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 EX0POI2I OIAOISI T
 
 METRONARISTON 
 
 OR 
 
 A NEW PLEASURE RECOMMENDED, 
 
 IN A 
 
 UPON A PART OF 
 
 GREEK AND LATIN PROSODY. 
 
 Tollite barb arum 
 
 Morem perfetuum ; dulcia larbart 
 Ltfdentem M&TXJ, qtuf Venus 
 Qtintapartc fui Nefiaris imbuit. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, 
 No. 72, St. PAUL'S CHURCH-YARD. 
 
 J 797- 
 [Price Three Shillings >
 
 Nobis, qui Ratione vincimus, fruftra Confuetudo objiciturj 
 quafi CONSUETUDO major fit VERITATE ! 
 
 S. Auguftin. apud Mekerchum. 
 
 Non recufo humilis, abjeftus, et inglorius haberi, modo publice 
 profim. Mekerchus. 
 
 Quid tarn temerarium, tamque indignum Sapientis gravitate 
 atque conftantia, quam aut falfum fentire ; aut quod non fatis 
 perceptum fit et cognitum, fine ulla dubitatione defendere. 
 
 Cicero de Nat. D. i. r. 
 
 Sed nefcio quomodo, plerique errare malunt, earaque fententiam 
 quara adaraaverint, pugnaciffime defendere, quam line pertinacia, 
 quid conftantiflime dicatur exquirere. 
 
 Acad. Quaeft. 1. 4.
 
 DEDICATION. 
 
 . TO 
 
 JACOB BRYANT,; ESQ. 
 SIR, 
 
 STRANGER to your perfon, but an admirer of 
 your character, who efteems you as worthily prefiding over 
 the literature of his country, is irrefiftibly prompted to take 
 the liberty, with which he flatters himielf you will not be 
 offended, of dedicating to you the following Diflertation upon 
 a part of Profody : not as a prefent worthy of your accept- 
 ance ; for you muft have learned to value things as well as 
 men for what they are in themfelves ; beiides, that treated 
 as the fubject is, in the manner which appeared to him the 
 moft promifing to make it ufeful it is rather calculated for a 
 period of life of lefs dignity and authority than Yours. Still 
 lefs does he dedicate it to you as an object of your protection 
 
 a 2 though 
 
 1502783
 
 though to You it owes its exigence and appearance in the 
 world for to itfelf it muft owe, or be without protection. 
 He hopes that he fhall never be brought to that abje&nefs, 
 which he fees with forrow in much abler writers, whofe 
 poverty, but hot their will, confents to their fo degrading 
 Letters, as to hold out ideas of a power, more than human, 
 to protect their lucubrations from critical attacks, in the covert 
 attack which they make themfelves, in the lhape of a Dedica- 
 tion, upon the Patron's Purie. He has no fuch motive ; 
 but he dedicates this little work to you, Sir, as a proper 
 cxpreflion of his Gratitude'; fince Gratitude gives propriety 
 even to trivial Offerings, from the lowefi to The Higheft 
 Being. 
 
 He prays you then, Sir, to accept in good part, this ex- 
 preffion of that Gratitude, upon which you have a threefold 
 claim : for you have inftru&ed him ; you have animated 
 him ; and you have conferred on him another favour of a 
 peculiar kind. 
 
 Yes, Sir; You have inftrufted, and very highly enter- 
 tained and pleafed him, by the great erudition and ingenuity 
 with which you have demonstrated the falfehood of the 
 generally-received opinion conceming the Siege of Troy, 
 the Wifdom of Neilor, and Prowefs of Achilles. He had 
 cherimed this ftory in his manhood, like other men, as in 
 infancy, like other infants, he cherilhed the ftories of his 
 Nurfe. But as he never was the intimate of Prejudice, 
 having been uied to better company company, to which fo 
 much is owing in thofe mimics, men, in whom the Stagirite 
 has told you, to ^i/*uc9at EX x-adx* cv^vl^ *j\i he felt no greater 
 pang in parting with this illufion, than he had felt in dif- 
 carding any 'Otlier illaium Aviaru'm qiutiJicinarun:, which had 
 each been the -Miftrefs for its day. But thinking of the 
 difficulty you perhaps may meet with, in eradicating fuch 
 ideal forms from more tenacious breafts, he could not but 
 fmile, as to be fure you meant he fhould, at the kind and 
 encouraging words with which, fkilfnl and humane MaJjacn 
 of the Mind, juft before your inftruments are produced, you 
 foothe your *' Gentle Readers;" as ikilful and humane 
 1 Practitioners, in one of the nobleft arts, are wont to foothe 
 
 their
 
 their Patients ; that they may fit quiet, and fubmit as becomes 
 them to an operation, analagous, corporeally, to your mental 
 extraction or" a literary barbed arrow, feathered by the Mufes, 
 and fhot from the bow of HOMER. 
 
 And yet, why it fhould not come fcqucns manum, nullo cogcntc, 
 he cannot fee efpecially when you fhew them beforehand 
 the beft remedy which the beft judgement can apply; by 
 obferving, that, " The work itfelf will not be in the leall 
 affected. The character of the Poet, and the beauty of the 
 Poem, will remain unimpeached. Their excellence can never 
 be diminifhed." But he wifhes that the work and the cha- 
 racter of the Poet had been affected. He wifhes, that, inftead 
 of your not finding caufe to give up that point of hi (lory, 
 which relates, that a woman of Memphis had written an 
 account of the Trojan war, and an Odyffea, of \\hich a copy- 
 was procured by Homer, who thence compofed his poems ; 
 you had found ample proof that it ought to be given up : for, 
 if without any affiftance fiom a Memphian PLantn/i.-i, the 
 intire fabrication of the beautiful fables, with all their par- 
 ticularities and iublimities, could be afcribed to the Homeric 
 Phantafia only, a more effential additional luftre would be 
 thence derived, to that fame which was before the brighteft 
 in the world; a luftre fuperiour to the additional beauty that 
 he is endeavouring in his combat with Barbarifm, to have in 
 this country conferred upon the melody of its Song; which, 
 not diverted from its natural flow, merely as to Quantity, will 
 be found to be as much 1 \veeter than honey, as the amiable 
 garrulity it delights in of its Pylian Sage, jurt as he wiihcs 
 and for a fimilar reafon that the Glory had been Yonvs alone, 
 of difcovering the important Truth you have with ib much 
 goodnefs given- to tbe world, without its being to be fha^cd 
 with you, by any of the Lights of former times. 
 
 Of repaying you in kind for the in ft ruction, Sir, with which 
 you have enlightened him, how much foever he may \\jfh 
 for, or would be proud of, t'lie ability, lie nmtt defp.iir : and 
 indeed, of" its being to be dcne.^ven by rhofe of much morg 
 Learning and Knowledge than he lias been wife enough to 
 acquire, he muft doubt. As to the fubjeft on whivMi he 
 writes, he takes it for granted, that, as another of the moil 
 accomphfhed Scholars of the prefent centu r y, mentioned m 
 
 the
 
 the third Chapter, when you came to be your own Teacher, 
 you emancipated yourfelf from the fyftem which flill obtains 
 in our places of education ; to the difgrace, he muft, until he 
 is (hewn his errour, continue to think, of that Scholarfhip 
 for which his Contemporaries are juftly famed. " Were any 
 modern" permit him with the change only of the name, to 
 copy from the ninety-fecond page of your Diflertation, your 
 moil exactly fuited words to his f object as well as to your own 
 " Were any modern' fyftem of pronunciation to be propofed, 
 that fhould he " aticnd-d ivitb the fiftieth part cf the inconjtjtencies 
 with which" the fyftem in practice that may be called, from 
 its mo ft powerful lupporter, the Bcntkia-i fyftem " abounds, 
 it rjuoiiU be fet nfid? at cn:c, and rcjcSleJ *ujitb jco f>." And if he has 
 been enabled to fet forth a preferable fyftem, it is owing but 
 to one of thofe chances, by which it has been fometimes feen, 
 that to ufe again yoxir own words, in another work, but you 
 muft allow him in this inftance to fay., with more propriety 
 than you have yourfelf applied them " a feeble arm has effefled 
 v:hat Prcdigle; In Science have overlooked?* 
 
 With a mind fo richly fraught with beautiful imagery and 
 fentenMO'JS wifdom of the anticnt poets, applicable to every 
 t )pic of convcrfation, it muft be very natural and pleafing to 
 you to apply their verfes ; which you do, he fuppofes in 
 confequence of that emancipation, in a manner by which 
 none of their beauty or wifdom is impaired. But if he has 
 iTuftakeu in this point, and you continue to repeat them in 
 the way you of courfe were taught at Eton, fuch perfect 
 confidence has he in 'your Candour, as to be certain, that, if 
 in recommending the dolrine of Mckcrcbus, as far as Quantity 
 is concerned, he has laid enough to convince you it is founded 
 in Truth, you will be glad, , even though the hour be late 
 iince, like another SOLOS'. 
 
 as weil as o.Jatr-i-v, honourably, gracioufly, dlitin appetens, tul 
 .pr-jfufu; you will be glad to be fet right from an errour of 
 inadvertence, taken up. at firft from hie,h authority, and 
 ftrengthened afterwards by habit too fmall a matter is the 
 merely pointing out a road to be dignified with the title of 
 
 in-
 
 ( v ) 
 
 inftruftion and you will think with complacency of the 
 character of the authour of that do6lrine, fuperiour as a 
 fcholar to the times he lived in, and as a man inferiour to 
 no one who has adorned the moft enlightened and the 
 happiefl times. 
 
 You have animated his difciple, Sir, to what he could not 
 otherwife have attempted ; to an humble imitation of your 
 courageous example in thecaufe of Truth ; you have animated 
 him to the public expofure of an errour, of which he has 
 been, like you, above thirty years convinced, though he 
 had not made notes of it, by fending into the world his 
 recommendation of a contrary practice. He fends it, he 
 hopes, under the happy aufpices of fuch a, Leader; directed 
 againft falsehood of received opinion, the common foe, as the 
 boy Teucer fent his arrow, from behind the ihield of Ajax, 
 his General and his elder Brother. Or if that be afpiring 
 to a character too high, non rccufat taught by his Matter, the 
 Authour of his doctrine n r n rraifat bumilis babffi to be 
 accounted but as one of the rank and file of the Salanfihians s 
 but the other epithets of his illuflrious humble guide abjcBus 
 et inglarius cannot here apply- to him ; for he (hall {till, even as 
 a Private, boalt himfelf YOUR Fellow Soldier ! <- but a raw 
 recruit indeed, under an experienced Chief, long ilnce the 
 Laurelled Victor of faliehood of received opinion T in the region 
 of Mythology ! And though his dexterity may not deferve 
 your praile, though his arm be feeble, and his arrow but a 
 telum imbJle fine itfu, you cannot withhold your approbation 
 from that zeal and courage which you have Vourfelf excited. 
 Thus, Sir, if you protect not his little performance from 
 attacks, his good intention of being ufeful, by expoling the 
 falfehood of a fyftem, which blights the moft beauteous 
 flowers of ParnafTus, may merit your patronage and fupport 
 how much foeverthis Diflertation, claiming no Diicovery, is, 
 in every refpel, even if attended with more fucceis than he 
 can prefume to hope, inferiour in importance to your own. 
 It flood not, luckily, in need of any of that profound 
 hiflorical and critical fagacity, which diftinguiihes the: Dil- 
 fertation upon the Siege of Troy: if it had, indeed, it muft 
 have been executed by a different hand from .that, which has 
 
 now
 
 ( vi ) 
 
 now the honour to addrefs you. And yet the fafhion by no 
 means excels the matter of your pretious weapon ; that 
 weapon, with which, in an a& that carries in it great beauty, 
 dignity, and virtue, you greatly attempt the conqueft of 
 perhaps a more inveterate prejudice in the hiftoric, than any 
 in the mythologic, kingdom, by the force of Truth ; in your 
 love of which, the dehorfations of your Amicus Plato and 
 Amicus Sccrates have been nobly fet at nought ! fet at nought 
 for Truth, for SACRED TRUTH! which all men owe to all 
 men, and which is the great fource of that happinefs of 
 Nations, incompatible with the undue emolument of E^^Jian 
 individuals ; who from the Craft of Falfehood have their 
 wealth, and would obftruft the ftream of Truth, or dry up 
 its falutary fprings. But the affection which you have fo 
 laudably difpiayed for it, will, in all probability, greatly 
 conduce " ad hominum Utilitatem, qua as Cicero proceeds to 
 fay nibil bo mini debct effe antiquius ;" and who lays tOO ill 
 another place, that, " In pltrifque rebus v-credibilher h'jc Natura eji 
 ipfa ftbricata, tit ea, qua maximarn U'FILITATEM in ft eontinerevt, 
 eadem hakerait plurimum vcl Dignitatis^ vet ftspe etiam fanuftatis." 
 Nor can that eloquent philofopher, nor all the eloquence 
 upon earth, fay too much in praife of UTILITY TO MAN 
 the only Fountain of Honour of true honour, and of real Glory 
 of GODLIKE GLORY! for, in your admirable Analyfis, 
 you have (hewn, Sir, that the Gods of Antiquity were made 
 to continue the memory of fuch men, as, rightly, " are 
 called Benefactors" " Invcntea et qui vitam excoluere per artcs :" 
 while the God of Chriltians, the Divine Friend of Man, 
 and his Redeemer, engages the affections, more warmly than 
 in any other circumitance of his mortal life, by his con- 
 tinually *" going about doing go->d" devoted to temporal, us well 
 as eternal, Utility to Man! 
 
 What high importance was attached to this Utility by the 
 great Inftrudtors of their pofterity, you muft have remarked, 
 Sir, in die ftrong affirmative vituperation conveyed by the 
 negatives A^so$ and lautilis. And tliough modern language 
 has not preferved that meaning in derivatives from the latter ; 
 at may ilill perhaps convey the fame idea looking to the 
 tjftft inftead of the cauje by another negative ; and, juftly 
 regarding the want of Fame to be owing to the want of 
 
 I '
 
 ( vii ) 
 
 UJefulntfj, imply, tliat, to him who is \ifelefs, ought to be 
 applied the term infamous, in its {Iridleft fenfe. That there 
 can be no Fame, Glory, or Reputation, in feeking exclu- 
 fively one's own individual utility, or felf-intereft, but public 
 utility alone, You have Ihewn, Sir not upon the prefent 
 occafion only is the grand principle by which you are 
 actuated ; and as it is defireable to have grand principles in 
 fliort, memorable, and meafured, fentences, he will venture 
 to repeat it in the happy terms of the fententious Phsedrus 
 
 NlSI UTILE EST aUOD FACIMUSj STULTA EST GLORIA ; 
 
 which another poet as happily tranflates 
 
 Le veritable Honneur tjl d'etre UtiJe attx kommci : 
 
 whence it is plainly feen, that it is for his Utility, that every 
 voice concurs to honour the Writer by whom Entertainment 
 is mixed with Inftruftion the greateft of obligations. 
 
 But it may be afked, how is Utility to man to be obtained 
 from this newly-difcovered Truth of the Non-exiftence of a 
 general ly-fuppofed Town, a great way off, and thoufands of 
 years ago? Whether it be a Truth or not, what fhall we 
 get by that ?" It was, doubtlefs, by fome fuch inquirer faid, 
 when a Needle, which had been rubbed upon a Loadftone, was 
 firft obferved to affeft a certain fltuation, that it was a pretty 
 fancy enough; but that it couid he only for very idle people to 
 fpend their time in fuch little trifling obfervations ; for, 
 " what fhall we get by that?" Behold from fuch trifling 
 obfervations as they were at firft, behold what has been 
 gotten ! Nothing lefs than the difcovery of a New World ! 
 -than an infinity of Riches ! than means of preferving 
 millions from the perils of the Sea ; and means, of greater 
 tendency than any other, towards the yet humanizing the 
 human race ! In this difcovery, it is true, there has been 
 a mixture of bad, with a great mafs of preponderating good. 
 But from the difcovery of the Non-exiftence of Troy, the 
 latter only can refult. For, this demonftration of the falfe- 
 hood of a generally-received opinion, muft naturally give birth 
 to a fpirit of Inquiry into the foundnefs of the foundation of 
 all generally- received opinions in the various parts of Science, 
 
 b and'
 
 ( viii ) 
 
 and, in confequcnce, produce a multitude of ufefut and 
 much- wanted Truths. What thinking men but, upon this 
 pccafipn, this furprizing occafion, muft bring their opinions 
 in review before them, and put to themfelves on each, and 
 particularly in the fcience of Politics, twin-fifter to Hiftory, 
 many questions which you will imagine, Sir, better than 
 they can be fuggefted to you ? 
 
 The favour of a peculiar kind, Sir, which you have con- 
 ferred upon your grateful dedicatour, you have "conferred like 
 yourfelf ; fince it is the property of a benevolent difpofition 
 to do what delights and be unconfcious of it : fuch a favour 
 could fcarccly have been conferred upon a contemporary by 
 even fome of the ableft writers of antiquity, with their 
 prefaces errant, fuited alike to all fubjecls or to none j it is, 
 that you have, without defigning it, written for his, as well 
 as your own work, a much better and more appropriate 
 preface than he could have furnimed with his utmofl care. 
 Not a fyllable is there in it (e-xcept towards the conclufion 
 where you name your fubjeft) but what is as exactly appli- 
 cable to the one of them as the other. When your good 
 Genius had thus prompted you to erect for him fo excellent 
 a facade of learned and fententious x matter, how was the 
 temptation to be withftood, of" endeavouring to place behind 
 it fomething, which, though of humbler ftyle, might yet 
 comport with the dtfign ? He fears to call the " fomething" . 
 a Hoafg, left it refemble a houfe of cards, or a houfe built upon 
 the Sand, to be blown down and warned away, when the 
 winds and the rains of criticifm come, from the powerful 
 parti; s whofe practice in pronunciation he prefumefs to blame. 
 But if it (hall outlive the ftorm, and he fhall have written any 
 thing that may be thought not an unworthy fequel to a 
 preface by Mr. BRYANT, he will think it a high honour, 
 and a happy augury that he may indulge in the cheating hope 
 of having not unufefully employed his pains. After what 
 he has faid of it, his readers will underftand of courfe, that 
 they are to read that preface a fecond time as his, which they 
 have read before as yours ; fince they will all have your 
 Diflertation by them. But he doubts the vice verfa will not < , 
 hold, that all who have year DifTertation muil have likewife h,i 
 
 4 The
 
 The great oppofition, Sir, which you feem in that preface 
 to expect, will not, he hopes, be accompanied with Danger 
 attendant as it has been faid to be, ever iince the days of 
 SOCRATES, upon acting the part of a Wife Man before thofe 
 who are not fo. But he can fcarcely think that you will have 
 much oppofition to encounter. Even thofe who are the mod 
 hart by your proportion, muft know, that, falfe pride, at all 
 times contemptible enough, is moft completely fo, when it 
 will argue, after Reafon is convinced : and, knowing this, 
 they will naturally and wifely be inclined, rather to exert 
 themfelves in fubduing the ftubbornefs of their Opinion, and 
 gracefully to give way to Truth ; than by humouring the 
 wayward brat, to be brought to fhame by it, if they provoke 
 Truth to battle. Betides, Sir, you contend againft erroui 
 of Opinion only, not meddling with a man's Mouth, but 
 with his Mind alone ; which can effectually command thz 
 tattler his Tongue not to tell what toffes there. Every verfe 
 that he mail pronounce except three which are pointed out 
 of the poetical hiftories of the dread effects of that wrath 
 which 
 
 and of the wanderings of that much-enduring man, who 
 IIoAAwv avdpwTrwv i$ev cafjea, xai voov e[i>w, 
 
 will not proclaim whether he was before in errour concerning 
 
 the Truth of thofe hiftories, or is magnanimoufly determined 
 
 to remain fo {till ; as mull, alas ! be the fatal cafe in regard 
 
 to the prolodic Truth, if it be fo, which your example in 
 
 hiftoric truth, and your affurance, that, ' Ike deletion of 
 
 Errovrs fan mvcr be of any lad cottfequence" have excited your 
 
 fubaltern to endeavour at promoting, with a zeal that fend$ 
 
 him upon the forlorn hope ; fends him to attack the Citadel, 
 
 in which Opinion is moft ftrongly fortified by PRACTICE, 
 
 the VAUBAN of Engineers, and who is fighting with the fkill 
 
 of MARLBOROUGH by her fide ! What a different fate then 
 
 'muft this poor Subaltern expect, who, though he has been 
 
 all his life praying for Peace on earth and good will among 
 
 men, has fuch caufe to apprehend that there will be laid 
 
 b a - againft
 
 againft him, on every fide, a Hoft of Foes, too much 
 irritated by this blazon, to ears of flelh and blood, of the 
 errours of their practice, though but on a fingle point, to 
 liften to the ft ill fmail voice which might reprefs their anger ! 
 And moft of them of fuch a different defcription from 
 creatures who can aflault but with one part of thenl, from 
 before or from behind, that, if credit may be given to an 
 Italian proverb *, they are prqvided from every quarter with 
 powers of offence fretful Porcupines with a Quill in every 
 direction ! 
 
 But amongft all his foes, it is FOLLY, undoubtedly, which 
 if not the moft formidable, will be the loudeft. For, as fhe 
 maintains a uniformity of character, fhe will fcarcely upon 
 this occafion depart from the uniformity of conduct fhe has 
 held on others, in proportion as ideas of improvement are 
 likely to gain countenance and credit, and thence a tendency 
 -to be put in aftion, fhe has ever been obferved to redouble her 
 efforts for the more firmly eftablifhing the throne of PREJU- 
 DICE, the partner of her reign. This proportion Ihe will 
 preferve at prefent ; fhe, who can alone, in her fovereign 
 power, iuperiour to reftraints which might awe a fubjedt, 
 after reading through the following DifTertation, if founded 
 on Truth, put the notorious queftion Pourquoi innover, puifque 
 xovs SOMMES si BISK ? If it (hall drop Hill-born from the 
 prefs, fhe will be quiet as a Lamb, and limper with a face of 
 wondrous placidnels. At all events, fhe may rely fecurely 
 upon her friends and coufms, \vhofe loyalty is not to be 
 fliaken to a change of note, by all the powers of Pindus 
 preceded by the God of Mufic if unbacked by Mammon. 
 But if for this change of note fhould be given the fuffrage of 
 a few who are not of her court withheld from it, as weli 
 by their wifdom as by that pride which aw made for man, 
 the noble pride preferving them from all that is unworthy of 
 themfelves how will fhe be agitated, and ftun the world 
 with the deafening clamour of her Bells I And the poor 
 Culprit what will become of him! "SEDITION!" fhe 
 
 * Dal Toro dinanzi, dal Cavallo dietro, guardati dal Prete 
 d'ogni canto, 
 
 inilantly
 
 mftantly exclaims : for fhe knows not, that, the word means 
 fimply A GOING APART, and, confequently, that, from fuch 
 mouths as hers, it muft beftow 
 
 "PRAISE" UNDESIGNED, BY <( CENSURE IN DISGUISE." 
 
 But there is nothing too ridiculous or too violent for her to 
 attempt, in the gibes and the jeers, as well as the rancorous 
 accufations, fhe will caft upon him. " A pretty fellow, he, 
 indeed, to fet up for a Tongue-keeper, and expeft that people 
 fhould, unrewarded, move them, according to bis fancy, 
 forfooth, in the pronunciation of fo many thoufands of 
 fyllables, when there is another Tongue-keeper, who, if you but 
 humour his fancy, will pay like a king with a People's 
 money for the merely pronouncing an AY or NO ! No, no; 
 no Tongue '-keeper s for ui, who have not the true GloJJb-.omon /" 
 She had been told perhaps that Tfao-croxono* means a bag, in 
 which the Tongues of Wind-iujtruments aud Money were kept to- 
 gether; and that it is tranflated by the word "Bag" indie 
 place, where it is faid, that, He that had the Bag, cared not for 
 the Peor, and was a Thief. 
 
 Whether to this antient yX^crjoxo^ov bur modern parlia- 
 mentary word En Iget has ever had any fort of refemblance or 
 affinity, let fenatours determine. 
 
 " By and by, (continues Folly) this fellow, if he be fuf- 
 fered to go on with his prefumption and arrrogance uncon- 
 tradited, will not be contented with attempting to tune our 
 tongues, and put his New Song into our mouths, but will 
 have the audacity to think of moulding to his fancy our very 
 features and gefture alfo, and make as mere puppets of people 
 on this fide the water, in a free country, as they were made 
 in a foreign land, under arbitrary rule ; when fuch directions 
 were written down for them, as, " /', le Rol prendra un air 
 fever e ; ici, le fronf elu Roi f adoucira ; /'a', le Rol fera tel gefte t 
 &V. *" And then, borrowing from that foreign land a joke 
 which fhe dearly loves felicitates the fellow, upon his happy 
 
 * Thcfe directions were written upon a paper which Chamfort 
 fays is ftill exiiting to be obferved by Louis XV. in a fpeech 
 prepared for him to rnake to a public body, when Machaut was 
 his prime-miniiter, and Madam Pompadour much more.
 
 ( xii ) 
 
 profpecl of being rewarded for his idle pains a/ puttice profit* 
 with his New Pleafure as much as his Mekerchus did with 
 the firft preferment that lhall be at the difpofal of 
 Meker. bus ! 
 
 But, Sir, the Stranger, who has thus addreffed you, moft 
 humbly begs your pardon, for having inconfiderately introduced 
 to you, with himfelf, if poflible, a ftill greater Stranger; and 
 of whofe company, he is fure, you muft be tired; as he is 
 not altogether without fufpicion you may be of that of her 
 companion; to whom you fee, he fears by more than his 
 defcription of her manners, fhe is by no means ftrange. 
 They will then withdraw together ; and perhaps, like old 
 friends, make up the difference which has arifen from the 
 feeble attack he meditates upon the illiterate and unmufical 
 influence of herfelf and her dr,owfy confort. But mould (he 
 continue her ill-humour, he aflures you, that, if he {hall be 
 fo happy as to approve himfelf to You, and to two or three 
 more like you were it not too much to expeft that fo many 
 are eafily to be found all the Din and Clatter that the bell- 
 crowned Queen can raife, calling to her aid all the frantic 
 priefts DindymencSy ct omnes Corybantes ara acuta geminantcs. will 
 
 only 
 
 " Roll o'er his head, but come not to his heart." 
 
 That you may long continue, Sir, to be an Honour to 
 Letters, to advanced Age, to your Country, and your Kind, 
 is the fincere wifh of 
 
 Your moft obliged and 
 
 obedient humble Servant, 
 
 A DISCIPLE OF MEK.ERCHUS. 
 February 24, 1797-
 
 ERRATA, 
 
 Page j ; line i$, for Cleobolus read Cleobulus, . , 
 
 19, for loveus read Jove us. 
 <5, 14, for fratri read fratris. 
 
 19, 19, for patrem<7&r read patrem^a*?, and In 
 3*> 7'f cr Comports with that read comports with, 
 
 that. 
 
 35> f or R^dit read RadTt, 
 33 f 2 7> /** wn&fudor read fudor and y?w;V. 
 ,39, 9, for Gpomv read QftniH, 
 
 4P, 34, for f9xE read /Onus. 
 55* 3^ /* r pricrem ra?i/ pofteriorem, 
 62, 32, yr is read was. 
 
 69, 27, /or making read marking the half-feet, 
 77' *5> f or not-extricating read not extricating. 
 8(5, 22, _/or Hunfterhuilian rexd Hemfterh \iiiian. 
 99 a 3 f or the connexion r^W that connexion, 
 loj, 1.6, /lr diclitantes mz^/di&itantes, 
 1 1 8, 9, ^r than to be one read than be one. 
 
 Th-e errour of a Flemifh writer, concerning the burial-place of 
 the moft refpc3;abie perfonage reprefented in the frontifpiece, is 
 eorre&ed in a note at p. 109. The folio MS. there mentioned, 
 which is ' in the hand-writing of Do&or Edward Meetkerke, who 
 was left by his ever to be honoured father infant anniculus f and who 
 proved to be the tranfmitter of his name, contains the monumental 
 infcription, little differing from that copied here from Foppens, 
 5n pp. 4, jj, and 6; but in the being more correct in a few words, 
 as fufcepijfet for fufcepit, &c. in its not being in any part broken 
 into lines of inscription ftyle ; and in giving the hexameter and 
 pentameter couplets at the end in this manner : 
 
 Quid manus armata eft ? Hoftis. Quidnam altera ? Amicus, 
 Tertin ? Meetkerkus, qui manum utramque capit. 
 
 Quid Gra j cae voces, E^8jo<7* l>t?o3- T'A^A^O; ? 
 
 Vocitm liar am interpres, Vita, Mekerke, tua eft.
 
 ( I ) 
 
 MET 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 A 
 
 NEW PLEASURE, It is humbly prefumed, may be 
 prefented in thefe pages to the ingenious youthful readers; if, 
 laying afide the barbarifm of our fchoo!s, they can be per- 
 fuaded to read Greek and Latin verfes with a ftrift obfervance 
 of the Meafure, or, as we commonly call it, the Quantity , ot 
 the fyllables. 
 
 If they are not too far gone in a bad habit, my young friends 
 will not fpurn this friendly offer, without examination. But, 
 recollefting the faying of an ancient fage*,. who thought the 
 obfervance oi Me a jure the beft maxim for the regulation of life; 
 they may perhaps apply it to poetry, and find, that the ob- 
 fervance of QUANTITY is the only maxim for the reasonable 
 enjoyment of the Senfe as well as the Melody of verfe. 
 
 * METPON f*i KXio&Xo? 5 A3w,- nfft API2TON. 
 
 Cleobolus, of Lindus in the ifle of Rhodes, had alfo another 
 maxim, which, however foreign to the purpoie for which he may. 
 at any time be quoted, ought always to accompany his name, viz. 
 That " Kwdnejs Jkonld be Jhnun to ALL men, to enemies as well as 
 friends ; that the latter may continue, and the form-zr be made* to loveus" 
 
 B This
 
 This Quantity, by our prefent general cuftom, we fcarceir 
 half obferve; and, in eonfequence, receive from the beautiful 
 and fublime produ&ions of antiquity fcarcely half the pleafure 
 they are capable of affording. 
 
 A Uriel: attention to Quantity has,, however, it is faid, been. 
 given, even in modern times, by fomediftinguimed characters 
 in polite literature. About two centuries ago, Sir Joint Cbrie 
 was of opinion, that " Should any of the old Greeks return 
 to life, and hear our unharmonious pronunciation, fo very 
 different from the fweet and diftinft elocution of the antients, 
 it would give him uneafinefs to rind, that, what he had .left fo 
 perfect and excellent, was now reduced to a wretched {late of 
 corruption and barbariCm."" And though thefe wo*ds were 
 faid by him refpefting Accent m particular, they are too general 
 not to be fuppofed to comprehend Quantity iikewife. About 
 the fame time, ADOLPHUS MEKERCHUS*, in his Com- 
 
 mentary 
 
 * Adolphus Mekerchus was a native of Flanders, who, puffing 
 through many honourable employments with great nfefulnefs to his 
 country, and the highelt fame of his abilities and integrity, died. 
 at London, upon an embalfy to Queen Elizabeth, and was buried 
 in St. Paul's, a little more than two centuries ago. He appears to 
 have been an ornament and delight of the age in which he lived 
 Second to none in literary accomplimments, aad poflefling one of 
 the moft amiable and benevolent of hearts. For, his maxim 
 improving upon that of the Grecian fage in the preceding note 
 was to be, ET AMICO FRATER ET HOSTI ; and grief for the lofs of 
 a fon was fuppoled to be the caufe of his death, in his fixty-fourth. 
 year ! a period of life, at which there are but few, it is faid,, 
 whole arfeftions are not confiderably impaired by fo long an 
 acquaintance with Time ; who is certainly, for that long acquaint- 
 ance we are fo fond of with him, very apt, upon fome account or 
 other, to make us all pay dearly ; and, for which greedy difpoiition, 
 he has, by a fhrewd Greek, been tauntingly intituled " The 
 Skilful Artift, making evety thing weaker that be t^kes in. band!"* 
 
 Thif 
 
 * *O ytj X? OV f f*'* Jt< */f4^ - TE3t7.lV u ( (TSfOf ! 
 
 Atiavltt d'fya^>|U.fV5 UffStttf lea. CfJlteS. 
 
 It has, befi'ls, been faid. that, ** vivant t tt tn vyant 1st itamet, il faut 
 Jut It (aur Js lirije tn Jt IromuP'
 
 < 3 ) 
 
 jnentary De veteri el refta pronuntiatione llnguee feraca, was a 
 itrong advocate for reading every fyllable according to its 
 quantity. And, in the laft century, Ifaac foj/ius, in his 
 treatife De poematum cantu, partly fupported the fame fyftem. 
 
 The 
 
 This ornament and delight of his kind, the Flermlh fage, is 
 thus fpoken of by one of his like.nefles and contemporaries, the 
 nioft relpeftable THUANUS. " Noilris addetur /viiphttt Met- 
 kerkius, patritius Brugenfis, vir litcriii egregic infiruftus ; qui cura 
 per eas inclarefcere cepiflet, aeftu motuum, qui Belgium con- 
 culferunt, abreptus. Totam vitam legationibus cbeundis ac ne- 
 gotiis tra&andis Ordinum Confiliarius confumpfit ; ac tandem apud 
 li2afbetham Angliae Reginam Orato'-, hoc anno, 1591, Londini 
 obiit, cum climacteiicum luum menfibus lex lupereflet, moerore ex 
 Kicolai filii admodum ftrenui ducis ad Daventriam interfecTi nun- 
 tio, nt. creditum eit, contradto." Lib. C. 
 
 Freherus, in his '* Thetitrwit Vv-arum Eruditnne clartrum" profeffing 
 to take his account, as well as from Thuanus, " ex Atbenis Belricis 
 Fr. Siveertii," fays of Mekerchus, " Legationes, Ordinum Belgi- 
 carum Provinciarum nomine, apud varios principes maxima fide 
 fummaque cum lau<\e tot am vitam obivit." Then, after relating, 
 from Thuanus, the circumrtance of his death, he adds f " Sepultus 
 in templo D. Panli. Scripfit etedidit eltgantem libellum de veteri 
 Ct re6ta Lingua; Graecae pronuntiatione. Huic adjedtus eft, 
 Ephemeris fyllabica dierum Faltorum Ecclefiae Romanae. Poemata 
 varia. Mofchi et Bionis Idyllia fcholiis illuftrata. Theocriti 
 Syracufani Epigrammata Vefte Latina donata. De tumultibus 
 fcellicis MS. apud haeredes." 
 
 Belides thefe books, it is faid, in the " Nouveau Di8ionn*irc 
 Hijlorique" a Caen et Lyon, 1789,--" qu'il travailla aux Vits 
 Jcs Cejars" aux " Mednilks de la Grande Greet," et aux *' Faftes 
 Con/ulaires t " publics par Goltzius." 
 
 His domeitic name -was AJolpbm a Meetkercke i. e. of Meet- 
 Jcercke as appears, as well from a marginal note in Thuanus, as 
 from his being called ib by Jlnttnius Senatrus, a celebrated Flemifh 
 writer, in his " Ftandria ittu/lrata y " who, fpeaking of the il- 
 luftrious men of his country, fays, " et, inter eos, A. Metkerkus 
 vulgd Meetkerke a veteri pago gentilitio (qui medio fere itinere 
 inter Brugas et Blancobergam (itus eft) fie didus." 
 
 Thuanus and Senderus, \vriting perhaps from memory, have 
 fpelled his foreign or literary name differently from each other, and 
 from that which Meetkercke thought proper to give to himfelf in 
 the book printed at Bruges, moft probably under his infpection, 
 
 B 2 from
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 The obfervance of Quantify is, alas ! all that is now left 
 refpeting the found of ancient poetry. It were much to be 
 
 wifhed, 
 
 from which the reader will find a tranfcript in the fecond chapter ; 
 and that lu^ne which he gave himfelf, is followed in the enfuing 
 pages j as in citing and fpeaking of ^mtanus and VoJJiu;*, their 
 ic- :gn or literary names are naturally followed, though the 
 domeitic iu. ne of one was de Ibou, and of the other Vos. Befides, 
 that, it is nut to his embailies, but to his books, that his immor- 
 tality is due. " Ex Libi is Immortaliiatem" faid jfljinim Pollio, 
 when i,, opening the iirft public library at Rome, he employed his 
 wealth to a nobly-ufeful purpofe. 
 
 ..,, in his :< Siotiftbeca Belgica" 1739, has preferved a 
 portrait of this nluftrious Flemiih fcholar, engraved by Larmeffin, 
 - which the froulilpiece has been copied: and, from his account 
 of him, it fhould feem, that his being appointed ambaffador to the 
 court of England muft have been particularly pleafing to him, 
 fince he had choiea before to make this country his residence, 
 to avoid the troubles of his own. The words of Foppens are, 
 Obilt Londini in Anglia, quo, rerum pautlatim in Flandria potiente 
 Alrxandr^, Parm< Dust, Jeie/jlrat. This may be inferred from 
 Thuanus, and is conhrmed by the inscription extant upon his 
 monument until the demolition of the old St. Paul's which has 
 been preferved likewife in the fame book with his portrait, and 
 js in the fo)lo"wing words : 
 
 DEO TRINO ET UNI 
 
 Opt. Max. facrum, 
 
 Ac seternae Memoriae 
 
 NobiUfiimi, honoratiffimi, 
 
 Omnique virtutum et eruditionis genere 
 
 Praeftantiffimi viri, Pomini 
 
 ADOJLPHI a MEETKERCKE> 
 
 Brugenlis, 
 
 Equeftris Ordinis, 
 
 Summi Flandrias Concilii 
 
 Praefidis digniffimi et jufliflimi, 
 
 In creandis per Flandriam 
 
 Urbium Civitatumque Magiftratibus 
 
 Legati perpetui. 
 
 Qui 
 
 Difficillimis Belganim temporibus 
 
 Jlluftrem locum Confiliarii Status, 
 
 Jn fupremo trium Ordinxira 
 
 Belgicama
 
 ( 5 ) 
 
 wifhed, indeed, that we could read Ukewife with that decent of 
 theirs, by which, it is faid, there may be given to a lyllable 
 
 what 
 
 Belgicarum provinciarum fenatu, 
 
 Multis Principibns junctus Collega, 
 
 Plus qu m Decennium fuftinuit. 
 
