Chapter CLXXXVIII: Appendix: IV (12)

(4.) "_Quantity_ is the Length or Shortness of Syllables; and the Proportion, generally speaking, betwixt a long and [a] short Syllable, is two to one; as in _Music_, two _Quavers_ to one _Crotchet_.--_Accent_ is the _rising_ and _falling_ of the Voice, above or under its usual Tone, but an Art of which we have little Use, and know less, in the _English_ Tongue; nor are we like to improve our Knowledge in this Particular, unless the Art of _Delivery_ or _Utterance_ were a little more study'd."--_Brightland's Gram._, p. 156.

(5.) "ACCENT, s. m. (_inflexion_ de la voix.) Accent, _tone_, pronunciation."--_Nouveau Dictionnaire Universel_, 4to, Tome Premier, sous le mot _Accent_.

"ACCENT, _subst._ (_tone_ or _inflection_ of the voice.) Accent, _ton_ ou _inflexion_ de voix."--_Same Work, Garner's New Universal Dictionary_, 4to, under the word _Accent_.

(6.) "The word _accent_ is derived from the Latin language and signifies _the tone of the voice_."--_Parker and Fox's English Gram._, Part III, p. 32.

(7.) "The unity of the word consists in the _tone or accent_, which binds together the two parts of the composition."--_Fowler's E. Gram._, §360.

(8.) "The accent of the ancients is the opprobrium of modern criticism. Nothing can show more evidently the fallibility of the human faculties, than the _total ignorance_ we are in at present of the nature of the Latin and Greek accent."--_Walker's Principles_, No. 486; Dict., p. 53.

(9.) "It is not surprising, that the accent and quantity of the ancients should be so obscure and mysterious, when two such learned men of our own nation as Mr. Foster and Dr. Gaily, differ about the very existence of quantity in our own language."--_Walker's Observations on Accent_, &c.; Key, p. 311.

(10.) "What these accents are has puzzled the learned so much that they seem neither to understand each other nor themselves."--_Walker's Octavo Dict., w. Barytone_.

(11.) "The ancients designated the _pitch_ of vocal sounds by the term _accent_; making three kinds of accents, the acute (é), the grave (è), and the circumflex (ê), which signified severally the rise, the fall, and the turn of the voice, or union of acute and grave on the same syllable."--_Sargent's Standard Speaker_, p. 18.

[460] "Interrogatio, Græcè _Erotema_, Accentum quoque transfert; ut, Ter. _Siccine ais Parmenó?_ Voss. Susenbr."--_Prat's Latin Grammar_, 8vo, Part II, p. 190.

[461] In regard to the admission of a comma before the verb, by the foregoing exception, neither the practice of authors nor the doctrine of punctuators is entirely uniform; but, where a considerable pause is, and must be, made in the reading, I judge it not only allowable, but necessary, to mark it in writing. In W. Day's "Punctuation Reduced to a System," a work of no inconsiderable merit, this principle is disallowed; and even when the adjunct of the nominative is a _relative clause_, which, by Rule 2d below and its first exception, requires a comma after it but none before it, this author excludes both, putting no comma before the principal verb. The following is an example: "But it frequently happens, that punctuation is not made a prominent exercise in schools; and the brief _manner_ in which the subject is there dismissed _has proved_ insufficient to impress upon the minds of youth a due sense of its importance."--_Day's Punctuation_, p. 32. A pupil of mine would here have put a comma after the word _dismissed_. So, in the following examples, after _sake_, and after _dispenses_: "The _vanity_ that would accept power for its own sake _is_ the pettiest of human passions."--_Ib._, p. 75. "The generous _delight_ of beholding the happiness he dispenses _is_ the highest enjoyment of man."--_Ib._, p, 100.

[462] When several nominatives are connected, some authors and printers put the comma only where the conjunction is omitted. W. Day separates them all, one from an other; but after the last, when this is singular before a plural verb, he inserts no point. Example: "Imagination is one of the principal ingredients which enter into the complex idea of genius; but _judgment, memory, understanding, enthusiasm_, and _sensibility_ are also included."--_Day's Punctuation_, p. 52. If the points are to be put where the pauses naturally occur, here should be a comma after _sensibility_; and, if I mistake not, it would be more consonant with current usage to set one there. John Wilson, however, in a later work, which is for the most part a very good one, prefers the doctrine of Day, as in the following instance: "_Reputation, virtue_, and _happiness_ depend greatly on the choice of companions."--_Wilson's Treatise on Punctuation_, p. 30.

[463] Some printers, and likewise some authors, suppose a series of words to require the comma, only where the conjunction is suppressed. This is certainly a great error. It gives us such punctuation as comports neither with the _sense_ of three or more words in the same construction, nor with the _pauses_ which they require in reading. "John, James and Thomas are here," is a sentence which plainly tells John that James and Thomas are here; and which, if read according to this pointing, cannot possibly have any other meaning. Yet this is the way in which the rules of _Cooper, Felton, Frost, Webster_, and perhaps others, teach us to point it, when we mean to tell somebody else that all three are here! In his pretended "Abridgment of Murray's English Grammar," (a work abounding in small thefts from Brown's Institutes,) Cooper has the following example: "John, James or Joseph intends to accompany me."--Page 120. Here, John being addressed, the punctuation is right; but, to make this noun a nominative to the verb, a comma must be put after _each of the others_. In Cooper's "Plain and Practical Grammar," the passage is found in this form: "John, James, or Joseph intends to accompany us."--Page 132. This pointing is doubly wrong; because it is adapted to neither sense. If the three nouns have the same construction, the principal pause will be immediately before the verb; and surely a comma is as much required by that pause, as by the second. See the Note on Rule 3d, above.

[464] In punctuation, the grammar here cited is unaccountably defective. This is the more strange, because many of its errors are mere perversions of what was accurately pointed by an other hand. On the page above referred to, Dr. Bullions, in copying from Lennie's syntactical exercises _a dozen consecutive lines_, has omitted _nine needful commas_, which Lennie had been careful to insert!

[465] Needless abbreviations, like most that occur in this example, are in _bad taste_, and _ought to be avoided_. The great faultiness of this text as a model for learners, compels me to vary the words considerably in suggesting the correction. See the _Key_.--G. B.

