sibly throw some light upon the manner in which they pronounced by accent and quantity at the same time: for though we can sufficiently conceive that in common speaking in our own language we can make the accented syllable short, and the unaccented syllable long, as in the words qualify, specify, elbow, inmate, &c. yet in the drawling pronunciation we have been speaking of, the long unaccented vowels in these words are made much longer, and consequently more perceptible,

35. But, if the accent of our language is so different from that of the Greek and Latin, our pronunciation must necessarily be very different likewise. The acute accent of the ancients being always higher than either the preceding or succeeding syllables, and our accent, though always higher than the preceding, being sometimes lower than the succeeding syllables, -(see sect. vii.) there must certainly be a wide difference between our pronunciation and theirs. Let us, however, explain the Greek and Latin accent as we will,-let it be by singing, drawling, or common speaking,-it will be impossible to tell how a monotony could be avoided, when almost every word of more than one syllable in these languages must necessarily have ended in the same tone, or, if you will, with the same grave accent*.

36. After all, that the Greeks and Romans, in explaining the causes of metrical and prosaic harmony, should sometimes descend to such minute particulars † as appear to us trifling and

+

* Where was all that endless variety with which the moderns puff off the Greek language, when it had but one circumflex? The human voice is just as capable of falling and rising upon the same syllable as rising and falling; and why so palpable a combination of sounds as the former should be utterly unknown to the Greeks and Latins, can be resolved into nothing but (horresco referens) their ignorance of the principles of human speech.

+ Nec illi (Demostheni) turpe videbatur vel optimis relictis magistris ad canes se conferre, et ab illis f literæ vim et naturam petere, illorumque in sonando, દ quod satis esset, morem imitari.Ad. Meker. de vet. et rect. Pron. Ling.

Graca, page 14.

It

imaginary, and at the same time neglect things which appear to us so essential; that they should be so dark, and sometimes so contradictory in their account of accent and quantity, as to furnish opposite systems among the moderns, with ample quotations in favour of each;- is this more wonderful' than that Mr. Sheridan, who was so good an actor, and who had spent so much time in studying and writing on elocution, should say that accent was only a louder pronunciation of the accented syllable and not a higher? But as this same Mr. Sheridan, in his Art of Reading, has excellently observed, that our perception of

It is an observation of Chambers, author of the Cyclopædia, that nonsense sounds worse in English than in any other language: let us try the experiment by translating the above passage, Nor did Demosthenes think it below him to leave the company of the most respectable people of Athens, and go to the dogs, in order to learn from them the nature of the letter r, and, by observing the sound they gave it, to imitate, as much as was necessary, the manner of pronouncing it.

What encomiums do we meet with in Cicero, of the delicacy of the ears even of the common people of Rome; who, if an actor on the stage made the least error in accent or quantity, were immediately sensible of it, and would express their disapprobation. But I am apt to think, that an English actor, who should pronounce theatre, senátor, or conquést, with the accent on the second syllable, would not escape better than the Roman,

* "The Scotchman utters the first syllable of battle, borrow, habit, in the "middle tone, dwelling on the vowel; and the second with a sudden elevation of "the voice, and short: as ba-tle, bau-ro, ha-bit. The Englishman utters both

syllables, without any perceptible change of tone, and in equal time, as bat'tler "borrow, hab'it?"-Art of Reading, page 77.-The smallest degree of attention might have taught Mr. Sheridan, that, though this is the prevailing, it is not the invariable, pronunciation of a Scotchman; and that this clevation of voice, though more perceptible in a Scotchman from his drawling out his tones, is no less real in an Englishman, who pronounces them quicker, and uses them less frequently ; that is, he mixes the downward inflexion with them, which produces a variety. But these two inflexions of voice Mr. Sheridan was an utter stranger to.-See Elements of Elocution, part II. page 183.

Latin quantity is imaginary, and arises not from the ear, but only from association, like spelling; so it may be observed, that the confusion and obscurity which reign among all our writers on accent and quantity seem to arise from an ideal perception of long quantity produced by double consonants; from confounding stress and quantity, which are so totally different; and from mistaking loud for high, and soft for low, contrary to the clearest definitions of each *

37. But till the human voice, which is the same in all ages and nations, is more studied and better understood, and till a

sense.

* Nothing is more fallacious than that perception we seem to have of the sound of words being expressive of the ideas, and becoming, as Pope calls it, an echo to the This coincidence, as Dr. Johnson observes in one of his Ramblers, seldom exists any where but in the imagination of the reader. Dryden, who often wrote as carelessly as he thought, and often thought as carelessly as he lived, began a commendation of the sweetness, and smoothness of two lines of Denham in praise of the Thames

"Though deep yet clear, though gentle yet not dull;

Strong without rage, without o'erflowing full."

and this commendation of Dryden's has been echoed by all subsequent writers, who have taken it for granted that there is a flow in the lines similar to that of the object described; while the least attention to those stops, so necessary on the accented and antithetic words, will soon convince us, that, however expressive the lines may be, they are as rugged and as little musical as almost any in the language.

A celebrated critic observes-"I am apt to think the harmony of the verse was a 86 secret to Mr. Dryden, since it is evident he was not acquainted with the cæsural stops, by which all numbers are harmonised. Dr. Bentley has observed, the beauty of the second verse consists in the ictus that sounds on the first syllable of the verse, which, in English heroics, should sound on the second: for this verse "is derived from the Trimeter Iambic, Brachycatalectic."-Manwaring's Stich ology, page 71.

When I read such profound observations in such learned terms, it brings to my mind the Mock Doctor in the farce, who shines away to the illiterate knight, by repeating Propria quæ maribus, &c. and makes him most pathetically exclaim→→ Oh, why did I neglect my studies?

notation of speaking sounds is adopted, I despair of conveying my ideas of this subject with sufficient clearness upon paper. I have, however, marked such an outline as may be easily filled up by those who study speaking with half the attention they must do music. From an entire conviction that the ancients had a notation of speaking sounds, and from the actual experience of having formed one myself, I think I can foresee that some future philosophical inquirer, with more learning, more leisure, and more credit with the world than I have, will be able to unravel this mystery in letters, which has so long been the opprobrium et crux grammaticorum, the reproach and torment of grammarians.

ERRATA.

For Ca-o-syri-a, read Cæ-lo-syr1i-a.

For Ma-as-se-i'ah, read Ma-a-sei'ah.

After Ja'i-rus, read the orthöepial spelling Ja'e-rus, to prevent the i from being pronounced long..

THE END.

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