developing Self-Awareness 64
Developing Self-Awareness 64
The Defining Issues Test 64

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 Cognitive Style Indicator 67
Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale 68
Core Self-Evaluation Scale (CSES) 69

SKILL LEARNING 70
Key Dimensions of Self-Awareness 70
The Enigma of Self-Awareness 70
The Sensitive Line 71
Understanding and Appreciating Individual Differences 72
Important Areas of Self-Awareness 72
Emotional Intelligence 74
Values and Character Strengths 76
Ethical Decision-Making 81
Cognitive Style 83
Attitudes Toward Change 85
Core Self-Evaluation 87

SUMMARY 88

SKILL ANALYSIS 91
Cases Involving Self-Awareness 91
The Case of Heinz 91
Computerized Exam 92
Decision Dilemmas 93

SKILL PRACTICE 95
Exercises for Improving Self-Awareness Through Self-Disclosure 95
Shipping the Part 95
Through the Looking Glass 95
Diagnosing Managerial Characteristics 97
An Exercise for Identifying Aspects of Personal Culture: A Learning Plan and A
­ utobiography 99

SKILL APPLICATION 101

Activities for Developing Self-Awareness 101
Suggested Assignments 101
Application Plan and Evaluation 102

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 103

The Defining Issues Test 103
Escaped Prisoner 103
The Doctor’s Dilemma 104
The Newspaper 104
Cognitive Style Indicator 105
Scoring Key 105
Comparison Data 105
Tolerance of Ambiguity Scale 105
Scoring Key 105
Comparison Data 106
Core Self-Evaluation Scale 106
Scoring Key 106
Comparison Data 107
Discussion Regarding the Case of Heinz 107
Discussion Regarding the Shipping the Part Case 108

8 Contents

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 2 MANAGING STRESS AND WELL-BEING 109

SKILL ASSESSMENT 110

Diagnostic Surveys for Managing Stress and Well-Being 110
Managing Stress and Well-Being 110
Social Readjustment Rating Scale 110
Social Readjustment Rating Scale 112
Sources of Personal Stress 113
Flourishing Scale 114

SKILL LEARNING 114

Managing Stress and Fostering Well-Being 114
Major Elements of Stress 115
Coping with Stress 116
Managing Stressors 118
Eliminating Stressors 119
Eliminating Time Stressors Through Time Management 119
Eliminating Encounter Stressors Through Community, Contribution, and Emotional Intelligence 124
Eliminating Situational Stressors Through Work Redesign 127
Eliminating Anticipatory Stressors Through Prioritizing, Goal Setting, and Small Wins 128
Developing Resiliency and Well-Being 130
Life Balance 130
Temporary Stress-Reduction Techniques 135

SUMMARY 136

SKILL ANALYSIS 138

Cases Involving Stress Management 138
The Case of the Missing Time 138
Stress and the Millennial Generation 141

SKILL PRACTICE 143

Exercises for Long-Term and Short-Term Stress Management and Well-Being 143
The Small-Wins Strategy 143
Life-Balance Analysis 145
Deep Relaxation 146
Monitoring and Managing Time 148
Generalized Reciprocity 149

SKILL APPLICATION 150

Activities for Managing Stress 150
Suggested Assignments 150
Application Plan and Evaluation 151

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 152

Social Readjustment Rating Scale 152
Comparison Data 152
Sources of Personal Stress 152
Flourishing Scale 153
Comparison Data 153

Contents 9

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 3 SOLVING PROBLEMS ANALYTICALLY AND CREATIVELY 155

SKILL ASSESSMENT 156

Diagnostic Surveys for Creative Problem-Solving 156
Problem-Solving, Creativity, and Innovation 156
Solving Problems Analytically and Creatively 156
How Creative Are You? © 156
Innovative Attitude Scale 158
Creative Style Assessment 159

SKILL LEARNING 161

Problem-Solving, Creativity, and Innovation 161
Steps in Analytical Problem-Solving 161
Defining the Problem 161
Generating Alternatives 162
Evaluating Alternatives 163
Implementing the Solution 163
Limitations of the Analytical Problem-Solving Model 164
Impediments to Creative Problem-Solving 164
Multiple Approaches to Creativity 165
Conceptual Blocks 168
Percy Spencer’s Magnetron 169
Spence Silver’s Glue 170
The Four Types of Conceptual Blocks 170
Review of Conceptual Blocks 178
Conceptual Blockbusting 178
Stages in Creative Thought 178
Methods for Improving Problem Definition 179
Ways to Generate More Alternatives 183
International Caveats 186
Hints for Applying Problem-Solving Techniques 187
Fostering Creativity in Others 187
Management Principles 187

SUMMARY 191

SKILL ANALYSIS 193

Cases Involving Problem-Solving 193
Chip and Bin 193
Creativity at Apple 196

SKILL PRACTICE 198

Exercises for Applying Conceptual Blockbusting 198
Individual Assignment—Analytical Problem-Solving (10 minutes) 198
Team Assignment—Creative Problem-Solving (20 minutes) 199
Moving Up in the Rankings 200
Elijah Gold and His Restaurant 201
Creative Problem-Solving Practice 204

SKILL APPLICATION 205

Activities for Solving Problems Creatively 205
Suggested Assignments 205
Application Plan and Evaluation 205

10 Contents

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 SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 206
How Creative Are You?© 206
Scoring Key 206
Comparison Data 208
Innovative Attitude Scale 208
Comparison Data 208
Creative Style Assessment 208
Scoring Key 208
Comparison Data 208

PART II INTERPERSONAL SKILLS  209

4 BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS BY COMMUNICATING

­SUPPORTIVELY 211

SKILL ASSESSMENT 212

Diagnostic Surveys for Supportive Communication 212

SKILL LEARNING 212

Building Positive Interpersonal Relationships 212
High-Quality Connections 213
The Key 214
The Importance of Effective Communication 214
Communication Problems 215
What Is Supportive Communication? 215
Coaching and Counseling 217
Defensiveness and Disconfirmation 218
Principles of Supportive Communication 219
Supportive Communication Is Based on Congruence, Not Incongruence 219
Supportive Communication Is Descriptive, Not Evaluative 220
Supportive Communication Is Problem-Oriented, Not Person-Oriented 222
Supportive Communication Is Validates Rather Than Invalidates Individuals 223
Supportive Communication Is Specific (Useful), Not Global (Nonuseful) 225
Supportive Communication Is Conjunctive, Not Disjunctive 226
Supportive Communication Is Owned, Not Disowned 226
Supportive Communication Requires Supportive Listening, Not One-Way
Message Delivery 227
The Personal Management Interview 232
International Caveats 235

SUMMARY 235

SKILL ANALYSIS 237

Cases Involving Building Positive Relationships 237
Find Somebody Else 237
Rejected Plans 238

SKILL PRACTICE 240

Exercises for Diagnosing Communication Problems and Fostering Understanding 240
United Chemical Company 240
Byron vs. Thomas 242
Active Listening Exercise 244

Contents 11

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 SKILL APPLICATION 246
Activities for Communicating Supportively 246
Suggested Assignments 246
Application Plan and Evaluation 247

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 248

5 GAINING POWER AND INFLUENCE 249

SKILL ASSESSMENT 250

SKILL LEARNING 250

Building a Strong Power Base and Using Influence Wisely 250
Gaining Power: Polarized Perspectives 251
Opportunities for Gaining Power 254
Sources of Personal Power 254
Sources of Positional Power 259
Transforming Power into Influence 263
Influence Strategies: The Three Rs 263
The Pros and Cons of Each Strategy 265
Exercising Upward Influence Utilizing The Reason Strategy 267
Acting Assertively: Neutralizing Influence Attempts 269
The Special Case of Sexual Harassment 271

SUMMARY 271

SKILL ANALYSIS 275

Case Involving Power and Influence 275
Dynica Software Solutions 275

SKILL PRACTICE 276

Exercise for Gaining Power 276
Repairing Power Failures in Management Circuits 276
Exercise for Using Influence Effectively 277
Kalina Ivanov’s Proposal 278
Exercises for Neutralizing Unwanted Influence Attempts 278
Cindy’s Fast Foods 279
9:00 to 7:30 280

SKILL APPLICATION 281

Activities for Gaining Power and Influence 281
Suggested Assignments 281
Application Plan and Evaluation 282

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 283

6 MOTIVATING PERFORMANCE 285

SKILL ASSESSMENT 286

SKILL LEARNING 286

Increasing Motivation and Performance 286
Understanding the Prerequisites for Successful Task Performance 287

12 Contents

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 Fostering High Performance 288
Strengthen the Motivation S Performance Link 289
Expectations and Goals 289
Ability 291
Strengthen the Performance S Outcomes Link 293
Extrinsic Reinforcement 294
Intrinsic Reinforcement 299
Strengthen the Outcomes S Satisfaction Link 303
Human Needs 303
Reward Salience 304
Reward Equity 306
Diagnosing and Correcting the Causes of Unacceptable Performance 307
Diagnostic Framework 307
Benefits of the E-A-M Approach 308