[466] "To be, or not to be?--that's the question."--_Hallock's Gram._, p. 220. "To be, or not to be, that is the question."--_Singer's Shak._, ii. 488. "To be, or not to be; that is the Question."--_Ward's Gram._, p 160. "To be, or not to be, that is the Question."--_Brightland's Gram._, p 209. "To be, or not to be?"--_Mandeville's Course of Reading_, p. 141. "To be or not to be! That is the question."--_Pinneo's Gram._, p. 176. "To _be_--or _not_ to be--_that_ is the question--"--_Burgh's Speaker_, p. 179.

[467] In the works of some of our older poets, the apostrophe is sometimes irregularly inserted, and perhaps needlessly, to mark a prosodial synsæresis, or synalepha, where no letter is cut off or left out; as,

"Retire, or taste thy _folly'_, and learn by proof,
Hell-born, not to contend with _spir'its_ of Heaven."
--_Milton, P. L._, ii, 686.

In the following example, it seems to denote nothing more than the open or long sound of the preceding vowel _e_:

"That sleep and feeding may prorogue his honour,
Even till a _lethe'd_ dulness."
--_Singer's Shakspeare_, Vol. ii, p. 280.

[468] The breve is properly a mark of _short quantity_, only when it is set over an unaccented syllable or an unemphatic monosyllable, as it often is in the scanning of verses. In the examples above, it marks the close or short power of the _vowels_; but, _under the accent_, even this power may become part of a _long syllable_; as it does in the word _rav´en_, where the syllable _rav_, having twice the length of that which follows, must be reckoned _long_. In poetry, _r=av-en_ and _r=a-ven_ are both _trochees_, the former syllable in each being long, and the latter short.

[469] 1. The signs of long and short sounds, and especially of the former, have been singularly slow in acquiring _appropriate names_--or any appellatives suited to their nature, or such as could obtain the sanction of general use. The name _breve_, from the French _brève_, (which latter word came, doubtless, originally from the neuter of the Latin adjective _brevis_, short,) is now pretty generally applied to the one; and the Greek term _macron_, long, (also originally a neuter adjective,) is perhaps as common as any name for the other. But these are not quite so well adapted to each other, and to the things named, as are the substitutes added above.

2. These signs are explained in our grammars under various names, and often very unfit ones, to say the least; and, in many instances, their use is, in some way, awkwardly stated, without any attempt to name them, or more than one, if either. The Rev. T. Smith names them "Long (=), and Short (~)."--_Smith's Murray_, p. 72. Churchill calls them "The _long_ = and the _short_ ~."--_New Gram._, p. 170. Gould calls them "a horizontal line" and "a curved line."--_Gould's Adam's Gram._, p. 3. Coar says, "Quantity is distinguished by the characters of - long, and ~ short."--_Eng. Gram._, p. 197. But, in speaking of the _signs_, he calls them, "_A long syllable_ =," and "_A short syllable_ ~."--_Gram._, pp. 222 and 228. S. S. Greene calls them "the _long sound_," and "the _breve_ or _short sound_."--_Gram._, p. 257. W. Allen says, "The _long-syllable mark_, (=) and the _breve_, or _short-syllable mark_, (~) denote the quantity of _words_ poetically employed."--_Gram._, p. 215. Some call them "the _Long Accent_," and "the _Short Accent_;" as does _Guy's Gram._, p. 95. This naming seems to confound accent with quantity. By some, the _Macron_ is improperly called "a _Dash_;" as by _Lennie_, p. 137; by _Bullions_, p. 157; by _Hiley_, p. 123; by _Butler_, p. 215. Some call it "a _small dash_;" as does _Well's_, p. 183; so _Hiley_, p. 117. By some it is absurdly named "_Hyphen_;" as by _Buchanan_, p. 162; by _Alden_, p. 165; by _Chandler_, 183; by _Parker and Fox_, iii, 36; by _Jaudon_, 193. Sanborn calls it "the _hyphen_, or _macron_."--_Analyt. Gr._, p. 279. Many, who name it not, introduce it to their readers by a "_this_ =," or "_thus_ ~;" as do _Alger, Blair, Dr. Adam, Comly, Cooper, Ingersoll, L. Murray, Sanders, Wright_, and others!

[470] "As soon as language proceeds, from mere _articulation_, to coherency, and connection, _accent_ becomes the guide of the voice. It is founded upon an obscure perception of symmetry, and proportion, between the different sounds that are uttered."--_Noehden's Grammar of the German Language_, p. 66.

[471] According to Johnson, Walker, Webster, Worcester, and perhaps all other lexicographers, _Quantity_, in grammar, is--"The measure of _time_ in pronouncing a _syllable_." And, to this main idea, are conformed, so far as I know, all the different definitions ever given of it by grammarians and critics, except that which appeared in Asa Humphrey's English Prosody, published in 1847. In this work--the most elaborate and the most comprehensive, though not the most accurate or consistent treatise we have on the subject--_Time_ and _Quantity_ are explained separately, as being "_two distinct things_;" and the latter is supposed not to have regard to _duration_, but solely to the _amount_ of sound given to each syllable.

This is not only a fanciful distinction, but a radical innovation--and one which, in any view, has little to recommend it. The author's explanations of both _time_ and _quantity_--of their characteristics, differences, and subdivisions--of their relations to each other, to poetic numbers, to emphasis and cadence, or to accent and non-accent--as well as his derivation and history of "these technical terms, _time_ and _quantity_"--are hardly just or clear enough to be satisfactory. According to his theory, "Poetic numbers are composed of _long_ and _short_ syllables alternately;" (page 5;) but the difference or proportion between the times of these classes of syllables he holds to be _indeterminable_, "because their lengths are various." He began with destroying the proper distinction of quantity, or time, as being _either long or short_, by the useless recognition of an indefinite number of "_intermediate lengths_;" saying of our syllables at large, "some are LONG, some SHORT, and some are of INTERMEDIATE LENGTHS; as, _mat, not, con_, &c. are short sounds; _mate, note, cone_, and _grave_ are long. Some of our diphthongal sounds are LONGER STILL; as, _voice, noise, sound, bound_, &c. OTHERS are seen to be of INTERMEDIATE _lengths_."--_Humphrey's Prosody_, p. 4.