 Legationes quoque 
 Eorundem Ordinum nomine 
 
 Apud varies Germanise 
 Superioris et. infcrioris Principes, 
 
 Regem Galiiae, 
 
 Ejufque Fratrem Principem Alenjonium, 
 Turn eti.un apud Sereniffimam hanc 
 
 Angliae &c. Reginam 
 Principi Havrreo fa6tus Collega, 
 Summis de rebus, maxima fide, 
 
 Summaque cuin laude, obiit. 
 
 Eximiae cognitionis cum Jurifprudentiae, 
 
 Turn Hirtoriae foma celebemmus: 
 
 Nee minus a bonarum artium, 
 Humanarumque difciplinarum et lingaarum 
 
 Praefertim Latinse et Groecae 
 (Quarum pollerioris fuit Reftaurator) 
 
 Eruditione commendatiffinms. 
 Quodque primum omnium eft, 
 
 Pietatis in Deum et Homines, 
 
 Veritatis Evangelicce et Juftitiae 
 
 Cultor ftudioliHimus. 
 
 Cujus causa 
 Omnibus fupradictis honoribus reli&is, 
 
 Exilium, 
 
 Etiamfi ipfi in fua fene&ute durum, 
 Tamen libens Chrifti causa fufcepitj 
 
 Nullo Hifpani auro, 
 
 Vel ingentibus pollicitationibus, 
 
 Quibus a refto inftituto dimovere 
 
 Eum conabantur, expugnabilis. 
 
 Is natus annos 6.3, menfes 6, pridie Nonas Oct. anno poft natum 
 Meffiam 1591, ex hac peritura ad perennem vitam emigravit : cum 
 ex duabus nobiliffimis feleftiffimifque uxoribus, tarn virtute quam 
 genere clariilimis, Domina Jacoba Cervina, et Domina Margaretti 
 a Lichtervelde, plurimos fufcepit utriufque iexus liberos. Ex qui- 
 feus moiiens fex^ ex qualibet uxore videlicet tres^ reliqait fuperflites. 
 
 Ex
 
 ( 6 ) 
 
 what is fo difficult to many to conceive <* Elevation without 
 Prolongation. ," But this, it is to be feared, we never fhall 
 attain : notwithftanding the great feaiibility of it is fo ftrongly 
 affirmed by Sir John Cheke, by Michadis, by Fofter, and 
 others. From their theories, the writer, at leaft, mutt 
 confefs, for his part, that he has not been able to profit ; nor 
 has he ever had the good fortune to meet with a practical 
 leffon upon the fubje&. 
 
 One cannot avoid wifhing likewife, that, with all their 
 other arts of proaunciation, we could imitate what we 
 are told was fo captivating the mv<in.!ati.n, rbytbmus, or 
 
 Ex priore Balciuinum ; qui csefo miper in expugnatione Daventriae 
 fratre fuo primogenito D. Nicolao, militum duce fortillimo, mili- 
 tibus di6ti fratri fui, a Sereuiffima Angliae Regina eft praefe6tus. 
 ^blpbttm, patri cognominem, a fratre in ordine militari fecundum: 
 et filiam Ar.nam, uxorem clariflimi viri D. Pauli Knibbii, Jurifcon. 
 et Sereuif. Danias Regis Conciliarii. Ex pofteriore rilium annicu- 
 lum Eduardum, et duas filias, Elizabethan, et Salomen, tres libera- 
 liflimae indolis et formae infantes. 
 
 Cui placide in Chrifto humanae gentis foipitatore obdormienti, 
 hoc meritis ipfins debitum raortale Monumentum, turn immortalis 
 amoris et reverentiae, Pefrus ab Heyla^ dihis Verheila y Brugenfis 
 Jurifc. popularis, civis et amicus ejus mceftilf. pof. 
 
 Pro fymbolo habebat duas dexteras inter fe junftas, quarum una 
 armata eft, altera inermis ; quibus tertia e nube fuperveniens duas 
 priores comple&itur j additis his verbis, ad nomea Adolphi allu- 
 dentibus, 
 
 IAOIS EX0POI2 TE AAEAOOE. 
 Et araico Frater et hofti. 
 
 Q.uld manus armata eft ? Hoftis. Quidnam altera ? Amicxu. 
 
 Tertia ? MEETKERKUS, qui manurn utramque capit. 
 Ouid Graecae voces ? ET AMICO FRATER ET HOSTI. 
 
 Vocum harum interpres vita, Mekerke, tua eft. 
 
 Nil fcribitur totnm. Quis hoc mare effundat ? 
 Llultum valent recifa parva de magnis. 
 Momenta rerum, et quae argnmenta funt fumma, 
 Suffecerit traftafle j nullus abfolvet.
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 larmony, with which the antients read, and which by them 
 was called the Carmen*. 
 
 But fo far are we from being acquainted with tins carmen^ 
 
 fo little do we know how thofe great matters both of fenfe and 
 
 r 
 
 * Curritur ad vocem jucundam et Carmen arnicas 
 ThebaidoH ; laetam fecit cum Statius urbem, 
 Promifitque diem ; tanta dulcedine captos 
 Afficit ille animos, tantaque libidin&vulgi 
 Auditur. Jur. vii. 82. 
 
 This Carmen feeras to have been a notation over the verfe, 
 diftinft from that of mufic, for its modulation. Quinclilian fays 
 Per/us quoque Saliorum habent carmen. Du Bos has written ably 
 on this fubjeft : as he bas alfo on the ngnifications in which the 
 words uiiu, canere, canttr, o^tofa, o^nrti?, Ja/tarc, faltatio, &c. 
 are frequently to be taken; viz. in the fignifications of reciting and 
 afting, inftead of Jinging and dancing. Without attributing thefe 
 Bgnifications to thole words, many paffages cannot be underftood; 
 and it would not have been difreputable to our Lexicographers to 
 have noticed them. 
 
 Juvenal, in hio fifth Sat. bids his, reader behold, at great tables, 
 the Carver " Jaitantem, et chironomanta volanti culteUo," i. e. 
 ^ejaculating^ in the performance of his office j certainly not dancing 
 wr jumping. In his eleventh fa tire, he fays, 
 
 Conditor Iliados cantabitur atque Maronis 
 Altifoni, dubiam facientia carmina palmam r 
 Nil refert tales verfus qua voce legantttr : 
 
 ufing fynonymoufly cantabiiur and legantur. 
 
 That mean magnificent wretch Munatius Plancus, to whom the 
 41 Laudabunt alii" is addrelfed, wlio had been twice conful, and 
 was, like a thorough courtier, " fans bwntur ni bumeur" and 
 " in omnin et omnibus -ven*lis;" that he might pleafe the emperor, 
 fubmitted, we are told by Paterculus, to have his naked body 
 fmeared with cerulean paint, that, with a garland of reeds upon 
 his head, and dragging a tail after him, as he crawled upon his 
 knees, he might atf, not dance or jump, the part of Glaucus " Cum 
 eoerulcatus et nudus, caputque redimitus arundine, et caudara 
 trahens, genibus innixus Glaucum faltaffet" 
 
 Apuleius fays that Venus was accuftomed to fpeak, or lignify her 
 meaning with her eyes alone " Et nonnunquam Jaltare foils 
 oculis." 
 
 ^And yet all the interpretations to faltart in the lateff edition of 
 Ainf worth's Dictionary, are, to dance, Jumf, hofa orjkip" 
 
 found
 
 ( 8 ) 
 
 found pronounced their fyllables, ex-cept as to quantity that 
 there appears good ground for the conjecture of Scioppius, 
 that, if Cicero could hear us fpeak his language, he would, no 
 more underftand the moft learned modern, or fuch a modem 
 Wnflerftand Cicero " quam ft Arabice pern-aret* ." 
 
 But what of all this? We do know the quantity of their 
 fyllables, which is fixed by unalterable laws: and our not 
 being able to attain all the excellence of their recitation, is 
 furely no reafon for neglecting the pleafure, fo eafily acquired, 
 of making an approach to part of it, by paying a ftricT: 
 obfervance to the quantity which they gave to their fyllables. 
 Surely it is fomething To arrive at this, if it be not given us 
 to go beyond it. By not obferving quantity, we Jofe in- 
 numerable beauties. Out of the thoufands which might be 
 taken, let us take an example from the two concluding lines 
 of Ajax's prayer. 
 
 Tloiy<rov ctipyv, 05 do$ot 
 
 EJ> SB tyctti it, ofatrrovy STTZI vu rot svuStv 
 
 To the fublime conception, indeed, in tht? adclrefs to the 
 cloud-difperfing Jove, we do juftice by a proper eftimation of 
 it; but, it is plain, from our manner of reading it, that we 
 are as infenfible of its beautifully-artificial meafure, as we are 
 of the elegant fliape, colour, and perfume, of the flower, 
 which *' is born to blufh unfeen and wafle its fweetnefs on 
 the defert air." 
 
 Thefirft of thefe verfes is an earneft petition, directed with 
 emphatic fervour to the Maker omnipotent of night and day, 
 that the hero and his hoft may at leaft have a clear Iky, that 
 it may be granted them but to behold the enemy, and die at 
 leaft like men. And it is exprefled, moft fuitably, in a 
 ilrenuous and urgent, though flow and folemn, flream of 
 
 * The C and G, for inftance, were, by the Romans, always 
 pronouaced hard, i. e. as the Greek K and r, before ALL the 
 vowels : which found of them it would have been well if we had 
 retained ; for, had this been done, the inconvenience of many 
 equivocal founds, arid much appearance of irregularity in the 
 language, would have been avoided. 
 
 Spondees :
 
 ( 9 ') 
 
 : the whole of which, by our mifpronunciation of 
 the two firft words, is blighted with debility *. For of IToirxrov, 
 which is a molofius, we make an amphibrachys; and ofaiGpi*, 
 which is a fpondee, we make a trochee. 
 
 The fecond verfe differs totally from the firft. Inftead of 
 an earned petition, it is a ready, though indignant, acquief- 
 .ccnce with the will -of the Deity. Give us, oh, give us but 
 Light: and then Deftroy us, if you will, Jince you fiem to 
 be fo difpofed. And it goes off, moil fuitably likewife to 
 iuch a fenfe, in a quick and rapid, run of .dafyles; which 
 adds greatly \o the lublimity of the thought. Now, in this 
 Jecond -verfe, we make ftill greater havoc of the meafure. 
 We ftumble at the very firft ftep, by making a trochee of the 
 iambus jp^, .which converts at once what fbould be a rapid 
 : run, into a difgraceful hobble. Let the unprejudiced reader 
 only try thefe two verfes both ways, (obferving, and violas- 
 ting, the quantity,) and I truft he will need no argument. 
 
 What a luxury of mental gratification nvuft it have been 
 to hear the authour himfelf recite this grand paflage of the 
 interefting ftory ! I imagine him, with the harp in his hand, 
 regulating and embelliihing the modulation; and feem to hear 
 him pouring 'forth " f-ucb founds as take tb'enchanted foul, and lap it 
 in Elyzhtm!" I fay to hear him recite; for the notion of his 
 finding ir, or of theatrical pieces being Jung, becauie they were 
 accompanied by inftruments as Gracchus was by his pitch- 
 pipe fee ins to be a miftake arifmg from -oux mifcoaception 
 of terms. 
 
 'That there muft be fome certain modulation in reading all 
 poetry is plain.; or a part of its nature would be loft : and, in 
 the courfe of his profe-reading, Ihould one who had never 
 heard of Milton, meet with fuch a palTage as this"/?/ a work 
 ivbicb treats of man's frjl d'>fobedience y and toe fndt of tbat forbiddtn. 
 trte, whofe mortal tajle was the cauft of buman mifery, iue naturally 
 expeft, cifr." he might be furpiized, when informed that he 
 had read the firft couplet of a fublime poem, like a B 
 
 * Nam versus aeque prima, & media, & extrema pars attenditur j 
 ui debih'tatur, in quacun^ue parte fit titxibatum. 
 
 Cic. de Oratore.
 
 ( 10 ) 
 
 , without knowing any thing of the matter *, 
 If we cannot arrive at the modulation of the antients, we 
 muft adopt fuch as our tafte and judgement and voice and 
 feeling can fupply; and by the different degrees of which all 
 comparative excellence muft be rated. They who remember 
 what could be effected by the tafte and judgement and voice 
 and feeling of Ganick and of Cib&er, will feelingly allow, that 
 a. very high gratification may be afforded even by Englilh 
 recitation. But there can be no poetical modulation without 
 quantity ; and, therefore by not attending to quantity, we 
 have no modulation, and, confequently, are infenfible of 
 the beauties fpringing from it, in lioiwov S-'a9p> and EV Ji 
 
 Nor perhaps would he who takes the liberty with his young 
 readers of pointing out to them tliefe things, have bellowed 
 -upon them, in a more than ordinary manner, his attention, 
 "but from its having many years ago been accidentally excited. 
 He had always, indeed, an idea, that our very anomalous 
 and irrational way of reading Greek and Latin poetry was 
 founded in errour. Yet, from indolence, tye conformed, 
 though reluctantly, to the general practice ; becaufe it was 
 r>ot his buiinefs, who was not employed in teaching the 
 learned languages, to examine the errour aud to feek its 
 remedy. But luch an undertaking would have fo very much 
 
 _ 
 
 * Concerning verfes to be found mixed undefignedly with profe, 
 a more curious circumftance, perhaps, even than that there Ihould 
 be half a fcore, hexameter and pentameter, in the New Tefta- 
 mentf, is, that a verfe fhould inattentively have been let ilip by 
 both Cicero and Quin&ilian, who both inveighed againit the 
 practice "" vehementer "vitiofum /" cries one ' v fcediflimum /" ex- 
 claims the other : 
 
 Difpliceo mihij nee fine fumrnofcribo dolpre. 
 
 Ad Attic. 
 
 Plane fermone, ut nummus, cui publica forma eft 
 Utendum. 
 
 De Inftit. 
 
 j- Mat. xiv, 14. Luke xiv, jc; xx : , 18. John xiii, 5$ xvi, 28} xix, 39. 
 I Tim. vi, 16. Tit.iii, i, Heb. xii, 13 & 26. Jameb i, 17. 
 
 become
 
 become the truly-learned profeflbrs of inftru,ion in our 
 public feminaries, who, in their continual exercitation, 
 ihould be more ftrongly imprefled* by a fenle of that errour, 
 and of the abfurdincs with which it teems; that high refpect 
 for their characters will make every candid fcholar wifh to be 
 able to furniOi an admiffible apology for its having never yet 
 been executed, or known to be attempted. The doftrine of 
 Mekcrchus, which contains the remedy, and might lead to 
 difcover the caufe of the errour, was publilhed, it is true, 
 very long pgo ; without any apparent effeft in this country ; 
 yet it cannot be faid to be buried in oblivion ; fince it has 
 been held forth to us, together with that of If. VoffiuS, fo 
 lately as in the year 1764, by one of our countrymen, in 
 his book, intituled, " Accentus ReJivivi-" held forth indeed 
 with difapprobation; but in fuch a manner, and with fuch 
 reafons, or rather, no-reafons, for difapprobatton, as, infte-ad 
 of deterring, mould have impelled evefy intelligent reader 
 to embrace it. But there is, as will be leen in the third 
 chapter, more direct and authentic aid, for ever at hand, tor 
 ever in hand, and for ever unpardonabiy overlooked. The 
 ptefent writer, before the accidental excitement of his at- 
 tention to quantity, had never read Mekerchus, or If. Voflius, 
 or the " Accentus Redivivi ;" and what knowledge he has on. 
 the^fubjeft, or, at leaft, what led to it, was got, not by 
 leekiag it from which he thought himfelt exempted by his 
 fituation but" becaufe, like Worcefter's Rebellion^ it " lay- 
 in his way and he found it.'* He found it in the converfa- 
 tion of a learned eccleiiaflic at Rome, while they were walking 
 together in the Campo Vacdno f. This fpot put us naturally in 
 mind of, among other things, Horace's being accuftomed to 
 make it one of his walks, and of the troublefome fellow, 
 whom he fo divertingly defcribes to have faftened on him 
 there. My companion began repeating -Ibam forte via facra, 
 feut mtus eft mos in quantity too new and plealing to my ear 
 
 *" Ex Sx/uiyl); paOa^jyfoc, OKW; Xcyo-:, am 
 
 Xa Ai6o; i' pwyiAOV xo.Aotivflo, ttn^.ot umt~. BlOD. 
 
 f Campo Vaccine is the prefeat name for what was anciently the 
 Forum and the Via Sacra. 
 
 % Horace, ninth fatire of the firft book. 
 
 2 to
 
 to be paffed unnoticed. He fmiled; and' faid, as nearly as I- 
 can recoiled, to the following effeft : 
 
 " I have pronounced all the words, I believe, in their 
 proper quantity ; but I fuppofe, that you, like thofe of your 
 countrymen, whom I have had the pleafure to know here, 
 have, to your lofs, a way of reading, by which a great deal 
 of the beauty of- ancient poetry, I mean its harmony a prin- 
 cipal conftituent of all poetry is deftroyed; merely from the 
 waat of that attention to quantify, which you doubtlefs beftovv 
 in reading the verfes of your ow poets. And in this un 
 reafonable practice you ate more or lefs countenanced by the 
 generality of my own countrymen; by ail> I believe, who 
 have not liftened to the dolrine of Mekerchus the great 
 ambaffador of a little ftate. Such pieces, indeed; as that to 
 which we were alluding, though they are notwritten in poetical 
 language and are therefore, by their authour, called Scrmoni 
 propriora are yet written in hexameter;' and might, with 
 proper attention to quantity, be read, every line of them, as 
 paflfable veifes of that meafure. But, according to^r way of 
 reading, you feem not to allow that there is any word in the 
 Greek or Latin languages, which conftitutes a fpondee, ana- 
 peft, or iambus; or, in fhort, any foot ending in a long 
 fy liable : for, as far as 1 can obferve, you have a rage for 
 trocheeizing and da&ylyzing everything; that is, you tro- 
 cheeize every diffyllable without exception ; and dactylize 
 every trif ; liable, whofe penultimate is fhort; whether anapeft, 
 tribrachys, or amphimacer ; carrying the fame inclination to 
 the polyfyllables ; never pronouncing two long fyllables 
 together ; and ending every word, invariably JIfort Thus, in 
 the line I repeated, there are no lefs than fix diflyllables ; of 
 which but one, unfortunately, is a trochee; and, confequently, 
 that is the only one you pronounce properly, making 
 trochees of all the reft : though three of them, ibam, facra^ 
 faut, are fpondees; one, via, an iambus; and one a pyrrhic, 
 mcus ; and I did no more nor lefs than pronounce them fo. 
 Of the lad, indeed, the pyrrhic, meus, ending, as it does, 
 ihort, I allow that you might make a tolerable hand ; if it 
 had had the good fortune to be preceded by ut as a tnono- 
 fyllable;. and might twang off the daftyle and fpondee at the 
 end, ut x:cta eft mot, currently enough, like Dt qvoquf
 
 out, the nt being unluckily ftuck to_/tc, a'fpondee is formed'; 
 and whenever a pyrrhic is preceded by a fpondee, or au 
 anapeft, or any other word ending fas it muft in hexameter) 
 with a long fyllable, it is impoffible for you, until you get 
 rid of a bad habit, to pronounce it rightly. For do you not 
 make the fame cacophony with/W<? in this verfe 
 
 Abfentis ranse pullis vituli pede preffis ? 
 
 though not deficient in melody, when properly pronounced : 
 the termination with a pyrrhic before'a fpondee being to be- 
 found in the moft poliflied poems; as in the Georgics, where 
 xve rind 
 
 Viftor eqnus, fontefque'avertitur et /to&terram- 
 Crebra ferit ; 
 
 the latter part of which verfe too, a monofyllable preceding a 
 pyrrhic, you would read well. And indeed io you ought; as 
 fome amends for the ftrange mifconception, which, according 
 to your cuftonr, you muft give in the beginning, to a hearer 
 unacquainted with the verfe; who would fuppofe you to be 
 fpeaking inftead of a victorious horfe of fome mild and jx/f 
 conquering hero ; for you would pronounce it ViRtr eetjuus 
 two trochees. The latter part, I fay, you would read well, 
 lecaufi the pyrrhic is preceded by a monofyllable. But, had" 
 the verfe ended as it might harmonioufly have done thus, 
 crebra- ferit petlc terram, I have a in oft violent ful'picion that yott 
 would be quite thrown out. Little, however, I muft confefs,. 
 is loft by fuch errours in reading the fermvii propriora, where- 
 no great harmony is aimed at by the poet. But the cafe is; 
 very different in reading Homer and Virgil; and, particularly, 
 the very beautiful odes of our author: every meafure of which, 
 is, I apprehend, more or lefs lamed by you; the fapphic, 
 perhaps the leaft, becaufe it ends with, what are your fa- 
 vourite feet, a datlyle and two trochees: and though it begins 
 with a trochee too, yet that trochee muft be followed by aa 
 ugly fpondee, in which of courfe you muft be wrong. Nay, 
 this beginning trochee muft prefent itfelf handfomely, without 
 a monofyllable for its foft member, or you will not admit it. 
 How do you begin the fecondode? Do you not fay Jam 
 Now if Jam. iat-s be right in the Erft line, the two 
 
 following
 
 following fhould begin with Granefiais and bextera; but I know* 
 that in thefe words you ihorten the fecond fyllable, and, to 
 the death of all harmony by your beloved dar.ylization - 
 the Third alfo! In the Afclepiad meafure Mce-enas, ata-vis edite 
 regifas you feem to halve the matter : fpoiling only the 
 moloffus and anapefr at the beginning, becaufe they terminate 
 with' long fvllabks; and pronouncing rightly the two daclyles 
 with which it concludes unleis indeed they be fplit into 
 three fuch words as Juice <iecus meum ; when, inftead of two 
 daftyles, you read them though the firft alone is fo -as three 
 trochees. From the fame affection to trochees, you make 
 cruel work with the poet's own favourite meafute, called, after 
 him, Horatlan^ as well as Alcaic ; where the fpondee (or iambus) 
 and the bacchius are fure becaufe they are feet ending long 
 to be twifted by you to diflocation : for, inftead of faying, as 
 you Ihould, PiJes ut aha, you fay, fides ut aliu ; thereby con- 
 founding the fenfe too, as there is no fubftantive with which 
 aha can agree. Cicero, in his Orator, fays, concerning fome 
 cuftomary contractions in the language in which he wrote 
 Impetratum eft a confuetudine ut psccare, SUAVITATIS 
 caufa, liceret.' Now, if a fimilar plea could be admitted in 
 favour of your cuilom of reading; if any fuavity of found, 
 any fuccour to the fenfe were gained, you might adhere to ir, 
 and continue thus finning, againft profody at leaft, not only 
 with fome excufc, but even with forae (how, or fome pretence, 
 of grace. Unhappily, neither to one or the other has it the 
 lhadow of a title. For when, by this moft abominably- 
 abfurd cuftom, you deftroy at once both the found and fenfe, 
 you feem to fin merely from a love of the very uglinefs of 
 finning; as the fame authour fays, in his Offices, was Csfar's 
 cuftom, in regard to the payment of debts * Tanta in eo 
 feccandi libido fuit, ut hoc ipfum eum deledtarat, PECCARE, 
 etiam fi caufa non eflet." 
 
 It was enough, it was abundant, to convince me : and' 
 likewife to lhame me; for having fo long, like a fheep, fol- 
 lowed the multitude to do abfurdly, without knowing any 
 thing of the Why or the Wherefore: 
 
 E cio, che'fa la prima, e 1'altre fanno, 
 
 Addoflandofi a lei, s'ella s'arrefta, 
 Semplici e chete,, e lo'mperche non fanao. Dante.
 
 I was afhatned that my nature could not rather be com- 
 pared '* Half-reafoning Elephant, to thine!" Since it re- 
 quires but half the fmalleft portion of reafon that any of us 
 may have within our reach, to fee the enormity of fo cruelly 
 mangling and disfiguring the moft glorious monuments of 
 antient genius. 
 
 We are told by writers of authority upon the fubjeft that 
 we fhould not read Greek and Latin verfes as they are 
 (canned; which is fo confonant to the authority of common 
 fenfe, that it muft be readily admitted: for, by that practice, 
 many of the words would be fo broken in the middle, as to 
 be rendered unintelligible. This may be inftanced even in our 
 own language: in which we will take an example in each of 
 the two moft common meafures; the heroic, or iambic, of 
 five feet; and the anapeilic of four: 
 
 Awlike, | my StjJohn, leave | all mean'.er things 
 To low | ambll"h|on and | the pride J of kings. 
 
 Here we fee, that, by reading thofe verfes as they are fcanned, 
 the name St. John t and the words meaner and ambition would be 
 cut in two. 
 
 If idClas fecm nojvel, how few | at once tiTut|'em, 
 
 Of us crGa[tures of Rcajson? Mere crca|tures of Cufljom! 
 
 In thofe two lines no lefs than fix words would be cut in 
 two; one of them indeed owing to the additional fyllable 
 which the meafure admits at the end. 
 
 Our heroic meafure, let it be obferved by the way, is 
 fpoken of above as confiding of five feet; that the errour 
 might not be followed which defines it as confifting of ten 
 fyllabJes: for it often exceeds that number; not only by the 
 additional fyllable it admits for double rhymes, or in blank 
 verfe; but by its frequent admiflion, like the Greek and 
 Latin iambics, of an anapeft or daftyle in the room of an 
 iambus ; as well as of fome other feet, and particularly 
 what was inadmiflible in Greek or Latin of the pyrrhic ; of 
 which there is an example in the third foot of the fecond 
 yerfe quoted above from Pope. Inftances of all of them may 
 
 be*
 
 "be found in Milton, faffim; but not as exemplified, in 'hk -note 
 on the firft verfe, by the Right Reverend editor ; who right 
 ONLY in the fingle inftance of the pyrrhic, among all his 
 examples of the different feet * employed by Milton in his 
 iambic meafure is particularly unlucky in that of the da&yle; 
 for the word ethereal is never pronounced by us, as he gives 
 if, a firft peon (conc'ipe^.} ; though he had not far to go, .to 
 find the following good example, at the hundred and twenty- 
 third verfe of the fecond book : 
 
 Omirious j conjecjture on j the whole j succcfs. 
 
 In the firft of the two following heroic lines, there are, 
 without the additional fyllable at the end, or either of them 
 being Alexandrine verfes, twelve fyllabks in the five feet ; 
 becaufe two of them are anapefls : and, in the fecond, which 
 has four anapefts in its five feet, there are fourteen fyllables ; 
 unlefs the words humourtan and amorous be-aukwardly contracted 
 to diflyllables -bumrous and am'rous: and were the laft word ley 
 exchanged, as it might be, for ditty ^ jirgle^ or rattlt^ there 
 would be fifteen : 
 
 Roar'd bel[lJsw4Ug, whllfl ] rebel Jl owing ring J the woods: 
 
 And man|y a hum|orous, manly an amjorous lay. 
 One need not hefitate, it fbould feem, at marking, forlong, 
 
 * And which, with the variation of paufes, have made the 
 diftinctive grace of his verification. I pocti modern}, per anda>- 
 troppo dietro a un certo numero iiffato da loro pel diritto, e pel 
 fcuono, danno nell' unifono ; e i loro verfi, per coli dire, fuona-no 
 Je campane, o faltano a pie pari ; i'cnza quella varieta cli numero e 
 -cliipenfazione d'arn.onia, fecondo i i'uggetti che-fi trattanoj che 
 fece il mirabile degli Antichi; .e che c quella cofa che fa la poeiia 
 toccante ed aftettuofa. Claudiano ed Ovidio hanno pia dolcezza 
 nel numero di Virgilio; ma f >uo auche rincrefceyoli, mancaiio 
 -di quella forza e di quella maelta. Muratori. 
 
 But that we an never am -e at the. due and proper feeling cf 
 that ilrength and majefty, wi hout an obiervance of quantity, is 
 plain from what has been faid upcn Ajax's prayer. 
 
 the
 
 ( '7 ) 
 
 the firft fyllable of the word many ; or at doing the fame by all 
 the even fyllables in the following verfe: 
 
 The bus|/ bod|ics flutjter, tutjtle ftillj 
 
 though fome writers are pleafed to qualify as fhort, all fyllablr s 
 which have their vowels Ihort; with lefs reafon for, than 
 againft the practice, if we may be allowed to argue from 
 analogy. For, as we are informed by antiquity, that, the 
 vowel may be fhort in long fyllables as the i in inclytvs, &c - 
 it is to be fuppofcd, that there may be in all languages, long 
 fyllables lefs long than other long fyllables, and fhort fyllables 
 lefs Ihort than other Ihort ones. That there are fuch in 
 Greek and Latin, we have the following exprefs authorities 
 of Dionyfius and of Quin&ilian: " Aa>xTl &"* <rtAAaj 
 fy*W*C) *o f 2f>* |u*f*--." '* Et longis longiores, & Irevibus funt 
 brtviorefJyHabte." Thefe two words, omincus, undbotifif/s, there- 
 foie, fhould be both equally dactyles ; though the long fyllablc 
 of the former which is made long by its fhort vowel's 
 attracting to itfelfthe found of the following confonant is 
 not fo long as the long fyllable of the latter: fo of body and 
 btd : ng\ flutter and fiuter^ &j. As every flight variation of 
 found is no more the fame to every ear than is every flight 
 fhade of colour to every eye, let it be cenfidered farther, if 
 there be any doubt whether fuch words as omincus, body, flutter^ 
 &c. are da&yles and trochees with us, that, by thofe who are 
 continually led by the genius of their pronunciation to 
 daftylize and trodieeize, an effort muft be made, to pronounce 
 properly an ifolated tribrachys or pyrrhic ; and that cuftom 
 never ranges itfelf on the fide of difficulty. 
 
 But there are writers who go much farther ; and regulating 
 all by Empbajtti and by a word which has been fo woefully 
 abufed! ACCENT, will not allow, that we have, in our 
 language, any thing to do with Long or Short: led thereto moft 
 likely by this consideration, that the monofyllables with 
 which our language abounds are all arbitrary*, and that in 
 
 difTyllables 
 
 * One writer fays that all our monofyllables are arbitrary, except 
 the articles tbf and a which are always Jhort ; but in which he has 
 
 D jniitakeri
 
 di fly llables there is no fyllable fo long that it may not be made 
 fhort, particularly in our anapeftic meafure. But this perhaps 
 may rather be regarded as poetical licence in favour of the 
 rhythmus: for when we pronounce to ourfelves any trochee or 
 iambus for iniVance in the words ftcure or fainted we find fo 
 much more time taken up in pronouncing one fyllable in each, 
 comparatively to the other, that it is difficult to conceive a 
 doubt but that we are fully juflified in calling it a long one. 
 That \ve have long and fhort is ftill more evident in our 
 trifyllablcs ; where a change of quantity in the penultimate 
 cannot be admitted in any meaiure ; as it would render the 
 woids unintelligible. Who could underftand accurate, arrogant, 
 Deluding misery, &c.? Yet in both the above diffyllables the 
 long fyllables may be made fiiort not indeed in this heroic 
 verfe in the Rape of the Lock " And now fecure the painted 
 veflel glides" but in anapeitic, thus, 
 
 Secure o'er the high waves painted veffels fhall glide. 
 
 The fame licence is given to our da&ylic meafure; as in this 
 fong in ** Midas," which has alternately four dadtyles pure, 
 and three da&yles with a long fyllable: 
 
 If you can caper as well as you modulate, 
 
 With the addition of that pretty face, 
 Pan, who was held by our fhepherds a God 6 late, 
 
 Will be kick'd out, and you put in his place. 
 
 Another fpecies of this meafure is met with in Dryden's 
 Albion and Albanius, having alternately three da&yles with a 
 trochee, and, as in the former, three dadtyles and a long 
 fyllable: 
 
 From the low palace of old Father Ocean 
 
 Come we in pity your cares to deplore ; 
 Sea-racing Dolphins are train'd for our motion, 
 
 Moony tides fwelling to roll us afhore. 
 
 miftaken; for, when endued with i particular fignificance, they toe 
 
 may be made long, as 
 
 When you the poet fay, we think Homer is meant, 
 But when a poet't fajd, any one's the intent. 
 
 In
 
 ( '9 ) 
 
 In thcfe two dactylic meafures, we fee the trochees pretty and 
 father like the trochee fainted, and the iambus fecure in the 
 anapeftic, converted each to a pyrrhic. And in fuch meafures 
 ada&yle or anapeft may be each inverted. 
 
 But though of diflylhbies any long fyllable may thus 
 become Ihort, we have no rhythmus by which *ny Jbort fyllab!^ 
 can become long. Very far from it. Indeed the power of 
 the rhythinus, even in our language, which has fuch great 
 latitude in the other .refpeft, is in this very much rdtri&ed- 
 Infomuch that, it can "only, perhaps, in words of above two 
 fyjlables, make final Ihort lyllables long on account of paufe*. 
 
 Khythmus 
 
 * If no greater power than this be given to the rhythmus in our 
 language, which is fo loofely tied to quantity^ it is quite io- 
 credible unlefs all analogy be dead that it mould have greater 
 power in fuch languages as the Greek and Latin except in the 
 one refpect of changing the quantity of a long or fliort indifferent 
 fyllable, as the kind of verfe requires ; in 
 
 Tyburis umbra tui Teucer Salnmina patremyK*? 
 Vidimus flavum Tiberim retort is, 
 
 the firft of thcfe indifferent fyllables, que, Is, of a fliort fyllable, 
 made a long one ; and the fecond, tit, of a long is made ihort ; 
 and fuch lyllables are called indifferent not that it is by any means 
 indifferent how they are pronounced, but becaufe it is indifferent 
 whether they be long or fliort in themfelves ; fince their quantity 
 is determined by the place they ftand in : except this, I fay, and 
 how is it to be conceived that the rhythmus mould have greater 
 power in fuch languages as the Greek and Latin ? For they were 
 ftrictly bound down to quantity, by invariable laws, in all their fyl- 
 lables : except the few arbitrary or common fyllables. One of the 
 ftrongeft of thole laws was that of POSITION ; which our language, 
 like moil, if not all, modern ones, utterly difclaims. in our 
 word conjira'in, and many like it, we fee the firft fyllable is Ihort, 
 before even four conlbnants ; but nothing upon earth but bar- 
 barous pronunciation can make fhort the firft fyllable of conflnngo. 
 From this great diflimilitude, therefore, it is evidently impojlible 
 that the rhythmus could have greater power in the Greek and 
 Latin languages. But, extraordinary as it may feem, we are told, 
 and by great authority, if true, that the Greek and Latin rhythmus 
 had greater power : and the great BENTJ.EY has availed himfclf 
 
 Da of
 
 Rhythmus has no concern with words which are in poetry 
 licenfed to be of arbitrary meal ure; fuch as perfume, adverfe, 
 
 contcjl, 
 
 of that authority, to fupport what appeared to no inferior fcholar 
 his Excellency the renowned Amballadour of Flanders a vicious 
 pronunciation. Let us therefore examine the weight of that great 
 authority. 
 
 The Scholia upon HephaefHon, " IT.^ M!pv <*. riotm*.*" are printed, 
 with additions, under the title of Fragment a, at the end of Pierce's 
 Longinus; and that editour informs us, that -J- "The learned, for 
 the moft part, attribute them to LONGINUB as the authour." Now 
 i?the third of thefe Fragments! it is faid, that- "The Rhyth- 
 mus can, as it pleafes, lengthen times (or quantities), and therefore 
 it often makes a mort time long." This is the great authority. To 
 which in reply, may it npt be aj"ked, whether thefe " learned, for 
 the molt part," have not miftaken, in attributing this extraordinary 
 afifertion to the authour of the Commentary on the Sublime ? Or, 
 if the aflertion were his, might not Longinus himfelf have mif- 
 taken ? It is remarkable, that, at the end of the fecond of thefe 
 Fragments, it is faid, that, " Metre is an excellent thing, as it is 
 the, foundation of Mufic ; the glory of which, as Homer fpeaks 
 " We have heard of only, but we do not know GJOV ax*o^iy, alt T 
 
 In the fourth Fragment, which treats of Hephrcftion's definition 
 of a fhort fyllable, it is faid, that || "The fyllable tr ? o? is a Ihort 
 one - t but that it is put inftead of a long one, when Homer fays^f 
 n?o? oxo fr^iwc : as the foot ought to be a fpondee." This is all 
 that is faid of it. And why it is put there inftead of a long 
 fyllable; or why it is. made a long fylhible; no realon is afligned : 
 nor indeed does it feem neceffary to ailign one, after the ailertion 
 in the preceding Fragment concerning the power of the rhythmus ; 
 to which of courfts it muft be attributed. But Dr. CLARKE, who 
 has fo very learnedly and clearly elucidated what before were the 
 difficulties of the Homeric verification, has alfignecl, in his note 
 at the fifty-firft verfe of II. A. a very different, and, it may be 
 prefumed, Doftis plerutnque, a much more fatisfac'tory realon, for 
 
 * Prfge 76. Edit. Trajeft. ad Rhen. i 7 z6. 
 , -f- " Dofti plcnimque Longino adjudicant." 
 j Page ^68. Edit. 1773. 
 "*0 Pyl>Jj, w ( pa\tla t , X*i nv s xe V9! -'' n?XXa)t(j y^-j x ; TV ^x^v xflvair 
 
 fun Maxf'V. 
 
 || Pa;e zgo. 
 
 t\ Beginning of the 1471!] verfe, !. B. 
 
 lengthening
 
 ( it ) 
 
 eontr/t, clfcvre, f morns, &c. Shakefpeare's and Milton's 
 medicinal, attributtd, &c. was the old pronunciation, and the 
 
 etymo- 
 
 lengthening the fhort fyllable &p>;, in this very identical paflage ; 
 upon which he lays " Quin ct diphthongi qurcdam, etiam fine 
 fpiritu afpero, fere tanquam duplices conibnantes efferebantur : ut 
 in t7fo,- o.xcy nj r,o, . Videntur enim 01*0?, <mo? pronnntiatae fuifle 
 WUcus, ff'inui; unde Latin. Vicus, fmum." Dr. Clarke could not 
 have been ignorant of the exiftence of Hephreftion's book, or of 
 thele Fragments : nay, having fo often quoted Longinus ufing 
 perhaps Tierce's edition, which was firft publiflied in 1724 he 
 mult have had the latter continually in his hands : and yet among 
 all the books he has cited, he has not once deigned to mention 
 either of theie. And this appears to me a ftrong prefumptive 
 proof, that this great mafter of all the properties of ancient poetry 
 looked upon the ailertion as erroneous. In this opinion he might 
 be ftill more confirmed by the following paflage in Cicero's Orator. 
 Id in dicendo nunu-rolv.m putatur, non quod totum conftat e 
 numeris, fe.d quod ad numeros proxime accedit : quo etiam diffi- 
 cilius eft oratione uti quam verfibus ; quod tilts quidem certa ct 
 definita lex e/l, quam J'eqiti fit neceffe: in dicendo antem &c. together 
 %vith this, in the. third of his Par(n:oxa Hiftrio, fi panllum fe 
 movit extra nuip.erum, ant fi verfus pronunciatus eft Jyllabd una 
 brc-jior aut longlor, exfibilatur et exploditur. Light with darknefs, 
 furely, cannot be more incompatible, than are thefe words with 
 any idea of an arbitrary rhythmus. which lhall play a contradictory 
 and ridiculous tune, u: A?'ai, upon the metre. 
 