SUMMARY 309

SKILL ANALYSIS 312

Case Involving Motivation Problems 312
Electro Logic 312

SKILL PRACTICE 319

Exercises for Diagnosing Work Performance Problems 319
Joe Chaney 319
Motivating Performance Assessment 320
Exercise for Assessing Job Characteristics 321
Job Diagnostic Survey 321

SKILL APPLICATION 324

Activities for Motivating Performance 324
Suggested Assignments 324
Application Plan and Evaluation 325

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 326

Motivating Performance Assessment 327
Scoring Key 327
Job Diagnostic Survey 328
Scoring Key 328

7 NEGOTIATING AND RESOLVING CONFLICT 331

SKILL ASSESSMENT 332

SKILL LEARNING 332

The Pervasiveness of Organizational Conflict 332
Negotiating Effectively 333
Types of Negotiation 333
The Basics of Negotiation 334
Keys to Effective Integrative Negotiation 335
Resolving Conflicts Successfully 337
Understanding Different Types of Conflict 337
Selecting an Appropriate Conflict Management Approach 341
Selection Criteria 343
Personal Preferences 343
Situational Factors 344

Contents 13

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 Using Collaboration to Resolve People-Focused Confrontations 345
Initiator 346
Responder 349
Mediator 351
All Roles 354

SUMMARY 354

SKILL ANALYSIS 358

Case Involving Interpersonal Conflict 358
Educational Pension Investments 358

SKILL PRACTICE 362

Exercise for Negotiating 362
A Home by the Sea 362
Negotiation Planning Document 364
Exercises for Diagnosing Types of Conflict 365
SSS Software Management Problems 365
Exercises for Selecting an Appropriate Conflict Management Strategy 374
The Red Cow Grill 374
Avocado Computers 375
Phelps Inc. 375
Exercises for Resolving People-Focused Conflict 376
Sabrina Moffatt 376
Can Larry Fit In? 380
Meeting at Hartford Manufacturing Company 381

SKILL APPLICATION 387

Activities for Resolving Conflict 387
Suggested Assignments 387
Application Plan and Evaluation 389

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 392

PART III GROUP SKILLS 393

8 EMPOWERING AND ENGAGING OTHERS 395

SKILL ASSESSMENT 396

SKILL LEARNING 396

Empowering and Engaging Others 396
The Meaning of Empowerment 397
Dimensions of Empowerment 398
Self-Efficacy 398
Self-Determination 399
Personal Consequence 399
Meaning 400
Trust 400
Review of Empowerment Dimensions 401

14 Contents

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 How to Develop Empowerment 402
A Clear Goal 402
Fostering Personal Mastery Experiences 403
Modeling 403
Providing Support 403
Emotional Arousal 404
Providing Information 404
Providing Resources 405
Connecting to Outcomes 405
Creating Confidence 406
Review of Empowerment Principles 407
Inhibitors to Empowerment 409
Attitudes about Subordinates 409
Personal Insecurities 409
Need for Control 409
Overcoming Inhibitors 410
Fostering Engagement 410
Deciding When to Engage Others 411
Deciding Whom to Engage 412
Deciding How to Engage Others 413
Review of Engagement Principles 415
International Caveats 415

SUMMARY 416

SKILL ANALYSIS 418

Cases Involving Empowerment and Engagement 418
Minding the Store 418
Changing the Portfolio 419

SKILL PRACTICE 420

Exercises for Empowerment 420
Executive Development Associates 420
Empowering Ourselves 424
Deciding to Engage Others 425

SKILL APPLICATION 426

Activities for Empowerment and Engagement 426
Suggested Assignments 426
Application Plan and Evaluation 427

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 428

9 BUILDING EFFECTIVE TEAMS AND TEAMWORK 429

SKILL ASSESSMENT 430

Diagnostic Surveys for Building Effective Teams 430
Team Development Behaviors 430
Building Effective Teams and Teamwork 430
Diagnosing the Need for Team Building 430

SKILL LEARNING 431

The Advantages of Teams 431
An Example of an Effective Team 435

Contents 15

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 Team Development 435
The Forming Stage 436
The Norming Stage 437
The Storming Stage 439
The Performing Stage 441
Leading Teams 444
Developing Credibility 444
Establish SMART Goals and Everest Goals 446
International Caveats 448
Team Membership 449
Advantageous Roles 449
Unproductive Roles 452
Providing Feedback 453
International Caveats 454

SUMMARY 454

SKILL ANALYSIS 455

Cases Involving Building Effective Teams 455
Losing to a Weaker Foe 455
The Cash Register Incident 457

SKILL PRACTICE 459

Exercises in Building Effective Teams 459
Leadership Roles in Teams 459
Team Diagnosis and Team Development Exercise 459
Winning the War for Talent 461
Team Performance Exercise 463

SKILL APPLICATION 465

Activities for Building Effective Teams 465
Suggested Assignments 465
Application Plan and Evaluation 465

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 466

Diagnosing the Need for Team Building 466
Comparison Data 466
Leadership Roles in Teams (Examples of Correct Answers) 467

10 LEADING POSITIVE CHANGE 469

SKILL ASSESSMENT 470

Diagnostic Surveys for Leading Positive Change 470
Leading Positive Change 470
Reflected Best-Self Feedback 470

SKILL LEARNING 472

Ubiquitous and Escalating Change 473
The Need for Frameworks 473
A Framework for Leading Positive Change 475
Establishing a Climate of Positivity 478
Creating Readiness for Change 482
Articulating a Vision of Abundance 485

16 Contents

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 Generating Commitment to the Vision 488
Fostering Sustainability 490

SUMMARY 494

SKILL ANALYSIS 496

Cases Involving Leading Positive Change 496
Corporate Vision Statements 496
Jim Mallozzi: Implementing Positive Change in Prudential Real Estate and Relocation 501

SKILL PRACTICE 504

Exercises in Leading Positive Change 504
Reflected Best-Self Portrait 504
Positive Organizational Diagnosis Exercise 505
A Positive Change Agenda 506

SKILL APPLICATION 507

Activities for Leading Positive Change 507
Suggested Assignments 507
Application Plan and Evaluation 508

SCORING KEYS AND COMPARISON DATA 509

Reflected Best-Self Feedback™ Exercise 509

APPENDIX I GLOSSARY 511

APPENDIX II REFERENCES 521

INDEX 545

Contents 17

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 P R E FA C E
Why Focus on Management Skill Development?
Given that a “skill development” course requires more time and effort than a course using
the traditional lecture/discussion format, we are sometimes asked this question by stu-
dents, especially those who have relatively little work experience.

Reason #1: It focuses attention on what effective managers

actually do.
In an influential article, Henry Mintzberg (1975) argued that management education had
almost nothing to say about what managers actually do from day to day. He further faulted
management textbooks for introducing students to the leading theories about manage-
ment while ignoring what is known about effective management practice. Sympathetic
to Mintzberg’s critique, we set out to identify the defining competencies of effective
managers.
Although no two management positions are exactly the same, the research summa-
rized in the Introduction highlights ten personal, interpersonal, and group skills that form
the core of effective management practice. Each chapter addresses one of these skills:

Personal Skills
1. Developing Self-Awareness
2. Managing Stress and Well-Being
3. Solving Problems Analytically and Creatively

Interpersonal Skills
4. Building Relationships by Communicating Supportively
5. Gaining Power and Influence
6. Motivating Performance
7. Negotiating and Resolving Conflict

Group Skills
8. Empowering and Engaging Others
9. Building Effective Teams and Teamwork
10. Leading Positive Change

Consistent with our focus on promoting effective management practice, the

material in these chapters provides guidance for a variety of contemporary manage-
ment challenges, including: “How can I help others accept new goals, new ideas, new

