in the phrases, a suit of cards,' and 'a suit of clothes,' and to be pronounced in the same manner.

Jones and Perry have restored the Italian sound of a in such words as ask, mask, past, after, and they pronounce nearly all the words of this class, as they have always been pronounced by educated people in the United States. This is the same pronunciation as in England.

Of all the orthöepists in England, Perry has given the pronunciation of words, in general, which is the most common among well-bred people, and which may be denominated national. In the notation of the other orthoepists, particularly of Sheridan and Walker, there are many peculiarities, which, if they had any authority in usage, must have been quite local.

But it must be observed, that the higher classes of society in England are said never to take their pronunciation from books. They regulate usage by their own practice; and the books on orthöepy are intended to communicate that usage to inquirers. But unfortunately, the several authors who have published books for this purpose, differ so much from each other, that they furnish no certain standard. Their differences amount to more than a thousand; and thus their works tend rather to divide and distract the public, than to unite opinions, and establish uniformity.

It may be here remarked, that the purest English spoken in England is among educated people in the central parts of the island, including London, Oxford, and Cambridge. Many of the principal emigrants to this country, on its first settlement, were educated at the English Universities, and they brought with them the purest pronunciation of the language. Such dialectical variations as were brought by the common people from different parts of England, have been nearly lost in this country; and now, educated men in New-England speak the language almost precisely as the same classes do in England. I have been several hours in company with gentlemen in Cambridge, England, without hearing any difference of pronunciation which would distinguish an Englishman from an American.

There are, however, differences of notation in the books on orthoepy, which occasion no small embarrassment to the lexicographer. In general, the rule I have adopted, in regard to such differences, is, to find and to follow the general analogy among the words of like formation. Thus, when I see that the orthöepists differ in the pronunciation of detinue, I resort to the whole class of words of like formation: avenue, retinue, revenue, residue, and finding the accent generally settled on the first syllable, I place it on that syllable in detinue. In this country, I have never heard the word pronounced with the accent on the second syllable.

This I believe to be the only method by which even a tolerable degree of uniformity can be effected. The practice of quoting authorities on one side and the other, will not accomplish the object; for men will never be agreed on the question, which is the best authority; and to present to the public a book, with a thousand differences of notation, is to perplex inquirers, and keep the pronunciation of words in perpetual fluctuation.

It is a general rule in the language, that the termination ous added to a word, does not change the accent; the derivations then retain the

accent of the primitives, as glorious from glory; humorous from humor. For this reason, I accentuate circuitous on the first syllable, and pronounce it in three syllables, (cir-kit-ous.)

I accentuate alternate, the adjective, on the second syllable, but the verb on the first. The reasons are: this is the general rule in the class of verbs to which this belongs; the most numerous class in the language, as abdicate, aggregate, consecrate, etc., but especially for another reason, that if we lay the accent on the second syllable of alternate, we must accentuate the same syllable in the participle, altern'ating, etc. This renders the pronunciation difficult, or less easy, than when a primary accent is laid on the first syllable, and a secondary accent on the third, al' terna' ting.

The same reasons are applicable to compensate, confiscate, demonstrate, extirpate, the derivatives of which are pronounced with much greater ease, when they have two distinct accents, the primary on the first, and the secondary on the third, compensating, confiscated, demonstráting, ex' tirpáting. These accents accord, also, with those of the nouns com'pensation, con' fiscátion, demonstrátion, ex' tirpátion.

To this rule the exceptions are, such words as have harsh combinations of consonants, as inspissate, and also remonstrate, with an accent corresponding with that of remonstrance.

In opposition to the usual pronunciation of sulphuric, I lay the accent on the first syllable, as in sulphur; and in accordance with choleric, heretic, lunatic, splenetic, plethoric. Cherubic would have the accent on the first syllable, had not the poets placed it on the second, as they have in horizon, both of which are deviations from analogy, as is the accent of elegiac on the third.