 As every man may err, fo might Dr. Clarke : and it is now left 
 to the reader to choofe, whether he will give moft credit to our very 
 learned, fugacious, and illuftrious, annotatour upon Homer, or to 
 the xinknown authour of the extraordinary and fingular ailertion 
 
 'O PtS^O- *,-(&*'* X. T.*. 
 
 Mowe fc extra numevum, was to commit a fault in gefiiculation 
 or aftion. Hoc eft, fi non commode frltavit, aut in faltando 
 peccavit contra leo-es laltationis. Nutneri tarn ad mulicam pertinent, 
 quam ad faltationem. De muficis Virg. Eclog. ix. 45, Numfros 
 memim fiverba tenerem. Mowi ad numerum eft faltare (in this plac^ 
 dancini) Lucret. ii, 632. Lua'unt, in numerumque exultant Jang uin$ 
 l<eti. GriKvius in loco. 
 
 De faltationurn numeris, Cafaubon, npon this paffage of Perfius, 
 nee cum Jis cistern fojjor (i.e. ignorant) Tres t ant urn ad numtros Jalyri 
 .moi'tare Batbylli, fays, mover i ad numcrot Rathiili, eft Italicam falta-^ 
 lionem aequc brue faltare ac Bathyllus; qui cum Pylade primus
 
 etymological one ; and, if not, for that reaibn, the moil 
 proper, at ietift the mod: agreeable to a literary ear. Horizon, 
 it is to be hoped, will never as the ufurping medicinal has 
 done to medicinal fo " drug the poilit" of horizon as to lay it 
 in its laic ileep. Nor, unlefs we were inclined to ridicule it, 
 can xve call upon rhythmus to he anfwerable for the fantailic 
 vagaries and mad freaks of Doggrel or Hudibraftic, which 
 liccntioufly afTumcs the power of making any thing of any 
 thing. 
 
 From the ahove da&ylic meafures we may obfeive, that 
 though we cannot adapt our language to general hexameter, 
 which implies a mixture of fpondees with dactylcs, we might 
 furniih would they not tire by the repetition tolerable imi- 
 tations of du<lylic hexamecer; coniidering the great latitude 
 allowed td the laft, or, as it is called, the indifferent fyllable 
 which in Greek of Latin may be T s or qtee or any thing 
 
 Romam intulit gefticulationem pantamimorum, qui Grascis 
 dieuntur oun<w.- o^s^S**. Obfervemus verb locutioucm, faltare ad 
 tres numeros Bathylli, pro o^ n T^- KO^U; c$xm*crixi xl* Qxbvv.o ; 
 duos aut tres ftatieulos ex arte facere, &: perfecle. Latini folent 
 pro o^fi-r9i, dicere ./ numerum mc-ueri. He (.hen iuftances the 
 parfage cited above, and continues thus : Inde orta ilia locutio qxice 
 liuniercs virtuti tribuit; ut apud M. Antonin. lib. 3. Tw? T* x8i- 
 xi>1s; ajj&^wj a*fa. Stoboeai in Phyficis excerptis; ita1^6a,y & 
 E.WXS \*y*Tt *9xoa -sractlxi rr'-w TO: a^^/xsj: Cicero vertit in 3 de 
 OfF. Uluii a'jtfin ejficium quod reflum iitlein abpdl-int, perffftum atque 
 0':fo.'ytum fft. & utii.i'em dicunt, OMNSS NUMEROS babet. Seneca, 71 
 Epiit. $umoclo veritat non crefc'ii, fie ne c -virtus quidem; haket suos 
 HUM EROS, plena eji. 
 
 We have mufical modulations, as the antients had, to regulate 
 the aclion of our pantomime ; why have \ve none for the regula- 
 tion V)f the voice in fpeaking, or not even a phonafcus .? 1 beg 
 pardon : \ve have had Mr. Sheridan ; who, I thought, when I was 
 his iciioiar, could not exemplify his own very good rules. 
 
 In the above quotation^, where we fee, as we may pajjlm, movere 
 Jf and mii't-r- to be indirFerently uied for each other, tnovcri, like 
 many other Latin verbs which are faid to be in the paffi-ve form, as 
 \Tcii as the ticpcneitf. is as perfeclly a middle verb as ef^?cr-/-. i. 
 jilo-vet-i and pntari arc indeed fcarct-ly ufed other wife than as middle 
 verbs. I:: our own language we frequently fay, that, " Such things 
 vmjtlvci te us," for, " are approved b^, ;." 
 
 and
 
 r 23 ) 
 
 and that therefore a trochee may fupply the place of a fponJec 
 at the end for the laft foot, as, 
 
 Come we in pity now from the low palace of Old Father Ocean. 
 
 That we cannot adapt our language to general hexameter, 
 is owing, as a principal caufe and more valid perhaps than 
 others which have been afligned to our dearth of fronJces; 
 occalioned by the remarkable repugnance in the genius of our 
 vernacular pronunciation to (peaking two long fyilabies 
 together. It may be queftioned, perhaps, if we have any 
 word which conilitutes, or will fupply, a fpondee ; for we 
 feem to have never, except in fome pclyfyllablcs, more than, 
 one long fyllable in a word, nor two long fy)lablc.s together 
 in any polyfyllable. Amen perhaps comes the neareft to a 
 fpondee of any fimple word; and next to that, fome of fucb 
 compounds as fu-eivam, mankind^ fomftimfs, which, with the 
 addition of ftffffs, are by Lord Kaims enumerated as ipondees. 
 But that they are rather iambiifTes, may appear, from what 
 Macbeth fays in an iambic vt-rfe; which, whatever varieties 
 of feet it may admit in the beginning or middle, one would 
 think ought to terminate (when it has not the additional 
 fyilable) with an iambus, or its property would be loft; 
 
 Liftening their Fear, I could not fay, Amen! 
 
 If we put here in the place of Amen any other word which has- 
 been reputed a fpondee, we mall find the famerefult. 
 
 To this it may be truely anfwered, that, when to preferve 
 modulation would injure the exprefiion of pafTion, the former 
 will, by a judicious reciter, be gracefully facriticed to the 
 latter, more than compenfating the lofs of melody by the 
 energy of ft-eling. Thus in the above verfe, though the 
 modulation will be hurt if Amn be not pronounced as an 
 iambus, yet the extreme honor, under which the fpeaker 
 labours, makes it proper, as, mo re dcicriptive of that horror, 
 to pronounce it as a fpondee: but this dees net ftamp 
 it for a fpondee in our ordinary reading, whtre, or in 
 
 con-
 
 f 24 ) 
 
 converfation, it admits of great doubt if we ever pronounce a 
 Ipondee*. 
 
 Now with a language, in .which if there are any words 
 conflicting fpondees, they are fo very few, that they muft be 
 foon exhaufled, a language not having in any polyfyllable two 
 long fyllables together, or that can other wife furniih a fpondee 
 than by the help of a word ending long preceding one beginning 
 long, or by a very fignincant monolylluble, or by the rare 
 concurrence of fuch Significant monfyllables; there is no 
 forming, not only hexameters, but any other meafure, in 
 which fpondees are required. Hence the failure of Dr. Watts, 
 in his attempt at Englifh fapphic 
 
 When the fierce North wind, with hYs airy forces, 
 Hears lip the B.Utlc to a foaming fury,. &c. 
 
 a meafure, which, from its abounding in trochees, fo 
 plentiful in our language, might feem to promife moft 
 fuccefs ; but a meafure, which, after the firfl trochee, requires 
 unfortunately three long coniecutive fyllables ; to place which 
 confecutively in Englifh, there is fo very great a difficulty, 
 that the good Doctor, with all his ingenuity and piety, has 
 not been able completely to overcome it in a fingle line. 
 Eb.u! nee picta* moram affcrct Spondasorum to a language too 
 voluble and flippery to fuftain them ! Of the whole ode the 
 firft line is die leatt faulty ; iince with a good-natured intention 
 of humouring the rhythm us, and a coniideration of the 
 cesfura^ we may for once take fierce North wind for three long 
 iyllables : but, if a friend, upon coming into our room, and 
 being aiked how the weather is, ihould reply " The North 
 wind blows lharply" we fhould be apt to frnile at the undue 
 importance given, in an emphatic lengthening, to the third of 
 thofe five words, where no diftin&ion can be fuffered with 
 propriety but in the fecond and the laft. 
 , . -^ . . 
 
 * The word Blefled is a trochee, and implore an iambus; yet 
 very devout fervour will convert them, not unbecomingly, to 
 ipondees Bl'e^ed Lord, iue mcji earneftly Implore, &c. So the 
 trochees Deareft, Fairejl, &c. may in very impauloned addreHes 
 derive, a grace from being changed ta fpondees. 
 
 I I
 
 ( 25 ) 
 
 I beg pardon for this digrefiion, and return to the article of 
 {canning. 
 
 Taking it for granted then, that, whatever fcheme of 
 {canning be adopted, the words are not to be broken, by 
 being read as they are Icannedi I wilh to fay a word upon 
 a particular method of fcanning which I would recommend. 
 Our ufual method of fcanning an hexameter* is into fpondees 
 and dafylcs, of which it is laid to confift. But with one 
 little concefiion, that of being permitted to regard, as a 
 fpondee, the firft and laft fyllables, which muft both be long 
 the indifferent fyllable being always reckoned fo it may 
 be as juftly faid to confift of fpondees and anapefis; into 
 which, when fcanned in this manner, it naturally falls. To 
 make this conceffion requires no great effort; fince we are 
 already accuftomed to regard the fyllable preceding the cafurct 
 (as we are accuftomed to call that fyllable itfelf) and the laft 
 fyllable of a pentameter, as conftituting that very foot a 
 fpondee for which I am a petitioner that the rirft and laft 
 fyllables of an hexameter mould be granted. The advantage 
 is very great which this method has over the more common 
 one, in which the refts muft neceffarily, after every da&yle, 
 fall upon a {hort fyllable: whereas in this, the refts like 
 thofe in Muiic upon long notes fall always upon long 
 fyllables, and coincide much oftener with the verbal termina- 
 tions. Now from this very circumftance of the refts falling 
 always upon a long fyllable, aided by the oftener coincidence 
 with the ends of the woffts, it gives, even in the fcanning, 
 th.it true mufic or melody of the verfe, with which the 
 learner will ever after be fure to read it ; and ftores his 
 memory with the quantity of every word he can remember in 
 a verfe, without the trouble of recurring to fcanning. He is 
 making a verfe, fuppofe; in which he wifhes to employ the 
 word fenex, which at once prefents itfelf to him as an iambus 
 clear from the doubts that would beiet another, from our 
 barbarous manner of pronouncing it, whether the firft 
 
 * The moft general and the grander! of all meafures; and with 
 the beauties and properties of which when we are well acquainted, 
 we lhall not be iatisiied without being as Well accruaimed with 
 other meafures. 
 
 E fyllablV
 
 ( 26 ) 
 
 fy liable be not long for he inftantly recol lefts c ' Fortunate 
 Senex" as he has always read it, having been taught to lean 
 it thus, 
 
 For|tunajte senex, | ergo j tuti ru:ra mancjbunt! 
 
 He knows too what another might doubt of from our pro- 
 nunciation that tu in Fortunate, and %o in ergn^ are both long, 
 and pronounces them fo or there would be no harmony. 
 Vt-rsui a-qtie prima pars, &c. Let us take another example cr two. 
 
 Barjbarus hie | ego slim J quia. non | Inteljligor 11 Ils. 
 Ca|ra Deum | soboles, \ magnum | Jovis Tnjcremenjtum. 
 
 11,16 latus J mvcum j molll J fultiis | h/acin|tho. 
 
 In this laft verfe, no lefs than five out of the fix words are 
 broken by the common fcanning. 
 
 o ofAAoj' f^r o *l7rdeu5a (^rwv *. 
 
 1'he already quoted 
 
 u 
 
 Ijbam forjte via | sacra | sTcut | meus eft | mos 
 
 is bad enough to be furej but no harmony is aimed at; yet 
 fmce it is a verfe, we ought to read it as a verfe t; which 
 it is much eafier to do than many of Milton's. 
 
 Befora I offer another example, I muft lament the ftrange 
 fear or lharne by which we feem to be prevented from making 
 Ian ellfon in a Latin verfe, though we fo frequently make 
 them in our EngJilh verfes. In the following no lefs than 
 five 
 
 ' ' What, in th' abyfs o'erwhelm'd, what is't they'd do !" 
 
 ,_ j i - - . , , .... . r 
 
 * A line which fhould always be accompanied by its beautiful 
 Jrench tranflatiou 
 
 II faut s'entre-aider, c'eft la loi de Nature. 
 Another 
 
 II fuffit qu'il foit Hofftme, et qu'il foit malheureux. 
 
 f Sit lectio, noa quidem prol* fimilis^ quia carmen eft. 
 
 Quin6t. 
 
 Tht
 
 The elifions are made, indeed, in our language, to the eye, 
 as they are in the Greek ; and though they are not mauo fo in 
 the Latin any more than in the French, Italian, and Spaniih *, 
 
 except, 
 
 * Elifions, not appearing to the eye, to be made in reading 
 poetry in thefe languages, are thole chiefly of the final e preceding 
 a vowel, and in the laft preceding an e only. Thus the e in Homme 
 in the latter of the above French verles is elided before the et. 
 For though the French final unaccented e, in words above one 
 fyllable, is rarely to be heard iq conversation, it is not route in 
 poetry : unlefs indeed when a great matter will claim an exemption 
 from rule, not indulged to little people : fo Voltaire in his 
 Brutus 
 
 Ce monarque, protecteur dim monarque, comme lui 
 
 where each e in the repeated wofd monarque is mute : but each final 
 e forms a llightly or oblcurely pronounced fyllable in the following 
 verfe heroic verfe like the former which kind of verfe in French, 
 though not mealared by feet, but by fyllables, is, in one of its 
 ftru&ures, our anapeftic, and r for that reafon, the ftruchire mod 
 agreeable to our ear 
 
 Malheureufe, quel mot eft forti de ta bouche ; 
 
 It happens that each of the four French verfes, which have been 
 quoted, is of this anapelric ftru6hire; but the natives efteem 
 equally or fuperiourly fome other ftru&ures, of which we, in, 
 general, cannot make equal melody. 
 
 The final e mute is,, indeed, in our language, an innovation 
 inoffenfive enough and of no very long (landing. For the learned 
 Wallis, who died but in 1704, informs us in his Grammar, that 
 fome old people, in his time, retained fo much of the Chaucer 
 pronunciation as to fay horse, house, articulating the e in words 
 where it is now mute. Such words are ftill fo pronounced- 
 but with a diminutive figniricatiqn in Scotland j, where horse & 
 house mean a little horfe and a fmall houfe. 
 
 f- Where there are fo many individuals of raoft liberal hearts, enlightened 
 minds, and gener us fentiments, with thu greateft urbanity, hofpitality, and 
 politenefs, as the writer has had the pleafure to experience: and yet, at the 
 fame time, the inhabitants, collectively confidered, as a country, deferve even 
 more, if pollible, than this country the farcafm of Tiberius, and W the moft 
 it) 'is'unt tone O ANIMOS, IN SERVITUTIM PARATOS! 
 
 Gran
 
 except, in the two former, with many articles, prepofitions, 
 and pronouns the laft has only al and del yet that is no 
 reafon why we fhould not make them in reading Latin 
 poetry. And an unanswerable reafon why we jbould make 
 
 Gran fabbro di calunnie, adorne in modi 
 Novi, che fon accufe, e pajon lodi 
 
 Artful to hurt, fuch calumnies he raifes, 
 Charges they are, altho' in femblance praifes. 
 
 In the above pretty Italian miniature of an ugly character, the 
 h in calunnie are neither of them elided, but turned rather into the 
 found of onr ye, making the firft fyllable of the anapefl ye adorn j 
 but the e in adorne is elided, as that alfo in accufe. 
 
 The following Spaniih couplet --where the e in que only is 
 elided comes (in Sancho's phrafe) coma de mclde as if it were caft 
 in a mould for our fubjeft ; fince the docile poet fays 
 
 Conociendo mi error, de aqui adelante, 
 Razon demanda que en otra guifa cante 
 
 Confeffing my miftake, with candid pleafure, 
 From Reafon's dictates I fhall change my meafure. 
 
 The Italian and Spanifh heroic meafure is, the reader fees, 
 iambic like our own with the additional fyllable, (their rhymes 
 being always double,) and like ours admitting a variety of feet : 
 nor, if he hear a different account of it from fome natives, faying, 
 that their languages have nothing to do with long or fhort, and 
 that their heroic meafure is of eleven fyllables, will he wonder j 
 when he confiders how many of our own countrymen and who 
 can read and write would fay the fame of our own language and 
 meafure, with the difference only of ten for eleven fyllables. If 
 Italian and Spaniih have nothing to do with quantity, the penulti- 
 mates of an infinite number of fuch Latin words as thefe common 
 to both genera, Jincero, candido, elido may be pronounced inter- 
 changeably fhort or long but the fpeaker could not be understood. 
 And to their eleven fyllables, let an anfwer be given by the 
 firft verfe of the above Spanifh couplet, and by the third verfe of 
 Taffo 
 
 Molto egli oprb col fenno e con la mano 
 
 in each of which, without any elifion, there are fourteen fyllables ; 
 and were not den in wnociendt contracted to one fyllable, that verfe 
 would hare fifteen.
 
 them, is, that the verfe, the hexameter verfe which admits 
 not, like the iambic, of retblutions into feet foreign to its 
 meaiure cannot conlift without it. Undoubtedly the fup- 
 preffion of a vowel, or of the vowel and the m which follows 
 it, before a word beginning with a vowel, was as familiar to 
 a Roman ear, as ia to our ear the fuppreffion of a vowel 
 before a word banning with one ; or of the laft fyllable of 
 the preterites, and participles paft, of moil of o; r verbs ; as 
 zi-A t ,V;V, AwV. /rrt.jV, for whelmed^ sV. This laft fyliable 
 is now almcft bar.i'hod from our poetry; though tlie pages are 
 of late, with great propriety, not disfigured with the cliiioi;S 
 of it ; fince it is as well underlined, as that the fylhbl" with 
 an m before a vowel fliould be fuppreffed in Latin. As t' s 
 above Engli.h verfe read with the elifions is pert' , 
 intelligible to us, fo, may we fuppofe, was, to his fellow- 
 citizens, the following fine verfe of Virgil, read thus or 
 nearly thus 
 
 Monftr [ horrcnd ( Inform [ Tngens J cuilujmenud'mpjtum. 
 
 This verfe, thus meafured, ccnfiffs clearly of five fpondee* 
 and an anapeft as much as an hexameter will admit and if 
 more be added, it muft lofe its quality : And this feems to be 
 the way the nearcft approaching to propriety in which we can 
 read it; for we cannot read it with cxal propriety; unlefs 
 indeed we could raife an ancient Roman from the <iead to 
 inftrucl: us about the matter of the m', or unlefs we could 
 profit more, than we yet have done, from what Quin&iHan 
 fays of it " Atqui eadem ilia litera (m) qucties ultima ell, 
 et vocalem verbi fequentis ha contingir, ut in earn trani:rc 
 poffit, etiam fi fcribitur, parum exprimiiur; ut, Mnlru-n ills, 
 <Sc, H>ua>,tum trat; adeo Ut pene iv.jujdam nevtf l:t^fc , ~. 
 reddat. Neque enim eximitur, led oblcuratur, & tamum 
 ahqua inter duas vocalcs velut nota ell, ne ipla; coeanL" 
 
 Lvcry verfe is immediately Ipoiled, where the requifJte 
 elision is not made ; which, with a want of tafte, fhc\vs a want 
 of gratitude to the poet, who has been ingeniously arter.tive 
 to oor pleafure, in making the found an echo to the lente, 
 as in 
 
 lijli inter j scs5 j magna | vl biulchia toljlunt ; 
 
 and
 
 ( 30 ) 
 
 in an onomatopepoiemenon no where to be excelled 
 Tarn j multa-In j te~6r,Ts | crepitans | saltt hor|rida granjdo. 
 
 Taw, tin, tee, tij y tans in thofe five fyllables, all pretty 
 clofeiy following their leader, all beginning with the fame 
 letter, well adapted to the purpofe, all long fyllables, and 
 therefore to'^e pronounced ftrongly, is the tone or tune of the 
 tinkling, tattling, rattling, clattering, lively little leaping icy 
 pebbles, very happily expreffed when they are, in their 
 jefpcclive places, properly pronounced. But the pleafure of 
 tailing what is fo happily exprefied, is, alas ! 'inoft lamentably 
 loft to thofe, who, with the barbarity of a Procruftes, curtail 
 no lefs than four, out of five, of thefe fyllables of their 
 natural proportions; and fuffer the third only to be exempt 
 from mutilation: depriving Tarn of its due, becaufe truly 
 the next fy liable is to lie at its length ; making nothing of Tin 
 for want of observing the elifion; and Shortening Tis and Tans, 
 by converting a fpondee to a trochee, and an anapeft to 
 ' 
 
 By this latter barbarous practice, the converting anapefts 
 to da&yles, how, in the following charmingly expreffive verfe, 
 which powerfully illuftrates the fuperiority of this method of 
 fcanning how do we balk, foil, and ruin the purpofe of the 
 poet: 
 
 O Reader, if thou can'ft but,, read, wilt thou ever read 
 again, as thou haft read before! 
 
 Does it not almoft feem that thofe long and flrong 
 fyllables, AW, xw, TI, and y, 
 
 Like the " loud furges, lafh the founding fhore ?" 
 
 
 
 Thus again in the following we convert anapefts moft 
 cruelly to dactyls : 
 
 Tijy | a pff o^^tTotg j srpoa-oQYi \ vflpfAvj J ylplra j Zf5" 
 
 which is truly a grand line! for how well does the moloflus 
 c%.^r-aif exprefs the heavinefs of his grief? And then, thofe 
 three anapefts, preceding the final fyllable, what a glorioufly
 
 fonorous termination, and worthy the majefty of omnipotence 
 do they make ! but which we, though generally managing the 
 end of on hexameter pretty well, Ib Ihamefully mar, 
 by converting them into dactyles, without any modulation 
 at all! Let us, at leaft, if we will not give the right 
 modulation, give that which the wrong quantity in which 
 we fpeak thofe four concluding words comports with that 
 of 
 
 " With the adjdition of j that pretty j face." 
 The quick paffage of time is excellently well defcribed in the 
 true rhythmus of this verfe: 
 
 Sed 1 fugit, Tn|terea j fugit, Ir|rSparajb!le tem|pus: 
 
 but the wonderful vivacity of the firir. four words we make " as 
 tedious as a king," as Dogberry fays; reverfing their meafure; 
 deftroying together the two brifk pyrrhics, with the lively 
 choriambus ; and drawling and dragging as up agaiiift a high, 
 hill is dragged a huge broad -wheeled waggon thus: Sed 
 fugit, interea fugit i. e. So craivletb, unweiliHy cramleth what, 
 " light as the lightening glimpfe," ihould fly. If in tire 
 latter part of the fixtieth line of the fecond eclogue of our 
 poet kabitdrunt Di quoque fylvas we can make, as we always 
 do, a daftyle of Dt quoque, why Ihould we not do with &v? 
 fugit as much ? But what fhould make us laugh, even at 
 ourfelves, and our blind felf-flattery, is, that we talk by the 
 rote of tradition with admiration of that beauty in this 
 verfe, which, it is clear from our manner of repeating it, we 
 no more fee, than did the literally blind flatterer of Domitian 
 fee the fize of the Imperial Turbot, which he too talked of with 
 admiration, turning to the left fide of the great hall of 
 council, while the enormous magnitude of the BeLua occupie4 
 the right. 
 
 When we apply our corruption and barbarifm to verfes 
 which fo well deterve Sir John Cheke's epithets of " perfect 
 and excellent" as the above, and thefe which are its 
 rivals 
 
 Ra dit Ttcr J liquTdum, | celeres | Deque* com|m5vet ajlris 
 VS de, age^ najte, voca | zephyros, j et litjbere penjnTs 
 Stajre loco | neiclt, | micat aujribus., et J tremit r ; tus . 
 
 S there
 
 '( 3* ) 
 
 there is indeed one thing that we may fee ; and with more 
 humiliating evidence than upon lets occafions : we may fee, 
 t hat without reading in any meafure at all we moft un- 
 feelingly counteract the genius and the felicity of the higheil 
 poetical powers. 
 
 The agile and atchly-wanton beauty, Galatea, we un- 
 gallantly and clowniihly transform to a clumfy, heavy-heeled 
 Dowdy, b; faying of her in contradiction to the poet Et 
 fiigit ad falkcs and fo make her, according to Martial*, our 
 own Galatea: but if the poet, who formed her very dif- 
 ferently, had happened to fay of her 
 
 Malo me Galatea petit nunc, nunc fugit inde 
 
 we fhould as readily have twanged the nunc fugit as the Df 
 quoqu* into a daftyle. Ay, but one of thefts J^zV/ f is at the 
 of a verle, and the other at the end. A wide difference 
 
 of 
 
 * Quern recitas meus eft, o Fidentine, libellus ; 
 
 Sed male cam recitas, incipit efle tuus. 
 
 Quid, recitaturus, cicundas vellere collo? 
 
 Conveniunt noilris Auribus ilia magis. 
 
 f- A learned friend, to whom this Chapter was read in manu- 
 fcript, was, very judicioufly, pleafed to bid the writer note here 
 the grammatical as well as prolbdical ailiftance which would, accrue 
 to learners, from reading according to quantity, by its diilingui fil- 
 ing to them at once the tenfes of a numerous clafs of verbs, like 
 fugit, legit, vend, &c. which, iu the third fingular of the preterite, 
 differ from the fame perfon of the p relent in quantity alone. 
 Hence too, in point of tafte as well as grammar, they would derive 
 no fmali advantage. Many beauties, in all the poets, and, above all, 
 in Homer and Virgil, depend upon the tranfi tioa from one tenfe to 
 another in the fame narration. In the fifth book of the .^Eneis, 
 the defcription of the rowing match, lively and beautiful throug- 
 out, is, by one of thefe particular beauties, highly animated and 
 adorned. For, the defcriber, in letting before our eyes, in the 
 moil pidturefque manner, the aftoniihing velocity of the conquer- 
 ing boat, which had received an unpulfe from a Deity of the 
 Sea, lays, in terms fuited to what that divine energy might 
 produce " Than the Wind or winged Arrow more fwift is ihe 
 fliooting to Land, and has hidherfelf far in the Port." 
 
 Impulit.
 
 ( 33 ) 
 
 of place ! which, for fo wide a difference of pronunciation, 
 is furcly a fufficient reafon in the judgement of that royal 
 umpire, who, in preference to the God of Mufic, gave the 
 palm co Pan. 
 
 He 
 
 Impulit. Ilia Noto citius volucrique fagitta 
 Ad terram fugit, et porlu ie condidit alto. 
 
 Now as the boy, who lhall have this in his lefTon, has been 
 taught, with all the impartiality, at leafl, of Jove, it mull be 
 conferled, if not with all the wifdom, (Tros Rutulusve fuat) 
 nullo difcrimine habere whatever diflyllables may be candidates for 
 being pronounced by him, and to turn them all to trochees, every 
 foul of them, even though there be among them the dignified 
 Scnex Rex Jupiter omnibus idem he will naturally pronounce 
 fugit as a trochee, as well as terram, and portu likewiie, with Noto 
 into the bargain Oh murdered Metre ! and of the moft exquiflte 
 kind ! how would the authour feel, if he could hear our idiotic 
 barbarifm ! how grieved, that, by thole who can tafle his 
 fontiments, his melody ihould mercilefsly be deftroyed ! he could 
 have made the line a run of da&yles if he pleafed, like Radit iter 
 liquidum ; but his admirable judgement faw, that, the fpondees 
 were neceffary, for the draining exertions of the rowers, who, 
 notwithstanding the divine impulfe, of which they might be 
 uaconfcious, had not relaxed their utmoft efforts, ftill 
 
 creber anhelitns artus 
 
 Aridaque ora quatit, fudor fluit undique rivis 
 
 there again will be a fine verfe put to death, by trocheeizing quatit 
 andfu/or, and negle6ting the elifion the boy, I fay, will na- 
 turally pronounce fugit as a trochee, as naturally conftrue it in the 
 preterite, to accompany condidit, and, very unnaturally, make the 
 poet, by the lofs of this beauty, as flat and cold, as do Sternhold 
 and Hopkins the glowing Pfalmift. The Jupiter, his mafler, 
 indeed if it be at one cf our great fchools will, as the belt 
 amends for his negle6t of this weighty matter of the law of 
 Helicon, explain and difplay the beauty to him, in the beft 
 manner. But, as the beft leading-firings can by no means be 
 fo good for a child as going alone, how much better for the boy 
 at the fame time that it would confult the eafe of the malter 
 how infinitely better would it be for the boy, to be ennabied, by 
 being taught to read by quantity, to difcover beauties fpr himfelf ! 
 And to a youth, advanced to the head of a great fchool, cr 
 
 F cateredt
 
 ( 34 ) 
 
 He would of courfe make the fame diftinlion, likewife, 
 between a couple of quoqucs habitarunt Di qvtque fylvas 
 and 
 
 Tu quoquc littoribus noftris, ^Eneia nutrix 
 
 thus converting the fineft verfes in tlie world into fuch things 
 as are neither fit to be heard nor with fuch abufes to be 
 read ! Whereas the mod ordinary verfes fuch as any one 
 might write quales ego vel C/uvienus roa,y, by a graceful 
 recitation, be heard with more applaufe than they will ba 
 found to deferve upon perufal. 
 
 <f Tes vers font beaux quand tu les dis, 
 " Mais ce n'eft rien quand je les lis ; 
 
 " Tu ne peux pas toujours en dire 5 
 **' Fais en done que je puiffe lire." 
 
 c:' 
 
 L'IcjtP.ntEs j ventos, | tempes|tates|que sonojras. 
 
 Had we been taught to fcan thefe lines thus, and by holding 
 o uriel ves more loofely from the influence of our vernacular 
 
 entered at his college, if he has any tafte, and fhould adopt the 
 recommended reading which has Fairy power to fucb a youth, 
 at every ftep he takes, at every glance he cafls, on claffic poetic 
 ground, what new beauties, what new wonders, new glories, 
 will prefent themielves, courting his admiration ! 
 
 " Thou art a Scholar, Ipeak to it, Horatio !" 
 
 Thou wilt find what is not to be met with every day, Horatio, 
 thou wilt find in it, as well, a fweet companion, dJeftare domi, 
 pernoSlare tecum, peregrinari, RUSTIC ARI, as an exception to the 
 general truth, of which, happy they who are not feelingly 
 perfuaded ! and which is fo well expreffed in this couplet by Mr, 
 Keate : 
 
 It is tlie cheat of every worldly joy, 
 
 To tempt, when diflant, but, potfeffed, to cloy. 
 
 pronunciation,
 
 ( 35 ) 
 
 pronunciation, been accuftomcd readily to pronounce a fpwJct, 
 we could not have been infenfible to the beautiful artifice of 
 their meafure ; any more than to the fame fkill in the two 
 following very juftly famous verfes 
 
 Afye jwf, vevprj s jM,ly *;^, aAro c/crToi 
 Here follows another famous line 
 Quadjrupedanjte putrtrn [ sonitii ] quatit unjgula cam|puni 
 
 for ever in our mouths, as an argument for Virgil's happy 
 talent at making the found an echo to the fenfe, when at the 
 very time 
 
 " With Midas' ears committing fnort and long" 
 
 we are actually making no lefs than three barbarifms againft 
 the found! converting again, as ufual, the iambic and 
 pyrrhic to trochees, and the anapeft to a daftyle. And it is 
 well for us that the firft word has a fyllable too much for a 
 choriambus ; or we fhould mangle that too, as we do every 
 choriambus like A>*AW and Interea above making it a 
 iecond peon (resolvent) inftead of a choriambus. But fo 
 reafonable and confident are we, that if it has an enclitic 
 though we know that it alters not the quantity of the word it 
 leans to making it like quadrupeJante as AVJIAWTS, Tempo.ibuf- 
 quc, 6cc. a daftyle and a trochee, we pronounce it rightly; 
 and becaufe it is a da<ftyle and a trochee, i. e. both ending' 
 Jborf. 
 
 But the paucity of the errours, in any verfe that has yet 
 been inftanced, may feern as nothing, in comparifon of thole 
 which we make in this, 
 
 * A 
 
 . Ut j jabiir exjimium, lit | Superum | nltet aejthcrias J Sol ! 
 
 Obferving here, that, not only when we pronounce a fliort 
 fyllable as a long one, but when even we pronounce a long 
 one rightly, it is the caufe, from the ftrong difinclination in 
 the genius of our vernacular pronunciation to fpeak two long 
 iyllables together, of making Ihort the long fyllable which 
 precedes it ; as the reader may be convinced, if he will attend 
 
 "F 2 to
 
 ( 36 ) 
 
 to the manner in which he pronounceswithout the enclitic 
 -the words AyXw, interea, Ternforibus\ for he will rind that 
 he lays fo much ftrefs (where there ought to be none) upon 
 the jennd iyllable of each of thofe- words, that he lays none 
 (where it ought to be) on their firft. So in Tarn mult a In tctlis, 
 becaule he pronounces (rightly as it happens) mul as a long 
 fy liable, the preceding 7am is deprived of the equal (hare of 
 importance which he Ihould give it; and that for this reafon 
 we pronounce the ut fhor: inftead of long in both places of 
 the line we are confidering, where we wrongly lengthen the 
 fucceeding ju and 5; obferving this, I fay, and reckoning 
 for one fault, the negle&ing to elide the um of eximium, we 
 ihall find the faults we commit in this verfe to amount to 
 twice the number of its feet, or a round dozen* ! For thus 
 we read it 
 
 L j 
 
 Ut jubar Sximmm, ut SOperum mtet aetheriiis Sol ! 
 
 Here are made only the marks of fuch quantities as we think 
 proper to give to the fyllables of this verfe, without any 
 attempt at, what, with fuch reading, mocks all attempt, the 
 dividing it into feet. 
 
 Tl 
 
 The 
 
 * We have already feen, in the quotation from Cicero, p. 21, 
 what would have been the fate of a poor a6tor, if he committed 
 a fault in gefticulation, or -ft Jyllaba VXA breviar out longir~\. e. 
 if he pronounced but a SINGLE Iyllable a made fhorter or longer 
 jtban it ought t be ; and hot, as we do, long for fhort, and fhort for 
 long faults fo wry barbarous and grofs, that they could not be 
 luppoled to be committed by any one who was received as a public 
 performer. But he would have been railed off the ftage, if he had 
 not made a very wide differenee from us, in his pronunciation of, 
 for inftance, patre Sc matre, luppofing the verfe required patrr 
 tvhere the a preceding a mute followed by a liquid might have 
 remained ibort to be pronounced, as matre mtijl, a trochee. \Vc 
 pronounce them both, except as to the prepolitive, exactly alike. 
 Yet the a in the former, being naturally- fhort, muft, when it i 
 capable of being made long by pofition before two confonauts, 
 effect that length by attracting to itfelf the found of the firft of 
 them very ftrongly; as the o does in our word body : while the a in 
 watre, like the in boding, being naturally long, will have its 
 
 openeft
 
 ( 37 ) 
 
 The great advantage of the method of fcanning, here 
 efFered to any one who will adopt it, lias been proved by 
 experience. I have feen a boy under twelve years of age, 
 who had been taught at home to read his Homer and Virgil 
 in this manner: and in each of them he could get a very 
 good leflbn without ever making a (ingle errour in regard to 
 quantity. This led him to the fame attention to every one 
 of the Horatian meafures ; in which, as it was very eafy for 
 any boy to be, he was 'equally perfe6t. He had been ac- 
 quainted indeed at the fame time, left he fhould be puni/hed 
 afterwards fordoing right, with our ufual manner of reading; 
 which, from the great pleafure and the beauty that he found 
 in the contrary practice, he held in high derifion. Yet 
 upon being fometimes bid to read fo, that by proving the bad 
 
 openeft and longeft found, independent of any help from the 
 confonant it precedes. Our ear inihntly informs us that the fingle 
 in bode is equal in length to oo in food and mooJ; that it is longer 
 than ot in good; and ftill longer than oo in food and blood. Every 
 boy knows, as Quinftilian fays, that a iliort fyllable is of one time, 
 and a long fyllable of two; i. e. requires twice the time in the 
 pronunciation. Now it may not be unuieful, perhaps, to confider 
 a time as divided into a number of linslier parts fuppofe ten. 
 A fhort fyllable then conlifts of ten tenths, equal to one time ; and 
 a long fyllable of twenty tenths. Sed longis longiores et brevibus 
 brevloresfunt Jyllabee. In the verfe fpoken of above, for inftance, 
 where the ator might have to pronounce patre, as well as matrr, 
 a trochee, the fyllable fat is perhaps one of the leail long, 
 and ma one of the moft long, of long fyllables ; the a in 
 matre reprelVnting the Greek r., perhaps the longeft of their 
 vov/els. For we are told what we have neglected, like many 
 other things, to profit from that the found of the iyllable 
 B>j was that of the bleating, or as we otherwiie call it, 
 more defcriptively, the baaing of a flieep. The Ikilful reciter 
 then will naturally give, of our imaginary divifions of a time, 
 lefs to one, and more to the other, of thefe fyllables, tiian the 
 exaft meafure of a limple long fyllable. Suppoling this an extreme 
 cafe, of a fhorteft and a longeft long iyliable, he might give 
 perhaps to fat only fifteen tenths, and to ma twenty-five ; and fp 
 in other cafes, according to the demand ; ftventeen and twenty- 
 three, or eighteen and twenty-two, &c. ; keeping due proportion; 
 in order that the times of the whole verfe might not be 
 injured. 
 
 he
 
 ( 38 ) 
 
 be might hold faft to the good ; and being reminded that 
 thefe nevi-fangkd notions, as they may be called, though 
 they are really old ones, would not be tolerated in our 
 public fchoolsi he could rend as badly, when he chofe it, 
 as the firil matter of the firft fchool in Great Britain ; or, 
 at leaft, as badly as the mafter reads to his boys, or lets 
 them read to him, whatever he may be pleafed to do in 
 private. Our \oungiter could even bring himfelf to fay 
 though ht could not help laughing 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 IN the foregoing' Chapter the reader has feen, that, fome 
 notice has been taken of faults committed in the Sapphic, 
 Afclepiad, and Alcaic meafures ; and much more' of thofe 
 committed in hexameter : but the meafuie in which of all 
 others we are mofl criminal is the Iambic. If our barbarifm. 
 in other metre be a murder, it is a parricide in This; for it 
 is our own : as we may quickly be convinced. For furely 
 the following verfe of four feet, when it is rightly read, 
 
 Ut prifca gens mortalium, 
 Declares a metre born at home : 
 
 And fo will any Greek or Latin iambic, whether longer or 
 Ihorter ; as we (hall find in a few more examples, ac- 
 companying their fenfe in fimilar meafure in Englilh. 
 