On a scheme like this, it must evidently be impossible to determine, with any certainty, either what syllables are _long_ and what _short_, or what is the difference or ratio between _any two_ of the innumerable "lengths" of that time, or quantity, which is _long, short, variously intermediate_, or _longer still_, and again _variously intermediate_! No marvel then that the ingenious author scans some lines in a manner peculiar to himself.

[472] It was the doctrine of Sheridan, and perhaps of our old lexicographers in general, that no English word can have more than one _full accent_; but, in some modern dictionaries, as Bolles's, and Worcester's, many words are marked as if they had two; and a few are given by Bolles's as having three. Sheridan erroneously affirmed, that "_every word_ has an accent," even "all monosyllables, the particles alone excepted."--_Lecture on Elocution_, pp. 61 and 71. And again, yet more erroneously: "The _essence_ of English words consisting in accent, as that of syllables in articulation; we know that there are _as many syllables as we hear articulate sounds_, and _as many words as we hear accents_."-- _Ib._, p. 70. Yet he had said before, in the same lecture: "The longer polysyllables, have frequently _two accents_, but one is so much stronger than the other, as to shew that it is but one word; and the inferior accent is always less forcible, than any accent that is the single one in a word."--_Ib._, p. 31. Wells defines accent as if it might lie on _many_ syllables of a word; but, in his examples, he places it on no more than one: "_Accent_ is _the stress_ which is laid on _one or more syllables_ of a word, in pronunciation; as, re_ver_berate, under_take_."--_Wells's School Gram._, p. 185. According to this loose definition, he might as well have accented at least one other syllable in each of these examples; for there seems, certainly, to be some little stress on _ate_ and _un_. For sundry other definitions of accent, see Chap. IV, Section 2d, of _Versification_; and the marginal note referring to Obs. 1st on _Prosody_.

[473] According to Dr. Rush, Emphasis is--"a stress of voice on one or more words of a sentence, distinguishing them by intensity or peculiarity of meaning."--_Philosophy of the Voice_, p. 282. Again, he defines thus: "Accent is the fixed but inexpressive distinction of syllables _by quantity and stress_: alike both in place and nature, whether the words are pronounced singly from the columns of a vocabulary, or connectedly in the series of discourse. _Emphasis_ may be defined to be the _expressive_ but occasional distinction of a syllable, and consequently of the whole word, by one or more of the specific modes of _time, quality, force_, or _pitch_."--_Ibid._

[474] 1. This doctrine, though true in its main intent, and especially applicable to the poetic quantity of _monosyllables_, (the class of words most frequently used in English poetry,) is, perhaps, rather too strongly stated by Murray; because it agrees not with other statements of his, concerning the power of _accent_ over quantity; and because the effect of accent, as a "regulator of quantity," _may_, on the whole, be as great as that of emphasis. Sheridan contradicts himself yet more pointedly on this subject; and his discrepancies may have been the efficients of Murray's. "The _quantity_ of our syllables is perpetually varying with the sense, and is _for the most part regulated by_ EMPHASIS."--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram._, p. 65. Again: "It is by the ACCENT _chiefly_ that the _quantity_ of our syllables is regulated."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution_, p. 57. See Chap. IV, Sec. 2d, Obs. 1; and marginal note on Obs. 8.

2. Some writers erroneously confound _emphasis_ with _accent_; especially those who make accent, and not quantity, the foundation of verse. Contrary to common usage, and to his own definition of accent, Wells takes it upon him to say, "The term _accent_ is also applied, in poetry, to the stress laid on monosyllabic words; as,

'Content is _wealth, the riches of the mind.'--Dryden_."
--_Wells's School Grammar_, p. 185.

It does not appear that stress laid on monosyllables is any more fitly termed accent, when it occurs in the reading of poetry, than when in the utterance of prose. Churchill, who makes no such distinction, thinks accent essential alike to emphasis and to the quantity of a long vowel, and yet, as regards monosyllables, dependent on them both! His words are these: "Monosyllables are sometimes accented, sometimes not. This depends chiefly on _their_ being _more or less emphatic_; and on the vowel _sound_ being _long or short_. We cannot give _emphasis_ to any word, or it's [_its_] proper duration to a _long vowel_, without _accenting_ it."--_Churchill's New Gram._, p. 182.

[475] Not only are these inflections denoted occasionally by the accentual marks, but they are sometimes expressly _identified with accents_, being called by that name. This practice, however, is plainly objectionable. It confounds things known to be different,--mere stress with elevation or depression,--and may lead to the supposition, that to accent a syllable, is to inflect the voice upon it. Such indeed has been the guess of many concerning the nature of Greek and Latin accents, but of the English accent, the common idea is, that it is only a greater force distinguishing some one syllable of a word from the rest. Walker, however, in the strange account he gives in his Key, of "what we mean by _the accent and quantity_ of our own language," charges this current opinion with error, dissenting from Sheridan and Nares, who held it; and, having asserted, that, "in speaking, the voice is continually _sliding_ upwards or downwards," proceeds to contradict himself thus: "As high and low, loud and soft, forcible and feeble, are comparative terms, words of one syllable pronounced alone, and without relation to other words or syllables, _cannot be said to have any_ ACCENT. The only distinction to which such words are liable, is an _elevation or depression_ of voice, when we compare the beginning with the end of the word or syllable. Thus a monosyllable, considered singly, rises from a lower to a higher tone in the question _Nó? which_ may therefore be called _the acute_ ACCENT: and falls from a higher to a lower tone upon the same word in the answer _Nò, which_ may therefore be called _the grave_ [ACCENT]."--_Walker's Key_, p. 316. Thus he tells of different accents on "_a monosyllable_," which, by his own showing, "cannot be said to have any accent"! and others read and copy the text with as little suspicion of its inconsistency! See _Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary_, p. 934.