19

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Exploring the Variety of Random
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of wealthier creditors, and the son was left almost wholly dependent on
the slender proceeds of his humble office; even now, as he told me the
circumstances just mentioned, regret at the ruined fortunes of his
benefactors seemed in a great measure to overpower every personal
feeling. In the case of the younger Russell, indeed, this gratitude was
not misplaced. No sooner was he aware of the critical situation of his
father’s affairs, and the probability of their involving all connected with
him, than, even in the midst of his own harassing anxieties, he turned
his attention to the prospects of the young Bible-clerk, whose means of
support, already sufficiently narrow, were likely to be further straitened
in the event of a bankruptcy of the firm. His natural good-nature had
led him to take some little notice of young Smith on his first entrance
at the University, and he knew his merits as a scholar to be very
indifferent. The obscure suburban boarding-school at which he had
been educated, in spite of its high-sounding name—“Minerva House,” I
believe—was no very sufficient preparation for Oxford. When the Greek
and the washing are both extras, at three guineas per annum, one
clean shirt in the week, and one lesson in Delectus, are perhaps as
much as can reasonably be expected. Poor Smith had, indeed, a fearful
amount of uphill work, to qualify himself even for his “little-go.” Charles
Russell, not less to his surprise than to his unbounded gratitude,
inasmuch as he was wholly ignorant of his motives for taking so much
trouble, undertook to assist and direct him in his reading: and Smith,
when he had got over his first diffidence, having a good share of plain
natural sense, and hereditary habits of plodding, made more rapid
progress than might have been expected. The frequent visits to
Russell’s rooms, whose charitable object neither I nor any one else
could have guessed, had resulted in a very safe pass through his first
formidable ordeal, and he seemed now to have little fear of eventual
success for his degree, with a strong probability of being privileged to
starve upon a curacy thereafter. But for Russell’s aid, he would, in all
likelihood, have been remanded from his first examination back to his
father’s desk, to the bitter mortification of the old man at the time, and
to become an additional burden to him on the loss at once of his
situation and his little capital.
Poor Smith! it was no wonder that, at the conclusion of his story,
interrupted constantly by broken expressions of gratitude, he wrung his
hands, and called Charles Russell the only friend he had in the world.
“And, oh! if he were to die! Do you think he will die?”
I assured him I hoped and trusted not, and with the view of
relieving his and my own suspense, though it was little more than an
hour since we had left his door, we went down again to make
enquiries. The street door was open, and so was that of the landlady’s
little parlour, so we walked in at once. She shook her head in reply to
our inquiries. “Dr Wilson has been up-stairs with him, sir, for the last
hour nearly, and he has sent twice to the druggist’s for some things,
and I fancy he is no better at all events.”
“How is Miss Russell?” I inquired.
“Oh, sir, she don’t take on much—not at all, as I may say; but she
don’t speak to nobody, and she don’t take nothing: twice I have carried
her up some tea, poor thing and she just tasted it because I begged
her, and she wouldn’t refuse me, I know—but, poor dear young lady! it
is very hard upon her, and she all alone like.”
“Will you take up my compliments—Mr Hawthorne—and ask if I can
be of any possible service?” said I, scarce knowing what to say or do.
Poor girl! she was indeed to be pitied; her father ruined, disgraced, and
a fugitive from the law; his only son—the heir of such proud hopes and
expectations once—lying between life and death; her only brother, her
only counsellor and protector, now unable to recognise or to speak to
her—and she so unused to sorrow or hardship, obliged to struggle on
alone, and exert herself to meet the thousand wants and cares of
illness, with the added bitterness of poverty.
The answer to my message was brought back by the old
housekeeper, Mrs Saunders. She shook her head, said her young
mistress was very much obliged, and would be glad if I would call and
see her brother tomorrow, when she hoped he would be better; “But
oh, sir!” she added, “He will never be better any more! I know the
doctors don’t think so, but I can’t tell her, poor thing—I try to keep her
up, sir; but I do wish some of her own friends were here—she won’t
write to any body, and I don’t know the directions”—and she stopped,
for her tears were almost convulsing her.
I could not remain to witness misery which I could do nothing to
relieve; so I took Smith by the arm—for he stood by the door half-
stupified, and proceeded back towards college. He had to mark the roll
at his own chapel that evening; so we parted at the top of the street,
after I had made him promise to come to breakfast with me in the
morning. Russell’s illness cast a universal gloom over the college that
evening; and when the answer to our last message, sent down as late
as we could venture to do, was still unfavourable, it was with anxious
anticipation that we awaited any change which the morrow might
bring.
The next day passed, and still Russell remained in the same state.
He as in a high fever, and either perfectly unconscious of all around
him, or talking in that incoherent and yet earnest strain, which is more
painful to those who have to listen to and to soothe than even the total
prostration of the reason. No one was allowed to see him; and his
professional attendants, though they held out hopes founded on his
youth and good constitution, acknowledged that every present
symptom was most unfavourable.
The earliest intelligence on the third morning was, that the patient
had passed a very bad night, and was much the same; but in the
course of an hour or two afterwards, a message came to me to say
that Mr Russell would be glad to see me. I rushed, rather than ran,
down to his lodgings, in a perfect exultation of hope, and was so
breathless with haste and excitement when I arrived there, that I was
obliged to pause a few moments to calm myself before I raised the
carefully muffled knocker. My joy was damped at once by poor Mrs
Saunders’ mournful countenance.
“Your master is better, I hope—is he not?” said I.
“I am afraid not, sir; but he is very quiet now: and he knew his
poor dear sister; and then he asked if any one had been to see him,
and we mentioned you, sir; and then he said he should like to see you
very much, and so Miss made bold to send to you—if you please to
wait, sir, I’ll tell her you are here.”
In a few moments she returned—Miss Russell would see me if I
would walk up.
I followed her into the little drawing-room, and there, very calm
and very pale, sat Mary Russell. Though her brother and myself had
now so long been constant companions, I had seen but very little of
her; on the very few evenings I had spent with Russell at his lodgings
she had merely appeared to make tea for us, had joined but little in the
conversation, and retired almost before the table was cleared. In her
position, this behaviour seemed but natural; and as, in spite of the
attraction of her beauty, there was a shade of that haughtiness and
distance of manner which we had all at first fancied in her brother, I
had begun to feel a respectful kind of admiration for Mary Russell,
tinged, I may now venture to admit—I was barely twenty at the time—
with a slight degree of awe. Her very misfortunes threw over her a sort
of sanctity. She was too beautiful not to rivet the gaze, too noble and
too womanly in her devotion to her brother not to touch the affections,
but too cold and silent—almost as it seemed too sad—to love. Her
brother seldom spoke of her; but when he did it was in a tone which
showed—what he did not care to conceal—his deep affection and
anxious care for her; he watched her every look and movement
whenever she was present; and if his love erred in any point, it was,
that it seemed possible it might be even too sensitive and jealous for
her own happiness.
The blinds were drawn close down, and the little room was very
dark; yet I could see at a glance the work which anguish had wrought
upon her in the last two days, and, though no tears were to be seen
now, they had left their traces only too plainly. She did not rise, or trust
herself to speak; but she held out her hand to me as if we had been
friends from childhood. And if thorough sympathy, and mutual
confidence, and true, but pure affection, make such friendship, then
surely we became so from that moment. I never thought Mary Russell
cold again—yet I did not dream of loving her—she was my sister in
every thing but the name.
I broke the silence of our painful meeting—painful as it was, yet
not without that inward throb of pleasure which always attends the
awakening of hidden sympathies. What I said I forget; what does one,
or can one say, at such moments, but words utterly meaningless, so far
as they affect to be an expression of what we feel? The hearts
understand each other without language, and with that we must be
content.
“He knew me a little while ago,” said Mary Russell at last; “and
asked for you; and I knew you would be kind enough to come directly
if I sent.”
“Surely it must be a favourable symptom, this return of
consciousness?”
“We will hope so: yes, I thought it was and oh! how glad I was! But
Dr Wilson does not say much, and I fear he thinks him weaker. I will go
now and tell him you are come.”
“You can see him now if you please,” she said when she returned;
“he seems perfectly sensible still and, when I said you were here, he
looked quite delighted.” She turned away, and, for the first time, her
emotion mastered her.
I followed her into her brother’s room. He did not look so ill as I
expected; but I saw with great anxiety, as I drew nearer his bed, that
his face was still flushed with fever, and his eye looked wild and
excited. He was evidently, however, at present free from delirium, and
recognised me at once. His sister begged him not to speak much, or
ask questions, reminding him of the physician’s strict injunctions with
regard to quiet.
“Dr Wilson forgets, my love, that it is as necessary at least for the
mind to be quiet as the tongue,” said Russell with an attempt to smile;
and then, after a pause, he added, as he took my hand, “I wanted to
see you, Hawthorne; I know I am in very great danger; and, once
more, I want to trouble you with a confidence. Nay, nothing very
important; and pray, don’t ask me, as I see you are going to do, not to
tire myself with talking: I know what I am going to say, and will try to
say it very shortly; but thinking is at least as bad for me as speaking.”
He paused again from weakness; Miss Russell had left the room. I
made no reply. He half rose, and pointed to a writing-desk on a small
table, with keys in the lock. I moved towards it, and opened it, as I
understood his gestures; and brought to him, at his request, a small
bundle of letters, from which he selected one, and gave it me to read.
It was a banker’s letter, dated some months back, acknowledging the
receipt of three hundred pounds to Russell’s credit, and enclosing the
following note:—

“Sir,—Messrs —— are directed to inform you of the sum of

£300 placed to your credit. You will be wrongly advised if you
scruple to use it. If at any time you are enabled, and desire it, it
may be repaid through the same channel.
“One of your Father’s Creditors.”

“I have never touched it,” said Russell, as I folded up the note.