 Ades
 
 Ades, Pater Supreme, 
 TUy head with Glory beamy ! 
 
 With Glitter and with Names what fufs ! 
 Fortuua non mutat Genus. 
 
 Lenefque fub noftem fufurri, 
 When Laus to meet their LalFes hurry. 
 
 Mufae. forores Palladia, lugent, 
 And, " Murder d Metre T ' fwells tlieir loud lament. 
 
 povstf ftsv 01 
 They tread, for firm ground, on the flippery ice. 
 
 Ou]og x.o<x]i<ylo$ ttrf avyp 9 
 He whom the world Ihould mofi revere, 
 
 Nor is to wrath entic'd, or emits his Godlike tone. 
 
 suv TW Stxtxiw yap, pty ^ed]i Qgovsiv, 
 
 And force united dare, tho' Earth and Hell combine ! 
 
 To jog thro' life with glee, this maxim fix upon 
 
 poipav 
 Or as a Pimple flight what is in truth a Wen. \ 
 
 AXX e<fj' otXviQys y t3f>c]ct>v 
 Wife is indeed the child that knows its own Pappa. 
 
 * E/ pot yevofio vrap9evos, xctXtj TS iccxt TBpetvct, 
 I'd envy not or Perfia's King, or Emperor of China. 
 
 Avtipfg $1X01, K&i SijftojoUi epa(r]<xi TV Trovetv re 9 
 O roufe ! and rid yourfclves of faults, that do fo clofely twine t'ye ! 
 
 Impune quidvis facere, munus Regium 
 So Memmius cry'd of old, but wifer times may come. 
 
 Heroes ! before this truth, how faints your faded ray 
 
 NlI UTILE EST ftUOD FACIMUS, STULTA EST GLORIA! 
 
 Quis
 
 ( 4 ) 
 
 Chris hoc poteft videre, quis poteft pati *, 
 That, cuflom vile ihould fenfe and CoRody defy ! 
 
 Malum quod iiti Di Dereque oranes duint, 
 Who firft the Cultom vile, Coin counterfeit, did mint ! 
 
 Beatus ille qui, procul negotiis, 
 Can to fvveet Lore apply, and live-in letter'd blifs ! 
 
 Now 
 
 * Jam vero in lambicis verfibus, prsefertim Latinis, quis iambum 
 ullum percipiat ? Cujus tamen pcdis repetitione tota eorum 
 verfuum venaftas conftat. Solent enim pedagogi vulgo ita fuos 
 erudire, ut in omnibus difiyllabis penultimam producant. Itaque 
 lie recitant hunc Catulli verfum " OQuis hoc pbteft videre, quis potejl 
 fan !" Ego vero puttdam iftam pronuntiationem miror quendam 
 eile poffe, qui pollit audire, qui point pati. Etli autem hie error 
 legcndis verfibus facilius percipitiir, nibilo tamen e/i minor in oratime 
 Joluta : de cujus numerofa compoiitione fruftra apud Grsecos 
 Ariftoteles, Dionyfius, & alii do6tiffimi homines, fruitra Cicero et 
 Fabius apud Latinos, praeceperunt, fi Tonos cum Temporibus 
 confundamus. Quid igitur ? dices. Nempe hoc poftulo, aut 
 Ratio potius ipfa Jiagitat, ut acuatur fyllaba cui tonus acutus 
 imponitur ; aeqaabili aut depreifiore fono proferatur quae gravem 
 habeatj partim acuantur, partim deprimantur, quap fignantur 
 circumflcxoj fed ita ut (quemadmodum Muiici folent in fuo illo 
 <juinque linearum diagrammate) SOL/E-LONG^E SYLLABI PR.ODU- 
 CAXTUR, SOL^E BREVES coRRiPi ANTUR, live tolli, live deprimi, 
 vel cequabiliter pronuntiari oportuerit. Tonorum enim & Tem- 
 poram quam dh-trja lint off.da, Jherjiim quoque ufum efle par eft. 
 jSTeque tamen nego brevi lyllab.ne temporis aliquid accedere quando 
 ?cuto figno lignatur, quantum fciiicet necefle eft in acucnda 
 j"y]laba confumi. Sfd ut minus lit brevis quam antea, minime 
 tamen confequitur habendam pro longa ; ficut ab iis haberi iolet, 
 qui malus arborem a ma/us adjtx-livo non diftinguunt. Item ut 
 longa fyllaba non acuatur, tamen longa efle non definit, quod non 
 obfervant qui ex i3>'*f dnctyluni conftituunt. Rurfum vero quam- 
 vis quaecunque fyllaba circumfiettitur, ea etiam natura longa fit, 
 quia tamen multae funt fyllabae nat\ira longae quae non circum- 
 fiectuntur, tonns circumflexes a temporibus lie diilingui debet, 
 tit illequidem altitudinem ac dt-prcifionem, i. e. circumduclionem, 
 hoc verolongitudinem folum mctiaturj i. e. ut cireitrnnexa fyllaba 
 ita producatur, ut iimul initio acuatur, dcinde fenfim deprimatur , 
 ficut faccre folent ?lulici, cam uni fyllabaa duas quas vocant 
 
 breves,
 
 t 41 ) 
 
 Now what in the name of wonder fhould' prevent our 
 reading the above Greek and Latin lines with the fame 
 modulation as the Englifh with which they are affociatcd in 
 fimilar meafure ? The two firft words of the lafl line Bcatus 
 ilk) as they happen luckily to end fhort, we can indeed, 
 though we give them no modulation, read well enough as to 
 quantity ; but with the two laft words, ending long, what fhall 
 we do ? Why to be fure we maft make them fhort too 1 
 Andfo the term procul negotu-s conftitutmg three iambufes 
 is to be converted into procul negotihs a trochee and an 
 amphibrachys ! 
 
 But with thefe remarks on the found of Greek and Latin 
 verfes, let us, that they may not feem to be Nu^a canora?, 
 mix a little confideration of \\iz\r fe>fe. 
 
 A pragmatical Frenchman, many years ago, who had 
 refided fome time in England, and had long been ftudying 
 Englifh, told a friend and countryman, as he was taking A 
 walk with him in the park, that he had quite mattered the 
 language; could pronounce the ch and the fb, and had like- 
 wife got the melody of our verfe ; at leaft of tli-e principal 
 meafure, the heroic ; which confifted, he faid, of ten. 
 
 breves, uam altiorem, alteram deprefiiorem tribuunt : ceterae 
 verb longae, fiquidem acuto fignatae fuerint, tantitm acuantur ; lin 
 autem gravi, sequabiliter producantur. At enim, dices, ifta funt 
 perdifficilia, e fartaflis etiam aJw1a, s xjuidem qui diverlbe 
 prommtiatiom affheverunt. Id ego verb fateor^ et in meipfo nou 
 invitus agnofco. Sed nihil vetat reftam viam aliis oftendere, 
 etiam ut illam ingredi non poffis. Certe veritas mihi diffimulanda 
 non fuit, ut paulatira meliora probare et fequi condifcamus. Ego, 
 ut libere dicam <juod fejitio, vel tonos prorfus fublatos efle velim 
 tantifper, dum depravata ilia pronuntiatio Tonorum pro Temporibus 
 emendetur (quumpraeiertim veteres conftat iftos apices in fcribendo 
 non ufurpaiFe) vel nullam eamm rationem haberi. Cuperem 
 autem in eorum locum, altexum ex temporibus in tribus illis literis 
 ancipitibus, , i, v, iubftitui.,et diligenter adnotari. Hoc ego, 
 inquam, ut fiat, fuadeo ; quod nullam aliam verae reftituendao 
 pronuntiationis rationem habeam aut meliorem, aut promptio- 
 _ rem ; paratus tamen de mea fen ten ti a decedere,, fi quis certior.i 
 (Jocuerit. Adolphi Mekerchi, de veteri et reda 
 
 pronuntiatione linguae GraecaeCommeu- 
 iarius. Brugis FJand. 15^5, p. 166. 
 G fvllables
 
 ( 42 ) 
 
 fyllables which he might have learned from Dr. Johnfon, 
 or Lord Kaims, or many another tilled and untitled 
 authour* and, as a fpecimen, he gave him the nrft couplet 
 of the EfTay on Man. In repeating this, he pronounced the 
 iamily-name St. J?hn (a trochee with us) as he would the 
 name of the beloved difciple of our Lord ; and confequently 
 made it an iambus : he made like wife another little alteration 
 in each line : but ftill kept religioufly, both to the meaning of 
 the poet, and to his ten fyllables counted perhaps on the ten 
 tips of his eloquent fingers, which had each a tongue. In the 
 following manner, then, efteemed by his friend, who hacj 
 made lefs proficiency, to be parfait, did he pronounce the 
 couplet, fpeakmg every word very diftin&ly and intelligibly, 
 though with fomewhat of a foreign accent : 
 
 Avvake, my St. Jean, leave all the mean things 
 To low ambition, and pride of the Kings. 
 
 Now this poor Frenchman, who did no more than utterly 
 confound the meaiure, the iambic meafure, may perhaps be 
 treated with a contemptuous (mile by fome teacher, i. e, 
 J.)o&:i> doctadus adbuc or, as it is a fyllable lefs, we will call 
 him Dottw Dedocendus\ who inftrudls his fcholars, or at leaft 
 
 fuffers 
 
 * But not of Mr. Peter Walkden Fogg, of Stockport, in his 
 " JLlementa Anglicana 3" for he would have taught him better. 
 
 f And befides, if he be one of the tutors in our univerfities, or 
 matters of our great public fchools, the appellation Dedocendus 
 is much more applicable to his character than Docendus adhuc, 
 implying a want of mftruUonj which is fo far from being 
 c.haraceriflic here, that, on the contrary, he is highly qualified 
 to g'eve inftru&ion, and moft excellent inftru&ion, even to the 
 learned, and much more to him who is prefuming to arraign his 
 p; -. ?icc in pronunciation the fole point on which it were to be 
 wiihed that he was u.-itau^bt. "We might then have the pleafuro 
 of being able to apply to him, literally, the iigurative and pro- 
 verbial locution we have feen in the citations from Cicero and 
 Seneca habet suos N^MEROS, phnu$ eft -and fay, that he is a full 
 and perfect fchoinr. This is indeed fo much to be wifhed, for 
 his own credit, for the credit of our country, and for the benefit 
 of the riling generation, that, would he deign to read it, no 
 reafoniag in the power qf the writer that would have a tendency 
 
 to
 
 f 43 ) 
 
 fuffers them becaufe he himfelf was fuffered to fay proeul 
 negotits; and equally to mifcall and disfigure a thoufand other 
 words! Alas, alas, how plain it is 
 
 potgctv ts 
 Or as a Pimple flight what is in truth a Wen ! 
 
 For the barbarifm of the deriding Doctor is indeed a Wen, 
 in companion of the Pimple of the poor Frenchman ; with 
 whom he has nothing in common, except utterly confounding 
 the iambic meafure. Now the iambic is or all meafuixs 
 the moft ufual in the Doctor's language, but it is not ufnal 
 in the language of the Frenchman ; his failure in it therefore 
 is much Ids an object of derifion. But, above all, the 
 Frenchman had the merit the firll of all merits in language, 
 whether poetical or profaic to le underflood: fo that a hearer 
 who barely was acquainted with the language, though he 
 knew nothing of the writings of the poet, could not have 
 been at a lofs for the meaning. How infinitely then is he 
 fuperior to Dr. Dedocendus ! For to a hearer who underflood 
 the Greek and Latin languages, fpeaking both with proper 
 quantity, but knew nothing of the writings of their poets, 
 the meaning of the words would by the Doctor be 
 annihilated or falfified, throughout every page of their im- 
 mortal works. 
 
 A iioiilar inftance to that of Viftor cyuus, noticed by my 
 Roman inftrudtor, occurs in Horace's defcription of the 
 manners of a youth ; who, he fays, gaudet equis. This our 
 Doctor would pronounce gaudet <*-quis. How happy would 
 be many a hoary fire, that his fon and heir, " Young Hope- 
 ful" as it feems the humour to call thofe of whom we have 
 no hope fhould take pleafure mjnjl things which in poetical 
 language may well mean Juftice berfdf y the Queen of all the 
 virtues rather than in Horfes and in Dogs. 
 
 to effect it, either ferious or ridiculous, iliould be unemployed ; 
 and efpecially the latter ; which, as it has by a good judge of it, 
 been declared effectual magnas plerumque fecare res to decide 
 momentous difquifitions, would of courfe the more eafily determine 
 the minuter queftion we are now difcuffing. 
 
 G 2 The
 
 ( 44 ) 
 
 The mention, of a hoary fire naturally fuggefts but by a 
 concatenation that our Doctor is not aware of Arma virumqae 
 tan-,: which makes, when read properly, a complete fenfe ; 
 but, to the hearer of Dr. Dedocendus, who would pronounce 
 the firft fyllable in cano long, no fenfe at all. " Arms and th 
 man" would the hearer be muttering within himfelf in 
 Jfearch of a meaning " Arms and the man with" for cano 
 can be no other than the dative or ablative of the adjective 
 canus-^-" with, or by, or to, or from fome hoary man or beaft 
 or thing of the mafculine or neuter gender !" in Ihort, he 
 muft give it up, fairly puzzled by a riddle which he cannot 
 folve: as he mufl likewife give up 
 
 Maffylique equites et odora canum vis 
 
 unable from the adje&ive canum (as it mult appear to him) to 
 fmell out the accompaniment affigned by the poet to the 
 Maflylian hunters. 
 
 Penelope, in the impatience of her love for her long abfent 
 lord, vviites to him, in this pentameter Nil mibi refcribas, 
 stamen ipfe veui. A pretty meafure we make of this penta- 
 meter ! Perhaps we mean by it to reverie in part our crrours 
 in hexameter; which are made chiefly at the beginning or in 
 the middle. But in pentameter, after being not right perhaps 
 at the beginning, and certainly not, in the middle, we arc 
 always fure to be wrong, moft completely and perverfely, at 
 the end converting to a trochee or dactyle the terminating 
 anapeft or iambus. And in confequence of this practice, 
 which our Doctor will not fail to follow, his hearer will be 
 as much puzzled as before. For he finds, that, a lady fays 
 in her letter *' Do not write to me any anfwer, but" but what? 
 Why fome man fays (;pfe being mafeuline) fome man 
 fays " / am come nyfelf!" For vent, with the firft fyllable 
 long, muft be the firft perfon of the preterite of venio. 
 
 Or mould Dr. Dedocendus think to amufe his hearer by 
 relating to him the juftly- admired ftroke of wit of that 
 accomplifhed orator and provident politician, who, before 
 he fo feelingly foretold the jnifchief and mifery of a wicked 
 
 and
 
 ( 45 ) 
 
 and abfurdcrufade r , made in the fenate a. mod fmgularly-happy 
 
 ufe of 
 
 7< (fiXijv, xAfiTr]^ d& T vujs/< 
 
 he would but make him flare, and wonder what he could be 
 laughing at : fov by his mifp renunciation of the fubftantive 
 ,,*il ? ._in which the whole felicity of the application dwells 
 the hearer is prefented with a verb in the imperative (tx^ri) 
 commanding fome one to " fteal a Mijl or /%" in which he 
 rauft be more clear-fighted than a lynx if he can difcern a 
 pleafantry with fo fine a point. 
 
 But this pure flupidity of puzzling pronunciation would 
 foon tire the poor hearer, if the Doftor did not a little enliven 
 bis communications ; and, fince he cannot give the good things 
 of others to be underftood, give fome good things of his 
 own. This, we (hall fee, the good man will do, and with 
 the trued charity, not letting his right hand know what his 
 left does, and reverfe the icene, matting his hearer laugh, 
 whilft he mall himfelf, unconfcious of the joke, be grave. 
 
 The fcene might open with his reading the incenfed 
 Demipho-'s imprecation againft Phormio, quoted before in the 
 iambics 
 
 Malum quod ifti Di Deaeque omnes duint ! 
 
 This would furely divert his hearer by making it appear, that, 
 the angry old gentleman, inftead of invoking the vengeance of 
 the deities, is befeeching them the firft fyllable in Malum being 
 pronounced long by the Doctor to reward the rafcal with 
 an APPLE*! to fhew their fondnefs for him to be fure: 
 
 * And here were the imprecation of Demipho or any fimilar 
 one, to be exprefled in profe, Dr. Dedocendus might be reprefented. 
 by no lefs a pcilbnage than in a brother Do&or the _ great 
 BENTLEY ; who, quoting this line, tells us, that, though it was 
 allowed, in the firil and laft part of dramatic vcries, 'to pronounce 
 Malum, or any other iambus, as an iambus ; yet, that, whoever 
 ftiould have done fo " in communi Jermone, DZRIDICVLO 
 
 for
 
 C 46 ) 
 
 f"or Lucian, in his Toxaris, fays, that Apples were employee! 
 as tokens of Lwe ; and that Chariclea, to fheAV Dinias how 
 much Hie was taken with him, fent him Apples marked with 
 the iiiipreffion of her teeth. And in Theocritus, and in 
 Virgil, after him, we find 
 
 KOI.I MAAOin TOV -aiTroKov ot 
 MALO me Galatea petit, lafciva puella -j-. 
 
 A laughable effect muft refult likewife from our Do&or's 
 reading to his hearer this line of the Odyffea 
 
 HTO< E/W TO, 
 
 In 
 
 * A pleafant friend, who read thefe pages before they went 
 to prefs, obferved here, that, in fuch a fituation, a gallant might 
 be thus encouraged, 
 
 Tu ne cede MAJLIS, fed contra audentior ito. 
 
 But how would a pupil, by the great annotatour, Heyne, have 
 been encouraged, who mould make the gracious queen of Carthage, 
 in a fpeech replete with pathetic benevolence, terminating with 
 this fix hundred and thirtieth verfe of the firft book of ths 
 
 Non ignara Mali, mlferis fuccurrere difc 
 
 ihew that her heart was affefted by the misfortunes of her hearers, 
 becaufe that ihe herfelf had, alas, experienced, what it is to 
 MUNCH AN APPLE ! That excellent fcholar, and good man, 
 noting this fix hundred and thirtieth verfe, fays in a fpirit 
 worthy the authour of it fays " NtbiKfamt -verfus ; gravtffima 
 
 Jententia ; cujut, cum V. 628, 629, vi percepta, fi adolefcentem non 
 voluptate GE STIRS videas, nit* ilium a poet a leflionc Jlatim, aaigas, 
 
 Juadeo" ' 
 
 The. following pafTage from Shakefpeare is part of a fpeech, 
 replete, like queen Dido's, with pathetic benevolence, from no 
 lefs than a king to a moil reverend archbifhop ; 
 
 If Intreaties 
 
 Will render you no remedy, this Ring 
 
 Deliver them, and your Appeal to us 
 
 There make before them. Look, the ood man weeps ! 
 
 Now
 
 ( 47 ) 
 
 In which, his pronvmciation, more powerful than Circe's 
 xvand, will make a transformation mod farcical in him who 
 could alone withilanJ the power of that enchantrefs upon her 
 captives. For he will convert the wife and eloquent prince 
 of Ithaca the divine man o & ? C^vaa-w^ ^fa *v&><; A%I 
 to the verieft blundering bog-trotter: for, pronouncing ^tf^y as 
 Xwfwv, he will moll bavbaroufly make him fay thus Arrah, 
 now, my dear Jewels, ye noble Ph;eacians, to my companions 
 was I telling all thofe there things ceafing to fpeak, or holding 
 jny tongue, now ! 
 
 Yet ftiil more perhaps might his hearer be diverted by our 
 Dodtor out of the Ilias, in this verfe, 
 
 Ou yap s[u ffeu Qyui xeptiojepov (3po]ov 
 
 For here the fame wife and eloquent hero, in his wrath 
 againft that difgufting, worthlefs wretch, 7berjites t very 
 naturally tells him, that, he does not think there can be a 
 worfe mortal. But the hearer, unlefs he be a very ph'egmatic 
 one indeed, muft needs be tickled at the idea of what a 7/V/- 
 Bit Therfites muft have been. For the Doctor, by pro- 
 nouncing &^v like |Sf!cv, willyjfavourily make the hero tell 
 him, that, he does not think there can be aiuorfe thing TO 
 EAT. By the fame barbarifm, he would, in the noble fenti- 
 ment of Menander quoted alfo before in the iambus make 
 his hearer think, that, Ovfe nrrf*1i 4pf , rmift mean Who- 
 ever is a good philofopher of the Cfenatic feel: ; and, con 
 fequently, that, Iwwlbi *oAori, is, the having his repaft 
 ravifhed from him and being fent fupperlefs to bed. So, 
 n ^oi> -crafo/*K, inftead of being called, as it is by Sophocles, 
 " The proverb of Mortals" will, by him, be called, Th 
 Guttling proverb. 
 
 Now as a cafe in point that it may be moft ridicviloufly, moll 
 deteftably, moft heinoully burlefqued, as is, in our mouths, that 
 tf nobilijjimus "verjus, graviffimafententia" of the Roman Shakelpeare 
 for APPEAL, read APPJ.E ! 
 
 And yet the fyllable peal in appeal is not fo long as //' in mali % 
 which, though made the Ihorteft by us, is the longeft fyllable ir* 
 that verfe, for a reafon to be fcen in the third Chapter. 
 
 But
 
 ( 48 ) 
 
 But there are errours of a more ferious nature. How 
 indignant would be the fhade of Virgil, the mod modeil, 
 referved, and chaile of poets, could we luppofe him confcious 
 of the horrible fabrications made by fuch a Doctor in the 
 meaning of his mellifluous lines ! more horrible than even 
 the conclusion of the cento of Aufonius! But Aufonius 
 was not bifhop of Bordeaux, as fuppofed by the good 
 Trithemius ; and he compofed thofe falsifications in his cento 
 at the command thq moft powerful of commands ! at the 
 Jefire of his mod facred majefty, Valentinian ; as he fays 
 Himfelf; Quodque eft potentiffimum imperandi genus, 
 rogabat ille qui jubere poterat, Sanctiffimus Imperator 
 Valentinianus. Had Dr. Dedocendus fuch a plea to offer 
 for his falsifications ; or, as Aufonius had, any ingenuity to 
 excufe them, I would, in tendernefs, not have touched at all 
 upon a fubjedt which I mail but flightly touch. 
 
 The modeft Virgil, then, gives a moft beautiful defcription 
 of the birth and progrefs of the paffion for her hero in the 
 breaft of the gentle Dido ; who, like the gentle Defdemona, 
 *' with a greedy ear devoured his difcourfe, and loved him for 
 the perils he had pafled." Thefe were at once the varniih 
 of his tale, and likcwife of his moft high and engaging 
 quaHties, for ever in her mind. For Virgil gives ;us to 
 underftand, that, fhe was always revolving in her love-lick 
 mind " The great VALOUR of the man" -Mulfa vn i virtus ammo 
 rtcurfat. Now in this moft harmlefs expreffion, does our 
 dreadful Doctor, by his manner of pronouncing the fecond 
 vord of it, make the gentle Dido to be always revolving in 
 her love-Uck mind Oh, ye Graces ! " The great Poiuer f 
 /.. VENOM F* 
 
 Dffilht ab 
 
 Upon fo very ticklifh a fubjeft, let it fuffice to have given the 
 above fingle inilance ; which, it is to be feared, may fuggeft 
 to the reader but too many other initances of a fimilar, or of 
 ,a grofTer kind ; tending to latterly deprive our authour of his 
 exclufive praile of moclefty. Even at the very threftiold of 
 Lis vo ume, when barbarous pronunciation deftroys the 
 poet's concord of the adjective pa tula with the tree, and moft 
 
 indecently
 
 ( 49 ) 
 
 indecently and (hamefully makes it with theman, a hearer muft 
 naturally be expecting as delicate a dialogue, as that which 
 pafles between Comatas and Lacon in the fifth idyllium of 
 the broad-mouth'd, n*.otlv<rStn, Syracufan bard. Nor are the 
 works of Virgil the only ones thus fcandaloufly mif- 
 reprefented j for there is not a fingle page throughout any of 
 .the immortal works, from which we have been giving 
 inftances, but what will be found to fwarm with fuch abturdi- 
 ties and fuch villanies in the mouth of fuch a Doctor, who, 
 at the end of an iambic verfe the commoner}, of all meafures 
 in his native tongue fays procul negotiis. And yet this man, 
 carting behind him all thoughts of the monftrous bag which 
 hangs there, looks with derifion into the little poke of his 
 Gallic neighbour, 
 
 Who bad his St. Jean leave all the mean things 
 To low ambition and pride of the Kings. 
 
 For the fake of order, it were to be wifhed, perhaps, that, 
 to prevent the offences of fuch Doctors contra tones mores, as 
 well as their high treafon againft the moft elegant majefty of 
 Apollo, they could be comprehended in the acts of parliament 
 for the promotion of filence, lately prefented to us, in the 
 abfence of the real reprefentatives of the people, by the 
 faithful commons of their Sandiffimus Imperator : or, if that 
 cannot be done, that the term procul negotiis might become 
 a Shibboleth; and that no parent would put his child to a 
 Doctor who pronounced it wrong ; in order that fuch gentry, 
 having no boys to mifleach, might be kept themfelves to 
 the ftri&nCi's of the letter procul negotiis. Procul, procul 
 efte profani ! Though this indeed, it is plain, regards only 
 the Doctors, fuch as they are, of certain academies, as they 
 are called, who hold out offers of learning, fuch as it is, 
 as -other Doctors hold out health, in the Advertifer ; and can 
 have nothing to do with our Foundation-fchoolsj thofe 
 excellent charities, which are fo well managed ; where we 
 are admitted by favour, and have our education, according to 
 the intention of the founders, fo honeftly and honourably 
 fulfilled, without its coiling any thing at all ; as the Fathers 
 
 H of
 
 ( 50 ) 
 
 of the collegers at Weftminfter and Eton are all able to 
 teftify or ought to be. 
 
 From the above few out of the myriads of inftances which 
 might be given of the fenfe being annihilated or falfiried by 
 barbarous pronunciation, we may fee, that, when Juvenal 
 fays Nil refert tales verfus qua vooe legantur the exprefiion 
 qua vsce is by no means equivalent to quo metro, qua quantitate t 
 qua legs. 7 h at Nil refe.t manifeftly alludes to the ruftic boy, 
 by whom only, that every thing might be of a piece, the 
 poet had before told his friend Ponticus he mould be waited 
 on, at the frugal repaft to which he is invited ; and this boy 
 was to read to them the duliam facientia carmina palmam. This 
 poor ruflic boy could not have had the advantage of being 
 inftrucled in the management of his voice by a Phonafcus, 
 like the rich and great, with whom it was an elTential accom- 
 plimment dalat njjidul pbonafco opcram, is told US of Auguftus 
 and confequently could not know the carmen of thefe carmina, 
 or any thing elfe of the elegant and captivating manner of 
 reciting them. Nil refert it matters not verfes fo fublimely 
 good will be pleafing even from the untutored voice of a ruftic 
 boy; fuppofing only, what muft be fuppofed, that he knows 
 how to -read them with proper quantity or he cannot be 
 underftood. 
 
 But upon the article of iambics, there is yet a inoft curious 
 and dainty circumftance to be remarked. How much foever 
 we may chufe to degrade and disfigure Horace in his iambics, 
 though indeed fcarcely more than in his other meafures 
 ft ill there is one book, and but one book, which we are not 
 only fuffered but even taught to read according to quantity ; 
 and that book is Anacrcon. In the very firft line ci ; it we are 
 taught to fay 
 
 but which two poor iambufes, are, with all their kindred, 
 every where elfe, barbarouily disfigured, by having their 
 natural proportions forcibly reverfed, and being fet, with 
 infulting ridicule, the head where the heels ihould be ; 
 as the participle prefent of ^ij-nv in the above quoted 
 
 Hrot
 
 ( 5- ) 
 
 HTOI tyv ra air1a XEJW . T. A. where we make fuch fweet 
 Jrilh mufic *. 
 
 A mighty conceflion indeed of the barbarians, in thus with- 
 holding their ravage from the beauties of the metre in the tiny 
 tome of the Teian bard ! that Cupid of a BixK*f>J>y " Bjupo,- 
 !>,*, pn tpoZwou ' No ; thou little Darling of the Damfels of 
 Pindus, afraid of thee! no; it is furely thy brief ftature, thy 
 forlorn dimenfions, thy tender infant form, which have 
 excited their companion, to guard thee from the avTaults f 
 made on the more robuft, full-grown, mufcular members of 
 that republic, to which thou, like a jewel in the ear of 
 Cupid's mother, art a beautiful though minute appendage fo 
 minute that to deprive thee of any thing, would be to leave 
 thee nothing 
 
 * The Winchefler mufic, of <f Duke Domum" though it affords 
 no pleafant equivoque like the badly pronounced \sytan will be 
 laughed at by the Wykehamiits in time. There mult be time for 
 every thing. In time, it is to be hoped, we {hall get rid alfo 
 of the barbarifm of national reflections ; and ceafe to talk of the 
 blunders of the Iriih, who mew that they are lefs blunderers than 
 our fapient felves. 
 
 Dublin and Paris have, indeed, by good judges, been long 
 efteemed to have more of the tone of Athens than the Metropolis 
 of that country, 
 
 " Where, nurfed in ignorance, characters abide, 
 And local likenels feeds their local pride." 
 
 f Is there not fome Magic, fome Fairy charm, fome fecret 
 talifman in the tiny tome, that has preferred it ? Give one of us 
 to read Deus lyrte genus nunc and though he be told it is a verfe 
 of iambic meafure, he will read it as I would lay a wager he has 
 already as barbaroufly as he does in Horace, what are likewife 
 of iambic meaiure, Dem, Deus nam me vetat, and, Fortuna non mutat 
 genus if indeed he has not met above with a little help in the 
 latter. But now give him thefe fame words, Dcus lyrte genus nunc, 
 only cloathed in a different character, and but tell him, that, they 
 are fuppofed to be ANACREON'S Prefto, be gone! All away ye 
 horrid, barbarous blunders! directly will he read thefe fame 
 words, not only without his former faults, but with a fluent and 
 graceful iambic modulation, thus, 0w Awg yivos w ! 
 
 If this be not Magic, Reader, how mall we qualify it ? 
 
 H a *
 
 ( 52 ) 
 
 @eu9tff'ty 
 
 Betiog x& 
 
 Ridiculous as is this reafon for the favour with which Anacreon 
 is exclufively honoured by us, it fhould feem, from our 
 ridiculous practice with . the other poets, to be the only one 
 that can be afforded. 
 
 But in this exclusive favour which we fhew the Teian, a 
 mighty conceffion is truly made; for it amounts to no lefs 
 than an acknowledgement, tha*-, in ancient language, every 
 difTyllable, without exception, is NOT a trochee; but, that, 
 on the contrary, there are, in truth and reality, certain 
 diffyllables in ancient language, as well as in our own modern 
 one, which conftitute the foot we call IAMBUS ! an acknow- 
 ledgement, it muft be confeffed, which could never be 
 reaionably expedled from a nation which pronounces as 
 trochees, fuch words as yt%w and Jenex ; the one with a (hort 
 vowel in its firft, and a long one in its fecond fyllable ; and 
 the other fubject to the law of Pofitiqn with a ftrong 
 double confonant for its termination ! 
 
 Now the reafon as it is pleafant to find or to make a reafon 
 for every thing the only reafon that can be ferioufly afligned, 
 as the caufe of this errour in which we have been fo long held 
 captive to the (Irange perverfion of the dictates of tafte and 
 fenfe, and of all practice in modern language feems to be 
 founded in a fyflem^ the idleft of all idle fyflems which were 
 ever entertained in the idle brain of man. Yes, a fyflem 
 feems to have been formed upon its having been faid by 
 Quin&ilian and the old grammarians, that, in Latin words of 
 two fyllables, the firft was always diftinguimed by, forfooth, 
 the ACCENT. The acute accent. And as, at the revival of 
 learning, Latin was prepofteroufly taught as it dill con- 
 tinues to be before that language from which it is derived- 
 going up againft the ftream, mftead of down with it it 
 came to be fuppofed (though there is no fuch rule for accenting 
 diffyilables in Greek) that what was applicable to one, in 
 regard to the miftaken pronunciation, was applicable to the 
 other language ; and that if we fay tus, we muft fay lo; alfo ; 
 and, if every word of two fyllables muft be terminated Jbort t 
 a fo
 
 ( 53 ) 
 
 fo upon as good reafoning as any in the fyftem muft of 
 courfe all others. 
 
 Now of the ancient manner of reading with Accent, it may 
 be roundly afferted, I believe, that, fpeaking for the Many, we 
 know ablblutely nothing. But it feems generally agreed, that 
 it was diftinft from quantity*. Melancthon, Erafmus, 
 Beza, and Gerard Voffius, give particular cautions againft 
 confounding Accent and Quantity togeiher. Nay, I believe, 
 we ourfelves now, all, or with very few exceptions, allow 
 that there is nothing in common between Quantity and 
 Accent ; how much foever we may have perverted the word 
 Accent, in our ufe of it in our own language, to denote 
 >uantity, as well as the tone or found of voice in the cadence 
 of words and phrafes : thus turning it from its etymological 
 and original fignification, as we have fo many other words, 
 and, among them, very remarkably the word Loyalty. This 
 word, Loyalty, has a very fine meaning that of an attach- 
 ment to the JL<zw.r, the unwritten laws, of Fidelity, Probity, 
 Honour, and Confcience in the language from which we 
 take it ; and from which indeed we take, except what is 
 of Northern origin, almoft every thing in our own. 
 
 * It is indeed decided that quantity was diftint from accent, by 
 the unquestionable authority of Cicero ; in this paffage of his 
 Orator, where he fo clearly fpeaks of them as diftinc\ and feparate 
 things : In verfu quidem tota theatra exclamant, fi fuit una 
 fyllaba brevior aut longior. Nee verb multitude pedes novit, nea 
 ullos numeros tenet ; nee illud quod offendit, aut cur, aut in quo 
 offendat, intelligit : & tamen omnium longitudinum ct brevitatum in 
 fonts, fiiut acutarum graviumqite vocuta, judicium iff a Natura in auribus 
 no/tris collocavif. Nature which feerns to be ufed here for habit or 
 cuftom fo nearly allied to it f placed in their ear a difcernment 
 of all lengths and brevities in the founds or quantities of fyllables, 
 as well as of the acuteneffes and gravities, or, of the elevation and 
 depreffion of the voice, in accents. 
 
 f- Confuetudoj deinde Natura. Qainft. 
 
 " Cuftom, it muft be confeffeJ, is a fecond nature with us" fa ; d a friend 
 in conversation with Fontenelle: " Very true j (replied he) but..pray tell ir.Jk 
 what is the///." . 
 
 Ian-
 
 ( 54 ) 
 
 language*; even the very terms with which we begin our 
 Accidents Noun and Tenfe into which we have converted 
 the Nam et 7emps of our matters f in the career of learning. The 
 word Accents from Accinere and that from ad and canere 
 meaning a rule for the regulation of the voice, in finging, 
 declaiming, fpeaking was not in ufe, any more than its 
 verb, in the good age of the Latin tongue. Cicero ufes for 
 it, fenus VGCIS, as in this paffage of his Orator, in which too he 
 employs mjlexus for what we call circumflex: Mira erVquasdatn 
 natura vocis, cujus quidem e tribus omnino fonis, inflexo, 
 acuto, gravi, tanta fit et tarn fuavis varietas perfecta in 
 cantibus ; eft autem in dicendo quidam cantus obfcurior, &c. 
 But QuincYilian and the old grammarians fay, forfooth, that 
 in diffyllables the accent was always upon the firft ; and that 
 is fufficient, si Dns PLACET, to make us following the 
 barbarous examples fet by thofe who had more authority 
 than fcience fay of a good old man, what no hoary Roman 
 could have underftood, Bonus Senex + . Such examples indeed 
 
 might 
 
 * And in many inftances where it is as little fufpdcted as in the 
 word Gates; which Dr. John/on fays, is " of uncertain etymology; 
 Skinner imagines it may be corrupted from delicate; which is not 
 likely, becaufe Junius obferve.s that the Dutch have hater in the 
 fame fenfe with our cater''' 
 
 But Cates is plainly and limply the French word S>uetes things 
 fought qu&rere, qutejitum, qiuvftum, queeftor, &c : and nice, 
 luxurious food very naturally became the fignification 
 
 ' Of Cates by land and fea farfetch'd and fent." Raleigh. 
 
