* Abram, or Abraham.-The first name of two syllables was the patriarch's original name, but God increased it to the second, of three syllables, as a pledge of an increase in blessing. The latter name, however, from the feebleness of the h In our pronunciation of it, and from the absence of the accent, is liable to such an hiatus, from the proximity of two similar vowels, that in the most solemn pronunciation we seldom hear this name extended to three syllables. Milton has but once pronounced it in this manner, but has six times made it only two syllables: and this may be looked upon as the general pronunciation.

* Adonai.—Labbe, says his editor, makes this a word of three syllables only; which, if once admitted, why, says he, should he dissolve the Hebrew diphthong in Sadaï, Sinai, Tolmaï, &c. and at the same time make two syllables of the diphthong in Casleu, which are commonly united into one. In this, says he, he is inconsistent with himself.-See Sinai.

* Amen.-The only simple word in the language which has necessarily two

successive accents.-Sec Critical Pronouncing Dictionary under the word.

* Anathema.-Those who are not acquainted with the profound researches, of verbal critics would be astonished to observe what waste of learning has been bestowed on this word by Labbe, in order to show that it ought to be accented on the antepenultimate syllable. This pronunciation has been adopted by English scholars; though some divines have been heard from the pulpit to give it the pe nultimate accent, which so readily unites it in a trochaic pronunciation with Maranatha, in the first Epistle of St. Paul to the Corinthians: "If any man love not "the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema maranatha.”

+ Areopagus.There is a strong propensity in English readers of the New Testament

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Testament to pronounce this word with the accent on the penultimate syllable; and even some foreign scholars have contended that it ought to be so pronounced, from its derivation from "Açɛis way, the Doric dialect for y, the fountain of Mars, which was on a hill in Athens, rather than from "Açais rayos, the hill of Mars. But Labbe very justly despises this derivation, and says, that of all the ancient writers none have said that the Areopagus was derived from a fountain, or from a country near to a fountain; but all have confessed that it came from a hill, or the summit of a rock, on which this famous court of judicature was built. Vossius tells us, that St. Augustine, De Civ. Dei, 1. x. cap. 10, calls this word pagum Martis, the village of Mars, and that he fell into this error because the Latin word pagus signifies a village or street; but, says he, the Greek word signifies a hill, which, perhaps, was so called from Taya or Tyn, (that is, fountain,) because fountains usually take their rise on hills. Wrong, however, as this derivation may be, he tells us it is adopted by no less scholars than Beza, Budæus, and Sigonius. And this may show us the uncertainty of etymology in language, and the security of general usage; but in the present case both etymology and usage conspire to place the accent on the antepenultimate syllable. Agreeably to this usage, we find the prologue to a play observe, that➡

The critics are assembled in the pit,

And form an Areopagus of wit.