1pFFjZK

M
ARISTOTLE 75
definition of it.
* The paean
is the third rhythm, and is closely
connected with the preceding ones, having in
itself the ratio
of 3 to 2, while they have the ratios of I to i and 2 to i respectively.
The ratio of 3 to 2 is connected with both of these,
and is in jact the mean between them; and this is the ratio of
the pa-an.
While the other rhythms should be discarded, partly for
the reasons which have been already given and partly because
of their metrical character, the paean should be adopted
/;/
prose compositions, as it is the only one of the rhythms named
which cannot form a regular metre and is therefore the most
likely to escape detection. It is the fashion a wrong fashion,
as I think at the present time to use the same paean
both at the beginning and f at the end of sentences. There
are two opposite kinds of paean, of which one is suitable to the
beginning of a sentence and in fact is so it
employed;
is the
one beginning with a long syllable and ending with three short
ones, as in
AaXoyere?
or
elre Aim'ai>,
xpuo-eofcopa "E/care irai Aw.
The other, which is opposite to it, has three short syllables
at the beginning and the long syllable at the end, as
Be yav vBard T a)Kavbv ^dvL(7 vvj~.
This i< the paean which properly terminates a sentence; for
tin short syllable from its
incompleteness
has a mutilated
* It is dear. on the principle of a long syllable being equivalent t> t\\
short ones, that the parts of the spondee (__ ) or the da. tyl (_ ^ w), whieh
are the udmi-ible feet in 1
verse, have the ratio of i to i t
those of
iMilms (w_) or
t
(_ w) have the ratio of 2 to i, and tho-e
of the pa-an (_ w w ^ or \^ w ^ __) have the to a.
t It i-i
very doubtful whrther the words oi T\cvr&yrtt need be inserted
in th My says Aristotle would be likely to let them be
ly understood.