 J So then, according to our account, the poor Romans had not 
 cne poor iambus to blefs themfelves with nor fpondee neither ; 
 if in diflyllables the laft was never to be long ! But how does this 
 accord with what Cicero fays? Magnam partem ex IAMB is noftra 
 conflat oratio. Or with Quinctilian ? IAMBUS ex brrvi & longa. 
 Or with Horace ? Syllaba longa brevi JubjeSla vocatur IAMB y? 
 iSfow the verieft dabbler in Profody knows, that, though every 
 word does not conftitute a metrical foot, yet that every metrical 
 f">ot is conitituted by fome word ; and therefore if thofe authours 
 fpeak of their having fuch metrical feet in their language, it muft 
 Jiave words to conftitute them ! Why, yes, they had fome iam- 
 bufes > but no one ever ufed them as fuch ; for, if he had, he 
 
 would
 
 ( 55 ) 
 
 might naturally enough be followed at a time when they could 
 not excite any wonder : for it was at the time when the 
 
 revival 
 
 would have become a laughing-ftock. Well but, by the maxim 
 of De non apparentibus, they might as well have been without them ! 
 No ; but they did ufe them as fuch too fometimes very rarely 
 indeed --and only when they could not poffibly avoid it; for, in 
 fine, to fpeak all diffyllables as trochees, and the LAST fyllable in 
 EVERY word SHORT, was the very GENIUS OF THE LATIX 
 LANGUAGE. So fays our LEGISLATOR in critical matters, the very- 
 learned Dr. BENTLEY *. " Latinis comicisqui fabulas fuas populo 
 placere cuperent magnopere cavendum erat, ne contra LINGUAE 
 GENIUM i6tus feu accentus [thefe words, itfus, or, ittus vocif 9 
 accentus, and the verb acuere are always applied by our Do6tor to 
 the making a fyllable long] in quoquo verfu fyllabas verboruat 
 ULTIMAS occuparent. Id in omni metro, quoad licuit, obferva- 
 batur, ut in his, A'rma virumque caxo, &c. qui perite et modulate^ 
 hos verfus leget, fie eos, ut his accentibus notantur, pronuntiabit j 
 non ut pueri in fcholis, ad fingulorum pedum initia, Ttaliam fata, 
 &c. Totum autem hoc, quod de itu in ultimis fyllabis cautura. 
 fuifle diximus, de fecunda tantum trimetri JiiroJia capiendum ; nara 
 in prima et tertia femper licuit ; fiquidem ifta fine venia conclama- 
 tum a&umque erat de Comcedia Tragrediaque Latina. Cum igitur 
 hunc verfum fimilefque apud noilrum videris, 
 
 Malum quod ifti Di Deoeque omnes duint, 
 
 cave vitio id poetae verteris ; etfi Malum illud et omnes fi in communi 
 quis fermone fie acuiflet [Ihould make long] deridiculo fuiflet. 
 Nimirum au^res vel invitsc patienter id ferebant, fine quo ne una 
 quidem in fabula fcaena potuit edolari. Quin et Graecos ipfos 
 eadem tenuit neceflitas, eadem pafia eft indulgentia. Euripides et 
 Ariftophanes, in 
 
 et ia 
 
 HX.U itxuv xtvOuuya KI crx.ola 
 
 idem admiferunt, in AXov & HK, quod nofter in Malum & omnes 3 
 ipfi enim priorem acuunt. [What has that to do with quantity, 
 which is the queftion here ? AaXov and xw, placed as above, muft 
 
 * T>J Metris Terentianh. 
 
 be
 
 ( 56 ) 
 
 om 
 
 Qu]u TO KOL\OV 
 
 revival of learning, from darkeft night of grofs ignorance, 
 was only in its dawn : 
 
 i 
 
 But 
 
 be both fpoadees, however they are accented.] In fecunda 
 2i7ro*ia hoc non licebat" which the Doctor confirms by the follow- 
 ing curious quotation from Aulus Gellius, book xviii, chapter 15, 
 with this remarkable title " S>jt(ht M. Varro in -verfibus obfervavit 
 rem nimis anxiae & curiofac obfervationis :" this title, as it does not 
 make for his purpofe, the Doctor had no bufinefs to give us a 
 remark equally applicable, as the fubjet is quantity, to the 
 quotation itfelf, which is as follows " In fenariis animadverterunt 
 metrici duos primes pedes, item extremes duos, habere poffe 
 lingulos integras partes orationis, medios haud unquam pofle ; fed 
 conftare eos femper ex verbis aut divilis, aut mixtis atque 
 confufis." 
 
 This fample of the paralogifms of our good Doctor will, I 
 believe, without his "RHYTHMUS, tefte Hephcsjlione, METRO 
 POTENTIOR be fufficient for the reader who Ihall have perilled 
 with approbation the tranfcript from Mekerchus, in the note p. 405 
 and others will not be very ready (whatever we lay before them) 
 to allow that there can be paralogifms in what IPSE DIXIT. But 
 how can fuch a reader account for the veiy wide difference between 
 the two critics ? No otherwiic, it mould feem, than by fuppofing 
 the Fleming to have hearkened to Reafon only ; and that the 
 Englifh critic was under the dominion of, what alone could on 
 this fubje6t have obfcured his fuperior abilities, the fpirit of 
 SYSTEM. Let a man be once thoroughly poffefled by this fpirit, 
 fays an Arabian proverb, and he may take a more extraordinary 
 quid pro quo than that of our Do6tor a piece of the freiheft Sandal 
 wood for a Flame of Fire. That fuch was THE GENIUS OF THE 
 LATIN LANGUAGE with that of the GREEK ALSO was the fyftttn 
 of his country, when the Do6tor entered the world. It was the 
 fyftem he was taught ; the fyftem profefled by his predeceflbrs, by 
 his contemporaries, and, perhaps, on his authority, the more 
 tenacioufly held to- by his fucceirors. What but the fpirit of 
 fyftem could fo blunt the perfpicacity of that eye to the enormous 
 abfurdities to which it leads ? How otherwife was it polfible that 
 BENTLEY fhould not fee, when his hand was marking the acute 
 accent (to render it long, in his idea) over the firft fyllable of cao, 
 
 that
 
 ( 57 ) 
 
 But that tliofe examples to which currency was afterwards 
 given by the two great fupporters of Errour, Ignorance and 
 Time Ihould ftill be followed by thofe whom the day which 
 
 that he was converting it from a verb to an adjective ? And, that, 
 if the fame hand had not made a fimilar ftroke over the laft, miteact 
 of the firft, fyllable of Malum, what was defigned by the poet tor 
 a curfe, would have been burlefqucd into a word which carries 
 with it a direa contrary meaning ? But for this unclean ipint 
 of fyftern HE, who was himfelf Ib fitted to be a Coryphaeus, would 
 never, like a Mutton, have thus followed the flock, in Icrambhng 
 over all the fences of harmonic order. We are told by Whifton 
 in his Memoirs, that when Dr. B. was courting the lady who was 
 afterwards his wife, he had nearly loft her, " by ftarting to her an 
 obieaion to the book of Daniel : as if its authour, in defcribmg 
 Nebuchadnezzar's image of gold to be fixty cubits high, and but 
 fix cubits broad, knew no better, than that men's height were ten 
 times their breadth ; whereas it is well known to be not more than 
 ' fix times ; which made the poor lady weep." Had he poflefle 
 as much knowledge of the proportions of a verfe, as he did ot the 
 human figure, he would never thus have deftroyed the beauty ot 
 melody. 
 
 For the great fervices which Bentley has done to letters exce 
 always the article of Metre "I do honour him on this tide idolatry 
 as much as any :" and I am happy to agree with the very learned 
 and elegant authour of " An Analytical Effay on the Greek 
 Alphabet," that Pope's envy led him to treat Bentley with great 
 illiberality and injufticej becaufe he eminently excelled in 
 mort ufeful ail, in which Pope was himfelf wnikilled. Pope failed 
 moft egregiouily and fhamefully in his edition of Shakeipeare, and 
 therefore paffed the latter part of his life in a ftate of bitter 
 hoftility with verbal criticifm : And we may well fuppofe that his 
 bitternefs was not a little augmented by the following fmart cenfure 
 on his publication : 
 
 When learned Critic comments on 
 
 What obfcure authour writes, 
 He thinks the bufmefs featly done, 
 
 If he ftrikes out New Lights, 
 
 Then thine is Praife moft high, no doubt, 
 
 Moft wondrous Meed, thy due, 
 Who ftrik'ft not only New Lights out, 
 
 JBut all the Old ones too. 
 
 has
 
 ( 58 ) 
 
 has fucceeded the dawn of the revival of learning has in other 
 refpefts enlightened, may well excite, not only wonder, but 
 ailonifliment ; with perhaps a little feafoning of indignation 
 at a practice fo unworthy of ourfelves. 
 
 The barbirous practice has indeed been aided in this 
 country by the genius of our vernacular pronunciation; 
 which, as was oblerved by my good inftrudtor at Rome, has 
 cerrainly a rage, una rabbla, for trocheeizing and dat)lizing : 
 whilft our next neighbours run as furioufly into the oppofite 
 extreme of iambufizing and anapeilizing. Hence they fay 
 vertu, orateur*, &c. which to be even with them in an 
 odd way we, taking all Latin and Greek words from them, 
 trocheeize and daclylize to virtue, cratour y &c. whence we have 
 the penultimates of iuch words as the lair., fo contrary to 
 
 ancient 
 
 * The French owe this pronunciation to their having taken 
 the far greater part, perhaps two thirds, of their language from 
 the Italians, dropping always in many words the final lyllable, 
 which is frequently dropped too by the Italians, \vho take all Latin 
 words in the ablative cafe oratore, t'irtute, &c. and with the 
 L^tin quantity of the penultimate, which the French caught from 
 f^m, as the quantity of their final fyllables -preferved too in 
 the Italian contractions v: r iu, ^c and which has been changed 
 by us from the rage above mentioned . In all Italian words ending 
 in ore, an obfcure found of is heard mixed with the o ; whence 
 the French terminations have in them the u, which ought always 
 to be preferved by us ; for the fake not only of etymology, but of 
 JuunJ; for in the laft fyllables of honour, favour, &c. a fuller found 
 of the v, than of the o, is heard. We may be convinced of this 
 Jay pronouncing to ourfelves thefe queftions " What did you do 
 that for ? an honour f a favour ?" The words " that for" (as here 
 placed, and fuppofing no e.mphafis upon for) form a trochee like 
 honour and favour, and the laft fyllable of that trochee term'nate; 
 as it has been of lale a written cuftom more honoured hi the 
 breach than the observance to terminate the other two : but it 
 requires no acutenefs of ear to diftjnguifh a confiderable difference 
 in the found of the termination tr from that of our ; the latter 
 not being to be more diltinguifhed from ar, than terminations in 
 ous are from us barbaroaj, ridicul*.r, &c. and therefore if it be 
 too much trouble to write " honw, favowr, &c." it would be more 
 ronfiftent with etymology and with found to fpell them with the 
 , favw, &c. 
 
 But
 
 ( 59 ) 
 
 ancient quantity *. And fo much greater is the caution of 
 John Bull to avoid a foreign iambus than a foreign foe, in all 
 his juft and neceffary wars though war is the monfter next 
 to corruption yvhich he has the greateft caufe to dread each 
 tending to beggar and enflave him and though the authour 
 of the inimitable " TASK" fays moft fententioufly, what 
 Ihould be bound as a philaftery upon the arrri of every one 
 who can feel its force, that, 
 
 " WAR is A GAME, WHICH, WERE THEiid SUBJECTS WISE, 
 " KINGS COULD NOT PLAY AT -f- 
 
 So 
 
 But Innovations merely ridiculous are of little confequence. 
 
 I mould infer* the in Aflor, Doflor, Editor, and all that can 
 plead thelongeft prefcriptibn in barbarifm, but that he may oftend, 
 who leeks even propriety itlelf beyond certain limits-^- 
 
 Ultra quam fatis eft virtutem fi petat ipfam, 
 
 * " We pronounce St. Helena from EXtva, and ld~ia from iJi* 
 words which, in palling into the Roman language, carried their acute 
 with them, and retained it on the penultimate j though the Latin 
 method of accentuation would naturally have carried it back to 
 antepeuultimate. Several of this fort are mentioned by Aldus 
 in the vocabulary prefixed to Statius, and by Servius in his notes 
 on Virgil." Fofter. 
 
 But we know that the quantities of thefe words remained the 
 fame in Latin as they were in Greek nam fuit ante Helenam ; 
 whence it is plain that they owe their long penultimates in modern 
 language to that moll unhappy miftake which was made, at the 
 revival of learning, of taking accent for quantity that teterrima 
 ca --fa of our fo disfiguring Grecian and Roman beauties ! but 
 which yet charm us, with all the imperfe&ions which our barbaril'm 
 has heaped upon their heads ! One among our many incon- 
 liftencies is, that to this fame name Helena, when it is not pre- 
 cedd by the title Saint, we give the ancient mort pemiliimate. 
 
 f ---- " A determin'd Spirit, 
 By ancient learning to th* enlighten'd Love- 
 Of ancient Freedom warm'd" 
 
 the very eloquent and mofl refpedtable authour of " A 
 rV." publifhcd.in 1792, charms us with a moft animated 
 prayer, too glorioulljf, too' divinely glowing with philanthropy, 
 
 I 2 to
 
 "So cautious, I fay, is John of meddling with a foreign 
 iambus, that, ihevv him what outlandifh diffyJlable you pleafe, 
 
 he 
 
 to be addreifed to the averted ear of " the Creator of men, 
 to abate the pride, to afTuage the malice, and to confound all the 
 devices of ALL the parties, direclly or indirectly, to be leagued, 
 in the complicated fcene of guilt and horror the threatened 
 crufade of the ruffian defpots !" But a conliderable diminution is 
 made of the great pleafure with which he affe6ts us by thefe 
 " Thoughts that breathe, and ivords that burn," when we find, that, 
 in the lame piece, he differs fo widely, not only from the above 
 quoted excellent man as well as poet, but fo widely alfo from 1m 
 excellent felf, as to " fee much to lament, and much to condemn, 
 in the ungracious a6t of wrenching from the [then] crown [of 
 France] the fplendid prerogative of making war !" which pre- 
 rogative is, in fa6t, to have the lives and properties of the 
 community at its diipofal ! 
 
 A wider difference furely cannot exift between Bentley and 
 Mekerchus, or between Mr. Locke and Sir Robert Filmer, than 
 between this authour and himfelf ! There can be no more doubt 
 of his good fenfe and philanthropy than there is of his learning ; 
 and he mufl affuredly be proof againft religious or political fuper- 
 Mition. To what fyjlem then can be afcribed fo glaring an 
 inconfiftency ? Did he fear, that, were this fplendid prerogative 
 to be wrenched from crowns, even the world itfelf could not 
 contain the children that mould be born, and therefore lament its 
 impolicy? Or, becaufe war will thin their numbers, in the moft 
 effectual and compreheniive manner, reverting the eourfe of 
 nature, caufing parents to bury their children, inftead of children 
 their parents, did he regard it a- o le of QO&* providential artangemtnts, 
 and therefore condemn the ivickeduefs of checking its career ? This 
 would be far from imputing to him unt'afhionable ideas. They 
 are in unifon With the *. do6trine which on the thirtieth of 
 January, 1793, was preached before the Peers by a learned 
 prelate ; who was honoured for it by their noble Lordihips, 
 adopting and avowing that do6trine, by an unanimous and folemn 
 act, in which, on the motion of the Metropolitan, they expreis 
 their thanks to him, and their defire of the publication of his. 
 fermon. The preacher of it, indeed, it muft be confeffed, does 
 not appear to have any great notion of measure*. LAUDED., 
 
 however, 
 
 * O* 
 
 urji) O-' Tl>cogn:s. Aut Erafmus, aut DLbolus..
 
 he will be fure to pronunce it as a trochee. Nay, bring him 
 home, yourfelf, what outlandiih diflyllable you pleafe, and 
 endeavour to teach him that it is an iambus, by ringing in his 
 car your own inceflantly-repeated pronunciation of it as fucli ; 
 it does not iignify; later em lavas; or perhaps better, pro- 
 verbially (till, in another language, Vous lavtz la tete a VAnt^- 
 fe-dant la leffive for John will have it for a trochee Hill. Of 
 this an inftance, amongft others, is apparent l the word Nabob, 
 the title, we are told, of a magiftrate of great dignity in the 
 Eaft, which is pronounced by all our countrymen, who have 
 fojourned there, invariably an iambus. But John, having 
 
 got 
 
 however, he certainly deferves to be, on other accounts , for, 
 " God, to his own fecret purpofe, (fays this amiable and pious divine) 
 direfls the "worjl afliofis of tyrants, no left than of the bcft and mojt 
 godly princes. Man's abufe^ therefore, of bis delegated authority is 
 to be barn I'jith re/ignation, like any other ef God's judgements. The 
 opptjition of the individual to the fovereign poiuer is an oppojition to God's 
 PROVIDENTIAL ARRANGEMENTS.'' Then neither Nero nor 
 Domitiaft, nor even Captain Bagfliot, highwayman and murderer, 
 nor Robefpierre f, nor Carrier, mice it is certain, that God, to 
 his own fecret purpofe, equally directed their aftions, and the 
 Devil had nothing to do with them then, I fay, according to 
 this doctrine, thefe diftinguilhed perfonnges, and favoured inftru- 
 ments of Heaven, ought not to have been taken off. Nor, ac- 
 cording to this do&rine, is it polliblc, but that, upon a late 
 appearance of the arrival of a frw'u'eniiil arrangement amongft us, 
 viz. our being vifited with FAMINE, thofe buty individuals who 
 fuccefsfully oppofcd that arrival, by the importation of a great 
 quantity of corn, mull have a6ted wickedly ; as they muft have 
 done likewife by oppofing the fprcading of the prcvideritial arrange- 
 ment of a PESTILENCE. Now among the chief cauies of the 
 thinning of numbers that they who remain may have a little 
 mare elbow-room in the world are famine, f<Jlilince, and war, 
 thefe three ; but tie greateft of thefe is WAR. ; as it comprifes ia 
 itfelf the beneficial effc6ts of the other two : ex pi-^miffis igitur 
 
 f Who has been wtll charadterized in a parody cf Beaumont and 
 Fletcher : 
 
 The tyrant Robefpiere 
 Sha'l be the vile comparative for Rukrs 
 To boalt and whiten by. 
 
 more
 
 got this poor Nabob, without his guards, into his own 
 barbarous power, if he does not ufe him quite fo ill as 
 upon Shrove Tuefday he was wont to ufe his cocks *, he 
 will at leait, fet b':m too, with infulring ridicule, the head 
 where the heels fhould be, and, by forcibly reverting his 
 natural proportions, ilrip him of the feather in the cap of 
 his dignity. 
 
 From this almoft horror which we feem to have to the 
 pronouncing rightly any Greek or Latin word ending long, 
 a ftranger might be led to think, what is by no means the 
 cafe, that we have no anapefts or iambufes of our own. Of 
 the former indeed we have not many; but, apbebcnd^ immature^ 
 acquiefce^ opportune, fcrcnctds, overheard^ c:ndifeend, evermore, may 
 ferve to ihew that we are not without an anapeft; and fo 
 mufical a foot, that thofe of them thrown here together 
 without any connexion, almoft feem to form a fong, that 
 
 more wickedly Jlill would they aft, who fhould oppofe the raging 
 of the providential arrangement of WAR, by wrenching the fplend id 
 prerogative of making it from the crown in which of courfe 
 every wife and good man muft " fee much to lament, and much to 
 condemn." 
 
 " La Famine, la Pefte, et la Guerre, (faid a fprightly neigh- 
 bour,) font les trois ingredients les plus fameux dans ce bas 
 monde. Les deux premiers de ces prefents nous viennent de la 
 Providence ; mais la Guerre, qui reunit tous ces dons, nous vient 
 de Fimagination de trois ou quatre cent perfonnes, repandues 
 fur la furface de ce globe, fous le nom de princes ou de miniftres ; 
 et c'eft peut-etre pour cette raifon, que dans plufieurs dedicaces 
 on les appelle LES IMAGES VJVANTES DE LA DIVINITE'." 
 
 * Heaven be praifed for having put it in our hearts, to put 
 away from us, at laft, that national reproach as cowardly as it 
 is inhuman of tying to the ftake, a gallant, gay, and noble 
 creature, to be thrown at with cudgels, till he expired in agony 
 and torture under the fractures of his frame ! Come, who knows 
 what may happen? To S"a.vfiov rt; o^t ; Nil defperandum ! As a 
 fenfe of duty and propriety has at length led us to abftain from 
 one barbarous and wicked practice, who fhail lay, that the fame 
 fenfe (hall not lead us to abftain from another ay, and from 
 another, and another ? And having done to our great credit 
 with Jhying at cocis, as the phrafe ufed to be, why may we not 
 fopu come to have done alfo'with Jhying at iambujes? 
 
 might.
 
 might ferve a young Gallant with his guittar to a green 
 girl a t leaft as well as the " Song by a perfon of Quality. " 
 And though the bulk of our diflyllables con'ifts of trochees *, 
 
 yet, 
 
 * Another point of diflimilitude between the EnglHh and the 
 Latin laguages ; in the latter of which Cicero fays, that, iambufes 
 abounded. One very natural reafon, indeed, why there Ihould be 
 more words ending long in Latin than in Engliih, is, that the 
 terminations of its cafes are for the moft part long ; and that too, 
 naturally enough, for diflin&ion's fake ; as for example, to dif- 
 tiuginih whether one fpoke a word, as lyra, (imply, or with ao 
 ceuary ideas to it. Thcfe accellaries are with us fupplied by pre- 
 pofitions. Thus, of a lyre, to a lyre, imtb a lyre /_>;, lyr* t 
 lyra. Dominus, tUminl, dimi/io. And though the is in the genitive 
 of the third declenfion is Ihort, the / in the dative and ablative, 
 when the latter ends in /, is long. Manu; t mams, n-.anul, manu. 
 In the fifth, all are long. And yet to pronounce ALL diffyllables 
 as trochees, and the lajt fyllable in EVERY word SHORT, with the 
 exception only of foine particular circumftances or h" tuations, was, 
 according to the fy/tcm of our Lcgijlator, THE VERY GENIUS OF 
 7 HE LATIN TONGUE ! and in which character of genius as it is 
 proclaimed by our pradtice, that of the GREEK is comprehended ! 
 Now whoever can believe THAT, rrmft feel as irnperioufly le Be/bin 
 Je croire, as he who memorably exclaimed CREDO .u i A IMPOSSIBILE 
 EST. So unnatural and monllrous, from all we know of modern 
 tongues, is the idea of a language whofe every word fhall end in- 
 variably fhort, with a monotony which mult make it fo abhorrent 
 from being worked to numbers and yet to what numbers have the 
 Greek and Latin been worked in the Ilias and ^Eneis when pro- 
 perly read !--- that this really feems to have been one of the moft 
 extravagantly abftird of human errours. 
 
 " Nefcio quomodo," fays Cicero, "nihil tam abfurde dici poteft, 
 quod non dicatur ab aliquo PbilofofJwum" Seel neicio quomodo it 
 is, that tiifciples have been found, to fwallow their abfurdities ; 
 and to go on, from age to age, gulping them down, without ever 
 putting to themfelves the limple queftion, " Is this fit to befwal- 
 lovjed?" Or is the fenforium like the ftomach, of the Implume 
 Bif>es, by an abufe of its faculties, fitted to receive according to 
 Diphilos, in his witty epigram upon Mafur Gaftr-To<, a-avfi' 
 iJit/'/o'? w^i o/jLcXoytipttct, fuch monftrous ar.J ini^-ngrous things, as 
 would be rejected Ly every quadruped but a S-ivir.c ? From this 
 consideration perhaps it was, that the biped came to be collectively 
 chaja&erized in the notorious manner, which the following quatrain 
 
 celebrates,
 
 ( 64 ) 
 
 yet, to make fome amends for the dearth of fpondees, there 
 are iambufes in plenty. Suppofe yourfelf now, my gentle 
 reader, to be in converfation with a man from a diltant 
 region, immediately upon his arrival in this country, before 
 he had time to correct his errour, who had learned his 
 Englifh, as we do our Greek and Latin, by books; and 
 imitating in Englifh our practice in thole languages, fhould 
 from fome miiconception, or milinformation, or bad example, 
 pronounce Ihort all the laft fyllables of our words : and that 
 upon fome point in which he thought you were erroneous, 
 he fhould write as follows for your infpec^ion for by writing 
 muft your converfation be carried on ; by word of mouth 
 you could no more underftand him, than in the given 
 inftances the hearer could underftand Dr. DeJocrndm * 
 ** Sir, it would be a iincere delight to me to opine with you ; 
 but, depend upon it, you commit a mittake ; let me prevail 
 upon you to make a mature refearch upon the affair in debate 
 between us ; it will requite the regard you beftow." Then if 
 we fuppofe that you defire him to read it to you as you 
 would probably have done by what pafled before, in order 
 to difcover why you could not fo well underftand his fpoken 
 zs his written language you would find, that, it is his 
 
 celebrates, by a man who, once upright, and faithful to his genius 
 ftood ; but is now caft down, alas ! by 
 
 " MAMMON, the leaft creeled Spirit that fell 
 From Heaven !" 
 
 Milton, 
 
 Well did'ft thou chriflen them, in fcorn fublime, 
 
 A Sivinijb multitude, that fv/ills and doats ; 
 In their now palTage down the ftream of Time, 
 
 They fwim as S:uine, who, fwimming, cut their throats. 
 
 * Dr. DeJecenaus has been fince made a bifhop. by the intereft 
 
 of Juftice Midas, for his /ealous exertions to extirpate pagan 
 
 w melody 5 when, at the fame time, for his great ftore of 
 
 'learning, elegant and ii.lui fudi cuntradi6tions are for Thee 
 
 aJone to reconcile, O MIGHTY SYSTEM .he is worthy the pa* 
 
 tronage of APOJLI.O ! 
 
 tro
 
 f 65 ) 
 
 frocheeizing the iambufes, which converts it to as ridiculous 
 a jargon as 
 
 " The celebrated controve'rly of aTobuconift with an Undertaker 
 oil the Funeral of an Apochccary :" 
 
 for, the above words, when read by the Granger, muft flrike 
 your ear as follows: 
 
 " Sir, it would be a fince her deal it to me to hopping ivith you ; but, 
 day-penn'd up on /'/, you comet a myjlic ; It-t me pr ay-vale up en you to 
 mate a matter ray-fearcb up on the half -air in debet Beit -win its ; it 
 raie-wit the ray -guard you bejl^ltoe.^ 
 
 quifquis es ? De T E , laquente Grtccc vel Latine, f alula 
 that is, if you have given no more attention to 
 quantity in Greek and Latin, than you were intruded at your 
 fchool to do, or at your college. " Inftru&ed at your fchool, 
 or college," may perhaps be too indifcriminately faid : as 
 there may be fchools and colleges which have teachers of better 
 practice than the writer knows of: of all fueh teachers he 
 humbly craves pardon*; and begs, that, in refpeft to them, 
 he may be allowed to fay of the fhiotur.ps in thefe pages 
 
 ' * He has the great pleafure to be informed, that, one of the/e 
 tcai.liers, of whom pardon is craved above, isiheRev. Mr. Collier^ 
 fellow, and one of the tutors, of Trinity-college, Cambridge: 
 and another, the Rev. Mr. S.ttck, mafter of the foundation-fchooi 
 at .Gloucelter : but to neither of \vhoni, vi-ill he, upon this fubjec\, 
 pr^fume to give praife, left it Ihould be .cojiftrued to aftront. For 
 now, upon this account, can they, with a grave face, be jpraifed ? 
 Shall we. praife them, for inftance, becaufe they fhe\v tfiat they 
 are not without what .every one ought to have Reafpn of their 
 own ; in obedience to which they have ceafed to follow the flock, 
 which led their boy-hood into blunders, following Bentley, (of 
 great merit Ln other relpe&s) railed to a bell-wether in Profody 
 without defer t ? Or, becaufe they are no longer feen to have 
 a difgraceful though natural infirmity TO /*jmt*o-6 ? Or, in Ihort, 
 '.becaufe they have O wonderful 
 
 " Put off the Monkey, and brought out the Man ;!" 
 
 all'which would amount but to this negative praife, bordering 
 anon ridicule, that they cannot be faid to be what a witty 
 
 K mil'-
 
 ( 66 ) 
 
 SUNTO: for expreffing Iiimfelf after the candid 
 Fofter, who expreffes himfdf after the candid Horace he 
 would always vvifh to have every unjuft cenfure as far from 
 his pages, as it is from his intention. And if he mixes up 
 ingredients which may be thought too draftic in the draught 
 for others, ftill it is not the fault of his intention, but of his 
 judgement. For he thought, that, by nothing but ftrong 
 dofes, was there a probability, or even poiribility, ofloofen- 
 jng from its feat, in any degree at all, fuch a long and deep- 
 fixed malady fuch a fyflematically fixed one as this cough of 
 cacophony, upon the lungs ; which he cannot flatter himfelf 
 that his bed efforts will be able to more than loofen, and by 
 no means to diflodge. That muft be Jeft for a more 
 Ikilful and if the cough is to be cajoled away lefs draftic 
 Do&or to perform. 
 
 mifanthrppe faid the mafs of mankind are " Des Jinges qui ne 
 fautfiit quc pour Jes nolx, ou bien dam la crainte Ju coup de fouet." 
 
 Amongft the inhabitants of this country, who, of all the animals 
 which are laid to be at the head of the monkey-tribe, have been 
 generally efteemed to approach neareft to what Ihould be the 
 human character, there muft be furely more fuch men, who 
 deferve, upon this occafion, to be named. And if the curiofity 
 of others, to look at that from which they are beforehand de- 
 termined not to profit, fhould be great enough to bring it to a 
 fecond edition, the names of fuch men, if the writer be informed 
 of them, ihall certainly appear. And if fuch a thing fhoukl 
 happen of which indeed he can be but cool in his expectation, 
 as that he be fo happy to find he has been able to convince 
 any teachers, who had not hitherto thought upon the lubjecl, 
 Jheir names alfo fliall certainly appear. 
 
 CHAPTER
 
 67 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 PAUSES, the ufeof which has been adopted for the eafe 
 and benefit of a freer refpiration, and the improvement of 
 harmonious modulation, require from us fome confederation j 
 at lead as far as regards our prefent purpofe ; for they are of 
 great confequence in reading poetry indeed of no inconfider- 
 able confequence in profe and will tend to corroborate fome 
 of the arguments in the foregoing Chapters. 
 
 The rhythmus of every verfe demands a paufe, or fup- 
 preifion of the voice, at the end of it, to fhew that it is the 
 end ; though the fenfe be carried on, and without a marked: 
 flop, to the next line : and the fyllable preceding fuch a 
 fufpenfion of voice as is requifite at the end of a verfe foe 
 a femi-paujfe may be made after a fhort fyllable is naturally 
 made long, where the kind of verfe requires it*; though it 
 be not of importance in itfelf. 
 
 In our own language, in words of above two fyliables and 
 dactylic terminations in the kind of verfe which requires a 
 long fylJable at the end as aimoft all our verfes do fctting 
 
 * In 
 
 Vidimus flavum Tiberim retards - 
 
 and the like though the verie ends with a fliort fyllable, as moft 
 of the Horatian raeafures do in dactyles or trochees and though' 
 the fenfe is carried on without any marked Hop to the next line, 
 there ihould be a twni-paufe or fufpanf.on of the breath afief 
 retortif, to {hew that it is the end of the verfe. 
 
 K 2 ade
 
 r 68 j 
 
 afide the additional fhort fyllable, admitted for double rhim?s 
 or in blank verfe dactylic or trochaic meafures being very 
 r-.irely ufed a fhort fyllable at the end becomes long, as ia 
 hexameter, on account of the paufe. Thus in 
 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage */"** ^^^ '/**" *" *^ 
 
 hermitage is a dactyle ; but the rhythmus here, in lengthening 
 a fhort fyllable on account of paule its fole power requires 
 it fhould be an amphimacer ; and we pronounce it fo with 
 propriety ; as we do, when they are fo placed, all words of 
 fimilar terminating quantity. Put hermitage in any part of a 
 verfe where there is no paufe, and it re-afTuines its natural 
 quantity 
 
 Find out the peaceful hermitage of blifs. 
 
 & natural is that quantity, that fhould any one make an 
 amphimacer of hermitage in profe, he would I will not fav 
 as Dr. Bentley does of him who fhould pronounce an iambus 
 rightly be a laughing-ftock-~-but he would certainly fliew 
 himfelf to be a vulgar perfon. 
 
 TojArj, TfATtyAa, xo;x/tAa, cafura.) incijlo y or incifum for they have 
 all been ufed to exprefs the fame thing all mean a cutting 
 a cutting of the verfe into parcels, of two or more. Of that 
 word in this number of them which we commonly employ, 
 cafura, we are wont, elliptically fpeaking, to give the name 
 :,to the fyllable itfelf which precedes the cafura or paufe ; and 
 Which name, authorized by this cuftomary figurative manner 
 pf fpeaking, I fhall ufe. We are wont likewife to talk 
 by no figure but that of abfurdity of that fyllable's being 
 as it were detached from thofe which precede it in the word 
 it terminates ; becaufe, forfooth, that fyllable begins the 
 JTucceeding foot. This is an errour we have been led into 
 by the common method of fcanning, or by an ill-founded 
 notion of reading according to fcanning ; which, whatever 
 the fcanning be, would ruin every thing, and make Pope 
 appear to be fpeaking to his footman, inflead of a diftinguifhed 
 peer 
 
 Av>3ke, | my Saint J John, leave j all meajncr things. 
 
 A!!
 
 ( 69 ) 
 
 All paufes muft be at the end of words ; though fome 
 writers have fpoken of paufes in the middle of them : but they 
 would have faid more properly that fome one fyllable may 
 often be, with grace, particularly marked. It has been 
 o'bferved .that all harmonious paufes fall, according to the 
 common fcanning, in the middle of a foot ; and hence an 
 Jiexamerer has -been divided into twelve half-feet; the feet 
 being, in that meafure, all equal one to another; for the 
 two ihort fyllables of an arwpeft or a da&yle are but equal 
 to one long one, and confequently an anapeft or daclyle are 
 but equal to a fpondee. To thofe half- feet after which the 
 chief paufes generally fall, have been given the names 
 tnbeminwes. ptMt&mittf*ru t heptbeml meres ^ ennebcmlmeres^ and even 
 tndecc.l}?ini,i,ert5\ formed of the numerals T^EI?, wsxl?, &c. & *u.t- 
 /*'?>K, the half part of any thing, from WM-. and/*tfo?. To 
 enquire into their various merits, or the comparative beauty 
 ot ve'fes according to their ftrufture as to paules, is not here 
 my bulmeis ; which is that alone of Ihewing, that, from 
 a part of the doctrine of paufes, a iimple fat or two 
 may be moft clearly and forcibly eftabiilhed. 
 
 The moft general feats of the chief paufes are, after the 
 penthemimeres and hephthernimeres, or fifth, and feventh 
 half foot ; and, of the two, incomparably oftener after the 
 former than the latter. The following beginnings of poems, 
 by the grcateft matters, have (as the before-noticed " Nn 
 igntira malt, fcsV.") the paufe after the penthemimcres : \\\ 
 making the half-feet and quantities of which, I fhall of courfe 
 follow the method of fcanning which reafon and harmony 
 concur to recommend. For as this method makes the firlt 
 half-foot to confift of the firft fyllable of the verfe (ahvays 
 long in hexameter) it confequeatiy makes the chief paufcs 
 to fall always at the, conclufion of a foot fo infinitely 
 preferable to the common, detaching, mangling method. 
 The chief paufes will be marked by a double itroke, thus j} , 
 the fainter by this fiuglc ftroke j . 
 
 Ar-
 
 ( 70 > 
 
 3 ^^ 5 
 
 Anna viriimque cano J] Troiae [ qui primes ab oris ' 
 
 I ^^ 3 ^l^ 5 
 Tityre | tu patulae ]( recubans fub tegmine fagi 
 
 In thefe verfes, which have the chief paufes after the penthe- 
 mimeres, the fyliabies *, no, and A*-, are thofe, m each 
 refpedtively, which we call the cafwa t and which are, for 
 that reafon, the lon^eft fyliabies in each. Now, exclufive of 
 the chief paufe in. each line above, we know, that, the 
 fy liable a is long, becaufe it holds the place of an >, the 
 longeft perhaps of the Greek vowels ; that no (though 
 the o is arbitrary, as in other firrt peribns of verbs) muft be 
 long here, becaufe the poet has been pleafed to make it fo, 
 by the place lie has given it ; and that l<s muft be long, on 
 account of the diphthong. 
 
 Upon the almoft continual recurrence of the chief paufe * 
 after the penthernimeres in hexameter, is built the whole 
 
 rhythmus 
 
 * The paufe in the following line, being likevvife after the 
 penthernimeres, the fyllable bi in fibi, though common in itfelf, 
 like the no in cano, becomes of courfe the longeft fyllable in it -s 
 
 Nil confcire iibi, uulla pallcfcere culpa ; 
 
 and, upon my once quoting it, with proper pronunciation, to a 
 friend who is a very good fcholar, he exclaimed " If a boy in 
 any of our public fchools were to take fuch an extraordinary 
 liberty [of committing no errour] he would to the end of his 
 days be called &l/" It is very ponTole : lince upon a -very 
 worthy member of a public body of fcholars', once taking the 
 extraordinary liberty of committing no errour neither to- fay 
 that a horfe jumped, inftead of leaped, over a hedge ; it happened, 
 unfortunately, that he received, and, if heaven avert it not, will 
 * to the end of his days retain, the prefix of Jumper to his furname ; 
 from fo very great a majority of that public body, that it may 
 without impropriety be called the act of the body itfelf; though 
 tinfanclioned in the fenate, or, " The place of jkulh." So very 
 ftrict andoice are Jome learned years, even in the idiom of the 
 Kennel ! 
 
 The
 
 ( 7' ) 
 
 rhythmus of pentameter; which may be coniidered indeed 
 its name imports it as hexameter curtailed of a font the 
 firft half of the verfe (for it can \\ith propriety admit of no 
 more than one paufe ; always in the middle) beim; urecifely 
 
 The application of the above cmphafized " unfyt; natel)." as 
 well as the fettlemcnt of the account of profit and lof.3 between 
 the receiver and the g'vers, is left to you, my good and equitable 
 reader ; who doubt lefs will opine, that, there may be poflible 
 cafes, befixles that of a baftinado, in which it is NOT more 
 blefled to give, than to receive. 
 