“I should have feared you would not,” said I.
 “But now,” he proceeded, “now things seem changed with me. I
shall want money—Mary will; and I shall draw upon this unseen
charity; ay, and gratefully. Poor Mary!”
“You are quite right, my dear Russell,” said I, eager to interrupt a
train of thought which I saw would be too much for him. “I will manage
all that for you, and you shall give me the necessary authority till you
get well again yourself,” I added in a tone meant to be cheerful.
He took no notice of my remark. “I fear,” said he, “I have not been
wise counsellor to my poor sister. She had kind offers from more than
one of our friends, and might have had a home more suited to her than
this has been, and I allowed her to choose to sacrifice all her own
prospects to mine!”
He turned his face away, and I knew that one painful thought
besides was in his mind—that they had been solely dependent on her
little income for his support at the University since his father’s failure.
“Russell,” said I gently, “this conversation can surely do no good;
why distress yourself and me unnecessarily? Come, I shall leave you
now, or your sister will scold me. Pray, for all our sakes, try to sleep;
you know how desirable it is, and how much stress Dr Wilson has laid
upon your being kept perfectly calm and quiet.”
“I will, Hawthorne, I will try; but oh, I have so much to think of!”
Distressed and anxious, I could only take my leave of him for the
present, feeling how much there was, indeed, in his circumstances to
make rest even more necessary, and more difficult to obtain, for the
mind than for the body.
I had returned to the sitting-room, and was endeavouring to give
as hopeful answers as I could to Miss Russell’s anxious inquiries as to
what I thought of her brother, when a card was brought up, with a
message that Mr Ormiston was below, and “would be very glad if he
could see Miss Russell for a few moments, at any hour she would
mention, in the course of the day.”
Ormiston! I started, I really did not know why. Miss Russell started
also, visibly; did she know why? Her back was turned to me at the
moment; she had moved, perhaps intentionally, the moment the
message became intelligible, so that I had no opportunity of watching
the effect it produced, which I confess I had an irrepressible anxiety to
do. She was silent, until I felt my position becoming awkward: I was
rising to take leave, which perhaps would have made hers even more
so, when, half turning round towards me, with a tone and gesture
almost of command, she said, “Stay!” and then, in reply to the servant,
who was still waiting, “Ask Mr Ormiston to walk up.”
I felt the few moments of expectation which ensued to be
insufferably embarrassing. I tried to persuade myself it was my own
folly to think them so. Why should Ormiston not call at the Russells,
under such circumstances? As college tutor, he stood almost in the
relation of a natural guardian to Russell; Had he not at least as much
right to assume the privilege of a friend of the family as I had, with the
additional argument, that he was likely to be much more useful in that
capacity? He had known them longer, at all events, and any little
coolness between the brother and himself was not a matter, I felt
persuaded, to be remembered by him at such moment, or to induce
any false punctilio which might stand in the way of his offering his
sympathy and assistance, when required. But the impression on my
mind was strong—stronger, perhaps, than any facts within my
knowledge fairly warranted—that between Ormiston and Mary Russell
there either was, or had been, some feeling which, whether
acknowledged or unacknowledged—whether reciprocal or on one side
only—whether crushed by any of those thousand crosses to which such
feelings, fragile as they are precious, are liable, or only repressed by
circumstances and awaiting its developement—would make their
meeting under such circumstances not that of ordinary acquaintances.
And once again I rose, and would have gone; but again Mary Russell’s
sweet voice—and this time it was an accent of almost piteous entreaty,
so melted and subdued were its tones, as if her spirit was failing her—
begged me to remain—“I have something—something to consult you
about—my brother.”
She stopped, for Ormiston’s step was at the door. I had naturally—
not from any ungenerous curiosity to scan her feelings—raised my eyes
to her countenance while she spoke to me, and could not but mark
that her emotion amounted almost to agony. Ormiston entered;
whatever his feelings were, he concealed them well; not so readily,
however, could he suppress his evident astonishment, and almost as
evident vexation, when he first noticed my presence: an actor in the
drama for whose appearance he was manifestly unprepared. He
approached Miss Russell, who never moved, with some words of
ordinary salutation, but uttered in a low and earnest tone, and offered
his hand, which she took at once, without any audible reply. Then
turning to me, he asked if Russell were any better? I answered
somewhat indefinitely, and Miss Russell, to whom he turned as for a
reply, shook her head, and, sinking into a chair, hid her face in her
hands. Ormiston took a seat close by her, and after a pause of a
moment said,
“I trust your very natural anxiety for your brother makes you
inclined to anticipate more danger than really exists, Miss Russell: but I
have to explain my own intrusion upon you at such a moment”—and he
gave me a glance which was meant to be searching—“I called by the
particular request of the Principal, Dr Meredith.”
Miss Russell could venture upon no answer, and he went on,
speaking somewhat hurriedly and with embarrassment.
“Mrs Meredith has been from home some days, and the Principal
himself has the gout severely; he feared you might think it unkind their
not having called, and he begged me to be his deputy. Indeed he
insisted on my seeing you in person, to express his very sincere
concern for your brother’s illness, and to beg that you will so far
honour him—consider him sufficiently your friend, he said—as to send
to his house for any thing which Russell could either want or fancy,
which, in lodgings, there might be some difficulty in finding at hand. In
one respect, Miss Russell,” continued Ormiston in somewhat a more
cheerful tone, “your brother is fortunate in not being laid up within the
college walls; we are not very good nurses there, as Hawthorne can tell
you, though we do what we can; yet I much fear this watching and
anxiety have been too much for you.”
Her tears began to flow freely; there was nothing in Ormiston’s
words, but their tone implied deep feeling. Yet who, however
indifferent, could look upon her helpless situation, and not be moved? I
walked to the window, feeling terribly out of place where I was, yet
uncertain whether to go or stay; for my own personal comfort, I would
sooner have faced the collected anger of a whole common-room, called
to investigate my particular misdemeanours; but to take leave at this
moment seemed as awkward as to stay; besides, had not Miss Russell
appeared almost imploringly anxious for me to spare her a tête-à-tête?
“My poor brother is very, very ill, Mr Ormiston,” she said at last,
raising her face, from which every trace of colour had again
disappeared, and which seemed now as calm as ever. “Will you thank
Dr Meredith for me, and say I will without hesitation avail myself of his
most kind offers, if any thing should occur to make his assistance
necessary.”
“I can be of no use myself in any way?” said Ormiston with some
hesitation.
“I thank you, no,” she replied; and then, as if conscious that her
tone was cold, she added—“You are very kind: Mr Hawthorne was good
enough to say the same. Every one is very kind to us, indeed; but”—
and here she stopped again, her emotion threatening to master her;
and Ormiston and myself simultaneously took our leave.
Preoccupied as my mind had been by anxiety on Russell’s account,
it did not prevent a feeling of awkwardness when I found myself alone
with Mr Ormiston outside the door of his lodgings. It was impossible to
devise any excuse at the moment for turning off in a different direction,
as I felt very much inclined to do; for the little street in which he lived
was not much of a thoroughfare. The natural route for both of us to
take was that which led towards the High Street, for a few hundred
steps the other way would have brought us out into the country, where
it is not usual for either tutors or under-graduates to promenade in cap
and gown, as they do, to the great admiration of the rustics, in our
sister university. We walked on together, therefore, feeling—I will
answer at least for one of us—that it would be an especial relief just
then to meet the greatest bore with whom we had any pretence of a
speaking acquaintance, or pass any shop in which we could frame the
most threadbare excuse of having business, to cut short the
embarrassment of each other’s company. After quitting any scene in
which deep feelings have been displayed, and in which our own have
been not slightly interested, it is painful to feel called upon to make any
comment on what has passed; we feel ashamed to do so in the strain
and tone which would betray our own emotion, and we have not the
heart to do so carelessly or indifferently. I should have felt this, even
had I been sure that Ormiston’s feelings towards Mary Russell had
been nothing more than my own; whereas, in fact, I was almost sure
of the contrary; in which case it was possible that, in his eyes, my own
locus standi in that quarter, surprised as I had been in an apparently
very confidential interview, might seem to require some explanation
which would be indelicate to ask for directly, and which it might not
mend matters if I were to give indirectly without being asked. So we
proceeded some paces up the little quiet street, gravely and silently,
neither of us speaking a word. At last Ormiston asked me if I had seen
Russell, and how I thought him? adding, without waiting for a reply,
“Dr Wilson, I fear from what he told me, thinks but badly of him.”
“I am very sorry to hear you say so,” I replied; and then ventured
to remark how very wretched it would be for his sister, in the event of
his growing worse, to be left at such a time so utterly helpless and
alone.
He was silent for some moments. “Some of her friends,” he said at
last, “ought to come down; she must have friends, I know, who would
come if they were sent for. I wish Mrs Meredith were returned—she
might advise her.”
He spoke rather in soliloquy than as addressing me, and I did not
feel called upon to make any answer. The next moment we arrived at
the turn of the street, and, by what seemed a mutual impulse, wished
each other good-morning.
I went straight down to Smith’s rooms, at —— Hall, to get him to
come and dine with me; for I pitied the poor fellow’s forlorn condition,
and considered myself in some degree bound to supply Russell’s place
towards him. A Bible-clerk’s position in the University is always more or
less one of mortification and constraint. It is true that the same
academical degree, the same honours—if he can obtain them—the
same position in after life—all the solid advantages of a University
education, are open to him, as to other men; but, so long as his
undergraduateship lasts, he stands in a very different position from
other men, and he feels it—feels it, too, through three or four of those
years of life when such feelings are most acute, and when that
strength of mind which is the only antidote—which can measure men
by themselves and not by their accidents—is not as yet matured either
in himself or in the society of which he becomes a member. If, indeed,
he be a decidedly clever man, and has the opportunity early in his
career of showing himself to be such, then there is good sense and
good feeling enough—let us say, to the honour of the University, there
is sufficient of that true esprit du corps, a real consciousness of the
great objects for which men are thus brought together—to ensure the
acknowledgment from all but the most unworthy of its members, that a
scholar is always a gentleman. But if he be a man of only moderate
abilities, and known only as a Bible-clerk, then, the more he is of a
gentleman by birth and education, the more painful does his position
generally become. There are not above two or three in residence in
most colleges, and their society is confined almost wholly to
themselves. Some old schoolfellow, indeed, or some man who “knows
him at home,” holding an independent rank in college, may occasionally
venture upon the condescension of asking him to wine—even to meet a
friend or two with whom he can take such a liberty; and even then, the
gnawing consciousness that he is considered an inferior—though not
treated as such—makes it a questionable act of kindness. Among the
two or three of his own table, one is the son of a college butler,
another has been for years usher at a preparatory school; he treats
them with civility, they treat him with deference; but they have no
tastes or feelings in common. At an age, therefore, which most of all
seeks and requires companionship, he has no companions; and the
period of life which should be the most joyous, becomes to him almost
a purgatory. Of course, the radical and the leveller will say at once, “Ay,
this comes of your aristocratic distinctions; they ought not to be
allowed in universities at all.” Not so: it comes of human nature; the
distinction between a dependent and an independent position will
always be felt in all societies, mark it outwardly as little as you will.
Humiliation, more or less, is a penalty which poverty must always pay.
These humbler offices in the University were founded by a charity as
wise as benevolent, which has afforded to hundreds of men of talent,
but of humble means, an education equal to that of the highest noble
in the land, and, in consequence, a position and usefulness in after life,
which otherwise they could never have hoped for. And if the somewhat
servile tenure by which they are held, (which in late years has in most
colleges been very much relaxed,) were wholly done away with, there
