copy his manner of pronouncing exactly, in accent as well as in quantity, which would most probably be quite new to all Europe." By reading the line in this manner, the rhythmus and the metre are preserved, and by the addition of necessary rests for breathing-time, and for stops of expression, it becomes an octometre instead of an hexametre. How monstrously is the following line cut to pieces by the rules of prosodians. It is here set first according to these rules, and also according to the rules of this system; and it will be found, that without any elision they are. both pronounced exactly in the same time, if repeated to the swings of the same metronome, or pendulum. Let the distance of time between A and ▲ be equal to one step of walking. A 7.4. 4.14.1.1. Y. Y· 2 Monst' hor rend' in form' in gens cui lumen a demptum A .. Δ ... Δ .. Δ.. A Y.IYYIYYTYY YYTYY. Y· Monstrum hor rendum in forme in gens cui lumen a demptum A A A A A When the construction of a language depends on the termination of its words, elisions by which these terminations are concealed, must, to say the least of them, tend to render such a language obscure. But I have no doubt, that as good reasons can be given for elisions of the above kind, as for scanning verses, whether of the dead or of the living languages, in such a manner, as no good reader of either ever pronounces-Nay, I have strong reason to suspect whether even a Prosodian can read according to his own rules. These are only two instances of thousands that might be given, of the absurdity that Commentators, Grammarians and Prosodians have been teaching since the days of Quintilian the Rhetorician, who died A. D. 95.-His Institutes of Eloquence were discovered A. D. 1415, in an old tower of a monastery at St. Gall, by Poggio Bracciolini, a native of Florence. But perhaps there would be very little harm, if these absurdities were confined to what are called the dead languages: for it is believed, that the moderns know no more of the manner in which Cicero and Demosthenes pronounced their languages, than they know of the mode of pronouncing the language of Britain, in the time of King Alfred. But this very abstruse and most useful part of classical erudition has found its way, even for ages past, into our own language. Every initiator of children, must scan his own native tongue with Greek feet and many of them, not contented with teaching this most important part of grammar, they must write upon it also; and cautiously copy all the blunders that the literati have handed down to them, with frequently not a few of their own. It is surely matter of regret, that this strange inconsistency should have been persevered in, from the days of Quintilian down to the last treatise which I have seen upon the subject of scanning, published in London in 1816, with the exception of the book I have already mentioned, viz. The Prosodia Rationalis. Were this book properly understood, this monst hor', with all his long irregular train of associates, would, huge as he is, be entirely rooted out of the deep, sacred recesses of our Universities, and other seminaries of learning. And then, in all probability, our native language would be scanned as it should be read, and not according to the measurement of the ancient poetic feet. But till accent, quantity, and emphasis, especially the last, as it is the most important of all, be clearly understood, not only as separate affections of speech, but as totally independent of each other, this is not to be expected. CHAPTER VI. FORCE OR QUALITY OF SOund. THE variety of soft and loud, or, according to musicians, of piano and forte, should never be considered as a governing principle of rhythmus, because, though sometimes it may be accidentally coincident with rhythmical pulsation, yet it would be offensive if it continued for any considerable length of time; for the application of the loud and soft, both in music and in language, either for use or ornament, must not be indiscriminate or periodically alternate, but as occasion calls for it: Whereas, the rhythmical pulsation of A and .., or emphatic and unemphatic, is regularly periodical and constant as the swings of a pendulum, but of itself implies no sound or noise at all. And agreeably to this, a band of musicians are much better governed in their measures by a silent waving of the hand, or of any thing that may catch the eye, than by the more noisy way of beating time with the foot. These affections of A and .. were always felt in music, though erroneously called by the moderns accented and unaccented; the accented or heavy note, however, was never understood to be necessarily loud, and the other necessarily soft. Because if this D were so, there would be no occasion for separate directions where to apply the piano and forte, in as much as the affections of heavy and light are continued in every sentence of every air, from the beginning to the end: Whereas the forte and piano are often applied directly contrary to heavy and light. I repeat it, as I wish it to be clearly understood, that the distinction of loud and soft, must never, as is too often the case, be reckoned among the governing powers of rhythmus, though they may sometimes coincide with the heavy and the light, which are the only governing principles of it. RHYTHMUS, as it signified with the Greeks number, that is, the number of metres contained in a line or cadence, so it may signify with us the number of cadences in a line or sentence; but we shall use it as the general term under which cadence is a division, and quantity a subdivision. Rhythmus, then, in this acceptation, is divided into two general modes of time, common and triple, each of which is subdivided into specific differences of faster and slower; consisting of cadences whose |