[476] In Humphrey's English Prosody, _cadence_ is taken for the reverse of _accent_, and is obviously identified or confounded with _short quantity_, or what the author inclines to call "_small_ quantity." He defines it as follows: "Cadence is the reverse or counterpart _to_ accent; a falling or depression of voice on syllables unaccented: _and by which_ the sound is shortened and depressed."--P. 3. This is not exactly what is generally understood by the word _cadence_. Lord Kames also contrasts _cadence_ with _accent_; but, by the latter term, he seems to have meant something different from our ordinary accent. "Sometimes to humour the sense," says he, "and sometimes the melody, a particular syllable is sounded _in a higher tone_; and this is termed _accenting a syllable_, or gracing it with an accent. Opposed to the accent, is the _cadence_, which I have not mentioned as one of the requisites of verse, because it is entirely regulated by the sense, and hath no peculiar relation to verse."--_Elements of Criticism_, Vol. ii, p. 78.

[477] The Latin term, (made plural to agree with _verba, words_,) is _subaudita, underheard_--the perfect participle of _subaudio_, to _underhear_. Hence the noun, _subauditio, subaudition_, the recognition of ellipses.

[478] "Thus, in the Proverbs of all Languages, many Words are usually left to be supplied from the trite obvious Nature of what they express; as, _out of Sight out of Mind; the more the merrier_, &c."--_W. Ward's Pract. Gram._, p. 147.

[479] Lindley Murray and some others say, "As _the ellipsis occurs in almost every sentence in the English language_, numerous examples of it might be given."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 220; _Weld's_, 292; _Fisk's_, 147. They could, without doubt, have exhibited many true specimens of Ellipsis; but most of those which they have given, are only fanciful and false ones; and their notion of the frequency of the figure, is monstrously hyperbolical.

[480] Who besides Webster has called syllepsis "_substitution_," I do not know. _Substitution_ and _conception_ are terms of quite different import, and many authors have explained syllepsis by the latter word. Dr. Webster gives to "SUBSTITUTION" two meanings, thus: "1. The act of putting one person or thing in the _place_ of another to _supply_ [his or] _its_ place.--2. In _grammar_, syllepsis, or the use of one word for another."--_American Dict._, 8vo. This explanation seems to me inaccurate; because it confounds both substitution and syllepsis with _enallage_. It has signs of carelessness throughout; the former sentence being both tautological and ungrammatical.--G. B.

[481] Between Tropes and Figures, some writers attempt a full distinction; but this, if practicable, is of little use. According to Holmes, "TROPES affect only single _Words_; but FIGURES, whole _Sentences_."--_Rhetoric_, B. i, p. 28. "The CHIEF TROPES in Language," says this author, "are seven; a _Metaphor_, an _Allegory_, a _Metonymy_, a _Synecdoche_, an _Irony_, an _Hyperbole_, and a _Catachresis_."--_Ib._, p. 30. The term _Figure_ or _Figures_ is more comprehensive than _Trope_ or _Tropes_; I have therefore not thought it expedient to make much use of the latter, in either the singular or the plural form. Holmes's seven tropes are all of them defined in the main text of this section, except _Catachresis_, which is commonly explained to be "an _abuse_ of a trope." According to this sense, it seems in general to differ but little from impropriety. At best, a Catachresis is a forced expression, though sometimes, perhaps, to be indulged where there is great excitement. It is a sort of figure by which a word is used in a sense different from, yet connected with, or analogous to, its own; as,

"And pity, like a naked new-born babe,
Striding the blast, as heaven's cherubim
_Hors'd_ upon the sightless _couriers_ of the air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
That tears shall drown the wind."--_Shak., Macbeth_, Act i, Sc. 7.

[482] Holmes, in his Art of Rhetoric, writes this word "_Paraleipsis_" retaining the Greek orthography. So does Fowler in his recent "English Grammar," §646. Webster, Adam, and some others, write it "_Paralepsis_." I write it as above on the authority of Littleton, Ainsworth, and some others; and this is according to the analogy of the kindred word _ellipsis_, which we never write either _ellepsis_, or, as the Greek, _elleipsis_.

[483] To this principle there seems to be now and then an exception, as when a weak dissyllable begins a foot in an anapestic line, as in the following examples:--

"I think--let me see--yes, it is, I declare,
As long _ago now_ as that Buckingham there."--_Leigh Hunt_.

"And Thomson, though best in his indolent fits,
Either slept himself weary, or blasted his wits."--_Id._

Here, if we reckon the feet in question to be anapests, we have dissyllables with both parts short. But some, accenting "_ago_" on the latter syllable, and "_Either_" on the former, will call "_ago now_" a bacchy, and "_Either slept_" an amphimac: because _they make them such_ by their manner of reading.--G. B.

[484] "Edgar A. Poe, the author, died at Baltimore on Sunday" [the 7th].--_Daily Evening Traveller_, Boston Oct. 9, 1849. This was eight or ten months after the writing of these observations.--G. B.

[485] "Versification is the art of arranging words into lines of correspondent length, so as to produce harmony by the regular alternation of syllables differing in quantity"--_Brown's Institutes of E. Gram._, p. 235.

[486] This appears to be an error; for, according to Dilworth, and other arithmeticians, "_a unit is a number_;" and so is it expounded by Johnson, Walker, Webster, and Worcester. See, in the _Introduction_, a note at the foot of p. 117. Mulligan, however, contends still, that _one is no number_; and that, "to talk of the _singular number_ is absurd--a contradiction in terms;"--because, "in common discourse," a "_number_" is "always a _plurality_, except"--when it is "_number one_!"--See _Grammatical Structure of the E. Language_, §33. Some prosodists have taught the absurdity, that two feet are necessary to constitute _a metre_, and have accordingly applied the terms, _monometer, dimeter, trimeter, tetrameter, pentameter_, and _hexameter_,--or so many of them as they _could so misapply_,--in a sense very different from the usual acceptation. The proper principle is, that, "One foot constitutes a metre."--_Dr. P. Wilson's Greek Prosody_, p. 53. And verses are to be denominated _Monometer, Dimeter, Trimeter_, &c., according to "THE NUMBER OF FEET."--See _ib._ p. 6. But Worcester's Universal and Critical Dictionary has the following not very consistent explanations: "MONOMETER, _n._ One metre. _Beck_. DIMETER, _n._ A poetic measure of _four feet_; a _series of two_ meters. _Beck_. TRIMETER, _a_. Consisting of three poetical _measures_, forming an _iambic_ of _six feet_. _Tyrwhitt_. TETRAMETER, _n._ A Latin or Greek verse consisting of _four feet_; a series of four metres. TETRAMETER, _a_. Having _four_ metrical _feet_. _Tyrwhitt_. PENTAMETER, _n._ A Greek or Latin verse of _five feet_; a series of five metres. PENTAMETER, _a_. Having _five_ metrical _feet_. _Warton_. HEXAMETER, _n._ A verse or line of poetry, having _six feet_, either dactyls or spondees; the heroic, and most important, verse among the Greeks and Romans;--a rhythmical series of six metres. HEXAMETER, _a_. Having _six_ metrical _feet_. _Dr. Warton_." According to these definitions, Dimeter has as many feet as Tetrameter; and Trimeter has as many as Hexameter!