is reason to fear the charity of the founders would be liable to continual
abuse, by their being bestowed upon many who required no such
assistance. As it is, this occurs too often; and it is much to be desired
that the same regulations were followed in their distribution,
throughout the University, which some colleges have long most
properly adopted: namely, that the appointment should be bestowed
on the successful candidate after examination, strict regard being had
to the circumstances of all the parties before they are allowed to offer
themselves. It would make their position far more definite and
respectable, because all would then be considered honourable to a
certain degree, as being the reward of merit; instead of which, too
often, they are convenient items of patronage in the hands of the
Principal and Fellows, the nomination to them depending on private
interest, which by no means ensuring the nominee’s being a gentleman
by birth, while it is wholly careless of his being a scholar by education,
and tends to lower the general standing of the order in the University.
This struck me forcibly in Smith’s case. Poor fellow! with an
excellent heart and a great deal of sound common sense, he had
neither the breeding nor the talent to make a gentleman of. I doubt if
an University education was any real boon to him. It ensured him four
years of hard work—harder, perhaps, than if he had sat at a desk all
the time—without the society of any of his own class and habits, and
with the prospect of very little remuneration ultimately. I think he might
have been very happy in his own sphere, and I do not see how he
could be happy at Oxford. And whether he or the world in general ever
profited much by the B.A. which he eventually attached to his name, is
a point at least doubtful.
I could not get him to come and dine with me in my own college.
He knew his own position, as it seemed, and was not ashamed of it; in
fact, in his case, it could not involve any consciousness of degradation;
and I am sure his only reason for refusing my invitations of that kind
was, that he thought it possible my dignity might be compromised by
so open an association with him. He would come over to my rooms in
the evening to tea, he said; and he came accordingly. When I told him
in the morning that Russell had inquired very kindly after him, he was
much affected; but it had evidently been a comfort to him to feel that
he was not forgotten, and during the hour or two which we spent
together in the evening, he seemed much more cheerful.
“Perhaps they will let me see him to-morrow, if he is better?” he
said, with an appealing look to me. I assured him I would mention his
wish to Russell, and his countenance at once brightened up, as if he
thought only his presence were needed to ensure our friend’s recovery.
But the next morning all our hopes were dashed again; delirium
had returned as had been feared, and the feverish symptoms seemed
to gain strength rather than abate. Bleeding, and the usual remedies
had been had recourse to already to a perilous extent, and in Russell’s
present reduced state, no further treatment of the kind could be
ventured upon. “All we can do now, sir,” said Dr Wilson, “is little more
than to let nature take her course. I have known such cases recover.” I
did not ask to see Mary Russell that day; for what could I have
answered to her fears and inquiries? But I thought of Ormiston’s
words; surely she ought to have some friend—some one of her own
family, or some known and tried companion of her own sex, would
surely come to her at a moment’s notice, did they but know of her
trying situation. If—if her brother were to die—she surely would not be
left here among strangers, quite alone? Yet I much feared, from what
had escaped him at our last interview, that they had both incurred the
charge of wilfulness for refusing offers of assistance at the time of their
father’s disgrace and flight, and that having, contrary to the advice of
their friends, and perhaps imprudently, taken the step they had done in
coming to Oxford, Mary Russell, with something of her brother’s spirit,
had made up her mind now, however heavy and unforeseen the blow
that was to fall, to suffer all in solitude and silence. For Ormiston, too, I
felt with an interest and intensity that was hourly increasing. I met him
after morning chapel, and though he appeared intentionally to avoid
any conversation with me, I knew by his countenance that he had
heard the unfavourable news of the morning; and it could be no
common emotion that had left its visible trace upon features usually so
calm and impassible.
From thoughts of this nature, indulged in the not very appropriate
locality of the centre of the quadrangle, I was roused by the good-
humoured voice of Mrs Meredith—“our governess,” as we used to call
her—who, with the doctor himself, was just then entering the College,
and found me right in the line of her movements towards the door of
“the lodgings.” I was not until that moment aware of her return, and
altogether was considerably startled as she addressed me with—“Oh!
how do you do, Mr Hawthorne? you young gentlemen don’t take care
of yourselves, you see, when I am away—I am so sorry to hear this
about poor Mr Russell! Is he so very ill? Dr Meredith is just going to see
him.”
I coloured up, I dare say, for it was a trick I was given to in those
days, and, in the confusion, replied rather to my own thoughts than to
Mrs Meredith’s question.
“Mrs Meredith! I really beg your pardon,” I first stammered out as a
very necessary apology, for I had nearly stumbled over her—“May I say
how very glad I am you are returned, on Miss Russell’s account—I am
sure ”——
“Really, Mr Hawthorne, it is very natural I suppose, but you
gentlemen seem to expend your whole sympathy upon the young lady,
and forget the brother altogether! Mr Ormiston actually took the
trouble to write to me about her”——
“My dear!” interposed the Principal.
“Nay, Dr Meredith, see how guilty Mr Hawthorne looks! and as to
Mr Ormiston”—“Well, never mind,” (the doctor was visibly checking his
lady’s volubility,) “I love the poor dear girl so much myself, that I am
really grieved to the heart for her. I shall go down and see her directly,
and make her keep up her spirits. Dr Wilson is apt to make out all the
bad symptoms he can—I shall try if I can’t cure Mr Russell myself, after
all; a little proper nursing in those cases is worth a whole staff of
doctors—and, as to this poor girl, what can she know about it? I dare
say she sits crying her eyes out, poor thing, and doing nothing—I’ll see
about it. Why, I wouldn’t lose Mr Russell from the college for half the
young men in it—would I, Dr Meredith?”
I bowed, and they passed on. Mrs Principal, if somewhat pompous
occasionally, was a kind-hearted woman; I believe an hour scarcely
elapsed after her return to Oxford, before she was in Russell’s lodgings,
ordering every thing about as coolly as if it were in her own house, and
all but insisting on seeing the patient and prescribing herself for him in
spite of all professional injunctions to the contrary. The delirium passed
off again, and though it left Russell sensibly weaker, so weak, that
when I next was admitted to see him with Smith, he could do little
more than feebly grasp our hands, yet the fever was evidently abated;
and in the course of the next day, whether it was to be attributed to
the remedies originally used, or to his own youth and good
constitution, or to Mrs Meredith’s experienced directions in the way of
nursing, and the cheerful spirit which that good lady, in spite of a little
fussness, succeeded generally in producing around her, there was a
decided promise of amendment, which happily each succeeding hour
tended gradually to fulfil. Ormiston had been unremitting in his
inquiries; but I believe had never since sought an interview either with
the brother or sister. I took advantage of the first conversation Russell
was able to hold with me, to mention how very sincerely I believed him
to have felt the interest he expressed. A moment afterwards, I felt
almost sorry I had mentioned the name—it was the first time I had
done so during Russell’s illness. He almost started up in bed, and his
face glowed again with more than the flush of fever, as he caught up
my words.
“Sincere, did you say? Ormiston sincere! You don’t know the man
as I do. Inquired here, did he? What right has he to intrude his”——
“Hush, my dear Russell,” I interposed, really almost alarmed at his
violence. “Pray, don’t excite yourself—I think you do him great
injustice; but we will drop the subject, if you please.”
“I tell you, Hawthorne, if you knew all, you would despise him as
much as I do.”
 It is foolish to argue with an invalid—but really even my friendship
for Russell would not allow me to bear in silence an attack so
unjustifiable, as it seemed to me, on the character of a man who had
every claim to my gratitude and respect. I replied therefore, somewhat
incautiously, that perhaps I did know a little more than Russell
suspected.
He stared at me with a look of bewilderment. “What do you know?”
he asked quickly.
It was too late to hesitate or retract. I had started an unfortunate
subject; but I knew Russell too well to endeavour now to mislead him.
“I have no right perhaps to say I know any thing; but I have gathered
from Ormiston’s manner, that he has very strong reasons for the
anxiety he has shown on your account. I will not say more.”
“And how do you know this? Has Mr Ormiston dared ”——
“No, no, Russell,” said I, earnestly; “see how unjust you are, in this
instance.” I wished to say something to calm him, and it would have
been worse than useless to say any thing but the truth. I saw he
guessed to what I alluded; and I gave him briefly my reasons for what
I thought, not concealing the interview with his sister, at which I had
unintentionally been present.
It was a very painful scene. When he first understood that
Ormiston had sought the meeting, his temper, usually calm, but
perhaps now tried by such long hours of pain and heaviness, broke out
with bitter expressions against both. I told him, shortly and warmly,
that such remarks towards his sister were unmanly and unkind; and
then he cried, like a chidden and penitent child, till his remorse was as
painful to look upon as his passion. “Mary! my own Mary! even you,
Hawthorne, know and feel her value better than I do! I for whom she
has borne so much.”
“I am much mistaken,” said I, “if Ormiston has not learned to
appreciate her even yet more truly. And why not?”
“Leave me now,” he said; “I am not strong enough to talk; but if
you wish to know what cause I have to speak as I have done of your
friend Ormiston, you shall hear again.”
 So exhausted did he seem by the excess of feeling which I had so
unfortunately called forth, that I would not see him again for some
days, contenting myself with learning that no relapse had taken place,
and that he was still progressing rapidly towards recovery.
I had an invitation to visit my aunt again during the Easter
vacation, which had already commenced, and had only been prevented
from leaving Oxford by Russell’s alarming state. As soon, therefore, as
all danger was pronounced over, I prepared to go up to town at once,
and my next visit to Russell was in fact to wish him good-by for two or
three weeks. He was already sitting up, and fast regaining strength. He
complained of having seen so little of me lately, and asked me if I had
seen his sister. “I had not noticed it until the last few days,” he said
—“illness makes one selfish, I suppose; but I think Mary looks thin and
ill—very different from what she did a month back.”
But watching and anxiety, as I told him, were not unlikely to
produce that effect; and I advised him strongly to take her somewhere
for a few weeks for change of air and scene. “It will do you both good,”
I said; “and you can draw another L.50 from your unknown friend for
that purpose; it cannot be better applied, and I should not hesitate for
a moment.”
“I would not,” he replied, “if I wanted money; but I do not. Do you
know that Dr Wilson would take no fee whatever from Mary during the
whole of his attendance; and when I asked him to name some
sufficient remuneration, assuring him I could afford it, he said he would
never forgive me if I ever mentioned the subject again. So what
remains of the fifty you drew for me, will amply suffice for a little trip
somewhere for us. And I quite agree with you in thinking it desirable,
on every account, that Mary should move from Oxford—perhaps
altogether—for one reason, to be out of the way of a friend of yours.”
“Ormiston?”
“Yes, Ormiston; he called here again since I saw you, and wished
to see me; but I declined the honour. Possibly,” he added bitterly, “as
we have succeeded in keeping out of jail here, he thinks Mary has
grown rich again.” And then he went on to tell me, how, in the days of
his father’s reputed wealth, Ormiston had been a constant visitor at
their house in town, and how his attentions to his sister had even
attracted his father’s attention, and led to his name being mentioned as
likely to make an excellent match with the rich banker’s daughter. “My
father did not like it,” he said, “for he had higher views for her, as was
perhaps excusable—though I doubt if he would have refused Mary any
thing. I did not like it for another reason: because I knew all the time
how matters really stood, and that any man who looked for wealth with
my sister would in the end be miserably disappointed. What Mary’s own
feelings were, and what actually passed between her and Ormiston, I
never asked; but she knew my views on the subject, and would, I am
certain, never have accepted any man under the circumstances in
which she was placed, and which she could not explain. I did hope and
believe, however, then, that there was sufficient high principle about
Ormiston to save Mary from any risk of throwing away her heart upon
a man who would desert her upon a change of fortune. I think he loved
her at the time—as well as such men as he can love any one; but from
the moment the crash came—Ormiston, you know, was in town at the
time—there was an end of every thing. It was an opportunity for a man