Mineralogy and genealogy are sometimes pronounced minerology, geneology, but in opposition to analogy, and all good usage. The letter a before in these words, has the same sound as in generality, liberality, and analogy.

Orthöepists differ in the notation of wound, some directing the ou to be pronounced as oo, woond. But in all our best poets, wound is made to rhyme with bound, found, sound, and this fact alone should determine the pronunciation of wound.

The common pronunciation of humor is yumor, just as our most vulgar people pronounce yerb for herb. In the name of good sense, of analogy, and of euphony, let me remonstrate against such an outrageous vulgarism.

Deaf was formerly pronounced deef, as the like digraph is pronounced in leaf, sheaf; and so our ancestors pronounced the word. The modern English pronunciation is def, evidently from the Danish dialect, and a departure from analogy; there being not another example of this sound of ea before f in the language. As the old pronunciation is yet used by a great portion of our citizens, and this is in accordance with analogy, it is very desirable that we should adhere to it.

Herd for heared is an old corruption; but heard accords in orthography with feared, reared, seared: and heard, thus pronounced, redeems the language from one anomaly.

Shone is, by the English, pronounced shon; a corruption which I believe is not known in this country, and I hope it never will be. When the usage in England differs from that in this country, and ours is ac

cording to analogy, I would strenuously adhere to our own practice. If in any instance we have the advantage in point of regularity, let us maintain it.

The English seem either to have no system in the regulation of sounds or accent, or they disregard them. Thus they accent catholicism on the second syllable. No fault can be more obvious; and no rule more readily acknowledged than this: that the termination ism never changes the accent of a word to which it is added. Let any man cast his eye on the list of such words in page 132 of my Elementary Spelling Book, and he will be convinced that catholicism ought to have the first syllable accented; as jesuitism, from jesuit; favoritism from favorite; so catholicism from catholic. There are other tables in that book, in which words with like terminations are collected for the purpose of exhibiting the analogies by which the accentuation is regulated, an advantage not furnished by any other book of the kind.

One general remark ought here to be made. The accentuation of words, in our language, is subject to change. Several words have had the accent shifted from one syllable to another, since the age of Milton. This is a reason why the compilers of elementary books in this country should not rely implicitly on the authority of Sheridan, Walker, or other authors who wrote half a century ago. Thus acceptable was formerly accented on the first syllable, as was confessor, and commendable. But this practice is obsolete, or it has never been adopted in this country; and the words ought not to stand in our elementary books thus accented. In my decisions on spelling and pronunciation, it has been my aim that no alteration of common usage should be dictated by caprice or arbitrary opinion. Whenever I have deviated from such usage, it has been in pursuance of some analogy, or other substantial reason; some sound principle in the construction of words which is considered to be idiomatic, or inherent in the language. The more we can raise the authority of principles over the caprices of custom, the more effectually shall we secure the permanent regularity of the language.

The defect of words in the English dictionaries, and in the abridgments of them in this country, is too apparent to need proof. In addition to this defect, may be mentioned another. There are more than a hundred participles in ing which lose their participial use, and are used as adjectives, not one of which is noticed in any English dictionary, nor in any American abridgment of the English books.

LEAVES

FROM THE COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF A GERMAN STUDENT.

'IN many of the German productions, there is something fantastic and ghost-like, something that does not seem adapted to this world, and reminding us of the fact, that the attention of the German author is oftener directed to the mysterious chaos in his own bosom, than to the world around him.' QUARTERLY SPECTATOR.

DEATH'S REVEILLE.

IN Hinnon's vale, under a pall of night, Death rests alone. The wind groans through his ribs. Tat-too! tat-too!- with a hand of bone he beats his rumbling drum. They start, the murderers start. From wormy beds beneath the sod, their mouldering heads look out. Through bolted dungeon doors peer out white skulls, and the skeleton black that swung in the air, leaves the raven asleep on his creaking chain. The Annakim at Ashtaroth, the Syrian who slept on Abbana's and Paphar's banks, the Jew at Armageddon, the Greek at Phlegra, Colchis, and Mycale, wakes. The slumbering hosts of Panym land, armed knights and infidels at Ascalon, Aspramont, and Montalban, start to life.