[487] It is common, at any rate, for prosodists to speak of "the _movement_ of the voice," as do Sheridan, Murray, Humphrey, and Everett; but Kames, in treating of the Beauty of Language from Resemblance, says "There is _no resemblance_ of sound to motion, nor of sound to sentiment."--_Elements of Criticism_, Vol. ii, p. 63. This usage, however, is admitted by the critic, had cited to show how, "causes that have no resemblance may produce resembling effects."--_Ib._ 64. "By a number of syllables in succession, an emotion is sometimes raised extremely similar to that raised by successive motion: which may be evident even to those who are defective in taste, from the following fact, that the term _movement_ in all languages is equally applied to both."--_Ib._ ii. 66.

[488] "From what has been said of accent and quantity in our own language, we may conclude them to be essentially distinct _and perfectly separable_: nor is it to be doubted that they were _equally separable_ in the learned languages."--_Walkers's Observations on Gr. and Lat. Accent and Quantity_, §20; Key, p. 326. In the speculative essay here cited, Walker meant by _accent_ the rising or the falling _inflection_,--an upward or a downward _slide_ of the voice: and by _quantity_, nothing but the open or close sound of some vowel; as of "the _a_ in _scatter_" and in "_skater_," the initial syllables of which words be supposed to differ in quantity as much as any two syllables can!--_Ib._, §24; Key, p. 331. With these views _of the things_, it is perhaps the less to be wondered at, that Walker, who appears to have been a candid and courteous writer, charges "that excellent scholar Mr. Forster--with a _total ignorance_ of the accent and quantity of his own language," (_Ib., Note on §8_; Key, p. 317;) and, in regard to accent, ancient or modern, elsewhere confesses his own ignorance, and that of every body else, to be _as_ "_total_." See marginal note on Obs. 4th below.

[489] (1.) "We shall now take a view of sounds when united into _syllables_. Here a beautiful variation of _quantity_ presents itself as the next object of our attention. The knowledge of _long_ and _short_ syllables, is the most excellent and most neglected quality in the whole art of pronunciation.

The disputes of our modern writers on this subject, have arisen chiefly from an absurd notion that has long prevailed; viz. that there is no difference between the _accent_ and the _quantity_, in the English language; that the accented syllables are always _long_, and the unaccented always _short_.

An absurdity so glaring, does not need refutation. Pronounce any one line from Milton, and the ear will determine whether or not the accent and quantity always coincide. Very seldom they do."--HERRIES: _Bicknell's Gram._, Part ii, p. 108.

(2.) "Some of our Moderns (especially Mr. _Bishe_, in his _Art of Poetry_) and lately Mr. _Mattaire_, in what he calls, _The English Grammar_, erroneously use _Accent_ for _Quantity_, one signifying the Length or Shortness of a Syllable, the other the raising or falling of the Voice in _Discourse_."--_Brightland's Gram._, London, 1746, p. 156.

(3.) "Tempus cum accentu a nonnullis malè confunditur; quasi idem sit acui et produci. Cum brevis autem syllaba acuitur, elevatur quidem vox in eà proferendà, sed tempus non augetur. Sic in voce _hominibus_ acuitur _mi_; at _ni_ quæ sequitur, æquam in efferendo moram postulat."--_Lily's Gram._, p. 125. Version: "By some persons, _time_ is improperly confounded with _accent_; as if to acute and to lengthen were the same. But when a short syllable is acuted, the voice indeed is raised in pronouncing it, but the time is not increased. Thus, in the word _hominibus, mi_ as the acute accent; but _ni_, which follows, demands equal slowness in the pronunciation." To English ears, this can hardly seem a correct representation; for, in pronouncing _hominibus_, it is not _mi_, but _min_, that we accent; and this syllable is manifestly as much longer than the rest, as it is louder.

[490] (1.) "Syllables, with respect to their _quantity_, are either _long, short_, or _common_."--_Gould's Adam's Lat. Gram._, p. 243. "Some syllables are _common_; that is, sometimes long, and sometimes short."--_Adam's Lat. and Eng. Gram._, p. 252. _Common_ is here put for _variable_, or _not permanently settled in respect to quantity_: in this sense, from which no third species ought to be inferred, our language is, perhaps, more extensively "_common_" than any other.

(2.) "Most of our Monosyllables either take this Stress or not, according as they are more or less emphatical; and therefore English Words of one Syllable may be considered as _common_; i.e. either as long or short in certain Situations. These Situations are chiefly determined by the Pause, or Cesure, of the Verse, and this Pause by the Sense. And as the English abounds in Monosyllables, there is probably no Language in which the Quantity of Syllables is more regulated by the Sense than in English."--_W. Ward's Gram._, Ed. of 1765, p. 156.

(3.) Bicknell's theory of quantity, for which he refers to Herries, is this: "The English _quantity_ is divided into _long, short_, and _common_. The longest species of syllables are those that end in a vowel, and are under the accent; as, _mo_ in har_mo_nious, _sole_ in con_sole_, &c. When a monosyllable, which is unemphatic, ends in a vowel, it is always short; but when the emphasis is placed upon it, it is always long. _Short_ syllables are such as end in any of the six mutes; as cu_t_, sto_p_, ra_p_i_d_, ru_g_ge_d_, lo_ck_. In _all such syllables_ the sound cannot be lengthened: they are necessarily and invariably _short_. If another consonant intervenes between the vowel and mute, as re_nd_, so_ft_, fla_sk_, the syllable is rendered _somewhat longer_. The other species of syllables called _common_, are such as terminate in a half-vowel or aspirate. For instance, in the words ru_n_, swi_m_, cru_sh_, pu_rl_, the concluding sound can be continued or shortened, as we please. This scheme of quantity," it is added, "is founded on fact and experience."--_Bicknell's Gram._, Part ii, p. 109. But is it not a _fact_, that such words as _cuttest, stopping, rapid, rugged_, are _trochees_, in verse? and is not _unlock_ an _iambus_? And what becomes of syllables that end with vowels or liquids and are not accented?