 Or Ihould you, with a modett non maim eft, decline the office ; 
 let us fee if we can find in Henry Fielding any cafe in point, or 
 any doctrine, which may guide us in our judgement: for Henry 
 Fielding furreptitiouily contrived being no graduate to become 
 no mean cafuift, in the decencies of conduct ; or -%. TO tcpfirtv 
 the matter and moral of the book, in which in the perfon of his 
 " Man of the Hill." he fays " Little harmony could fubfift 
 between the few who relbrted to me, and the numerous train of 
 fportfmen who often attended my brother from the field to the 
 table j for fuch fellows, befides the noife and nonfenfe with 
 which they perfecute the ears of fober men, endeavour always to 
 attack them with affront and contempt, This was fo much the 
 cafe, that neither I myfelf, nor my friends, could ever fit down 
 to a meal with them without .being treated with derilion, becaufe 
 w,e were unacquainted with the phrafes of fportfmen. For men 
 of true learning, and almoft univeriai knowledge, always com- 
 pafiionate the ignorance of others ; but fellows, who excel in 
 fome little, low, contemptible art, are. always certain to defpife 
 thofe who are unacquainted with that art." 
 
 "What a painter of nature is this furreptitious cafuift, and, as 
 every where elfe, how faithful to his model do we find him 
 here ! For, whence can the contemptuous pleafure of theie 
 fellows, as he calls them, flow, but from this moil natural and 
 obvious fource, that, confcious of their own extreme ignorance 
 in all things, they jultjy exult and wonder, that a man upon 
 earth can be found, who knows lefs than themfelves, in any one 
 thing ? 
 
 But upon the fubjeft of thofe bleffmgs of giving and receiving 1 , 
 fhould not be omitted the obfervation of one whofe judgement 
 will be judged of by the reader that, whichever of them may 
 afieft us in the moft lively manner in the aft, there- can be no 
 doubt but that the giving is the moft durable ; fince it is found 
 io be the longeft remembered* 
 
 the
 
 ( 72 ) 
 
 -the -firft five half-feet of an hexameter; the laft half indeed is 
 Jike'.vile in hexameter meafure ; but then it is reftritted (which 
 hexameter is only in irs two laft feet) to confift of a long 
 fy liable and two anapefts, or two da&yles and a long fy liable. 
 Our method of fcanning a pentameter was adopted only for 
 the eafe of the young learner, who is firft of courfe acquainted 
 with hexameter: for it was formerly reckoned to coniift, 
 for the two firft feet, either of dactyles or fpondees, anci 
 neceffarily, for its three laft, of a fpondee and t\vo auapeits, 
 thus 
 
 Nil mihi [ refcrijbas, |j Htjtamen ip|se venT. 
 
 The fyllable las is the ctefura here, and, exclufive of that, 
 long by nature. 
 
 Upon the fame almoft continual recurrence of the paufe 
 after the pcnthemimcres, is built likewife the rhythm us 
 of the monkifh leonine verfes, which cannot keep their 
 tiretome tune without the paufe in this place 
 
 Dat bene | dat mult urn || qui dat j cummunere vultum *. 
 
 In 
 
 * Why do we defpife leonine verfijs ? And why is their tune, in 
 any continuation, tirefome ? Is it becaufe we do not find them 
 pra&ifed by the antients ? Perhaps they did not like double 
 rhymes which are with us ufed chiefly in burlefque and 
 Hudibras is much obliged to them. Or -perhaps they thought 
 that rhyme was not proper but at the end of an exactly equal 
 number of feet ; and therefore could not be ufed in hexameter, 
 which cannot well admit of a paufe in its exact middle. Con- 
 fequently, the few hexameters we meet with, ^here the final 
 fyllable rhymes to the ctejura after the penthemimeres, may owe 
 their conltru&ion to chance rather than cU-lign. But the antients 
 t>y no means defpifed rhyme, On the contrary, they appear to 
 have been plcafed with it : or, Ovid, the priiu.r of pentameter 
 poets, would not have fo frequently employed it. He may be 
 fetd, perhaps, to wanton, in his Love-verles, and his Epiltles* 
 But that could not have been the cafe, when fhivering iu his 
 
 barbarous
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 In the two following verfes we find the chief paufe after the 
 hephthemimeres : 
 
 i 2, 3 4 5 6 Jr 
 
 ' Formosim resunire doces || Amaryllida fylvas. 
 
 The 
 
 barbarous baniihment at Tomi, he was deprecating the con- 
 tinuance of the difpleafure of his relentlefs tyrant *, and, haplefa 
 poet ! was tormenting his imagination for mollifying topics to 
 be applied warm, but, alas ! vainly, to a heart, not of flelh, but 
 flint ! Upon this occalion we may be fare he would exert his 
 belt judgement, his moft ferious ikill, to exprefs himfelf with 
 the moft graceful energy, with the moft palatable adulation : and 
 yet, upon this very occalion, he abounds in rhymes : and if the 
 reader will be plealed to recolleft what it "Was fo necelTary to 
 tell him that the co-fura and the final fyllable of a pentameter 
 are the two longeft and ftrongeft fyllables in the verfe, which he 
 O Tafte ! O Elegance ! makes the {horteft and weaker!, he muft 
 be fenfible that the rhymes mull be more than obfervable, mull 
 be very ftriking. Let us look at an unconnected couplet or two 
 
 * The Monfter, in whom his flatterer? wiih fuch poets at their head, di 
 gracing their fine talents ! had completely effecled the Terentian trmsfirmation * 
 ex Jiuito infanum faeicntes or he could never have proceeded to fuch a mad fiefs 
 of cruelty, as would have made a bucchtr Ihuddci ; when, with his own 
 Imperial fingers, he dug out the eyes of the Praetor Gallins, for a flight fufpicion 
 ftretched like a flave upon the rack aculii ejus fia manu effsjjii. (SiRton. Auguft. 
 47.) The deteilation we affix to the figurative ufa of the term butcher does credit 
 to our pity ; but it is well tnat the honeft men who kill our mutton do not read 
 our books, or they would be juftly difpleafed to find themfelves brought into fuch, 
 company as emperors and heroes, and a ftignu fixed upon the innocent title of 
 their art, meaning no more than a provider for the mouti. A poet or oratour 
 may allowably convert the rifing fuperior to feelings, by which others are fubdued, 
 to great nefs. A great carcafe butcher m iy, in his wide destruction of life, bear 
 fome refemblance to him, who, from his head's being turned by '-tomer, was 
 called the Macedonian madman. Why then have not butchers been admired ? 
 One of the auguft eye-<iiggei's flattereis nu'y be quoted for an anfwer "carent 
 quia vate SACRO." In which of its Jenfes ihall we take the epithet ? Might not 
 a prize- queftion be made of this Have petti and oratours compenfated to the 
 world, by tickling the ear and imagination, and fffecling the paffions, for the 
 evil they have done, by difguifing truth, and giving glory to what merits 
 execration ? 
 
 L toward*
 
 { 74 ) 
 
 Theantients feem to have had fo high an eftcem for melody, 
 as to make to it greater facrifices than, could be reputably 
 made by a poet in our own language. No poet of eminence, 
 how great ibever his veneration for melody, would venture 
 to make fo free with fenfe, as to conftruft his verfe with a 
 paufe between the fubftantive and its adje&ive, which, if 
 not a part of itfelf, is at leaft its drefs ; but Homer has done 
 it, we fee, in the above line, between l&Ao b - and txmv*x : And 
 fimilar things have been done by all thofe who were his 
 followers-' longo intervallo. The meafure of an alcaic verfe 
 is, a fpondee (or iambus), a bacchius, and two dadtyles; 
 an-d the paufe is after the fecond foot 
 
 Vides ut alta |j flet mve candidum - 
 
 towards the end of the fecond book de Triftibus, addrefled to that 
 tyrant , where the poet fays what we may be certain was as far 
 from having any thing light or wanton, or of a bad tafte, in it, 
 as from any thing true lie fays, in his very compcllation of the 
 inhuman " Carnifex" 
 
 O Pater, O Patrice Cura Decufque tu.*-. 
 
 One of thefe following couplets may appear to fome readers parti- 
 cularly beautiful, from the very arch manner in which it applies, 
 to its own fcnle, the words which begin the famous performance 
 of another poet, whom the wolf had fpared ; and whole flattery 
 which would have caufed any one, not dead to the common 
 feelings of humanity, to blufh was otherwife rewarded. With 
 how different a fate the fame thing may be done by different 
 perfons, has been well obferved by a Satirift as it is the cuftom 
 to call a poet who adheres to truth : 
 
 te Ilk crucem SCELERIS pretlum tulit, hie diadema" 
 
 Sic madidos ficcat digitis Venus uda capillos, 
 Et modo maternt'j teta videtur aqu/V. 
 
 Et tamen ille tuae felix ^Eneidos auftor 
 Contulit in Tyrioj Arma virumque toros, 
 
 Phyllidis hie idem, tenerofque Amaryllidis igne, 
 Bucolicis juven/j luferat ante modz'j. 
 
 Carminaque edideram, cum te, delifta notantem, 
 . Praeterii toti jure quietus equfj, &c. 
 
 but
 
 ( 75 ) 
 
 but the authour of that verfe fays in another place-* 
 
 OdI profanum jj vulgus, et arceo, 
 
 in which there feems to be a violent divorce. But he was 
 authorized to make iuch divorces, or fimilar ones, by his 
 great exemplar, Alcseus himlelf ; who fays, 
 
 " Let us drink and be merry, fince" fince what ? why, 
 fince " Morlilus is dead ;" but if that be matter of fuch 
 joy, furely you need not have hefitatcd to tell it. 
 
 So, however, we find it was; and we mpft take things 
 which cannot be remedied as we find them. 
 
 That the rhythmus lias the power to make a fhort fyllable 
 Jong on account of paufe and no otherwife, I contend, 
 againft the ni, BOYAETAI of o\\rfyfiem there is proof enough 
 every where. One proof has been already given in the Jaft- 
 quoted verfe from. Homer ; where the laft fyllable of #iAof, 
 mort by nature, and preceding an ujiafpirated vowej, is yet 
 made long by the rhythmus on account of paufe. In the firft 
 of the three following examples which wijl be enough ; 
 as it is fufficiently known, that, 
 
 Finalem cafura brcuem producers gaudit 
 
 we fee by the fame means a fhort fyllable lengthened after 
 the hephthemimeres, as in /3*o;; in the fecond, after 
 the penthemimeres ; and in the third, after the trihe- 
 mi meres : 
 
 Dona dehinc auro gravia || fecloque elephanto 
 OmnLa vincit amor | ] et nos cedamus amori 
 Sideraqf 1 1 ventique nocent | avidaeque volucres. 
 
 The firft word of the laft line is a good one to help the 
 reader to the pronunciation of a choriambus; for as the 
 da&yle Sidera is fo frequently repeated in all the Latin poetry 
 he has read, he cannot, for fhame, call it Sideraque, to 
 
 L 2 which
 
 which otherwife his invariable practice would draw him, 
 an *piXxslai a,^ot <y3u|oj. As he has been taught by profeflbrs 
 of a fyftsm withering, like a witch, all final fyllables with 
 Ihortnefs, he will, to be fure, find fome difficulty in in- 
 veiling the poor humble enclitic gup with its unaccuftomed 
 honour except at ends of verfes ; but it will be foon 
 jmounted : and then he will fpeak as he ought 
 
 Interea, 
 iemp&ribus ; 
 
 and. 
 
 f 
 JtaliSra, 
 
 the two firft words in the fecond verfe of each of the two 
 grand poems, which, if they be not the firfl for him 
 to handle, are the Jaft he will lay afide. 
 
 We have feen then that even fuch fhort fyllables as the 
 Jaft in *o? and que are made long on account of the cafura, 
 Now with What very great force does this prove the catfura 
 jto be endowed? and, in confequence, how very particularly, 
 5in the pronunciation, ought it to be diftinguifhed? In our 
 leading examples on this article, it was obferved, that each 
 tfsfura we were confidering, 0e<T, cano, patula?, refcrib^r, was, 
 exclufive of the paufe at each, long in itfelf ; by way of a 
 hint to the reader, that were there not a paufe, or ihadow 
 of a paufe, exifting in the world he is without excufe, 
 when he flurs over fuch majefKc long fyllables, with as much 
 flight and fcorn, as he can ihew to the vileft rabble of bob- 
 tails. Yet fuch is the treatment they all receive from him : 
 nor is more regard paid, than to any of the reft, to the laft 
 fyllable of rejcribcu, and aft its likenefles ; on vs'hich account, 
 I faid, when fpeaking of a pentameter, in the preceding 
 chapter, that we are certain to be not right in the middle 
 of that meafure. Refoilas is a moluffus, and therefore we 
 
 pronounce
 
 ( 77 ) 
 
 pronounce it as an amphibrachys. Yet, moloflus as it is, 
 and when prcmounced as fuch, the fyllables, placed as the 
 word is here, are not to be of equal length ; becaufe has is a 
 cafura, and ought to have at lead twenty-four tenths of a 
 time; for which we may borrow two apiece of the foregoing 
 fyllables. So ni in v?ni, being the final fyliable of that verfe, 
 niuft have more length given it than at in attamcn, or ip in ipfe. 
 Again, in nom^o* 'a&f>n five confecutive long fyllables the 
 paufe in that verfe being after the penthemimeres, and -V* 
 being, confequently, the cafura, it muft of thofe rive 
 long fyllables be pronounced by much the longeft. 
 
 But if the reader be without excufe, for pronouncing fhort 
 fuch fyllables as are limply long, what fhall be faid for him, 
 now that we are become fenfible of the very potent energy 
 of the paufe ! How for not-extricating him from the 
 trammels of his teachers, and preferving him from the falfe 
 .quantity, and the little baftard modulation which he gives 
 to thefe cafuras how fhall his tafte, his fenfe, his fpirit, ftand 
 abfolved ! What can be more tame and mean than Mi 
 a'.iJt, fitaf, and, Arma virumque cano, what fo fhocking, as, 
 Tityre, tu patuU' ! Well may_ Demetrius Phalereus obferve 
 for it is founded in nature we experience it continually- 
 well then may he obferve in his thirty-ninth feftion on 
 Elocution, and in unifon with all the beft writers upon 
 paufes, Fabricius, Urfinus, Diomed, and Beda, that, " To 
 give Force and Elevattun to a period, it ought to begin and end with a 
 long ^yllabl". For a long fyllable naturally makes theftrongeft imprejjion \ 
 and of all the fyllables in a period, we are chiefly moved with the firft 
 and la/t." M^v au^s, 0t and Arma virumque cans are fuch 
 periods are complete fentences> each beginning and ending with 
 a long fyllable and nothing can be nobler, grander, though 
 in fo fmaJl a compafs indeed, the more fo for it eacli 
 proclaiming each poet's theme his whole fubjecl the par- 
 ticulars of which wbofe anger, and its dire effects wbofe 
 arms, and their glorious fucceis are afterwards unfolded. 
 
 WRATH be thy theme., O MUSE ! the dread Pelides' wrath . 
 
 O MUSE, i.e. Thou who art a GoJdefs, and canft, beyond 
 all mortals, make that theme fublime; and therefore I muft 
 
 pronounce
 
 ( 73 ) 
 
 pronounce the name of thy quality, MUSE, with dignified 
 and folemn ftrength and length not only becaufe it is 
 required by the paufe in my verfe, for the fake of harmony, 
 but becaufe it is exa&ed by Feeling, Senfe, and Spirit to 
 fhew that 1 invoke no common aid. 
 
 ARMS and the Man I SING! who firfl fromTroia's fliores 
 
 I SING ! another Ennius, with ardour invigorated by Lyaeus, 
 ad arrta diccnda PROSILIENS f Yes, I will SING the mighty 
 theme I feel the poetic fervourthe infpiring God ! I will 
 not wrifeit in dull hiftorical detail I will SING it, and fi no- 
 it in fuch a STRAIN worthy the ear of the Matter of the 
 WORLD ! 
 
 The authour of Anna vlrumque cano, who was fo fine a 
 reciter himfelf, could with thofe three words alone thrill 
 his hearer's SOUL if he had one: as he would have made 
 his tears to gufh, with 
 
 Non zgnara mali^ miftrls fuccurrere difco *. 
 
 Well, 
 
 * That this may not appear too boldly faid, recolleft, or aik 
 your fathers, what Garrick could do in " Lear" with but thefe 
 four fimple monofyllables, making the wliole fpeech 
 
 " I gave you all'" 
 
 In w.hich that confummate mafter of the part entered fo feelingly 
 into all the pathos the poet would have had him fhew, at the 
 being doubly wounded to the foul by, what he fays is iharper than 
 2. ferpent's tooth, a thanklefs child, and the wringing ftruggle of 
 the laft yearnings of parental love with rage, as almofl literally 
 to verify, in this Ihort but poignant reproach to the wicked, 
 flinty ingratitude of the " unnatural hags," the poetical com- 
 pliment that was paid him, of being able 
 
 u To pierce, to cleave, to rend the heart" 
 
 But the fuppoftd power of Virgil in pronouncing a few words, 
 fliould, from the nature of thole mentioned above, have been 
 iliuftrated, it may be faid, perhaps, by a calmer inftance. Take 
 then of calm, though pathetic, benevolence, the before-quoted 
 cafe in point to this very line, Ao ignara ;//', CsV. - which the 
 
 excellent
 
 ( 79 ) 
 
 Well, but people are not to be blamed for not looking into 
 iuch books as thofe of the above-mentioned writers upon 
 paufes; for they are not at hand. Pity, that they are not 
 
 at 
 
 excellent annotatour on it expets fhould fo affe& the feelings 
 of a worthy pupil as to make him voluptate CESTIRE the calm 
 benevolence of the king to the archbifhop, in p. 46. And you 
 fee what effe6l the delivery of the actor was to caufe by it, in the 
 calculation of the authour, by his having fubjoined 
 
 " Look, the good man weeps !" 
 
 Who could judge better than that authour how it mould be 
 fpoken ? Yet, in the art of utterance, he feems, from what we 
 learn of his hiftory, to have been, with all his fine feelings and 
 power of conception, like a phonafcus who has been mentioned, 
 better qualified for the giving than the exemplifying of good 
 rules. Not an uncommon cafe. But we have nothing to do here 
 with the feelings of any paffion but Shame ; to which it is to be 
 hoped the applications in various parts of this diflertation will not 
 have been made in vain. Indeed, with two fuppofitions, ons 
 of which may perhaps be granted, and the other loft in empty 
 air that the obiervations in it are founded on truth, and that they 
 may attract the attention of, and approve themfelves to, out 
 places of education they cannot be made in vain. For, on fuch 
 fuppofitions, no teacher will for the future choofe, nay, with 
 a quick fenfe of that powerful paflion, no teacher will be hardy- 
 enough expofing himlelf to the laughter of his pupils " what 
 ihould be grave to turn to farce/' always ridiculouily, often, 
 deteftably, and fometimes heinoufly, to turn to farce, what is not 
 only grave, but if with beauty and pathos very highly dignified 
 and adorned, as in the preient caie of Non ignara mali, &V. 
 and innumerable others which will not efcape the keen vigilance 
 of ingenious youths. Confequently, finding that the fafeft way 
 here will be to take the converfe of the proverb which aliens, 
 o^ov $3rppa?.F1a?jv neat T)y ovmQtfflediff, he will, in repeating to them 
 the line before us, ceafe from making its longett fyllable the 
 ihorteft ; confequently, for the future, he will always lay, 
 
 Myvtv aSiJe, d/a, 
 
 and, 
 
 Arma l>:rumque can:, 
 
 acd
 
 ( So ) 
 
 at hand ! or to be fure their leaves would be turned over by 
 us to advantage! But CLARKE'S HOMER is at hand; 
 indeed in every hand : of fuch continual ufe to us are his 
 volumes, that they are almoft 
 
 Nefiuraa "jcrfata manu, -uerfata diurna. 
 
 Dr. CLARKF, it is moft clearly evident, had emancipated 
 himfelf and like a true Doftor, and an excellent Doctor, as he 
 was, would if he had had docile boys have taught us to 
 emancipate ourfelves from our deplorable fyftem ; or perhaps 
 I fhould rather call it our Jiupctaws fyftem, iince it can work 
 luch a mighty miracle, as to fav with awful effeft even 
 though the object is invifible, by being below our horizon 
 
 SUN OF REASON, STAND THOU STILL ! 
 
 Now it happens, that, Dr. Clarke, in that admirable note, 
 fo full of profodical erudition- which he has made at almoft 
 the entrance of his firft volume; for it appears fo early as at 
 the fifty-firft verfe of the firil book, of the Ilias, and is made 
 on that identical and already frequently mentioned word AO- 
 
 and moft affuredly, if he has but the dulleft, if he has but any 
 fenfe at all, of that chafte and ingenuous as well as powerful 
 pallion, moft afluredly he will always fay, 
 
 Mult a i';?7 -virtus, 
 and, 
 
 Tityre, tu pat ilia's, 
 
 carefully guarding, upon all occafions, againft fuch equivocations, 
 of the worft kind, as barbarous pronunciation of them brings j 
 in fhort, by making a happy preliminary rtep, in teaching the 
 riling generation to read by quantity the poetry of Greek and 
 Latin authours, towards producing the fame defireable improve- 
 ment in their prole, he will fay every thiag that can be wifhed for 
 by the delighted fpirit of Mekerchus ; delighted with the leeming 
 promife that the feed which he fowed above two centuries ago, 
 ihall yet produce its fruit ; and with the hope that it may be 
 now aiTerted truly, in regard to Proibdy at leait, that the generation- 
 is arrived, 
 
 ' ( "VVhofe fons fhall bluth, their fathers were" "fuck fools. 
 
 It
 
 it happens, I fay,' that Dr. C/*>i/ has, xvitli Valuable ad- 
 ditions, given 119, ctfrrrprerTed and briefly, the fubftance of 
 tvhat has been faid l>v thofe very writers. He tells us, that, 
 this word frxoj was, tfn account' of its being a c //r-?, pro- 
 nounced almofl as if it had been written bJ.f; which, he 
 cloathes too thus in a 'different character from the Gi'eek, to 
 make it tlie more ftriking ; ; ar>d which fhews 'how ftrongly 
 it muft have been pronounced. And 5f this was the cafe 
 with even a ' 'Jbort-' fy liable lengthened by becoming a c<efura t 
 more ftrongly {till, to fyllables lo<-g in tbcnfilve?* , will that 
 doctrine be applied ; which he informs us is equally appli- 
 cable to all; and he implies a defire of outlaying particular 
 attention to it, in thefe words, at the exordiufn of this long 
 and pretious npte ; "Qua ratione vocabulum hoc /3iXo,-, et 
 fimilia, fyllabam poftefiorem producant, ne perpetub dicendurn 
 fit, fcmd hie diligent i us exponam." Mofl benevolent, mofl. 
 ingenious Diligence ! And what returns of worthy acknow- 
 ledgement we have made f ! Is it poffible that this book 
 in the hands of every one of dodlors and difciples -fo 
 ufed fo uncontradicled but by practice fo preten,dedly 
 admired can lnve been publifhcd above ttiefe three fcore 
 years ! Or, is there really fuch a book exifling in the world, 
 and are we not dreaming all the while ! Really this is one 
 of thofe moil extraordinary and furprizing occafions, which 
 is enough to jnake us rub our eyes, and afk ourfelves if we 
 are awake ; and to doubt whether it be poffible, in the nature 
 
 * From thi.-> more direct aid, than yuiderilanding per antipbrajin 
 the a-uthour of " Accent as Redivivi," from t|iis authentic aid 
 if authenticity can be any where applied how very obvious and 
 palpable is the iiifcren.co* that, if iyllables long in tfyemfelves } as 
 the laft in r v ( ,, cam, patnlx, &c. (and even fuch ihoi-t fyllables 
 as Xo s -, &c ) art-, \yhen ctffurai, to be pronounced PARTICULARLY 
 long, thefe iyllables, long in tbtmfel-^^, v/lien met with in otbpr 
 places, Ihould NOT be pronounced SHORT ! 
 
 Pfave %ve not then,, wpardmably overlooked this aid, which 
 fliould ib long ago have taught us, that, tlie Benile'ian fyftem was 
 founded in the grollelt errour ? 
 
 f Ttf . 
 
 I 1 or Gratitude's f\veet uotesaicend not from the fly, 
 
 M of
 
 r 82 ) 
 
 of things, that \vc fhould ever have heard our Doclors oui' 
 graveft Doctorsfay 6?*, cano, patul with the omiffion of 
 all that is dictated by propriety and tafte, and the commiiliou 
 of what delicacy would folicitoufly (hun ! 
 
 But to get rid of this difagre,eable idea, let us go to Come- 
 th ing elfe. I will only add, that, if there be a reader, who, 
 after perufing the above-mentioned long and pretious note, 
 and other prolbdical notes in the fame volume, can believe 
 that the diligent exerter of the benevolent ingenuity from 
 which it is molt fhameful in us not to have profited long ago, 
 could ever, at leaft after he had begun his annotations, fay 
 
 Myvtv <x5i$s t 6so( 9 
 
 or commit any fimilar or lefs glaring barbarifms in quantity, 
 fuch reader is to be felicitated upon a faith*, too fublimely 
 ilrong for any thing to withflaud. 
 
 We 
 
 * Incredulity may like.wife upon fome occafions have furprizing 
 ftrength. A remarkable inftance is recorded of the ftrength of it 
 in Fontenelle. 
 
 At one of the weekly meetings of the members of the Aca- 
 demic Francaife, they agree to contribute, on the fpot, in favour 
 of the family of a deceaied aflbciate., each a Louis d'or. Upon 
 counting the fain, there is found to be a Louis lefs than the 
 number of the company ; of which one member had, for his 
 avarice, become notorious and proverbial. Inftantly every eye 
 fattens itfelf upon his countenance, of courfe ; initan^ly his name 
 perches itfelf upon the tip of every tongue; and, from fome of 
 them it flies : and with all its fyllables ; though half of them 
 would have been fufficient, vu que " le Sage entend a demi-mot;' 
 He, aflerts that he had given his contribution: the member, who 
 had taken the trouble to make the collection, fays, that, he did 
 not fee it : the accufed member replies warmly, that, he might 
 have feen it : and ding dong do they proceed, to bandy moil 
 vehemently, from fide to fide, thofe oaths of iingular conftru6lion, 
 to which that ingenious nation, under all its forms of government, 
 is nnanimoufly and affectionately, if not Teligioufly attached} 
 though exhibiting in that attachment no greater claim, than even 
 Mr. Bull himfelf may have, to Roman fpirit or Athenian fenfe. 
 Matters now wear a ferious afpect : but, however, they fortunately 
 
 take.
 
 < 83 ) 
 
 We vouchfafe, it \vas obferved in the laft Chapter, to read 
 lightly the fmall volume v of 4 nacreon > though wr'h a moft 
 ludicrous inconfiftency of v pra&ice to give it the mildeft 
 epithet when compared with our reading other verfes of 
 iambic meafure or of rty'mea(re. But it is not the only 
 -ludicrous inconfiftency we commit. .For, after all that has 
 been faid of our barbarous reading, the writer mull acknow- 
 ledge, that, of the two great a;id glorious poems of Homer, 
 cbnrifting of, he does not know how many thoufan-Js of 
 verfes, there are THREE which owing to fuch another of 
 thofc moil extraordinary. ; and furprizing chances as that grave 
 Doctors fhould commit fuch ridiculous miftakes as we have 
 feen, and which, that 5t fhould arrive, nenn i)i f vorumpromittere^ 
 nemo, auderet yeSj-r-T^w ^hik verfe^ which we happen to 
 read rightly like Blind Moles, which now and then happen, 
 by a chance, to blunder into day-light! To be fure, it 
 mightily becomes us, as a nation becaufe it had, formerly,. 
 the luck of fome great names being born in it to pretend to 
 be jocular another ridiculous miftake ! upon the ignorance 
 or inattention of another nation, and brand it for its 
 blunders ! I do not pretend to fay that there may not be 
 more verfes in Homer of the fame ftructure ; and if there be, 
 we (hall read them rightly alfo. But the three here meant 
 are thefe ; the firft, not in place, but in particular beauty. 
 fo much admired as a fine onomatopepoiemenon, and fo 
 often repeated by us, and always (if we gave more length 
 to the laft fyllable) with the ftridteft propriety, is, the rolling 
 down of Syfiphus's ftone; 
 
 Au]< BTTsfloi Tzre&v Js KV\IV$S]O \ctteg avails* 
 
 The fecond is in the fhort fpeech of Achilles, \vhenBrifeis 
 is demanded of bin} by the heralds ; to whom, in the begin- 
 ning of it, he gives a moft kind welcome, as being blamelefs 
 in themfel/es ; but, prefently, by his anger againft the fender 
 
 take another turn, upon Fontenelle's calling folemnly for lilencc, 
 and delivering himf elf as follows " Gentlemen, / faw it; I can 
 
 it loith my win eyes ; but I don't 
 
 M 2 Of 
 
 affure you that I faw it j I faw it loith my win eyes ; but I don't 
 believe it."
 
 of them rifing t>o a bitter threap coaveyed in a mod eiegunt 
 appfiepefis, -.he, is.. hurried on to &y 
 
 apuvau : - 
 
 Ths third is a beautiful infiance of the impatient ardour of 
 fraternal affection in Agaiiiemno'n {"or the wounded MetfelaUS 1 } 
 when he charges the herald to ufe his' utraoft fpeed to feek 
 
 Jhim diirarekalaffiftan.ce ; 
 
 B . 
 
 * 
 
 Arte pocLa citata vocabula rebus achptat. 
 
 X A 
 
 And'-what is the reafon of -our 'reading fnch vcrfes properly ? 
 One really drubts whether it fnou'ld be given with a imile 
 Or a figh : for it is in truth no other'thafi this ; 'that, etcept 
 as to ttie indifferent ly liable in each, every word in them is 
 by the ftruclure of the verle being fo contrived that they 
 terminate in- ihort fyilab^es accommodated to otrr n>ore than 
 infantine 'imbeciility ! For, nlore than 'infantine imbecillity 
 k is, srnoft farely, not to be able to pi'evail upon ouffelves 
 to pronounce properly any words which terminate in long 
 fyllablcs, m Greek and Latin, when, in our maternal 
 tongue, we are aceuftomed to many fuch from our very 
 cradles ! 
 
 Whether 
 
 . .- - _ - . . _ , _ . - , __ ; _ _ 
 
 * In addition to the quicknefs in the found of this verfe, there 
 may be obferyed a quickneis in the Je.nfe ; denoted by the im- 
 perative m the patt time, xec,\3-crcv; and the lame in the <src!<7oy 
 and oitffco* in Ajax's prayer. Here it may be- underftood as if 
 Agamemnon had laid Call him fo quickly, that it may feern 
 to be done already ; or, before my command for it can be 
 tittered. 
 
 It has been fuppofed-by fQme grammatical writers amongft us, 
 that thefe Greek paft tenle's lofe their fignification of time in the 
 imperative, from the very nature of a command, which mult 
 relate to fomething to be doue. But this hafiy fuppofition would 
 not have perhaps 'Been made, if they had looked at home. " Be. 
 gone'" Have dsne' exprefiions in continual ufe with us are 
 
 imperatives
 
 ( 85 ) 
 
 Whether there be any Any veife, or fcore of verfes, of the 
 fame ftru&ure in Virgil,:! do not know; and the fearching 
 for fuch things will fcarcely p-av the trouble ; though one 
 cannot apply, to them the " feeking two grains of wheat 
 hid in two bufhels of chaff." But if, amongft all their 
 fweet or majeftic inarches and energies divine, which declare 
 them as the mother of their hero was declared \iy\\e\-incfffu 
 to he no mortal verfes, there is not one of them of fuch a 
 ftru6ture, it may be confidently afferted, that, till the day 
 dear to ail the Mufes mall arrive, when we unlearn * our 
 
 fatal 
 
 imperatives of pail time. For- they cannot well be qualified as 
 elliptical locutions, to be fupplied by ' / connr."nd jou :o" be 
 gone, See. iince, as they are of fimib.r form with incontefhble 
 imperatives Be cautious Have mercy, cc. -f'u/ira fit per plura. 
 May we not then tranflate K>.tTo> aye, by, Have called him? 
 
 We may obferve too that in Latin, which has no pall tenfes 
 in the imperative, the lame efteft may be produced by the addition 
 of an adverb to it. JAMDUDUM fumite pccnas exclaims Sinon ; 
 i. e. " If you think I deceive you, punifli me with death fo 
 inftantly, that it may feem to be done long ago." 
 
 Another circumfxance, argumentative of extreme celerity in 
 thefe three verfes, may perhaps be added: that, except fuch 
 a femi-paufe after TaXi as every vocative demands, I believe 
 they are all without a paufe, and fo conftructed iriduftrioufly by 
 the poet. It is certain, that, in pronouncing them, all tlic 
 three in the before-borrowed beautiful exprellion of Milton 
 
 " Light as the lightening glimpje" Ihould fly. 
 
 = Tliat " %y,\tvutw ro p.slo^(Tfiv" of Dion Chr) r foftom in my 
 preface and the reader who 'has perufed the dedication knows 
 where my preface ii is indeed, becaufe a true, a very dif- 
 couraging circumftance : yet I will not dcfpair but that, though 
 / may not be of fufTieient ability " to teach anew," fome better 
 qualified teachers m;iy ; or, that, we mall, ere long, convinced 
 of the neceflity of the t^llc, however difficult it may be, of our- 
 felves fet about the unlearning our fatal fyilem. And when the 
 Jiappy day of unlearning fliall arrive, that it may be the more 
 aufpicious to karaing, we mall, it is to be hoped, tiling of thole. 
 who are to fucceed iis : and in order to make to them the paths 
 of learning, the paths of pleafantnefs, and its ways, the way$ 
 of peace, that we flxall put away from us, by exchanging it fbr 
 
 ibraeLbing
 
 ( 86 ) 
 
 fatal fyitom, we fhall not be able .to. give a faithful repre- 
 fentation, in the expreffion, of any one graceful poetic 
 movement, of the Mantuan Swan*. In this fine one, 
 
 Infonuere cavce, gemitumque dedere cavernae, 
 
 we make perhaps the neareft approach to propriety ; and for 
 the above-given reafon ; for as there is, luckily for it, : an 
 
 enclitic 
 
 ''' - - . . 
 
 Something better, the tedious and difgufting nonfenfe invented 
 by the herd of grammarians : who, accuftomed to the mcer matter 
 of language, which they received but by a kind of tradition 
 from fuch ikilful guides as we have feen In the fact of pronuncia- 
 tion, have corrupted the ftudy of letters 5 by multiplying, among, 
 many miftakes, the principles, as the difficulties, of what is 
 fhort and fimple in itfelf, to the' torment of children, both of 
 fmaller and of larger growth : " Quum nlhilfufadlius as a Lennep 
 expreffes himfelf qua/a paucas eafque jimplices regulas, ad quas omnia 
 in linguis, tanquam aJ normam certijjimam ex'tgi pojfint, et ex if>fa lingut? 
 natura duftas, et rations fuffu'tas, memorise infigere, et in/ixas fcryare 
 ttfttttfltmt" 
 
 We cannot be furprized then, that the things we call Grammars, 
 which at this day when fuch helps* are afforded are really a 
 national difgrace, fhonld upon a late occafion be treated with 
 unmerciful ridicule, by fuch fcholars as Heync and the Hunfter- 
 imifian fchool. 
 
 * " The Swan with arched neck 
 
 " Between his white wings mantling proudly, rows 
 " His State with oary feet" 
 
 fuch was the Mantuan Swan in his own element ; nothing more 
 graceful, more captivating, than all his proudly mantling motions. 
 IJut we make him move as aukward as what is one of the 
 aukwardeft objets in nature as auk-iuaid as a /wan njkyre which 
 is even more aukward than a goofe. For, as to Jtnging fiuans 
 though Virgil himfelf fpeaks of the 
 
 " argutos inter ftrepere anfer odorea" 
 
 thev were quite out of the queftion long 'before his time. He 
 fpeaks of their finging by Anachronifm allowed to poets. There 
 was indeed formerly a particular brood of them on the Simon and 
 Scamander who to be fure Jang, and fang moji divinely, the deaths 
 of heroes, during all the fiege of Troy. .But they perifhed with 
 3 that
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 Uti.c to back the anapeft gem:fKi- which would otherwise 
 iharc the fate of' its poor 'brethren, and be ruined as a. 
 da&yie \ve commit a fault but in one word ; the only \vord 
 i\cli : ng long ', contriving, however, though it is a word' but 
 of two fy II abler, that the fault (hall be a double one, 
 tounterchanging in cava where va: is very long by nature, 
 and by csefiira ihort for long, and long for fhort*. 
 
 But 
 
 that famous city ; without leaving their likenefles behind. 
 X a wire brolte- -the mould in which the/ had been call j as fhe did 
 that, in which HE who divim-ly lings that fiege was caft. Hac ibat 
 Siwoif and Hac ibat the race of the f*n ing J '-warts. 
 
