10_, the student is advised to adhere to the two-measure standard; he will avoid much needless confusion by so doing,--at least until he shall have so developed and sharpened his sense of melodic syntax that he can apprehend the finer shades of distinction in the "motion and repose" of a melody.

Adopting the lower line of brackets, we discover successive members of unequal length, the first one containing two, the next one three measures.
PRELIMINARY TONES .-- It is a singularly effective and pregnant quality of the element of musical rhythm, that its operations are not bounded by the vertical bars which mark off the measures.

That is to say, a rhythmic figure (and, in consequence, a melodic figure or motive) does not necessarily extend from bar to bar, but may run from the middle (or any other point) of one measure, to the middle (or corresponding point) of the next; precisely as prosodic rhythm comprises poetic feet which begin either with an accented or with an unaccented syllable.

See Ex.
10.

Hence the significant rule, _that a melodic member may begin at any part of a measure_, upon an accented or an unaccented beat, or upon any fraction of a beat.