[491] I do not say the mere absence of stress is _never_ called _accent_; for it is, plainly, the doctrine of some authors that the English accent differs not at all in its nature from the accent of the ancient Greeks or Romans, which was distinguished as being of three sorts, _acute, grave, inflex_; that "the stronger breathing, or higher sound," which distinguishes one syllable of a word from or above the rest, is _the acute accent_ only; that "the softer breathing, or lower sound," which belongs to an _unacuted_ (or _unaccented_) syllable, is _the grave accent_; and that a combination of these two sounds, or "breathings," upon one syllable, constitutes the _inflex or circumflex accent_. Such, I think, is the teaching of Rev. William Barnes; who further says, "English verse is constructed upon sundry orders of _acute and grave accents_ and matchings of rhymes, while the poetic language of the Romans and Greeks is formed upon rules of the sundry clusterings of _long and short syllables_."--_Philological Grammar_, p. 263. This scheme is not wholly consistent, because the author explains accent or accents as being applicable only to "words of two or more syllables;" and it is plain, that the accent which includes the three sorts above, must needs be "some other thing than what we call accent," if this includes only the acute.

[492] Sheridan used the same comparison, "To illustrate the difference between the accent of the ancients and that of _ours_" [our tongue]. Our accent he supposed, with Nares and others, to have "no reference to _inflections_ of the voice."--See _Art of Reading_, p. 75; _Lectures on Elocution_, p. 56; _Walker's Key_, p. 313.

[493] (1.) It may in some measure account for these remarkable omissions, to observe that Walker, in his lexicography, followed Johnson in almost every thing but pronunciation. On this latter subject, his own authority is perhaps as great as that of any single author. And here I am led to introduce a remark or two touching _the accent and quantity_ with which he was chiefly concerned; though the suggestions may have no immediate connexion with the error of confounding these properties.

(2.) Walker, in his theory, regarded the _inflections_ of the voice as pertaining to _accent_, and as affording a satisfactory solution of the difficulties in which this subject has been involved; but, as an English orthoëpist, he treats of accent in no other sense, than as _stress laid on a particular syllable of a word_--a sense implying contrast, and necessarily dividing all syllables into accented and unaccented, except monosyllables. Having acknowledged our "_total ignorance_ of the nature of the Latin and Greek accent," he adds: "The accent of the English language, which is constantly sounding in our ears, and every moment open to investigation, seems _as much a mystery_ as that accent which is removed almost two thousand years from our view. Obscurity, perplexity, and confusion, run through every treatise on the subject, and nothing could be so hopeless as an attempt to explain it, did not a circumstance present itself, which at once accounts for the confusion, and affords a clew to lead us out of it. Not one writer on accent has given such a definition of the voice as acquaints us with its essential properties. * * * But let us once divide the voice into its rising and falling inflections, the obscurity vanishes, and accent becomes as intelligible as any other part of language. * * * On the present occasion it will be sufficient to observe, that _the stress we call accent_ is as well understood as is necessary for the pronunciation of single words, which is the object of this treatise."--_Walker's Dict._, p. 53, _Princip._ 486, 487, 488.

(3.) Afterwards, on introducing _quantity_, as an orthoëpical topic, he has the following remark: "In treating this part of pronunciation, it will not be necessary to enter into the nature of _that quantity which constitutes poetry_; the quantity here considered will be that which relates to words taken singly; and this is _nothing more than the length or shortness of the vowels_, either as they stand alone, or as they are differently combined with the vowels or consonants." _Ib._, p. 62, _Princip._ 529. Here is suggested a distinction which has not been so well observed by grammarians and prosodists, or even by Walker himself, as it ought to have been. So long as the practice continues of denominating certain mere _vowel sounds_ the _long_ and the _short_, it will be very necessary to notice that these are not the same as the _syllabic quantities_, long and short, which constitute English verse.

[494] (1.) In the Latin and Greek languages, this is not commonly supposed to be the case; but, on the contrary, the quantity of syllables is professedly adjusted by its own rules independently of what we call accent; and, in our English pronunciation of these languages, the accentuation of all long words is regulated by the quantity of the last syllable but one. Walker, in the introduction to his Key, speaks of "The English pronunciation of Greek and Latin [as] injurious to quantity." And no one can deny, that we often accent what are called short syllables, and perhaps oftener leave unaccented such as are called long; but, after all, were the quantity of Latin and Greek syllables always judged of by their actual time, and not with reference to the vowel sounds called long and short, these our violations of the old quantities would be found much fewer than some suppose they are.

(2.) Dr. Adam's view of the accents, acute and grave, appears to be peculiar; and of a nature which may perhaps come nearer to an actual identity with the quantities, long and short, than any other. He says,

"1. The _acute_ or _sharp_ accent raises the voice in pronunciation, and is thus marked [´]; _prófero, prófer_. [The English word is written, not thus, but with two Effs, _proffer_.--G. B.]

"2. The _grave_ or _base_ accent depresses the voice, or keeps it in its natural tone; and is thus marked [`]; as, doctè. [Fist] _This accent properly belongs to all syllables which have no other_.

"The accents are hardly ever marked in English books, except in dictionaries, grammars, spelling-books, or the like, where the acute accent only is used. The accents are likewise seldom marked in Latin books, unless for the sake of distinction; as in these adverbs, _aliquò, continuò, doctè, unà_, &c."--_Adam's Latin and English Grammar_, p. 266.