 (>" a fault not ufual with us, the pronouncing the penultimate 
 long in t,he word damnabitur, it will be remembered by many, that, 
 a Right Reverend prelate got the nickname of " Damna bite her j" 
 ;ni(l that it ttuck to him till he went, to Heaven it is to be hoped 
 for all that, from the fee of London. And this ridicule was caft 
 on him 'by perfons by Dotfors \>y grave Doctors who from one 
 end to. the other of as long a Clerntn as the poor injured bi (hop's, 
 would pronounce as no doubt he did and without being thought 
 worthy of blame for it ever}' fuch word as cavte like a trochee ! 
 Nay, the beauty of the bufinefs is fuch judges now-a-days has 
 a Latin oratour of his performance ! that be would be thought 
 worthy of blame who Ihould not pronounce them wrong ; who 
 mould not force nature. As the man with the pig in Phaedrus, 
 when he had loft his caufe againfr, the artificial fqueakcr, lays, 
 upon holding forth the natural fqueaker, 
 
 En'i-nc declarat quales fitis Judices ! 
 
 r, when a vowel follows it, is a major ionicus (pulcberri- 
 tnus), and when a confonant, a third epitrite communicant. But 
 which of us cares what a plague follows or precedes ? Which of 
 us pronounces the firft fyllable longer than in our own word 
 
 Xow if the people of the commonweal of letters allow them- 
 felves to be fo inattentive and indifferent to propriety, their 
 public oratour-f-who is their creature, as are all public oiBcers, 
 of their refpe6live commonweals will of courfe think liimfelf 
 allowed, though it is no jphndid prerogative, to be inattentive 
 
 and
 
 f &8 ) 
 
 . Bttt, oh, unhappy Homer, why didil thoit not contrive 
 that we might throughout enjoy the melody of thy meafure, 
 as well as the matter of thy marvellous fublimity, by con- 
 triving that every word in thy every verfe* ihould, as in the 
 quoted triplet, have a fliort fyllab'e for its termination ! 
 Why didft thou not abilain, with rigour di&atcd by tender- 
 nefs abftain, from the cruel fpondee und. iambus, and what- 
 ever feet are constituted by words ending long f forefeeing, 
 as thou, pott and prophet, mufl have forefeen, the grievous 
 infirmity we labour under, in the infup.erab'e difficulty of 
 pronouncing fuch words properly except in our.own vulgar 
 tongue ! And to thy commanding genius, how much eafier 
 would have been the talk, than v>as to the genius of a 
 German, not at ail allied to thine, the compofition of a long 
 poem, intituled, ' c Pvgna P.rcor-am ," in which he contrived 
 that every word of his every verie fhould commence with 
 the letter with which thofe words commence! 
 
 But, ferioufly, is it worthy of men, is it worthy even 
 of children, that this gigantic difficulty, at which, if we 
 
 <<r 7b>-civ init afidne, tbe Giant dies," 
 
 Ihouid continue to be infupcruile {till? If on this fubjecl: 
 and wou d to Heaven it were the <?.-/y one ! we have fuffered 
 Prejudice or Sytf-Oi begotten by Habit upon Ignorance to 
 draw that difgucciu: film over the mind's eve, which prevents 
 
 and indifferent likewiie j and they muft faffer the want of much 
 elegant pleafure. 
 
 Of the defigij.-, pi lathe public library at Bafle, which 
 
 xvere made by Hans Holbein for the " Marine Encomium" of ErafmuSj 
 that in which he icpreituts "Fully iu the a6t of quitting the. roilrum 
 after an harangue, is by far the belt ; and particularly, by the 
 judgement he has lhe\vn, in making the audience to conlift ot 
 figures more ridiculous, if potliblc, than her 'ladyfhip herfelf. 
 Democritus, ii foret in terris, would have looked more at them 
 than the haranguer$ fvr, 
 
 t-et Bear or Elephant be e'er fo v.iiite, 
 
 FeoPtE, furcj the TEOELE are the fight ! 
 
 POPE. 
 
 our
 
 our feeing the cleareft inferences from eftablifhed fa&s, (hall 
 we not even form a wifh and it requires no more for its 
 removal ? 
 
 Let not the reader be ftartled at tLefe queftions, as if an 
 infignificant individual were taking upon him as wifely as 
 he who attempted to lhackk the torrent to reform the 
 inveterate habit of a nation's reading : when the moft fignifi- 
 cant of individuals, an Emperor of the world, could not 
 introduce the ufage of one fingle ufeful letter ! No. The 
 humble difciple of the humble Mekerchus is only offering to 
 youthful admiiers of ancient poems a new pleafure, in a 
 better way of reading them than they have yet been taught ; 
 and throwing out hints at random, with the hope that feme 
 of them will rub upon eledric heads, and elicit fparks throwing 
 fuch light upon .the fubjeft as will eftablilh the truth of it, 
 to ihe mod obdurate of fyftematic fmners, with as much 
 clearnefs as the falfehood has been demonftrated ot the fup- 
 pofed exiftence of a liege of Troy : but that he is a friend 
 to gentle and gradual reforms of corrupt innovations *, he 
 prefumes may be confeffed, without offence to any candid 
 mind. And if this offer of a new pleafure may be called a 
 proportion, for reforming the inveterate habit of a nation's 
 leading, and bringing it back from the corrupt innovation 
 
 of 
 
 * Particularly of the very corrupt and offenfive innovation of 
 long parliaments of lei's ftanding than the final e mute and of 
 that " great and unconftitutional" influence, born of it, which a 
 very honourably diftinguiihed prelate f, with every true patriot, 
 fo pathetically laments 5 which is fwoln to a portentous magni- 
 tude, lince it was faid that it ought to be diminilhed j and now, 
 like an enormous goitre, hanging on the breaft of a ftnrved Alpine 
 peaiant ftarved by feeding it opprefies the refpiraiion of the 
 extenuated public body : he indulges in the hope that this reform 
 fhall arrive right foon ; for, the very greatelt man of this century 
 lo great, that a tier him, non viget quicquam Jimik aut fecundum tot 
 the fons of heroes are plagues, are cuijes^. foretold that the crying 
 
 f Bi.Tiop of Landaff, in his letter to the Archbiihop. 
 
 * Hpaav TEH irr,/x1* pi-overbially applied by Plutarch to the fons of thofc 
 ^reat flaiefmen, Piiocion and C<uo. 
 
 N abafe.
 
 ( 90 ) 
 
 of pronouncing Greek' and Latin with a different quantity 
 from the antieuts ; very gentle and gradual indeed will be all 
 the operation of it which can be hoped for, with fo great a 
 probability ot the fate that was apprehended for one of our 
 fuppoiitions' being loft in empty air. Let us fee a little what 
 might be expected from it *. 
 
 Of ingenuous youths for, " My Cymbal tinkles but to 
 youthful eats" of ingenuous youths, in the midft of a 
 
 per- 
 
 abufe, though younger than the century, could not laft till the 
 end of it. And, as it is well exprefTed by the eloquent deprecator 
 of a complicated fcene of guilt and horrour, "mould this reform 
 once, be well done, nothing will be left undone, which ought to 
 be done at alt." For it will, by the ealieft and beft means, 
 happily bring back into praftice our moft excellent conftitution ; 
 as it is ftiil in theory where only it is at prefent known. 
 
 * It may not be amifs to caution young readers, whilft they are 
 ihewn how they may derive greater pleaiure from the heroics of 
 Homer and Virgil, againft an errour into which they are apt to 
 :fall in reading our own heroic meafure j which cruelly mars 
 the melody, often disfigures the fenfe, and always gives an air 
 of great vulgarity to the veriej and that is, from a kind of vicious 
 modulation, the laying an emphafis on the laft half of the fourth 
 foot improperly. It will of courie be laid there, as any where 
 elfe, not improperly, when the fenfe requires it; as it does in' 
 the above-quoted verfe, where, except my, the only emphatic 
 word is the trochee Youthful, on the firft fyllable of which the ftrefs 
 will be naturally laid. And they too who lay this improper 
 emphafis, ieldom give the proper fuftaining and ftrength to the 
 laft fyllable of the verfe; which they rob beforehand of its fpirit, 
 v it away hurtfully on the laft half of the fourth foot. A 
 . ./ho 'was faid to read well, gave once a tafte of his 
 
 . : ry which" did not tend fo encreafe his fame in the epitaph 
 "jt the end of Gray's E}egy, of -which, by this errour, he made 
 xl a very mournful matter, faying thus : 
 
 Ilt-re refts his head, upon the lap of earth, 
 A youth to fortune and to fame unknown ; 
 fcience frowned not on his Auwble birth, 
 Ami- melancholy marked- him for her own, &c. 
 
 fortunately there is no pretence for diftinguifhing the 
 .vhich were emphafized by him, from a vicious habit. 
 
 And
 
 ( 91 ) 
 
 perverfely-pronou'ncing generation, wTio read this, and, per- 
 ceiving the proffered pleafure " as level to their judgement 
 pierce, as day does to their eye," fhall thankfully accept it, 
 peradventure there may be Fifty. Oh, no! Well then, to 
 go at once to the good Patriarch's loweft calculation, per- 
 adventure there may be Ten (Ten head- boys in as many 
 fchools, or undergraduates in as many colleges), who will 
 gladly take the pleafure that is to be found in embracing the 
 do6lrine of Mekerchus ; and as they cannot proleis this 
 doclrine openly, as in an authorized connexion, confine their 
 enjoyment of it to the fenftraliafSjfi*; where loo they \vill 
 naturally be inclined to write verks of gratitude to the memory 
 of him who has made verfcs more pleating to them, and who, 
 they fee in the account given of him at the beginning, affords 
 ample fcope for eulogy : efpecially as it is an occafion, not 
 only fo much more woithy than thole upon which verfes a;e 
 wont to be produced, but, which affords the rnoft legitimate 
 expectation of the Mufe's aid. How pleafing mufl this be 
 to his fpirit, confcious, as it may poeticaHy te fuppofcd, that 
 they, who, from their own ingenuity and the good inftruc- 
 tions they receive in every thing but pronunciation, can write 
 verfes elegantly, arc now, by his means, enabled to read them 
 elegantly too ! And when they come to lefledt that theie is 
 nothing heretical in the doftrine, or even llrange ; as it is bu.t 
 an endeavour at the revival of thole infhuclions, which, could 
 we fuppofe they wanted them in their native language, 
 were doubtlefs given to boys in the Roman fchools, 
 
 - cum totus decolor eflet 
 
 Flaccus, et haereret nigro fuligo Maroui ; 
 
 when they perceive that it is only a plain appeal to reafon 
 from the glaring abfurdity and barbarifm of cur prefent 
 irrational practice ; that it may be of great utility to children, 
 
 And a great a&refs has been heard to fpoil a hue verie by this 
 crrour, which ilie muft be iuppofed to commit through a mo- 
 mentary inadvertence 5 but in a very impaflioaed. fpeech, in the 
 part of Lady JNIacbeth, fhe thus pronounced 
 
 " I'd pluck my nfpple from its ^owlels gums" 
 
 N 2 bv
 
 by fixing the knowledge of quantities in their memory; they 
 by and by will, probably, teach it to their own children. 
 This will be fomething. But what will be more, is, that 
 pci adventure of thefe ten ingenuous youths, one may come 
 to be himfelf a teacher: firlt we mull fuppofe as an ufher 
 God help him, poor fellow! when he will not dare to open 
 his lips upon the old new fyftem * he has embraced unlefs, 
 
 perhaps, 
 
 * Yes, reader, fyftem for fyftem ; and you will never make 
 a better exchange. Here is no pulling down, you fee, without 
 building up. Wherever there is an errour {hewn, a remedy is 
 applied. 
 
 But your fyfrera is fuch a {hallow thing ! that as {hallow a thing 
 will ferve for its deftruftion, It maybe drowned "in Simpalo^-." 
 Whereas the fyftem of the great Mekerchus can defy all Ocean's 
 ftorms 
 
 " MERSES PROFUNDO, PULCHR.IOR EVENIT !" 
 
 Now not to forget our remedies now, how could you diftrefs 
 and hurt me fo ! to pronounce, in that very fine alcaic verfe, 
 merfes, as a trochee, and pnjfundo, as an amphibrachys ! Give, I 
 befeech you, give its due weight to the fyllable/es ; and give to 
 do, all the importance it demands, as a cesjura, as well as naturally 
 long. And fee how well yon will be rewarded ! Exclufive of the 
 abfurdity of making falfe quantity, what tamenefs what nothing 
 in, Merses profundo ! What fpirit what noble energy in 
 3ferses prcfundl), pulc/irtor evenit ! 
 
 This appeal to your ta/ie alone, will be, I hope, fufficient, to 
 induce you to pronounce it thus always for the future 5 and that 
 there is no need for the ar^umertum ad verecundiam. In that cafe-, 
 I beg that you will immediately refume the text, and proceed no 
 farther in this note. 
 
 Then, fir, if the appeal to your tafte be not fufficient, I muft 
 tell you, that, if inftead of profundo, you fay profundo, in this 
 alcaic verfe, one of the fineft, if not the very fineft, which Horace 
 has written, in his favourite meafure- how muft Lis fpirit fcorn 
 you ! in one of the two moft highly finished and fublime 
 odes 
 
 Qudlem tniniftrum fulminis alitem 
 ExcitalaHnim jlitfiui in SIM Ft it, m/ diciiur, Cic. lie Leg. 
 
 and
 
 ( 93 ) 
 
 perhaps, to give it as an efoteric doftrine to feme favourite 
 boy : but in good time he may come to be a mailer ; when he 
 will have perhaps a whole fcore of fcholars; who may after- 
 wards have other fcholars : and then Oh then the thing 
 will fpread ! So that in about a century, two or three 
 hundred people out of eight millions, may read the other 
 poets in their proper meafure, as they do Anarccn now. And 
 in about another century, perhaps, having had time to reflect, 
 that what is an iambus or anapeft in Greek or Latin p-wiry^ 
 ought, as in Englifh, to be the fame in f'^ they may come 
 to rehearfe orations of Demofthenes and Cicero in fuch 
 quantities as they were fp^kc:i by Demoi'henes and Cicero 
 themtelves which, to be fure, wi 1 be doing a great deal for 
 pofterity ! 
 
 The writer weird be verv g'ad were it in his power to 
 do a great deal more for poflcrity, though it has never yet 
 according to the lamentable joke done any tiling for hrtn ! 
 
 and 
 
 Qttt cur a Pafrurx qnave ^u:ri;iun: 
 
 which are called his eagles, and each of which you transform into 
 1 will not fay, an tnui for it. is rhe type of wifdom but into the 
 type of its oppofite quality a gfo/e if, I fay, you do this, you do 
 R need, of which you muft take, the con lenience : for, gentlernaa 
 aud reipe&able fchoiar as perhaps you are, you by this deed lofe 
 the character, in the likenefs of a periling Jew ; difplaying his 
 rnerchandife at the fair " Come, mine goot. cufhtomers, come 
 an'd buy ; I have opened mine pack, and [Merges profundo] 
 / a-n pouring cut all mm?, gouts, all nune boatons and hoacles, &c. 
 come and buy." This is natural e-wmgh, this is intelligible 
 enough, from the mouth of a pedU-i ; but what in the world has 
 it to do with the fublhne ode of Horace whi'/h ycu are reciting ! 
 And in which, and all of diem, if rou commit fuch n-urders, as 
 for frofunffa which means, the Jc t -ths of th-- jca to fay, -prtfumio 
 which means, 7 am pouring OK* believe me, that, ceafing any 
 longer to refcmble an itiheran 1 ' r, lb far are you from 
 
 pouring cut your Go OTS, you are oui; .- roxnag out a ptoof--of your 
 being a greater barbarian than tho i^iorsnt Jew. 
 
 What
 
 ( 94 ) 
 
 What then ? Its parents have * ; and he loves them for 
 what they have done for him, too well to be unconcerned 
 
 for 
 
 * What as he has fomewhere read or fomething very like 
 it what can a man be laid to polfefs unborrowed, who does not 
 belong even to himfelf ? What has he that he did not receive, 
 under God, from his fellow-men ? Let him return to them the 
 knowledge which they have by written or oral inftruclioa given 
 him, with even the very capacity to receive it ; let him render 
 them back all their helps to the improvement of his natural talents 
 and his mental powers ; the morality, the laws, and the order 
 imperfect as it yet is which they have made for him, to con- 
 tribute to his comfort here, together with the means they have 
 preferred to him of knowing what God has done for him, that he 
 may afpire to happinefs hereafter ; let him, above all, refund to 
 them whatever ftock he may have acquired of Pity fweet fource. 
 of pleafure, of virtue, and of all the moil delightful fenfations 
 experienced in the world of man to whole honour it fo much 
 more redounds to have made Pity for himfelf, by the cultivation 
 of reafon . in fociety, than to be born with it as an inltincl, like 
 that of felf-prefervation, from which it flows : to fuch a fuppofed 
 intellectual ftate, he added the corporeal wants, of the food, and, 
 the raiment, and the dwellings to defend from weather, which 
 men prepare, and no individual could fupply and, oh Heavens, 
 what an object of affrigjit is left ! An ignorant and vicious mind, 
 a naked and iturving body, or kept from Itarving but by the roots 
 and fruits of chance ! A creature, infirm, dependent, helplefs, 
 and forlorn ! whom, the froft can ftiffen, or the fun can fcoreh, 
 to death ! whom any beaft, nay, an infeft, or a blaft of wind, 
 has power to deftroy ! Go to, now, whoever thou art, contem- 
 plate thy hideous figure, but for the help of thy fellow-men ! and 
 then iliew thy gratitude, by indulging in mifanlhropy ; and thy 
 wit, in a disinclination to do any thing for pofterity, becaufe it 
 has never yet, forlboth pleafant and deferving creature done 
 any thing for 
 
 is a fentiment worthy only of fuch a wretch as he, who made in 
 it the horrible improvement of Eu* &:o '/c.;. Sueton. Nero. 38. 
 
 But let a tiobiriffiTnus vet fas, gri.v'jji.-na Jententia, appear, to fcfface 
 thefe horrours, and refrefh our hearts ! In one of Thomibn's 
 tragedies, an innocent character had by the tyrant been condemned 
 
 to
 
 ( 95 ) 
 
 for the happinefs of their offspring ; or to help wifhing for 
 ability to promote that happincfs not in fuch a tritiins; 
 affair as the pronunciation of fyllables all about " SOUND, 
 
 which 
 
 to a defolate ifland ; from which having efcaped, he relates to his 
 friend the manner of his being carried thither, ro\ved in a boat 
 by the tyrant's myrmidons, who immediately left him to ths. 
 horrours of folitude, and impro\ ing on the.Pbibtfetes of Sophocles 
 fays, 
 
 Methinks, 
 
 All ruffians as they uvre, I never heard 
 A found Jo dreadful as 'their parting oars ! 
 
 I know not if this be one of the tragedies in vogue at Druiy-lane 
 or Cpvent-garden ; for I have ceafed going to them, now that fuch 
 more affecting tragedies_are played elfe where. 
 
 Tanto majores humana negotia ludi. Juv. 
 
 At Druiy-lane and Covent-garden, iifeful and worthy citizens 
 act in the feigned character o;' ' : villains, to a moral 
 
 purpofe ; but at other theatres, execrable villains act in the feigned 
 character of ufeful and worthy citizens, to a wicked purpofe ; 
 ib wicked a purpofe, that they might tremble at 
 
 Vendidit hie auro patriam ; dominumque potentem 
 Impofuit ; rixit leges pretio, atque retixit ; 
 Xoiij mihi fi linguae centum lint, oraque centum, 
 Ornnia psenarum percurrere nornina poilim. 
 
 Vi: 
 
 But fuppofe die above thrilling thought of " A found, fo d'eaJful-at 
 - their txtrting O a r s all R:ijfians as they were" to be fpoken by an 
 actor who mould do it jufucc, and, if he did not " drown the ftage in 
 tears," he would at leait drcfs every eye in gems of Piety to J\Jan; for 
 that is Pity the fame word ; and he that is pitilefs is IMPIOUS. 
 "What a ditferent objett this, for the contemplation of a mif- 
 anthrope ! This affecting triumph of philanthropy, this proof of 
 the valuable materials of which men are made, the good c:.: th 
 of which they are compofed *, fiuuld be fuiHcient to ex 
 
 * " Non, J'hoiTime n'eft pa? fait pour la mecliancete. 
 " Confulcez, ecoutez pour jnges, pour ortcles,
 
 which is only the vehicle of SENSE *," and cannot fo much 
 affeft their happinefs, but as eflentially and tranfcendently 
 as the authour of " EllEA IITEPOENTA" is doing, while he 
 is exciting the admiration and gratitude f of his con- 
 temporaries, for his great ufefulnefs in his fublime doctrine 
 of the philofophy of language, forming a new era in the 
 literary world. For, what is of infinitely higher moment 
 than the mifpronunciation of Jyllalks^ which is but an errour 
 of the tongue, his doftrine iliews us errours of the mind and 
 jndgement, to which we have been led by mifconception of 
 the meaning of wards J, and, confequently, by difpelling 
 
 ignorance, 
 
 him ! The praifes of Pity are beautifully exprefled in the prologue 
 to " Douglas," thus 
 
 _ Pity is the beft, 
 
 The worthirft paflion in the human brealt ; 
 
 For, when its lacred ftreams the heart o'erflow, 
 
 In guihes Fleafure, with the tide of Woe : 
 
 And when its waves retire, like thofe of Nile, 
 
 They leave behind them fuch a golden foil, 
 
 That there the Virtues without culture grow, 
 
 There the fweet bloiibms of AlFe&ion blow. 
 
 * But the elegant authour from whofe Analytical Lilay thefe 
 words are borrowed, adds, that " SOUND is what principally 
 diftinguifhes the moft brilliaut poetry from the flatteft prole:" 
 And, without the /oitmls which juft and nice difciimiuations of 
 quantity produce, how brilliant any poetry can be, the reader, it 
 Is to be hoped, is by this time enabled to determine. 
 
 f One of his contemporaries, and who rejoices in being fo, will 
 exprefii his gratitude in the words which were aqdrefled to another 
 ornament of letters " Une des plus grandes obligations qu'un 
 homme puifle avoir a un homme, c'eft D'ETRE INSTR.UITJ j'ai 
 done pour vous la plus tendre & la plus vive reconnoiffance." 
 
 \ " How many are there (aiks Mr. Locke)who when they would 
 tliink on things, fix. their thoughts only upon word's <"' If then they 
 
 do 
 
 " Las hommes raffamhles : voyez a nos i'pedlacles, 
 " Qnani) on peint quelque trait de candeur, de bont, 
 " Ou biu.e, en tout ion jour, la tendre humaoite j 
 " T /u ; ks coears fon: romplis d'une volupte pure, 
 ** Et c'e:^ la qu'os) entend le cri de U Nature"^ cultivet. 
 
 GR ESiBT.
 
 ( 97 ) 
 
 ignorance, the great fource of the mifery, it will promote the 
 happinefs of man. 
 
 But this trifling affair of the pronunciation of fyllables, 
 though it has but little to do with happinefs, is, like fome 
 other trifling affairs, not without its pltafure : and the youths 
 of the prefent day, if they deign to read thefe arguments * 
 for a proper pronunciation, may fee, that,- trifling as may be 
 the affair, not only pleafure and beauty, but reafon, con- 
 filtency, intelligence, tafte, grammar, utility f, nature, 
 common fenfe, and facility , conipire to recommend it. 1 
 
 am 
 
 do not know the meaning of words, it; is much to be feared, that, 
 however eurneft they may be in their meditation, they will, in 
 general, turn out, after all, to be but humble imitators of, and at 
 an awful diftance from, that prince of Gcntoo pbilofophers, who 
 fat for forty years, with his eyes fixed upon a wall, thinking upon 
 
 NOTHIXG. 
 
 * What matters it -by whom arguments are fct forth? If they 
 are good, they will not fail to reach the mark they are aimed 
 at j nor, to penetrate, but where prejudice has placed robhr ct <e; 
 triplex circa peilus. "SVhereas afl'ertion or teftimony depends on 
 character, and is therefore quite a different thing. Their dif- 
 ference has been well illultrated, in an ingenious figure, by lord 
 Bacon 5 who fays, as near as I recollect, that the latter is like an 
 arrow from a long bow, the effect of which is in proportion to the 
 itrength of the arm that draws the firing; but, that, argument 
 i.i like an arrow mot from a ciofs-bow, the effcft of which will be 
 the fame, by whatever impulfe the trigger is moved, whether by 
 that of a man or a moufe. 
 
 f A ready and exact knowledge of qunntiiy is of the greateft 
 utility in Etymology: which is fo obvious, that it needs only to be 
 mentioned, to be univerfally acknowledged. 
 
 J XAAEITA TA KAAA fo generally true finds here an ex- 
 ception : fince the recommended manner of reading to 'which, 
 as it coniults the beauties, both in fenfe and found, of the faireft 
 oflsprings of human genius, we may give the title more juftly 
 than are fome times given thole " vijible Jigns of invlf.ble went" 
 ot the b,arttiful manner is, at the fame time, the eaneft thing in 
 the world. 
 
 The above-enumerated auxiliaries, which have entered the 
 lifts with us, form a very reiprctable and powerful band : but 
 the: enemy, d^lpifing fueh helps, greatly verts his claim to 
 
 (3 lovereignty
 
 ( 98 ) 
 
 am aware, indeed, of one reply to what I have urged, which, 
 though it may be produced by truth, yet wifdom will never 
 father, viz. that they have a contrary CUSTOM ! Ah, 
 
 Guam multa injufta ac prava fiunt Moribus * 
 'Till man's proud boaft of Reafon grows ridiculous ! 
 
 I am likewife aware that fome doughty champion of the 
 learned body of recufants of the do&rine recommended here, 
 might addrefs me in fomewhat of this gentle guife: 
 
 " Give me leave to tell you, fir, who come dragging from 
 the duft and cobwebs the forgotten, mufty doctrine of Mc- 
 kerchusf; who come in contradiction to the decifions 
 -,. i- . _ . - - . 
 
 fflvereignty confiding in the, loyalty of his troops upon the fole af- 
 fertion, and true aflertion if it were anything to the purpofe that 
 in all diflyllables the former was (by the wife law of primogeniture, 
 it is to be prefumed) diftinguifhed by the ACCENT. Yet, how 
 rtiany thoufands of human beings have been butchered for as idle 
 claims ! There will be no bloodflied, however*, and very little 
 inkfhed, upon our field ; for, having put in the beft plea in my 
 power to furnifh for the eftablifhment of my matter's claim, I am 
 ready, after his humble example or I fhould be unworthy to be 
 his difciple " de mea fententla decedere, fi quis certiora docuerit :" 
 always remembering the falutary maxim of the eloquent pbilo- 
 fopher of Rome, with the truth of which I hope my reader will 
 be impreffed/that, Cujufvis fiominij eft errare ; tiullius, nifi injipicntis, 
 In errors perfeverare affuring him, at the fame time, that I can 
 fuppofe, in the words of another able and candid writer,, that 
 a man may differ from me in opinion, without having either cloven 
 feet or afs's ears. 
 
 * Les coutumes les plus abfurdes, les etiquettes les plus ridicules 
 font fous la protection de ce mot C'EST L'USAGE. C'ert precile- 
 ment ce meme 'mot que repondent les Hottentots, quand les 
 Europeens leur demandent pourquoi ils mangent des fauterelles j 
 pourquoi ils devorent la vermine dont ils font converts : Ils difent 
 auffi C'EST L'USAGE. 
 
 CHAMFORT. 
 
 f An ingenious work, which Mr. Dutens has given to the 
 world, " fur f origins des decou-vertes attributes aux mcdernes ; ou Von 
 demontre, que, les plus celebres pbilofopbes ont puise la plufpart de leurs 
 connoiffances dans les ouvrage s des Ancient j" abundantly proves that 
 doctrines may lie in duft and cobwebs, and be to appearance dead, 
 Hike their authours j but that they only wait the aufpicious day of 
 their revival, 
 
 f
 
 ( 99 > 
 
 of /&, who was fo juftly called, ^7r egregitu: Maximum Liter*- 
 rum Decus and Critical tinus omnes longe longque antecellens: 
 who come with a confidence, as if you had been a con- 
 temporary and countryman of both Homer and Virgil ; and 
 were rifeii from the dead to teach the world the pure pro- 
 nunciation of your fellow-citizens as I believe Foiter fays 
 <rf Voffius or Heninius give me leave to tell you, that, you 
 have very much raiftaken in one point ; as indeed you have 
 in the Whole of your little*, truly trifling atfair ; but the 
 point I mean, is, your accufing us of want of harmony and 
 modulation. Now, fir, I would have you to know, that 
 not only can we twang of the daftyle and fpondee at the end 
 
 * The writer is only afraid that it may be thought too much on 
 fo very diy a fubied > but which, with all its drynefs, may, at the 
 lame, time, to fome readers, feem fo clear, as to draw from them 
 the application of an epigrammatic couplet of that poet who has 
 made fo many in his " Love of Fame' 
 
 Learn'd Commentators each dark paflage fhun, 
 And hold their Farthing-Candle to the Sun. 
 
 Not too much bv a note or two which breathes of freedom, in its 
 lamented wane j for, lurely, between learning and the love 
 of freedom, there is the moil legitimate of all connexions . 
 as much could have been laid for the connexion of blafphemy, or 
 nonfenfe, with religion, by which reafon has been infulted, m a 
 certain do&rine, it would have paffed unnoticed. 
 
 But it mail be as little as the gentleman pleafes parvum parva 
 decentand it fhall draw confolation for its littlenefs from an 
 
 emperour. " 
 *,r%w nv TI 
 J'Eiievcffi." 
 
 Julian Epift. ad Georg. 
 
 Sic Ciiptum Mus Leonem fylvis reddidit. 
 
 Gudius, 
 i 
 Is it not then within the compafs of poflibility, 
 
 In Syftem's fnare, the Lion-Doftor laid, 
 owe his freedom to a Moufe's aid ? 
 
 If any one Uoubt it, let him alk Cicero or Dr. Parr. 
 
 O 2 Of
 
 of an hexameter as your impertinent Italian termed it, 
 but that we can, and do, make a good modulation and har- 
 mony of the whole verfe : a harmony that pleafes our own 
 ears * for what founds to us, founds to us and a much 
 better and more natural harmony than yours. For we find 
 more grace in our M>>x a&, 6i,-Arma virumque dino, and 
 Tityre, tu patule, than in your new-fangled, unheard of, &*", 
 ea.no, patulal. Therefore we mall have nothing to do with 
 your filly foreign vagaries, picked up from a pragmatical, 
 papiftical prieft. And to cut the matter fhort Nolumus 
 Sfupiditatej Angl'itf mutari" 
 
 , tot apcrlo* iA*)Ii, ixiAit'c-iv Altaj avknosu' Q 
 
 i^o^cr. 
 Plutarch. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I CAN the more eafily fuppofe that the doftni>e of Me- 
 kerchus which 1 recommend, as far as it relates to Quantity, 
 may betreated, as the reader has feen in the laft chapter ; hecaufe 
 it has already been treated nearly in this manner, by the learned 
 Wm. Primalt, M. A. of the univerfity of Cambridge*, 
 it fliould feem : for his book was printed there in 1764. with 
 the title of " Acecntus ReJivivi" of which the reader will re- 
 collect that fome mention has before been made. 
 
 " Here 
 
 * That, once, ALMA MATER ! v/ho now ihews herfelf fuch 
 an Kuripidean ftfpmother t^ns u)tv y,ww]; r -a to her generous 
 
 fous,
 
 ** Here I am naturally led (fays Mr. Primatt, in his 15 7th 
 page) to fay fomething of the rhythm of poetry ; which is of 
 the fame nature with that of profe : but then, I apprehend, 
 neither the one nor the other ariles merely from a due pro- 
 portion in quantity, or, in other words, from a due 
 aflemblage of long and fhort fyllables in a certain ratio; as 
 fome learned men have thought : and for this very obvious 
 reafon ; that one effential difference between metre and rhythm 
 confifts in this ; that metre has its times fixed, long and fhort 
 and common ; whereas rhythm ,- ."\1 !*xtbt xt"** has 
 the times more arbitrarily, fo as frequently to make long 
 lyllables fhorr, and fhort fyllables long. And therefore 
 though there be rhythmus in metre, and that often coinciding 
 \yith quantity, (which is the cafe too in profe,) yet it likewife 
 frequently differs from it ; and you can hardly read a verfe 
 in Virgil or Homer in which the rhythm does not more than 
 once break in upon the quantity, and feemingly to the ear 
 change the nature of the fyllables. 
 
 Italiam f.ito profugus Lavinaque v^nit 
 Toy 
 
 ions, the difdainers of that antiquated, unworthy, bafe French 
 proverb I out way neji pas ban a dire of which the old lady, in 
 her dotage one would think, is, to the grief of her friends, and 
 laughter of her foes, become difgraceiully enamoured ; and, by 
 cockering the time.-ferving makers of pernicious * leafmgs, gives 
 it to be underftood, that, what was purfucd inter fylvas acaaemi 
 as the chief object of fcience, and fource of public happinefs, is 
 a piece of game, which is not, in her groves, any more than in 
 her fitter's, to be difturbed ! 
 
 Alas, how changed from Her, whofe favourite and magnani- 
 mous maxim was 
 
 DICATUR VERITAS, RUAT CCEI.UM ! 
 
 * As folks, quot!> Richard, prone to leafing, 
 Siy things at ftrft hccaufe they're plsafing; 
 Can prove what they have once a Hefted, 
 Nor care to have their lie dcferted ; 
 ' Fill their own dreams at length deceive them, 
 And, oft repc.-rinj, !fc-y belisve them. 
 
 Prior.
 
 I prefume I fhali have few diffenting from me tvhen 1 fay, 
 that the moft harmonious pronunciation of thefe verfes is 
 according to the iflus or accents [by which Mr. Primatt, 
 after his matter Dr. Bentley, means the making a fyllable 
 long] as here marked; but who does not fee at the fame time, 
 that the a in Italian^ and the o in profugus, as again the two 
 omicrons in an-a/xf^o/iuos and wpoo-o^, have fuch an extcnfion 
 of voice given them, as to be equal in time to the Jongeft 
 fyllables in thefe verfes ? While the /in It alia m t the o mfat^ 
 and the $;andj in .Tot/xE*fo^i>o; and w^opr, are proportionably 
 contracted, to make up for the undue length of the others ; 
 that fo the time or rhythm of the whole verfe may be right, 
 without regard being had to the quantity of every individual 
 fyllabie. And yet Adolpbus Mektr:hus is pleafed to find fault 
 with the pronunciation of the former of thefe verfes, becaufe 
 the quantity of fome of the fyilables is broke, in upon, and, 
 as bs thinks, the rhythm or number of them is injured. His 
 words are t>ac autem ineptiffima pronuniiatione, quis xon fen'iat 
 gravffiwos horuni verfuum numeros ita frangi^ ut fi elms ultimas poles 
 excip.'tiSy vcrjus <v'uhri nun pojf.;d f 
 
 " But let us fee how he propofes to remedy this matter. 
 Why, by reading every fyllable according to its quantity. 
 For fo lie goes on contra vero, Jl ita^ ut par ejl^ pronuntiarit 
 
 Itulium fito profugus Lavlnaque venlt 
 
 Jt hoc mod), i>iquam 3 fronuiitraris, ftrvata fyllctbarum quantitate, etiam 
 ut t'tj'i/s n:n d gcras in fedes, yds tam^n ecfrn et SITIV non audiat^ ft 
 Juavljjlmci borum verfuum gravitate non capiatur?" 
 
 [An exposition of the abfurdity of the manner in which 
 " he goes on," Ihould naturally follow this fpecimen of 
 it, held forth to us with difapprobation and contempt. 
 But there is no fuch thing. Has the printer injured 
 Mr. Primatt, by negligently omitting a paragraph ; or, 
 has Mr. Primatt injured himfelf? He proceeds thus:} 
 
 " V- } r ]Jius is of the fame opinion ; and, miftaking rhythm 
 for quantity, rather than his beloved numbers fhould be 
 violated, he is fometimes for putting the ictus or accent upon 
 the lift fyllables of Avoids [Oh, 7nonftrous !] contrary to 
 
 the
 
 tie Genius cf tie Latin Tongue, and is for indulging this latter 
 with what we can hardly obtain for the Greek language 
 (though the reafon for it there is notorious) of reading one 
 way in verfe, and another way in profe ; %ua enim ration* 
 mufidi numeris aftiingi ftffifit, Tityre, tu patulre recubans, &c. 
 K patuljE ft recubans accentttm haluerint in antfpcnttltiina, et pro 
 anapefto fat quodammodo dafylus ? S>uapropter omnino nccejje eft, 
 nt aliter in f> oj'a, aliter in carmine fonu'JJe vocabula *. 
 
 " But if any one can really be delighted with fuch harmony 
 as this, Tityrf, tu patulae, &c. Anna virumqiie canb, &c. even 
 let him enjoy his pleafure; 1 believe few will ejjvy him ; 
 
 %ai Baviunt non o</tt, amet tua carmina, HLfvi /" 
 
 It may here be proper to inform my readers, that Meker- 
 cht s fhewed his work in manufcript to the learned CASTALIO, 
 and to other fiiends; and that they prefTed him to publifh it 
 " die/if antes renafcenti lingua Graca hac ratlonc non parvum juccurfurn 
 in. Now learned man for learned man, it may be thought 
 (and no difpraife to either) that the authority of CASTAI.IO, 
 were it put into the fcale, would be no more likely to kick 
 the beam, than the authority of Mr. PRIM ATT. 
 