to show feeling if he had any; and though I do not affect much
romance, I almost think that, in such a case, even an ordinary heart
might have been warmed into devotion; but Ormiston—cold, cautious,
calculating as he is—I could almost have laughed at the sudden change
that came over him when he heard the news. He pretended, indeed,
great interest for us, and certainly did seem cut up about it; but he had
not committed himself, I conclude, and took care to retreat in time.
Thank Heaven! even if Mary did ever care for him, she is not the girl to
break her heart for a man who proves so unworthy of her regard. But
why he should insist on inflicting his visits upon us now, is what I
cannot make out, and what I will not endure.”
I listened with grief and surprise. I knew well, that not even the
strong prejudice which I believed Russell to have always felt against
Ormiston, would tempt him to be guilty of misrepresentation: and,
again, I gave him credit for too much penetration to have been easily
deceived. Yet I could not bring myself all at once to think so ill of
Ormiston. He had always been considered in pecuniary matters liberal
almost to a fault, that he really loved Mary Russell, I felt more than
ever persuaded; and, at my age, it was hard to believe that a few
thousand pounds could affect any man’s decision in such a point, even
for a moment. Why, the very fact of her being poor and friendless was
enough to make one fall in love with such a girl at once! So when
Russell, after watching the effect of his disclosure, misconstruing my
silence, proceeded to ask somewhat triumphantly—“Now, what say you
of Mr Ormiston?”—I answered at once, that I was strongly convinced
there was a mistake.
“Ay,” rejoined he with a sneering laugh; “on Ormiston’s part, you
mean; decidedly there was.”
“I mean,” said I, “there has been some misunderstanding, which
time may yet explain: I do not, and will not believe him capable of
what you impute to him. Did you ever ask your sister for a full and
unreserved explanation of what has passed between them?”
“Never; but I know that she has shunned all intercourse with him
as carefully as I have, and that his recently renewed civilities have
given her nothing but pain.” My own observation certainly tended to
confirm this: So, changing the subject—for it was one on which I had
scarce any right to give an opinion, still less offer advice, asked
whether I could do any thing for him in town; and, after exchanging a
cordial good-by with Miss Russell, in whose appearance I was sorry to
see confirmation of her brother’s fears for her health, I took my leave,
and the next morning saw me on the top of “The Age,” on my way to
town.
There I received a letter from my father, in which he desired me to
take the opportunity of calling upon his attorney, Mr Rushton, in order
to have some leases and other papers read and explained to me,
chiefly matters of form, but which would require my signature upon my
coming of age. It concluded with the following P.S.:—
“I was sorry to hear of your friend’s illness, and trust he will now do
very well. Bring him down with you at Christmas, if you can. I hear, by
the way, there is a Miss Russell in the case—a very fascinating young
lady, whom you never mention at all—a fact which your mother, who is
up to all those things, says is very suspicious. All I can say is, if she is
as good a girl as her mother was before her—I knew her well once—
you may bring her down with you too, if you like.”
How very unlucky it is that the home authorities seldom approve of
any little affairs of the kind except those of which one is perfectly
innocent! Now, if I had been in love with Mary Russell, the governor
would, in the nature of things, have felt it his duty to be disagreeable.
I put off the little business my father alluded to day after day, to
make way for more pleasant engagements, until my stay in town was
drawing to a close. Letters from Russell informed me of his having left
Oxford for Southampton, where he was reading hard, and getting quite
stout; but he spoke of his sister’s health in a tone that alarmed me,
though he evidently was trying to persuade himself that a few weeks’
sea-air would quite restore it. At last I devoted a morning to call on Mr
Rushton, whom I found at home, though professing, as all lawyers do,
to be full of business. He made my acquaintance as politely as if I had
been the heir-expectant of an earldom, instead of the very moderate
amount of acres which had escaped sale and subdivision in the
Hawthorne family. In fact, he seemed a very good sort of fellow, and
we ran over the parchments together very amicably—I almost
suspected he was cheating me, he seemed so very friendly, but therein
I did him wrong.
“And now, my dear sir,” continued he, as we shut up the last of
them, “will you dine with me to-day? Let me see; I fear I can’t say
before seven, for I have a great deal of work to get through. Some
bankruptcy business, about which I have taken some trouble,” he
continued, rubbing his hands, “and which we shall manage pretty well
in the end, I fancy. By the way, it concerns some friends of yours, too:
is not Mr Ormiston of your college? Ay, I thought he was; he is two
thousand pounds richer than he fancied himself yesterday.”
“Really?” said I, somewhat interested; “how, may I ask?”
“Why, you see, when Russell’s bank broke—bad business that—we
all thought the first dividend—tenpence-halfpenny in the pound, I
believe it was—would be the final one: however, there are some foreign
securities which, when they first came into the hands of the assignees,
were considered of no value at all, but have gone up wonderfully in the
market just of late, so that we have delayed finally closing accounts till
we could sell them to such advantage as will leave some tolerable
pickings for the creditors after all.”
“Had Ormiston money in Mr Russell’s bank, then, at the time?”
“Oh, yes: something like eight thousand pounds: not all his own,
though: five thousand he had in trust for some nieces of his, which he
had unluckily just sold out of the funds, and placed with Russell, while
he was engaged in making arrangements for a more profitable
investment; the rest was his own.”
“He lost it all, then?”
“All but somewhere about three hundred pounds, as it appeared at
the time. What an excellent fellow he is! You know him well, I dare say.
They tell me that he pays the interest regularly to his nieces for their
money out of his own income still.”
I made no answer to Mr Rushton at the moment, for a
communication so wholly unexpected had awakened a new set of
ideas, which I was busily following out in my mind. I seemed to hold in
my hands the clue to a good deal of misunderstanding and
unhappiness. My determination was soon taken to go to Southampton,
see Russell at once, and tell him what I had just heard, and of which I
had no doubt he had hitherto been as ignorant as myself. I was the
rather induced to take this course, as I felt persuaded that Miss
Russell’s health was suffering rather from mental than bodily causes;
and, in such a case, a great deal of mischief is done in a short time. I
would leave town at once.
My purse was in the usual state of an under-graduate’s at the close
of a visit to London; so, following up the train of my own reflections, I
turned suddenly upon Mr Rushton, who was again absorbed in his
papers, and had possibly forgotten my presence altogether, and
attacked him with—
“My dear sir, can you lend me ten pounds?”
“Certainly,” said Mr Rushton, taking, off his spectacles, and feeling
in his pockets, at the same time looking at me with some little curiosity,
— “certainly—with great pleasure.”
“I beg your pardon for taking such a liberty,” said I, apologetically;
“but I find I must leave town to-night.”
“To-night!” said the lawyer, looking still more inquiringly at me; “I
thought you were to dine with me?”
“I cannot exactly explain to you at this moment, sir, my reasons;
but I have reasons, and I think sufficient ones, though they have
suddenly occurred to me.”
I pocketed the money, leaving Mr Rushton to speculate on the
eccentricities of Oxonians as he pleased, and a couple of hours found
me on the Southampton mail.
The Russells were surprised at my sudden descent upon them, but
welcomed me cordially; and even Mary’s pale face did not prevent my
being in excellent spirits. As soon as I could speak to Russell by
himself, I told him what I had heard from Mr Rushton.
He never interrupted me, but his emotion was evident. When he
did speak, it was in an altered and humbled voice.
“I never inquired,” he said, “who my father’s creditors were—
perhaps I ought to have done so; but I thought the knowledge could
only pain me. I see it all now; how unjust, how ungrateful I have been!
Poor Mary!”
We sat down, and talked over those points in Ormiston’s conduct
upon which Russell had put so unfavourable a construction. It was
quite evident, that a man who could act with so much liberality and
self-denial towards others, could have had no interested motives in his
conduct with regard to Mary Russell; and her brother was now as eager
to express his confidence in Ormiston’s honour and integrity, as he was
before hasty in misjudging him.
Where all parties are eager for explanation, matters are soon
explained. Russell had an interview with his sister, which brought her to
the breakfast table the next morning with blushing cheeks and
brightened eyes. Her misgivings, if she had any, were easily set at rest.
He then wrote to Ormiston a letter full of generous apologies and
expressions of his high admiration of his conduct, which was answered
by that gentleman in person by return of post. How Mary Russell and
he met, or what they said, must ever be a secret, for no one was
present but themselves. But all embarrassment was soon over, and we
were a very happy party for the short time we remained at
Southampton together; for, feeling that my share in the matter was at
an end—a share which I contemplated with some little self-
complacency—I speedily took my departure.
If I have not made Ormiston’s conduct appear in as clear colours to
the reader as it did to ourselves, I can only add, that the late
misunderstanding seemed a painful subject to all parties, and that the
mutual explanations were rather understood than expressed. The
anonymous payment to Russell’s credit at the Bank was no longer a
mystery: it was the poor remains of the College Tutor’s little fortune,
chiefly the savings of his years of office—the bulk of which had been
lost through the fault of the father—generously devoted to meet the
necessities of the son. That he would have offered Mary Russell his
heart and hand at once when she was poor, as he hesitated to do when
she was rich, none of us for a moment doubted, had not his own
embarrassments, caused by the failure of the bank, and the
consequent claims of his orphan nieces, to replace whose little income
he had contracted all his own expenses, made him hesitate to involve
the woman he loved in an imprudent marriage.
They were married, however, very soon—and still imprudently, the
world said, and my good aunt among the rest; for, instead of waiting
an indefinite time for a good college living to fall in, Ormiston took the
first that offered, a small vicarage of £300 a-year, intending to add to
his income by taking pupils. However, fortune sometimes loves to have
a laugh at the prudent ones, and put to the rout all their wise
prognostications; for, during Ormiston’s “year of grace”—while he still
virtually held his fellowship, though he had accepted the living—our
worthy old Principal died somewhat suddenly, and regret at his loss
only gave way to the universal joy of every individual in the college,
(except, I suppose, any disappointed aspirants,) when Mr Ormiston was
elected almost unanimously to the vacant dignity.
 * * * * *
Mr Russell the elder has never returned to England. On the mind of
such a man, after the first blow, and the loss of his position in the
world, the disgrace attached to his name had comparatively little effect.
He lives in some small town in France, having contrived, with his
known clever management, to keep himself in comfortable
circumstances, and his best friends can only strive to forget his
existence, rather than wish for his return. His son and daughter pay
him occasional visits, for their affection survives his disgrace, and
forgets his errors. Charles Russell took a first class, after delaying his
examination a couple of terms, owing to his illness, and is now a
barrister, with a reputation for talent, but as yet very little business.
However I hear the city authorities had the impudence to seize some of
the college plate in discharge of a disputed claim for rates, and that
Russell is retained as one of the counsel in an action of replevin, I trust
he will begin a prosperous career, by contributing to win the cause for
the “gown.”
I spent a month with Dr and Mrs Ormiston at their vicarage in the
country, before the former entered upon his official residence as
Principal; and can assure the reader that, in spite of ten—it may be
more—years of difference in age, they are the happiest couple I ever
saw. I may almost say, the only happy couple I ever saw, most of my
married acquaintance appearing at the best only contented couples,
not drawing their happiness so exclusively from each other as suits my
notion of what such a tie ought to be. Of course, I do not take my own
matrimonial experience into account; the same principle of justice
which forbids a man to give evidence in his own favour, humanely
excusing him from making any admission which may criminate himself.
Mrs Ormiston is as beautiful, as amiable, as ever, and has lost all the
reserve and sadness which, in her maiden days, over-shadowed her
charms; and so sincere was and is my admiration of her person and
character, and so warmly was I in the habit of expressing it, that I
really believe my dilating upon her attractions used to make Mrs Francis
Hawthorne somewhat jealous, until she had the happiness to make her
acquaintance, and settled the point by falling in love with the lady
herself.
 LETTERS ON ENGLISH
HEXAMETERS.