(3.) As stress naturally lengthens the syllables on which it falls, if we suppose the grave accent to be the opposite of this, and to belong to all syllables which have no peculiar stress,--are not enforced, not acuted, not circumflected, not emphasized; then shall we truly have an accent with which our short quantity may fairly coincide. But I have said, "the mere absence of stress, which produces short quantity, we do not call _accent_;" and it may be observed, that the learned improver of Dr. Adam's Grammar, B. A. Gould, has totally rejected all that his predecessor taught concerning _accent_, and has given an entirely different definition of the thing. See marginal notes on page 771, above. Dr. Johnson also cites from _Holder_ a very different explanation of it, as follows: "_Accent_, as in the Greek names and usage, seems to have regarded the tune of the voice; the acute accent, raising the voice in some certain syllables, to a higher, (_i.e._ more acute) pitch or tone; and the grave, depressing it lower; [Fist] _and both having some emphasis_, i.e. _more vigorous pronunciation_. HOLDER."--_Johnson's Quarto Dict., w. Accent_.

[495] (1.) "Amongst them [the ancients,] we know that accents were marked by certain _inflexions_ [inflections] of the voice like musical notes; and the grammarians to this day, with great formality inform their pupils, that the acute accent, is the raising [of] the voice on a certain syllable; the grave, a depression of it; and the circumflex, a raising and depression both, in one and the same syllable. _This jargon they constantly preserve_, though they have no sort of ideas annexed to these words; for if they are asked to shew how this is to be done, they cannot tell, and their practice always belies their precept."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc._, p. 54.

(2.) "It is by the accent chiefly that the quantity of our syllables 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 syllable long_; than which _there cannot be any thing more false_."--_Ib._, p. 57.

(3.) "And here I cannot help taking notice of a circumstance, which shews in the strongest light, the _amazing deficiency_ of those, who have hitherto employed their labours on that subject, [accent, or pronunciation,] _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 so _little acquainted_ were they with the nature of our accent, that they thought it necessary only to mark _the syllable_ on which the stress is to be laid, without marking the _particular letter_ of the syllable to which the accent belongs."--_Ib._, p. 59.

(4.) "The mind thus taking a bias under the prejudice of false rules, never arrives at a knowledge of the true nature of _quantity_; and accordingly we find that _all attempts hitherto_ to settle the prosody of our language, have been vain and fruitless."--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram._, p. 52.

[496] In the following extract, this matter is stated somewhat differently: "The _quantity_ depends upon the seat of the accent, whether it be on the vowel or [on the] consonant; if on the vowel, the syllable is necessarily long: as it makes the vowel long; if on the consonant, _it may be either long or short_, according to the nature of the consonant, or _the time taken up_ in dwelling upon it."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Eloc._, p. 57. This last clause shows the "distinction" to be a very weak one.--G. BROWN.

[497] "If the consonant be in its nature a short one, the syllable is necessarily short. If it be a long one, that is, one whose sound is capable of being lengthened, it _may be long or short_ at the will of the speaker. By a short consonant I mean one whose sound cannot be continued after a vowel, such as c or k p t, as ac, ap, at--whilst that of long consonants _can_, as, el em en er ev, &c."--_Sheridan's Lectures on Elocution_, p. 58. Sheridan here forgets that "_bor'row_" is one of his examples of short quantity.

Murray admits that "accent on a _semi-vowel_" may make the syllable long; and his semivowels are these: "_f, l, m, n, r, v, s, z, x_, and _c_ and _g_ soft." See his _Octavo Gram._, p. 240 and p. 8.

[498] On account of the different uses made of the breve, the macron, and the accents, one grammarian has proposed a new mode of marking poetic quantities. Something of the kind might be useful; but there seems to be a reversal of order in this scheme, the macrotone being here made light, and the stenotone dark and heavy. "Long and short syllables have _sometimes_ been designated by the same marks _which_ are used for accent, tones, and the quality of the vowels; but it will be better[,] to prevent confusion[,] to use different marks. This mark º may represent a long syllable, and this · a short syllable; as,

· · ° · · ° · · ° · °
'At the close of the day when the hamlet is still.'"
--_Perley's Gram._, p. 73.
[no · over 'let', sic--KTH]

[499] _Dr. Adam's Gram._, p. 267; _B. A. Gould's_, 257. The Latin word _cæsura_ signifies "_a cutting_, or _division_." This name is sometimes Anglicized, and written "_Cesure_." See _Brightland's Gram._, p. 161; or _Worcester's Dict., w. Cesure_.

[500] "As to the long quantity arising from the succession of two consonants, which the ancients are uniform in asserting, if it did not mean that the preceding vowel was to lengthen its sound, _as we should do_ by pronouncing the _a_ in _scatter_ as we do in _skater_, (one who skates,) _I have no conception of what it meant_; for if it meant that only the _time of the syllable_ was prolonged, the vowel retaining the same sound, I must confess as ut er [sic--KTH] an inability of _comprehending this source_ of quantity in the Greek and Latin as in English."--_Walker on Gr. and L. Accent_, §24; Key, p. 331. This distinguished author seems unwilling to admit, that the consonants occupy time in their utterance, or that other vowel sounds than those which _name_ the vowels, can be protracted and become long; but these are _truths_, nevertheless; and, since every letter adds _something_ to the syllable in which it is uttered, it is by consequence a "_source of quantity_," whether the syllable be long or short.

[501] Murray has here a marginal note, as follows: "Movement and measure are thus distinguished. _Movement_ expresses the progressive order of sounds, whether from strong to weak, from long to short, or vice versa. _Measure_ signifies the proportion of time, both in sounds _and pauses_."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 259. This distinction is neither usual nor accurate; though Humphrey adopts it, with slight variations. Without some species of _measure_,--Iambic, Trochaic, Anapestic, Dactylic, or some other,--there can be no regular _movement_, no "progressive _order_ of sounds." Measure is therefore too essential to movement to be in contrast with it. And the movement "from _strong_ to _weak_, from _long_ to _short_," is but one and the same, a _trochaic_ movement; its reverse, the movement, "_vice versa_," from _weak_ to _strong_, or from _short_ to _long_, is, of course, that of _iambic_ measure. But Murray's doctrine is, that _strong_ and _long, weak_ and _short_, may be separated; that _strong_ may be _short_, and _weak_ be _long_; so that the movement from _weak_ to _strong_ may be from _long_ to _short_, and _vice versa_: as if a trochaic movement might arise from iambic measure, and an iambic movement from trochaic feet! This absurdity comes of attempting to regulate the _movement_ of verse by accent, and not by quantity, while it is admitted that quantity, and not accent, forms the _measure_, which "signifies _the proportion of time_." The idea that _pauses belong to measure_, is an other radical error of the foregoing note. There are more pauses in poetry than in prose, but none of them are properly "_parts_" of either. Humphrey says truly, "_Feet_ are the _constituent parts_ of verse."--_English Prosody_, p. 8. But L. Murray says, "_Feet and pauses_ are the constituent parts of verse."--_Octavo Gram._, p. 252. Here Sheridan gave bias. Intending to treat of verse, and "the pauses peculiarly belonging to it," the "_Cæsural_" pause and the "_Final_," the rhetorician had _improperly_ said, "The constituent _parts_ of verse are, feet, and pauses."--_Sheridan's Rhetorical Gram._, p. 64.

