naturally to be expected, is a proper fubject of laughter or ridicule. On the contrary, they are always ready, with the utmost politeness, to fet people right, whenever they fall into any mistakes. But as no aid of this kind is to be expected in England, and as the rectifying bad habits depends upon our consciousness of them at the time we fall into them, and consciousness can be awaken'd only by information; all who have a mind to get rid of such bad habits, must endeavour to prevail upon their intimate friends and acquaintance, never to let any opportunity flip of putting them in mind of any fault they commit. Tho' this may eafily be complied with in private, yet as it is contrary to custom to attempt it in mixt company, a private fign agreed on will be a fufficient hint in that cafe.

LECTURE

LECTURE III.

ACCENT.

AVING treated in my former of articulation and pronuncia

tion, I come now to to confider the third article, that of Accent. The meaning of that term was very different amongst the Ancients from what it is with us. Amongst them we know that accents were marked by certain inflections of the voice like mufical notes; and the grammarians to this day, with great formality inform their pupils, that the acute accent, is the raising the voice on a certain fyllable; the grave, a depreffion of it; and the circumflex, a raising and depreffion both, in one and the fame fyllable. This jargon they conftantly preferve, tho' they have no fort of ideas annexed to these words; for if they are asked to fhew how this is to be done, they can not tell, and their practice always belies their precept. The truth is, the Ancients did obferve this distinction, because we have it on the authority of all their writers, who have treated on the subject; but the manner in which they did it must remain for ever a fecret to us; for with the living tongue, perished the tones also, which we in vain endeavour to seek for in their visible marks. fuch was the abfurdity of masters of grammar fchools on the revival of ancient literature, that tho' it was impoffible for them to discover the true ufe of the accents amongst the Greeks, rather than acknowledge their ignorance, or that thofe marks were become utterly uselefs,

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lefs, they fell into a practice as abfurd as could poffibly have entered into the heads of the most ignorant Barbarians; for obftinately and pedantically retaining the marks, notwithstanding their evident inanity, to support this practice, they determined to apply them rather to a false use, than to none at all. And finding it impoffible to come at the least knowledge of the accents as used amongst the Ancients, they determined at all events to adopt into their practice the modern use of them; tho' that term has quite a different fignification amongst us. This practice is just as wise, as if the same term which fignified man amongst the Greeks, fignified horse amongst us, and we were to reason from names to things, and conclude therefore that a horse was a rational creature. And indeed it had pretty much the fame effects in point of reading Greek, producing the most manifest absurdities. For whoever read Greek in that way, neceffarily deftroyed all quantity and measure; and therefore they were obliged to read the fame individual words in a different manner in verse, from what they did in profe. Amazing! that such an abfurdity did not at once convince them of their errour. But as fome eminent masters, of more enlarged minds, have lately abolished this practice in the chief of the public schools, and as a few editors have ventured to publish fome Greek books without those infignificant marks, it is to be hoped that a reformation in this article will foon be made general.

THUS much I thought neceffary to premife, that any person who has early imbibed confused notions of the term accent in the ancient languages, may banish them from his mind, and only be prepared to confider what the use of it is amongst us..

THE term with them, fignified certain inflexions of the voice, or notes annexed to certain fyllables, in fuch proportions as probably contributed

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contributed to make their speech musical. Of these they had chiefly three in general use, which were denominated accents, and the term used in the plural number.

THE term with us has no reference to inflexions of the voice, or mufical notes, but only means a peculiar manner of distinguishing one fyllable of a word from the reft, denominated by us accent; and the term for that reafon used by us in the fingular number.

THIS diftinction is made by us in two ways; either by dwelling longer upon one fyllable than the reft; or by giving it a smarter percuffion of the voice in utterance. Of the first of thefe, we have inftances in the words, glory, father, bōly; of the last, in BATTLE, HABIT, BOR'ROW. So that accent, with us, is not referred to tune, but to time; to quantity, not quality; to the more equable or precipitatè motion of the voice, not to the variation of notes or inflexions. These have nothing to do with words feparately taken, and are only made use of, to enforce, or adorn them, when they are rang

ed in fentences.

It is by the accent chiefly that the quantity of our fyllables is regulated; but not according to the mistaken rule laid down by all who have written on the subject, that the accent always makes the fyllable long; than which there can not be any thing more falfe. For the two ways of distinguishing fyllables by accent, as mentioned before, are directly opposite, and produce quite contrary effects; the one, by dwelling on the fyllable, neceffarily makes it long; the other, by the smart percuffion of the voice, as neceffarily makes it fhort. Thus the firft fyllables in glory, father, holy are long; whilst those in battle, hăbit, borrow are short. The quantity depends upon the feat of the accent, whether it be on the vowel or confonant;

G

confonant; if on the vowel, the fyllable is neceffarily long; as it makes the vowel long: if on the confonant, it may be either long, or short, according to the nature of the confonant, or the time taken up in dwelling upon it. If the confonant be in its nature a fhort one, the fyllable is neceffarily short. If it be a long one, that is, one whofe found is capable of being lengthened, it may be long or fhort at the will of the fpeaker.

By a fhort confonant I mean one whofe found can not be continued after a vowel, fuch as c or 'k p t, as ac, ap, at whilft that of long confonants can, as, el em en er ev, &c. If we change the feat of the accent in the inftances before mentioned we fhould change their quantity; were we inftead of GLO-RY to fay GLOR ́-Y—instead of FA-THER FAT'H-ER-instead of HO-LY HOL-Y-the first syllables would become fhort-as on the other hand, were we to dwell on the vowels inftead of the confonants in the laft inftances they would change from short to long-should we for instance instead of bat'tle fay battle-for ha-`bit hábit-and for borrow borrow. This is one of the chief fources of the difference between the Scotch and English gentlemen in the pronunciation of English; I mean, the laying the accent on the vowel, instead of the confonant, by which means they make fyllables long, that are short with us.

AND here I can not help taking notice of a circumstance, which fhews in the strongest light, the amazing deficiency of those, who have hitherto employed their labours on that subject, in point of knowledge of the true genius and constitution of our tongue. Several of the compilers of dictionaries, vocabularies, and spelling books, have undertaken to mark the accents of our words; but fo little acquainted were they with the nature of our accent, that they thought it neceffary only to mark the fyllable on which the stress is to be laid, without

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