Letter II.
Dear Mr Editor—I should like to offer you some more of my
criticisms on the hexameters which have been written in English,
and, by your good leave, will try to do so at some future time. But
there are probably some of your readers who entertain the
prejudices against English hexameters which we often hear from
English critics of the last generation. I cannot come to any
understanding with these readers about special hexameters, till I
have said something of these objections to hexameters in general.
One of these objections I tried to dispose of in a former missive;
namely, that “we cannot have good hexameters in English, because
we have so few spondees.” There are still other erroneous doctrines
commonly entertained relative to this matter, which may be thus
briefly expressed;—that in hexameters we adopt a difference of long
and short syllables, such as does not regulate other forms of English
versification; and that the versification itself—the movement of the
hexameter—is borrowed from Greek and Latin poetry. Now, in
opposition to these opinions, I am prepared to show that our English
hexameters suppose no other relations of strong and weak syllables
than those which govern our other kinds of verse;—and that the
hexameter movement is quite familiar to the native English ear.
The first of these truths, I should have supposed to be, by this
time, generally acknowledged among all writers and readers of
English verse: if it had not been that I have lately seen, in some of
our hexametrists, a reference to a difference of long, and short, as
something which we ought to have, in addition to the differences of
strong and weak syllables, in order to make our hexameters perfect.
One of these writers has taken the model hexameter—
“In the hexameter rises the fountain’s silvery column;”