[502] "But as many Ways as Quantities may be varied by Composition and Transposition, so many different Feet have the _Greek_ Poets contriv'd, and that under distinct Names, from two to six Syllables, to the Number of 124. But it is the Opinion of some Learned Men in this Way, that Poetic Numbers may be sufficiently explain'd by those of two or three Syllables, into which the rest are to be resolv'd."--_Brightland's Grammar_, 7th Ed., p. 161.

[503] "THE BELLS OF ST. PETERSBURGH."

"Those ev'ning bells, those ev'ning bells,
_How_ many a tale their music tells!"--_Moore's Melodies_, p. 263.

This couplet, like all the rest of the piece from which it is taken, is iambic verse, and to be divided into feet thus:--

"Those ev' | -ning bells, | those ev' | -ning bells,
How man | -y a tale | their mu | -sic tells!"

[504] Lord Kames, too, speaking of "English Heroic verse," says: "Every line consists of ten syllables, _five short and five long_; from which [rule] there are but two exceptions, both of them rare."--_Elements of Criticism_, Vol. ii, p. 89.

[505] "The Latin is a far more _stately_ tongue than our own. It is essentially _spondaic_; the English is as essentially _dactylic_. The _long_ syllable is the spirit of the Roman (and Greek) verse; the _short_ syllable is the essence of ours."--_Poe's Notes upon English Verse; Pioneer_, Vol. i, p. 110. "We must search for _spondaic words_, which, in English, are rare indeed."--_Ib._, p. 111.

[506] "There is a rule, in Latin prosody, that a vowel _before two consonants_ is long. We moderns have not only no such rule, but profess inability to comprehend its _rationale_."--_Poe's Notes: Pioneer_, p. 112.

[507] The opponents of capital punishment will hardly take this for a fair version of the sixth commandment.--G. B.

[508] These versicles, except the two which are Italicized, are _not iambic_. The others are partly trochaic; and, according to many of our prosodists, wholly so; but it is questionable whether they are not as properly amphimacric, or Cretic.

[509] See exercises in Punctuation, on page 786, of this work.--G. B.

[510] The Seventieth Psalm is the same as the last five verses of the Fortieth, except a few unimportant differences of words or points.

[511] It is obvious, that these two lines may easily be reduced to an agreeable stanza, by simply dividing each after the fourth foot--G. B.

[512] In Sanborn's Analytical Grammar, on page 279th, this couplet is ascribed to "_Pope_;" but I have sought in vain for this quotation, or any example of similar verse, in the works of that poet. The lines, one or both of them, appear, _without reference_, in _L. Murray's Grammar, Second Edition_, 1796, p. 176, and in subsequent editions; in _W. Allen's_, p. 225; _Bullions's_, 178; _N. Butler's_, 192; _Chandler's New_, 196; _Clark's_, 201; _Churchill's_, 187; _Cooper's Practical_, 185; _Davis's_, 137; _Farnum's_, 106; _Felton's_, 142; _Frazee's_, 184; _Frost's_, 164; _S. S. Greene's_, 250; _Hallock's_, 244; _Hart's_, 187; _Hiley's_, 127; _Humphrey's Prosody_, 17; _Parker and Fox's Gram._, Part iii, p. 60; _Weld's_, 211; _Ditto Abridged_, 138; _Wells's_, 200; _Fowler's_, 658; and doubtless in many other such books.

[513] "Owen succeeded his father Griffin in the principality of North Wales, A. D. 1120. This battle was fought near forty years afterwards. North Wales is called, in the fourth line, '_Gwyneth_;' and 'Lochlin,' in the fourteenth, is Denmark."--_Gray_. Some say "Lochlin," in the Annals of Ulster, means Norway.--G. B.

[514] "The red dragon is the device of Cadwallader, which all his descendants bore on their banners."--_Gray_.

[515] This passage, or some part of it, is given as a trochaic example, in many different systems of prosody. Everett ascribes it entire to "_John Chalkhill_;" and Nutting, more than twenty years before, had attached the name of "_Chalkhill_" to a part of it. But the six lines "of three syllables," Dr. Johnson, in his Grammar, credits to "_Walton's Angler_;" and Bicknell, too, ascribes the same to "_Walton_." The readings also have become various. Johnson, Bicknell, Burn, Churchill, and Nutting, have "_Here_" for "_Where_" in the fifth line above; and Bicknell and Burn have "_Stop_" in the eighth line, where the rest read "_Stops_." Nutting has, for the ninth line, "_Others'_ joys," and not, "_Other_ joys," as have the rest.--G. B.

[516] OBS.--Of this, and of every other example which requires no amendment, let the learner simply say, after reading the passage, "This sentence is correct as it stands."--G. BROWN.

[517] OBSERVATION.--In the Bible, the word LORD, whenever it stands for the Hebrew name JEHOVAH, not only commences with a full capital, but has small or half capitals for the other letters; and I have thought proper to print both words in that manner here. In correcting the last example, I follow Dr. Scott's Bible, except in the word "_God_," which he writes with a small _g_. Several other copies have "_first_" and "_last_" with small initials, which I think not so correct; and some distinguish the word "_hosts_" with a capital, which seems to be needless. The sentence here has eleven capitals: in the Latin Vulgate, it has but six, and one of them is for the last word, "_Deus_," God.--G. B.

[518] OBS.--This construction I dislike. Without hyphens, it is improper; and with them it is not to be commended. See Syntax, Obs 24th on Rule IV.--G. B.

[519] On the page here referred to, the author of the Gazetteer has written "_Charles city_," &c. Analogy requires that the words be compounded, because they constitute three names which are applied to _counties_, and not to _cities_.