 But as Mr. Primatt has, in regard to metrical matters, 
 advanced nothing here to which I have not before adverted ; 
 it may be fufficient barely to parry the contempt, which 
 before' he could know, by a due examination of the fubjcft, 
 if it was deferved he too haft ily forgetting the falutary 
 Sophoclean maxim of tyomv T*XH; ot> 3-^>Xii,- cads upon 
 other people: and that 1 truft will be done by informing the 
 reader, that fo confummate a maftcr, is this Mafter of Arts, 
 of Metre, and of Rhythm ; and fo exquiiitcly qualified is he, 
 by his ear and judgement, to decide authoritatively upon all 
 matters appertaining to them ; that he tells us freaking of 
 a language which utterly disclaims the Greek and Latin laws 
 of Pofition; and does not yet happen to be a dead one he 
 tells US, that the penultimates of niggardly, quarrrJjcnc, con- 
 tray, difcontent, difallow, rtcolkft are all LONG ! Nay, if you 
 
 * This idea of aliter in firofa aliter in carmine, except as to a fhort 
 fyllable's becoming long on account of paufe, is too deitkute of 
 
 foundation to lofc time in arguing upon. 
 
 will
 
 ( 104 ) 
 
 will not believe me, behold his o-ivn words, fajthfully tran- 
 fcribed from the twentieth page of his preface: " In our own 
 language, nothing is more common than to have polyfyllable 
 words run in dalylic rhythms, though their penultimates be 
 
 LONG*; as niggardly, quarrclfome t contrary; aild fbllietimes 
 
 like anapefts, as dfamtnt , J'fallvjj, rccdkcl" 
 
 But 
 
 * An authority indeed for Mr. Primatt's elegant manner of 
 meafuring ONE of thefe words though one out of fix is but a poor 
 proportion ! m:iy be found in an old fong ; which we have all 
 fung formerly, and which may full perhaps by Jome of us continue 
 
 to be fung : 
 
 " Miftrefs Mary, 
 
 ' Quite contrary, 
 
 " How does your garden grow ?" 
 
 ot atft srofioc iiwj>y s ov wof 
 
 TtTl' irli, the ivno-vvnrd AmbafTador of Flanders ; and the Cow-* 
 heel, is the En-yius and Afte-uius you have thrown fo wantonly at 
 the head of that Ex>--. Ikncy, whofe literaty flioe-latchet, no bar- 
 barous Dr. Dedocendus of you all i:s worthy to unloofe 1 But he 
 cannot now, coming to us in fpirit, be made to fufter a fecond 
 death, upon this his fecond embalTy, deputed, not from the llates 
 of the Low Countries, but from thofe of the fummits of Parnaflus. 
 And with great propriety and truth, was fuch a man,, while he 
 -dwelt among us in the r!"l"h, the repirefentative of a community, 
 rather than of an individual : for, in a community, learning, 
 goodnefs, wifdom, and virtue, may if they are upon earth moft 
 certainly 1 " fc-K-d. But where, in the age in which ht^ lived - 
 v/hen the brutal llmry v.-as applying without mercy, the halter, 
 the axe. ane. the faggot here, to the. innocent people, by providence, 
 it i? friici. < nniniittcd to his charge; and the moni'ter, Charles, 
 amufed hinnHf, at the whidows of his palace, with iliooting them 
 like ruts at YV.ris ; rshtre was the individual fovereign to be 
 found, who- in th" grent err.diti.n, in the engaging humility, 
 in the b- :v,-v(;lt -nee of h; /art, cind in the tmdernels of aifertion, of 
 fuch a r-r:'. : Id not hnvc- bren belied! Yet, you, 
 
 Mr. Primutt, more ofrer.iively than if you had ftyled him one 
 
 Me-
 
 But the an^rv champion of the recnfants of the doctrine 
 rrcommtncied who feems to fay fo emphatically to its 
 
 re- 
 
 iMekerchus, or, a certain Alekerchus you have qualified hiiil 
 as capable of admiring, u::d of wondering at, the " fcrannel-pipe" 
 of a Bavins or Me-cius, " with a fooliih face of praife !" How 
 much more becoming would it have been, to treat him, as the 
 good Eum&us did his vnkmixn majter, who vilited him as a ftranger? 
 Bur you, in your fup?'i'ior kr.rnvledge to the Flemiih Granger, 
 viiiting us lik^; a dt-hy IP the difguiff: of a poor and mean ap- 
 pearance '' for you met him, I fuppoie, as 1 did, in a tattered, 
 
 diminutive, 
 
 * He who could lay '* \on rccufo uvuilis, Azjzcrus, et 
 ixGiomus habtri, modo PUZLICE trrjim, defpifed all outward fhow, 
 all bribed or hornv.vcd pomp or ornament, and trufted, as wife 
 men will cvv.r truii, to what aim- .\m v, in approbation from the 
 wife, he trailed to iSHr.RENT guod qualities; apprized of that 
 truth, which ha;;, iinct lii.s tur.(\ befii exprelTcd as well as it ever 
 wjsbefore.it, (except perhaps by F.pictctus, in his Goldea Frag- 
 ment f,) and by one of an order in which it would have been 
 fcarcely looked for by one of our own noble lords } who fays/ 
 that, 
 
 The borrowed Pomp, the armed array, 
 Fear, Want, and Impotence betray 
 Strange proofs of Power Divine ! 
 
 Earl NUGENT. 
 
 \ 01* 
 kla cfj"r,f 
 
 xa. ita-xtx;. Aj? w A-i'l~uiru ao.* ajElfl K* sdi, aXAJ ^ r/^ua? s^ T^ip^aj 
 a$)pa, K?>| *ait-, -:x; TT %-^c j x.. r. X. 
 
 Pietty lellows, iudecil, faia he, who ftm ar.d (wall, and boxft themfelves of 
 any but inherent good titnhties ! / am batter ih.m thou^ crie-- onej 1, fed from 
 the prciiuce of much laiul, while thou art exter,ua:ed with hunger ! Give place, 
 exclaims another, to a man of conhilar dignity ! . A third vaunts himfeif a man 
 of authority, wit !i all its air?, irc'm delegate 1 power. And a fourth, betaufe, 
 forfooth, he !i fine varied locks, feems, by the toifings of his head, to calk outj 
 
 P Cosne,
 
 recommender, as was of old faid by Authority to Argument. 
 *' Doft Thou teach Us !" complains of the injuftice done 
 to himfelf and his brethren, in their being acculed of want 
 of modulation and harmony. To this complaint, an anlwer 
 
 diminutive, and fqualid veftment ! a very fmall and thin quarto, 
 tufrering, like moil other things, from time You thought it 
 beneath you to imitate the humble courtefy of an honeft fwine- 
 iierd, though a royal orHcer. No 5 you mull become, forfotrth, 
 a Clefippus, a SUITOR ! a fuitor for favours which you have 
 fairly won ! 
 
 I could not avoid in my admiration, in my veneration, of a 
 <*harater, on which though it furely demands refpe<5t, at the 
 . re/Deft, Mr. Primatt, from every fcholar you have let 
 yourielf loofe, in a very unmeafured and utimidled manner nor in 
 duty to you, good Mr. Primatt, I could not avoid giving you this 
 warning note : for I can aflure you, that, I am by no means a 
 yiKrrllfome fellow, but quite the contrary, as true difc'ple of my 
 mailer, ET AMICO FRATER ET HOSTI I mould at any time be 
 rlad to teltify, in making you by the hand : and I defy any one to 
 rectllcft, that, I ever ihewed an envious dlfcuntent at, or' was lo 
 niggardtv as to disallow the praife of another man's merits ; or to 
 lurFer them to be disallowed, to my knowledge, without exerting 
 tnyielf in their vindication. To prevent fuch disallowances which 
 i:iiturb fociety the Athenians wifely imagined and executed a 
 ttatue of the Goddefs of Retribution, with a mcafure in one hand, 
 and a bridle in the other; which was placed in one of the moll 
 frequented fpots of their city, with the following explanation on 
 tftie pedeflal ; that, by even the leall informed of that very ' 
 ingenious and literary community, it might not be mifunderflood : 
 
 H NE/KECTI,- Wo>ofsi, TV WXEI, fu n %K.\UU, 
 MuT AMETPON T> TOOJSJV, ^ A-XAAINA \&. 
 
 Come, and ailmire me ! But the horfe fays not to the horfe, I am better thaa 
 thou, becasfe I have acquired good paftures or much corn, becaufe my bridles 
 are of the rnoft pretions metal, and my trappings varioufly embroidered; but, 
 I am better, in that uiefulnsfs which conftitutes the excellence of our nature, 
 I am better than thou in STRENGTH and SWIFTNESS. Nor can any creature, 
 of any kind, be better or worfc than anothpr, but by the good or bad qualities 
 inherent in it What then, (hall Man, of all the creatures, be that alone, which 
 lias no good qualities that are properly his own 1 And ftiall we, inftead of 
 acquiring them, be taken up with the coailant contemplation of that merir, 
 \yhich we derive from our hair, our robes, our garters, our grand fires, or our 
 gj>W ! 
 
 muft
 
 tmift, before we conclude, be given ; and uch a one, as, it 
 is to be hoped for it ihall not be long will not tend to" 
 increafe his anger: but which anger, after all, may only 
 he, perhaps, affumed; as the firft pretence which offered 
 itfelfto evade the challenge to a better way of reading; and' 
 the real feelings of thefe heroes concerning it, may very 
 porTibly be the fame with thofe of fome antient heroes, 
 concerning another challenge ; when it was faid that 
 the 
 
 POPE. 
 
 , ocia-otv 
 " Bluilied to refufe, and to accept it feared," 
 
 But be that as it may, it is to be defired, that, rather than 
 provoke his fpleen, 
 
 Counfel or Confolatidn ve may bring, 
 
 Salve to his fores ; apt words have po\ver to fwage 
 
 The tumours of a troubled mind, 
 
 And are as balm to lettered wounds. 
 
 SAM. 
 
 Harmony, then, the gentleman will allow me to fay, may 
 perhaps be partly arbitrary, and partly natural. Every nation 
 has perhaps a harmony or nuihc of its own, with which, 
 from habit, it is pleafed ; though it may not pleafe others: 
 and fo far it is arbitrary. But there are certain kinds of 
 harmony or mufic which pleafe at oncp, and without dif- 
 tinclion, all the world ; and thus it is natural. So perhaps 
 in all the arts, there may, from the fame principle, be an 
 abfolute Graceful, and a Graceful of Convention; a natural 
 and an arbitrary taftc. Thus in the art of reading poetry, 
 he may make a harmony of his own ; as I know he does ; 
 for 1 ufcd to do it myfelf ; juft as the gentleman has defcribed 
 it what founded to me lounded to me until I left the 
 making of founds for me to the poet; who I now think 
 has valtly the better knack at it of the two. 
 
 But this pleafure, fuch as it is, of his arbitrary harmony 
 making, as he may think, the bell to clink muft be very 
 inconstant. and incomplete: nay, muft indeed be quite 
 
 P 2 annihilated,
 
 annihilated, If be be ever thrown outof the only tune lie 
 can ling. And thrown out lie muft be, we have feen, when- 
 ever he negle&s'to make an elifion, or meets with a firing of 
 tliiTvliables, as Ham forte \ Fade age n<-<.;e <rv\vz ; as well as in 
 v 3i fan ; Ni^a* yi^i'st Ztt/; ; :;/.'// /^ freh\ dnl:e d^:is m(i;m\ 
 frscul ncgfttiis \ feV. and numberlefs other iuch inftances mufl 
 occur throughput all the poets. Now, as he is a wife and 
 learned man, he fhoujd becqnfiilent : and the old t -v ,/y^/w 
 here courting his acceptance fimply to pronounce every long 
 fyllabie, long, and every ihort one, fhort; {imply to let the 
 poet make the harmony for us, by reading his competitions 
 according to the quantities in which he wrote them ; and 
 which the learned gentleman fuffeis Dryden * and Pope to 
 
 do 
 
 * With what eafe, and with what propriety, does the gentle- 
 inn n vary his modulation with the various raeafures in the poly-t 
 metrical ode of Dryden's, called, Alexander's Feaft ? And what 
 ccnlitutes the variety c meafure, but the various arrangement 
 of the varieties in the quantities of fyll?.b"e \ 
 
 A" the mention of this exquifite moriel of Dryden's for ex- 
 quilite it is when properly recited one cannot but lament, that 
 it is {horn of its beams, when f'.mg to the mulic to which it is 
 pt prefent let, though fet by the great Handel. But lie unfortu- 
 nately knc.v/ but little of our language, and lefs of our poetry. 
 '" So mould Defert in arms be cro\vned -"--^Deffrt in arms is but 
 or;e fpecies of defert ; for which, perhaps, the word valour 
 might be employed ; but this Ipecific merit, by a pauie in the 
 mufic after the word defert, is completely cut in two and non- 
 fenfined. "With fl.ving' fingers touched the lyre," and an 
 argument of the performpr's maftery in his art it was, that he 
 could touch it " with flying fingers ;" on wliich word, "flying," 
 therefore, the fenfe requires that feme emphafis lliould be laid ; 
 but by die lengthened notes on " jl>>ge>'s," th-r compolcr feems to 
 have thought, that, at other times, Timotkeus might have 
 torched it with his toes. An-.l to mention no more " Revolving 
 in his altered foal " a beautiful and Itron^ proof of the " mighty 
 Mafter's" confummate ll;ill, by which he con id alter afftclims in his 
 heare > 's Jcul ' and therefore the word " altered" in this vertc 
 flionld be diftingtiifned : but the notes, without any prrt 1 
 regard to "aleied," are fo emphatic upon "yw/," that -it. fecrr.s :'. 
 if Hana.l fappoled the htro for, what cannot heroes do ! :
 
 ( '09 ) 
 
 do for film and even Milton too though he denies it to 
 their niafters ; this old nevj fyjl^m, 1 fav, fevp : tx rit-.tax.it. (t 
 UNUM* fupp'.ies a pleafure for ever confident and conftant ; 
 from that verv fimp'icr.y of manner, which affords a beautiful 
 
 revolve ideas in his lbow, or hjs heel, or rather in his belly. 
 Whereas, like the tuneful notes of tie pe^':i reciter cf poetry 
 though the plea fares are of a different k::id 
 
 " The per/eft Si/igfr's tuneful notes difpenfe 
 " The charms at once of Mufic and of Senfe." 
 
 * Non potcft nift U>TU.M etfe VERUM 5 il-cundum verfum veterem 
 <Juem citat Ariftotelcs 
 
 u.V 
 
 Mekerchus. 
 
 Since the greateft part of thefe fhects were printed off, I have, 
 hy the mediation cf a friend, had the pleafure of a communica- 
 tion with Adolphus Mettkerke, efq. :r Buntiuford, 
 
 iu Hertford {hire, the fixtb of the name,, and fifth defcendant in 
 a direct line from his great progemur:. Sir Adolphus Meetkerke, 
 the anrihafladour of Flanders ; and v/h j h:n been pleated to enable 
 me t<j corrcdt on errour I was led into hy one of the books I 
 confultcd for the account which is in the llril facet given of that 
 illufirious fcholar. 
 
 Sir Adolphus was not buried in St. Paul's, but in the church 
 of St. Botolph, Alderfgate ; r.nd, at the rebuilding of that church, 
 his monument, which had on it the infcription that has been 
 feen, was conveyed to the family-feat at Julians, but too much 
 damaged in the taking down and the removal to be again 
 erected. 
 
 Mr. Meetkerke is in poffeflion of, among others, a very -valuable 
 relique of hi; anceftors' in a folio MS. of Greek and Latin-poetry 
 by Sir Adolphus; with additions hy his Ion Adolphus, who died 
 without iifue, and by his fon Edward, D. D. .of Chriftchurch- 
 colle>:r>, Oxford. prof( Ifour of Hebrew in that univeriity, and 
 prebendary of Winchetter : which MS. the pofleflbur of it maj 
 perhaps at a future day permit to be publiihed ihould prejudice 
 he now more inclined than it was tv.'o centuries ago to give way 
 to the recommended profodic doctrine,' and to let fne -character of 
 its authour, a rollover of the Greek language, rife to, the level 
 due to it iu the republic of letters. 
 
 variety
 
 f no ) 
 
 variety in its exert lie; "and a pleafure more or lefs complete, 
 as the rh.ytb.mii3 of the verie fhall bc.fufceptible of" greater or 
 kfs harmony ; for of fime harmony mull every verf'c he 
 fufvj*:pf.b:e or it ceaies to be a vorfe. 
 
 ' No\v, makinc; my bow to this gentleman, whom I iruill 
 fcarceiy pcrtuadc iv to reiiiujuiiU his Acrons,. and turning 
 
 * Of yot.!> TC-Ejirfic, 
 who fays too, that, 
 
 Quae: eft autcm in hominibus tunla perverlitas, ut, !>ii-:-nt:s 
 frvglbus GL^NDE vc fc a n t ur ! C ; c . 
 
 If many of my readers for the book which ean make all its 
 readers do what would be pleating to Jiim ircni whom it proceeds, 
 is yet to come whence, is not known for it ha* not been effected 
 by the book from Heaven if many of my readers Ihould, like this 
 gentleman, remain unconvineed, from prejudice " preferring 
 that which i.i kno^-n to be wrong, before that which is leeu to be 
 right," I" muft confole myfelf from Martial and from _BurrV.n. 
 Tiie fornuT faid, in beautiful Phaleuciau meafuro murdered by 
 us like other meafures 
 
 'jl/;' raris juvat auribus place.re- 
 
 ^-b'ut do try, reader juft to oblige me once at parting if you 
 cannot contrive to pronounce the fyllables ris and bits, notjliort, and 
 ju, not lr>ng ; you \viil be reccjmpenfed in the iwec'tnels oi its 
 
 running 
 
 Me runs jtivut aunbus pluccre ! 
 
 And flic; latter told Hcrault de Sechelles " // -vaut mleux d'etre 
 compris d'un pclit nombre d ' iritflli^ents ; et leu* Jujfrage. jeul vous eleuom* 
 waqre tie x'ct-f point co;;tf<ris par la multitude^ U'o Jhew that there is 
 no ftn^ii!;!rity in this eortfoling idea, may be added to it, from 
 Clearithes Stoicus, in a moil happily choien motto *_, the 
 
 OA/fo;? 
 
 * The inotto to the Dilatation upon the Siege f Troy : 
 M> rrjo.- *cfv o^a, 9--Xwv <?o^o.- oti-j/a ^iMfffigu'"
 
 ( III ) 
 
 rnyfelf to the reader who is open to convi&ion, I (hall leave 
 it to be determined by the latter, whether letting aiide 
 the abfurditics and murders it commits the arbitrary, in- 
 conitant, and uncertain Icheme of reading, or the reitricled, 
 u'mpje, and conllant one, be moft conibnant to na- 
 
 - OAj/cuf de Ttrap ctvwauri rv]o KSV evc,ot$. 
 
 With Cleanthes and his qnoter, feems to have thought another 
 verv eltimable character- Fletcher of Saltoun (for a Itriking 
 portrait or' whom we are indehterl to the maiterl}' hand of lord 
 Buchan) who in one of his fpcerhes fays " Prejudice and opinion 
 govern the world, to the great difnrls' and ruin of mankind ; and 
 though we daily find men fo rational as to charm us, by the dif- 
 mtereited rectitude of their fentiments in all other tl.ing.ij yet 
 when we touch upon any opinion with -\\hich they have him 
 early prepoiVellVd, we find them more irrational than any thing in 
 iv.ituiv: and not only, not to be convinced; but obltinately 
 refolved, tmt to hear any reafon againlt it. Thefe prejudices are 
 yet ftrongt-r when thry are taken up by great numbers of men 5 
 whri confirm each other through the conrfe. of fcu-raJ generations, 
 and feem to have their blood tainted, or, to fpeak more properly, 
 their animal fpirits influenced by them." 
 
 But I Ihourd not uoiuKr, iflbmc fueh gentlemen, as that with 
 whom I have l.ecn holding an argument, Ihould, by improving on* 
 his eenfure, in adding to it hard names, make me have reeourle 
 to the following defence, which, with the. change of a word., I 
 lind prepared by an excellent writer of defences) 
 
 I did but prompt the age to quit their 
 liy the known rules of aneieni Uui^itity, 
 When tirait a barbarous r.oh'- environs me 
 
 Of GKvlt and Cuccoos, AiJes, 'Aprs, and Dogs : 
 
 As when ihofe hinds iliat \\erc transformed to frogs 
 Railed at Latona's twin-born ];rogc:ny, 
 Vv'hich alter held the Sun :;ud Moon in fee ; 
 
 And this is got by c--.ftiny Pearl to Hogs ! 
 
 ttean'Jies Stoic'-is, afudClem. Al'.xaaJ. 1. v. p. 55. 
 
 tare.
 
 ture *. On one point, T am fare, he cannot hefltafe to 
 decide, viz. thai he who makes long what fhe makes 
 ihort, and vice vcrfa, mud zGt in direft oppofition to 
 her. 
 
 I wifh therefore to perfuade my ingenuous youthful 
 readers perfuaded as I am myfeif, from experience, of 
 in amply rewarding them \vith pleafure to improve, with 
 all other charms, the charms of their recitation in particular, 
 
 * To obviate cavils upon what hat caufed fo many the terra 
 nature or natural^ as applied to language, the writer begs leave 
 to lay, that, he ufes it but in the ieui'e of what might perhaps be 
 nearly at well exprefled by cuftom.^ As lam^iage was prior to 
 grammar or profody, which are only obitrvatious on it, its pro- 
 nunciation was fettled,- except in a few arbitrary words, by cuitom ; 
 which, in that refpet, he calls its nature; and we have feen how 
 clofely cuftom and nature an, allied. From the nature of their 
 fpeech, the Greeks and 'Romans made every i'yllable long, whole 
 vowel,, however ihort in iti'eif, preceded more than a .fingle. 
 conlbnant with the excepLion of its being common before a mute 
 followed by a liquid and which grew with them into the profodic 
 law of pofition. But fo different is the nature of our fpeech, and 
 of that of all our neighbour!, that it utterly difclaims this law of 
 pjfition; or rather, from its nature, it cannot receive it. In our 
 own language we have iyllables which are ihort, as we have feen, 
 where the vowel precedes no lels than four confonants. Were V/R 
 to do by our word 'conjiraia, r.3 we do by every Greek and Latin 
 iambus, convert it to a trochee, it would found tons like the 
 participle prefent conftr.uiug. In ibme of the more northern tongues, 
 there are, I believe, ihort Iyllables in which the vowel precedes 
 as many as half a dozen confonants, or more. It was the nature 
 of the Latin language, that, the word orator Ihould be pronounced, 
 before a vowel,, au antibacchius, as conjlringe ; and, before a 
 eonfonant, a molomis, as conjhingnr.t : it is the nature of the 
 French language, that tho fame word ihould be pronounced an 
 anapeft ; and the nature of ours that it fhov\ld be a daftyle ; from 
 changes of \vhich the origin has been traced. And to this nature, 
 all 'fpeakers of living "languages muft conform, as of courfe "iLe" 
 Greeks and Komans did., under tiie penalty of pain and trouble 
 the ufual attendants upon aberration from nature the pain 
 of beihg ridiculous, 'and the trouble U> explain their meaning. 
 
 according
 
 according to this advice of an ingenious young poet, qua* 
 ofienderunt t err is tanttimfata : 
 
 Improve by Nature's charms your own j 
 And copy that in which alone 
 
 All Nature's charms agree: 
 Tis no quaint puzzling trick, to tdach 
 Grimace, in attitude or fpeech; 
 
 It is . ...... SIMPLICITY. 
 
 3. H. BEATllE 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 JUST as the preceding DhTei tation was going to the 
 prefs, a friend put into my hand an Eflay which 1 had! not 
 feen before, " On the Profodies of the Greek and Latin Languaget" 
 I opened it eagerly, with the hope of being ihitru&ed by it 
 on my fubjeft i but was greatly difappointed, upon bein^ 
 prefently told by the authour, that** th6 defigh of his Eflay 
 was to explain in what manner pronunciation is to b6 
 governed by Accents ." which, alas! has ndthing in cpmrmm. 
 with the defign of this trifling affair, to explain in wliai 
 manner pronunciarion is to be governed by Quantity. 
 
 After having perufed it, however, I felicitated myfelf (not 
 indeed upon being better enabled by it than I was before 
 to give " Accent, Ib as- not to be deftru&ive of quantity but 
 fublervient to it ;" but) that I had written upon a fubjedt 
 
 Q.
 
 ( H4 ) 
 
 which would at leaft be more eafily as well as generally 
 underftood : fmce my readers will quickly be able to determine 
 whether we ought to read according to quantity or not ; and 
 there will be an end of the matter. Not fo with the writers 
 on accent: amongft whom there are very violent variations 
 of the compafs : no end is feen "Alps on Alps arife !" 
 For, the Effayift, fpeaking very refpe&fully of the <c Accents 
 Redivivl" of our old friend, Mr. Wm. Primatt, fays, that it 
 Is " a work of great labour and confiderable talents, in which, 
 however, a critical knowledge of the hiflory of Accents is 
 united with a moft erroneous theory of the effect of them 
 in pronunciation :" and that the principles upon which the 
 fcheme offered by him (the Efiayift) {lands, " are diametrically 
 opp'jfite to the opinions advanced by Mr. Primatt," whom he 
 yet qualifies as " a learned writer." In another place he fays, 
 concerning one of their differences, " thefe, of all Mr. JP's 
 authorities are, in the firft afpecl, the moft impolmg. But 
 when critically examined, they amount to Nothing." And 
 in his I5ift page he Iharpens his accent to fuch a pitch as 
 to fay upon one of Mr. P's notions " Nothing can be more 
 abfurd!" 
 
 Whether Mr. P. will retaliate m the fame key, I know not: 
 but 1 know that he may do fo, and with intereft, upon notions 
 of the Eflayift, which have an indifputable title to the honour 
 conferred upon his own. For, fuch rational directions for 
 reading by Accent is this Eflayift qualified to give, as (in p. 
 6,) to doubt whether " circumflexim be a different thing from 
 ticutenefs ;" to aflert, that the grave confifts merely in a negation 
 of acutenefi; that, " the acute is the only pofitive tone;" (as 
 if there could be negative tones;) and again (p. 10.) " the acute 
 therefore appears in truth to be the only accent or tone, 
 properly fo called, the grave being merely a negation 
 of acutenefs ;" an'd, in the fame page, tells us with 
 approbation, that, '" the Halicarnaffian fays, that the cir- 
 cumfltx was a mixture of the jrac^with the acute." But the 
 Halicarnaffiari is not reprefented as faying that the grave is 
 merely a negation of acutenefs. Now with fuch a pretious 
 notion of the MIXTURE of a thing WITH ITS NEGATION ! 
 the Eflayift is lo be felicitated 'that he is not under the hands 
 
 of
 
 of that acute reviewer of " Hermes" who has held out a 
 negation to pojidv<: t and to inextinguiftiable, laughter: for, 
 
 That charm ihall laft, when what of Nonfenfe rings 
 Silent goes down with unregarded things. 
 
 A Pendant, to match that prefious notion which cannot be 
 exceeded, of the mixture of a thing with its negation, ftrikes 
 us with admiration as we advance in our ElTayift's Cabinet of 
 Curiofities : for, in his 83d page, he fays what proclaims 
 a happy talent for etymology that, " in a Diphthong the 
 found was as much ONE, as the found of a SINGLE vowel. 
 But yet that one found was not the found of any one of the 
 SIMPLE vowels." 
 
 Now furely Reafon requires that the firft and moft in- 
 difpenfable bufinefs of a writer who profefles to teach, (hould 
 be, to convince the underftanding : inftead of which, this 
 teacher, chooflng to write in a different, if not a new, 
 manner, requires the relignation of the underftanding to the 
 authority of his written word ; proceeding precifely upon the 
 principle of him, who promulgated a dotrine that muft be 
 long remembered by every Englifhman, that, " Ike People 
 have nothing to do with the Laws but to OBEY them" For it is 
 impoffible that he could fo have written, unlefs he was of 
 opinion, that, His Readers have nothing to do with his Rules but to 
 BELIEVE them: forgetting, that (except indeed in religious 
 eftabli foments) it is abfolutely neccflary, that the people 
 fiiould, at leaft, UNDERSTAND, before they can cither 
 believe or obey the Cavalry a6ls, or any other. 
 
 But not to dwell upon fuch things as nut incuria fuJit, aut 
 humana parum cavit natura though indeed where nothing can 
 be fuid \oJJjine, but by negation of the deftruftion of Quantity 
 let us look for a moment at what he muft have maturely 
 weighed the grand rule of the Eftayift, and an exemplifica- 
 tion of the firft part of it. His grand rule by which " pro- 
 nunciation is to be governed by Accent," and by which we 
 are to arrive, lince " the cafe is by no means defperate," at 
 that " fame way" which the undents had of "giving Accent 
 fo as not to be deftru&ive of Quantity but fubfervient to it" 
 his grand rule is, " firft, to give every one of the vowels 
 and of the diphthongs its true, power, in its proper place ; and, 
 
 0.2 fe-
 
 C * 
 
 fecondly, to pqy 9. critical attention to the effects of the 
 fundamental rules of Accent, upon the tones of words in 
 connexion." After giving this grand rule, he proceeds with 
 great goodnefs to defcribe its true pmuer in each of the vowels 
 and diphthongs. His defcription of the true power of the 
 o Micron, without the objections which may be made to feme 
 of his defcriptions, is as follows :-?-" O micron. This vowel 
 is naturally thort, but capable of being lengthened by pofition. 
 ItsnatUTal fhort power is that of o, in the Englifh words, 
 &q/ftjuence t contttfy, tommon" The acute accent, he tells us, 
 " is a iharp ftroke of the voice upon feme one fy liable of the 
 WPid;" and, that, " its natural tendency, contrary to the 
 prejudice of the Englifh ear, is to fhorten the fyllable upon 
 which it falls." The word wei-oYo<c$, accented upon the 
 antepenultimate, Signifies the fojt born child of the fame fan-nts ; 
 feut eTOTxo-:, accented upon the penultimate, fignifies a 
 lUOman or any female after her fir ft delivery. The Eflayiti, I have 
 already obferved to his credit, Jays, that, Quantity is never 
 to be deftroyed by Accents the meafure, there-fore, of this 
 word, however accented, and (landing by itlelf, is that of 
 a firft peon, as the Englifh word, nugatory. 
 
 Mr. Primatt produces, we are told, the two words in 
 queftion, with this remark " I may defy any body to vary 
 the accent in thefe two words without affecting the quantity 
 at the lame time." To which our Elfayift triumphantly 
 replies " We defy any one to affect the quantity at all, by a 
 variation of the accent, fo long as he preferves the true quantity 
 of the o micron in both fyllabies. Let the proper fhort power 
 of it be preferved in both places, and it will be perfectly 
 indifferent to the quantity of the fyllabies, on which of the 
 two the acute accent may be laid." 
 
 Now then (to exemp'ify) in the pronunciation of this word 
 when varioufly accented, we are, if we can, to do, what mull 
 ilill be called notwithftanding we have been fo well inihuct- 
 ed in the true fewer of the o micron a moft difficult and moft 
 extraordinary thing; as everyone who lhall try at it, and I 
 hcpe every reader will, mull be convinced: for we are, not, 
 as an ordinary man would think, by tic <.tt<:xt of wir t/i/cour/c, 
 but \ve are, by a Iharp ftroke not, again, of a fiddle, but 
 of the human voicewe are fy a Jbarp Jkokt of the vaic upon 
 
 tht
 
 ( 7 ) 
 
 tie accenteJfyllablc which Jkall not affcR the quantity, to cJiftingwfh 
 to a hearer, whether it be a mother or a child we mean* ! 
 
 If 
 
 ; though we fee it is the humour to make two 
 words of one ; contrary to that on diphthongs, of making one 
 found of two np7&Tocc, with whatever accent, is evidently but 
 one and the fame word; and might be tranilated, firfifruit; i.e. 
 offspring (being of its parents the) jujlfrutt ; female (having 
 yielded her) firjifruit ; and, had our language the idiom of apply- 
 ing the term fitjlfruit to fueh an offspring and fuch a female, with 
 what perfect readinefs (fuppofing a proper context) would thofe 
 parenthefixed cllipfes, or the fenfe of them, he fupplied by the 
 mind of the hearer, as other ellipfes are by us, and were doubtlefs 
 by the Greeks, who abounded in them ? 
 
 Had Homer, for inftance, in describing, at the beginning of 
 the i yth book of the Ilias, the folicitude of Menelaus left the 
 Trojans mould pollefs themfelves of the dead body of Fatroclus, 
 only laid of him, that, he goes round about it ? -nj if oTa*t 
 sr^roTcxoj xnvfr, ; there is manjfeftly no more need of an accent, 
 to fhew, that, erpToro*^-, with fuch a context, mtift mean, and 
 can only mean, a COT.' that m-ver had a calf before, than of the 
 additional and redundant words, prfofw **> *&.* TO.OIO. 
 
 Is it by Accent, pray now, or by the context, that, in our own 
 language, we diimiguifh to a hearer what we mean by, abandoned, 
 obnoxious^ letter, licenfe, mother, dam^ pen, maft, fpray, .ft^y-i even 
 accent itfelf (fo miilrably have v."e abufedit!) and innumeranlc 
 words, of nullifications as totally different, if not as diametrically^ 
 oppofite, as the notions of our accentual combatants, in thtiv 
 nugatory conteft: about that " fome tuay" of reading, which was_ 
 before made intricate enough, and now feems juft about as'eafy 
 to be afcertained, as the exacl notes of the 1 JICEHIX, or of the 
 fngiiig J'wans of the Simois and Scamandcr ? 
 
 That the Eifayift can make tlie diftin^ions, which he gives 
 us to understand he does, in the variously accented rpi-roroxcf, I 
 am willing to believe ; becavife I am unwilling to tax him with 
 impofture. As he may find, like the gentleman I was holding, 
 au argument with in the iaft chapter, that, ; ' what founds to hin*. 
 founds to him," though he may not convince any one elfe, he may 
 be himfelf convinced for, alas ! we are none of us deficient m, 
 the ikill of felf-deceit that he has attained that moft extraordinary 
 and furprizing ikill cu' pronunciation. But for my own part fc 
 I muft confefs, that, were I an inhabitant of a certain eafiero 
 iflamt, to a likeuefs of which tills weftera cue is hailening, and 
 
 the
 
 f n3 ) 
 
 If thcucanft do that, my good reader. 
 I nunc, Acca-.tits tccum meditare canoro?, 
 
 and be happy ; as 1 fhould, had the lot been mine ; tor to 
 all the advantages, of fenfe and fpirit and melody., to be derived 
 from a {I rift obfervance of Quantify, I fhould yet truly 
 rejoice (could I attain it) to add the embelhthtneut of Accent. 
 If thou -tantl not do it, what \yilt thou fay of our teacher?- 
 that lie may "eafier teach twenty what were good to-be done, 
 than to be one of the twenty to follow his own teaching ?" 
 If that be all Thou art a good-natured foul ! And there we 
 will let the matter reft : for 1 have not undertaken to review 
 all its beauties. I only thought that the reader of a new 
 publication upon Pmfody would naturally expect, that, of 
 an EiTay upon, though employed chiefly in a different part of, 
 the lame fubjeft, to which it had io foon fucceeded, fome 
 little notice mould be taken. 
 
 That natural expectation of the reader having been pro- 
 vided for, it remains only, that his good-nature, which will 
 as natural!/ have been hurt by the diametrically oppolite 
 additions of our doughty defiers, ihould, in a change of fcene, 
 be gratified with an exhibition of them in a more peaceable 
 difpofuion. It would indeed be unkind to defraud him of 
 the pieafure of knowing, that, in that fciTay, an article at laft 
 appears, on which thcfe before fo widely-differing Doctors 
 of which one, at leave, muft evidently be totd err an s via agree 
 to be for once, as they think, both in the right, and are feen 
 even hand in hand ! an article, it fortunately happens, ou 
 which lie is competent to judge though no more initiated 
 than I in Accentual Myiteries with how much humanity 
 
 the Terror: Its, who have the power of it, were, for their amufement, 
 to condemn me to die upon a given day, if I did not make the 
 distinction? of the En* ay ill in the pronounciation of f^ror*o-, 
 or produce a box of Upas gum. of my own fetching; I fhould 
 naturally, inftead of again attempting; at what, after many vain 
 efforts, I am convinced I cannot attain, take the . lea ft bad of the 
 chances for my life, and let out upon that progrefs to the terrific 
 Tree, of which Dr. Danviii makes us tremble by the fublimity 
 pf his defcription.
 
 C "9 ) 
 
 as well, as wifdom they have made their peace; cutting np-a 
 moft eftimable character, branding intelligence with folly,' 
 to ratify the deed by facrifice. It is an article in the quota- 
 tion which he has fo lately read from Mr. Primatt. In that 
 quotation he will recoiled, that, the learned writer, fpeaking 
 of that eftimable character, (hews cli (approbation and con- 
 tempt of the manner in which " he goes on," without 
 favouring us with any argument in fupport of his difapproba-" 
 tion and contempt : for, I believe, that the fum or what he 
 lajs upon the fubjeft can be conftrucd into no more of argu- 
 ment, indeed, than this " /dont like it ; therefore it muft be 
 wrong ; and Bentley fuys fo too." The reader will likewifc 
 recollect, that the recom mender of the doctrine of Quantity 
 from, Mekerchus, has by no moans recommended to' him to 
 read verles as if he wie icanning them : fo far from it, the 
 reader has been told that it would ruin every thing , and that 
 he is no more to read, as if he were fcanning it, a vsrfe of 
 Homer than a verfe of Pope. Indeed the provident pi:it of 
 Mekerchus, foreftalling an objection which the novelty of his 
 doctrine of quantity might excite in inconfiderate people, has 
 in the following words precluded it from the being ufed by 
 fuch as are attentive to his doctrine and not deftitute of 
 candour. " Si hoc modo fronuntlaris, fervata fyllabarum quantitc-te^ 
 ETIAM UT VERSUS NON DJGERAS IN PDS, quis tan:cr. affftr 
 et $<?. ncn aud'iat^ et Juavijffima borum verjuum gravitate ncn capir.iUT ? 
 The faying therefore if recourfe ihonld be had to it in lack 
 gf argument that, the manner of reading by Quantity, 
 which Mekerchus endeavoured to introduce, is rather a 
 fcanning of the verfe than a reading of it, would betray itfelf, 
 by its incorrectnefs, to be the dictate of prejudice or ignorance. 
 This (hort prologue being made Enter our Eteocles and 
 Polynices, like the two kings of Brentford, fmelling to one 
 nofegay, made up of the doctrine and the praifes due to it, 
 which the one has adopted from the other! for, in the 153d 
 page of the Effay we find the following words : " As for that 
 manner of reading by Quantity, which Mekerchus and If. 
 Voflius endeavoured to introduce, which was rather a fcanning 
 of the verfe than a reading of it, Mr. Primatt o.ry j u f t ^ ridi- 
 cules and condemn? it." 
 
 I I
 
 I muft beg permifEon juft to add, that, though in the art of 
 reading by Accent, I am not fo fortunate as to receive 
 Jnftruftion -and (hould much wonder if any one clfe receives 
 it from the rules of this Eflay ; I cannot be fo ungrateful as 
 to take ray leave of it, without acknowledging that I received 
 indeed much Entertainment one part, at leati, if the other 
 was denied, of the Duplex Libelll Dos from what precedes thofe 
 rules : where the modeft Eflayift, without the fmalleft affecta- 
 tion or vanity, dedicates to a moft refpeftable nobleman with 
 " MY DEAR LORD," and fubfcribes himfelf his " FRIEND :" 
 -who " wilhes to be concealed," yet throws out " an ac- 
 knowledgement which perbftpi may betray him" Et fugit ad, 
 falices : who is fearful of being fufpe&ed of forming even a 
 uoijb for his country " Were I to form a wifli for my country !" 
 and affures us, that, if he did rafhly venture fo far ; it 
 ihould be merely, that, MY DEAR LORD, HIS FRIEND, 
 might be again IN OFFICE : 
 
 "True fings the Bard, well known to Fame, 
 " SELF-LOVE AND SOCIAL ARE tfHE SAME.*' 
 
 FINIS.
 
 
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