and has objected to it that the first syllable of column is short. But,
my dear sir, it is not shorter than the first syllable of collar, or of the
Latin collum! The fact is, that in hexameters, as in all other English
verses, the ear knows nothing of long and short as the foundation of
verse. All verse, to an English ear, is governed by the succession of
strong and weak syllables. Take a stanza of Moore’s:—
“When in death I shall calm recline,
O bear my heart to my mistress dear.
Tell her it lived upon smiles and wine,
Of the brightest hue while it linger’d here.”

I have marked the strong syllables, which stand in the place of

long ones, so far as the actual existence of verse is concerned;
though no doubt the smoothness of the verse is promoted by having
the light syllables short also, that they may glide rapidly away. But
this, I say, though favourable to smoothness, is not essential to
verse: thus the syllable death, though strong, is short; I and while,
though weak, are long.
Now this alternation, in a certain order, of strong and weak
syllables, is the essential condition of all English verse, and of
hexameters among the rest. Long and short syllables, to English
ears, are superseded in their effect by strong and weak accents; and
even when we read Greek and Latin verses, so far as we make the
versification perceptible, we do so by putting strong accents on the
long syllables. The English ear has no sense of any versification
which is not thus constructed.
 I had imagined that all this was long settled in the minds of all
readers of poetry; and that all notion of syllables in English being
long, for purposes of versification, because they contain a long
vowel or a diphthong, or a vowel before two consonants, had been
obliterated ages ago. I knew, indeed, that the first English
hexametrists had tried to conform themselves to the Latin rules of
quantity. Thus, as we learn from Spenser, they tried to make the
second syllable of carpenter long; and constructed their verses so
that they would scan according to Latin rules. Such are Surry’s
hexameters; for instance:—
“Unto a caitiff wretch whom long affliction holdeth,
Grant yet, grant yet a look to the last monument of his anguish.”

But this made their task extremely difficult, without bringing any
gain which the ear could recognise; and I believe that the earlier
attempts to naturalize the hexameter in England failed mainly in
consequence of their being executed under these severe conditions,
which prevented all facility and flow in the expression, and gave the
popular ear no pleasure.
The successful German hexametrists have rejected all regard to
the classical rules of quantity of syllables; and have, I conceive,
shown us plainly that this is the condition of success in such an
undertaking. Take, for instance, the beginning of Hermann und
Dorothea:—
“Und so sass das trauliche Paar, sich unter den Thorweg
Ueber das wander de Volk mit mancher Bemerkung ergötgend
Endlich aber began der wüedige Hansfrau, und sagte
Sept! dort kommt der Prediger her; es kommt auch der Nachbar.”

The penultimate dactyls in these lines, “unter dem Thorweg,”

“Bemerkung ergötgend,” “Hansfrau und sagte,” “kommt auch der
Nachbar,” have, in the place of short syllables, syllables which must
be long, if any distinction of long and short, depending upon
consonants and dipthongs, be recognised; but yet these are good
and orderly dactyls, because in each we have a strong syllable
followed by two weak ones. If we call such trissyllable feet dactyls,
and in the same way describe other feet by their corresponding
names in Greek and Latin verse, spondees, trochees, and the like,
we shall be able to talk in an intelligible manner about English verse
in general, and English hexameters in particular.
And I have now to show, in the second place, that English
hexameters are readily accepted by the native ear, without any
condition of discipline in Greek and Latin verse. I do not mean to say
that hexameters have not a peculiar character among our forms of
verse; and I should like to try to explain, on some future occasion,
the mode in which the recollection of Homer and Virgil, in Greek and
Latin, affects and modifies the pleasure which we receive from
hexameter poems in German and English. But I say that, without
any such reference, poems written in rigorous hexameters will be
recognised by a common reader as easy current verse.
In order to bring out this point clearly, you must allow me, Mr
Editor, to make my quotations with various readings of my own,
which are requisite to exemplify the forms of verse of which I speak.
I begin by talking of “dactylics,” in spite of the Antijacobin.
Dactylic measures are very familiar to our ears, and congenial to the
genius of our versification. These lines are dactylics:—
“Oh | know ye the | land where the | cypress and | myrtle
Are | emblems of | deeds that are | done in their | clime?”

But the lines may be also regarded as anapæstics:—

“Oh know | ye the land | &c.
Are em | blems of deeds | &c.
Where the rage | of the vul | ture, the love | of the turtle,|
Now melt | into sor | row, now mad | den to crime.|”

In all these cases, the line begins with a weak syllable; and if the
lines are regarded as dactylics, this syllable must be taken as a
fragment of foot. When the line begins with a strong syllable, the
dactylic character is more decided: as if the lines were,—
Know ye the land of the cypress and myrtle?
Emblems of deeds that are done in their clime?

Now, in such examples, along with the trissyllable feet, dissyllable

feet are often mixed, as their metrical equivalents: as
“When in | death I shall | calm re | cline,
O | bear my | heart to my | mistress | dear;
Tell her it | lived upon | smiles and | wine
Of the | brightest | hue, while it | lingered | here.”

We may observe that there is, in this example, a kind of

symmetry shown in preserving the dissyllable feet always in the
second place, which is not without its effect on the ear. Some of
these feet may be made two or three syllables at pleasure, as
linger’d or lingerèd. I will add the next stanza as a further
example:—
“Bid her not | shed one | tear of | sorrow,
To | sully a | heart so | brilliant and | bright;
But | drops of | kind re | membrance | borrow,
To | bathe the | relic from | morn to | night.”

That the verse so constructed is perfectly rhythmical, we know,

by the exactness with which it lends itself to music. The musical bars
would point out the divisions, or the number at least, of the feet, if
we had any doubt upon that subject.
In order that we may the more distinctly perceive the mixture of
two kinds of feet in this example, let us reduce it entirely to
trissyllable feet, by slight changes in the expression:—
 When in my tomb I shall calmly be | lying,
O | carry my heart to my conqueror dear:
Tell her it liv’d upon smiles and on | nectar
Of | brilliant hue, while it lingered here.
Bid her not shed any token of | sorrow
To | sully a heart so resplendant and | glowing;
But | fountains of loving rememberance | borrow,
To | water the relic from morning to even.

I have arranged this variation so that the incomplete feet at the

end of one line and the beginning of the next in each distich, as well
as the rest, make up a complete dactyl; and thus, the measure runs
on through each two written lines in a long line of seven dactyls and
a strong syllable. But it will be easily perceived, that if the feet had
been left incomplete at the end of each written line, the pause in the
metre would have supplied what was wanting, and would have
prevented the verse from being perceived as irregular. Thus these
are still true dactylic lines:——
When in my tomb I shall calmly recline
O carry my heart to my conqueror dear;
Tell her it lived upon smiles and on wine
Of brilliant hue, while it lingered here.

I will now arrange the same passage so as to reduce it entirely to

dissyllable feet, which alters the character of the versification.
When in death I calm recline,
O bear my heart to her I love;
Say it liv’d on smiles and wine
Of brightest hue, while here above.
Bid her shed no tear of grief
To soil a heart so clear and bright;
But drops of kind remembrance give
To bathe the gem from morn to night.
 As the dissyllable feet may be divided either as dactyls or as
anapæsts, so the dissyllable feet may be divided either as trochees
or as iambuses. Thus we may scan either of these ways—
O | bear my | heart to | her I | love,
O bear | my heart | to her | I love.

But in this case, as in that of dissyllable feet, the metre is more

decidedly trochaic, because each line, (that is, each distich, as here
written,) begins with a strong syllable.
When in | death I | calm re | cline.

The animated trochaic character, when once given by a few lines

of this kind, continues in the movement of the verse, even when
retarded by initial iambuses; as,
“Haste thee, nymph, and bring with thee
Jest and youthful jollity:
Quips and cranks and wanton wiles,
Nods and becks and wreathed smiles;
Such as dwell on Hebe’s cheek,
And love to live in dimple sleek,
Sport that wrinkled care derides,
And laughter holding both his sides.”

Here the weak syllables And, And, do not materially interrupt the
trochaic verse. They may be taken as completing the trochee at the
end of the preceding line.
In these verses, and in all English verses, there are no spondees,
or feet consisting of two strong syllables. No foot in English metre
has more than one strong syllable, and the weak syllables are
appended to the strong ones, and swept along with them in the
current of the metre. The equality between a trissyllable and a
consecutive dissyllable foot, which the metre requires, is preserved
by adding strength to the short syllable, so as to preserve the
balance. Thus, when we say——
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