Tat-too! tat-too! To field! to field! They start. By meteorlights they march. Like a storm they rattle by. Their pattering footfalls cease. They're met. But neither shield, nor spear, nor steel, are there: nor bright-eyed Asian, fair-haired Greek, or bearded Jew, has eye, or beard, or hair.

Death shot his iron eye along the serried files, as numberless as autumn's corpse-like leaves. My merry, merry men,' quoth he, ye glad the sight of Death; for ne'er met such embodied force on earth. Ye are a host, a sea of murderers. But now, with six long thousand years of toil, my bones are weary, and my darts are dull. Gorged Pestilence and War a-sleeping in their dens, on rotting bones and bloody knives, walk no more to and fro. Methinks I, too, will sleep awhile beneath the sod. Who 'll do meantime my nameless deeds on earth? To gorge and batten upon dainty infancy, ripened beauty, and savory manhood, he must be merciless. To let loose havoc, war, the plague to hurry on decay, sow thick diseases, keep his weapons bright, he must not rest.' He has ceased.

As when sepulchral blasts grieve through the church-yard cypresstree, the plaudit of that bony host comes murmuring along. Instant a mouldering form preminent appears. Upon its front are crimson types, that seem to say: My merit learn from this. The streets of Rome, the Imperial, I made a place of weeds. By me, in Cæsars' palaces, the fitful night wind answered to the owl. When the wardogs did tire, Famine I let loose to prey on men, till they did feed on one another, and mothers upon their soft babes. The fairest of earth's lands I seamed with graves, till Attila was called the scourge of God, and my fast-flocking victims found Death's halls too small.'

The Visigoth is gone. Now prompt and fresh from earth, the farknown Corsican appears; fresh blood-stains spotting o'er his leprous bones, with characters whose import is like this: If faith to our great master win the guerdon high, who more true than I? If tireless ser

vices, who brought to our hungry hell a game so numerous? I murdered nations in a day. A continent my battle-field, where hosts of fair, brave men did melt away as snow-wreaths riddled by an April rain. Its rivers ran with blood. Blood made fat its soil. Dead-heaps on heaps of dead were piled, till the filmy air did rot.'

From far, a wasted form comes wandering by, and on its front an awful mark is set. Beneath its tread, blood crieth from the ground: 'Revenge, ambition, fear, made others faithful. I for our master's love a brother slew. I first did smear with blood the earth, as yet immaculate, and showed the murderous deed to million-multitudes of men. But for that act, a gentle race had tempered the fierce blood of those who now make of each other dainty fare for us, and murder been till now a word unknown. I am the first- the captain of the murderers!' Death yields him up his shadowy mace. They 're vanished like the night. Darkness films the staggering earth, and faint and stagnant over it gasp the closing sepulchres. The murderer is abroad.

O'er his lip and his chin runs trickling blood,
And his thunderbolt arm is bare.

On pennons lank whirls Famine in
On wings of grisly gray:

Her talons stained, her beak besmeared,
And reeking from her prey.

Flocking around, her hideous brood
Torment the air with moans:
Vulture Despair, and ghastly Hate -
Hoarse Madness wails and groans.

And down sweeps silent Pestilence,
Like rapid-striding night;

Within whose misty, poisonous breath,
Diseases dire delight.

Delight to flutter, whirl, and dance, as flies,
The pallid leaf on evening's gusty sighs.

DEATH. 'Faithful friends, and warriors true,

Death's resumed his shadowy mace.
On the sea and land once more,
Roam the round world o'er and o'er:
Hurry swifter than before-

Hunt the hated race!'

MURDER. By day, by night, in field, on flood,
I'll stop his breath, and spill his blood.

WAR. Loose reins to slaughter I will give.