How would Mr. Sheridan, for inftance, pronounce the words following? acquicpe, appertain, cavalcade, circumvent, condefiend, difalis, immature, magazine, mafquerade, reconcile. These, and many other words, are fet down in our vocabularies, as being accented on the last fyllable. Again, others are fet down as accepted on the firt fyllable; fuch are architect, aqueduct, beautify, circumfped, enterprize, interview, intimate, intercourse, manifold, manufcript, orthodox, retrograde, &c.

It is very evident, however, on a bare repetition of thefe words, that they night change lifts, or, with the fame propriety, be put into one. They are all, indeed, equally accented both on the firft and the laff, and very juftly fo; for, if the end of emphafts and accent be to convey the moft fignificant parts of fentences and words forcibly and diftinctly to the ear, no reason can be given why the first and last fyllables in thefe words fhould not be equally accented.

Nothing, indeed, can be more deftructive of the principal end and inflitution of accent and emphafis, than the practice of huddling the fignificant fyllables of a word together, in order to lay a fingle accent on one, perhaps the most infignificant of the whole. Yet nothing is more frequent than this vicious practice, which Mr. Sheridan's rules naturally tend to promote. Thus, in forming derivatives of four fyllables from words of three, the stress of the accent is generally encreafed upon the third, (as that writer recommends) and diminished on the firft. By this method, however, the meaning of the word is totally obfcured: thus from cavalcade and mafquerade, fhould we form cavalcading, mafquerading, and pronounce them after this erroneous manner, the fignificant parts of the word would be hurried over, to fwell the found of a mere expletive or formal fyllable, common to all words fo modified, as is the cafe in words ending in ation; thus exclamation, fermentation, vifitátion, naturalization.

Is it not contrary to the very purposes of speech, and even to common fenfe, to pretend, that the founds of the first fyllables of these words, on which their meaning folely depends, fhould be weaker than the formal ma, ta, za, which are common to a thousand words of different meanings?'

Our Author proceeds to enforce this argument by farther examples, and propofes the ufe of two accents, the grave and the acute, the former to be placed on short fyllables, ending with a confonant, and the latter on a long fyllable ending with a vowel. He goes on next to confider the power and ufe of the accent in forming quantities in Englifh verfe. In treating of this head, he entirely difapproves and explodes the method adopted by

Mafon

Mason and others, of fcanning English verfe by the Iambic, Trochaic and other fect of the ancients. He makes fome remarks on this fubject that may not be improper to quote; as, whether true or falfe, they have at leaft the merit of novelty.

There is a paffage (fays Mr. Rice) in Milton's Paradife Regain'd, wherein he introduces Satan, recommending to our Saviour, the study of the Athenian Orators:

Thofe ancient, whofe refiflefs eloquence
Wielded at will that fierce democratie,

Shook th' arfenal and fulmin'd over Greece,

To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne.

In expatiating on the beauty of these lines, it hath been obferved, that Milton hath here" defcribed the hafty changes of the paffions and counfels of the ancient orators, in the very movements of his verfe; at the fame time expreffing the vim Demofthenis, the force or vehemence of Demofthenes, in the mere fituation of the words fierce and refiflefs, with an equal burft of thunder fhaking the arfenal, and light'ning at once over Greece to Macedon, and the diftant throne of Artaxerxes; that is, in the apprehenfion of thofe ages, from one end of the earth to another, with a like vehemence, propriety and rapidity of numbers."

< That these verses contain much of that vehemence, propriety, and rapidity of expreffion, which is imputed to them, I do readily admit; but if the numbers, of which they are compofed, are juftly estimated by the fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables, I cannot fee how their force or propriety depends merely on their numbers for certain it is, that the harmony and mode of expreffion in the following verfes are totally different; and yet there is exactly the fame fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables, or the fame numbers in them as in the preceding:

-The lofty fhip

Rode buoyant o'er the liquid element,
Wafted by winds, that blew in fymphony:
Not goffamers e'er wanton'd in the breeze
So placid, as her artificial wings.

The reader will fee that, in this imitation, I have not taken the liberty to fubftitute accent for quantity; but have preferved not only the fame fucceffion of long and fhort fyllables, but have placed the very accents in the fame parts of the lines, and have even imitated the founds, as far as the fubject would admit. This will be more confpicuous on viewing them clofer together.

that

We find none of the Powers of thunder and lightning,

Shook th' arfenal, and fulmin'd over Greece,

To Macedon, and Artaxerxes' throne;

in the numbers of the correfponding lines,

Not goffamers e'er wanton'd in the breeze
So placid, as her artificial wings.

And yet the accents, and even literal conftruction of the fyllables, are very nearly the fame.

It is very evident, on thus comparing these two paffages, that fomething more than time muft enter into the compofition of English numbers. I am, indeed, furprised to find this ancient criterion of quantity, fo much infifted on, as it is, by writers who have been reduced to the neceffity of conftantly breaking through their own rules, to accommodate the syllables in some verses, to their imaginary numbers.

The following verfes Mr. Mafon calls Anapæftic, and scans

thus:

<

With Hearts bold and ftout,

We'll repel the vile Rout,

And follow fair Liberty's Call;

"We'll rush on the Foe,

And deal Death in each Blow,

Till Conqueft, and Honour, crown all.

According to this method of fcanning, the words bold, we'll, vile, fair, deal, each, crown, which are all naturally long fyllables, and most of them emphatical befides, are yet marked fhart. On the other hand, the laft fyllable in repel is made long, though naturally fhort, and not to be lengthened by the accent;

as are also the first fyllables in follow, liberty, conqueft, and honour ; all of the same nature. Nothing, furely, can be more palpable than the abfurdity of making pel long in the very fame line in which vile is made fhort! The fame may be faid of deal and death; the former of which is made fhort, and the latter long.

In fpeaking of verfes, written for music, Mr. Mafon very judicioufly obferves, that the length of the notes and fyllables fhould be adapted to each other. But let us fuppofe that the above ftanza were thus fet to mufic; how would it found if fung, in recitative? Muft not some of the fyllables be lengthened, and others contracted in their articulation thus?

With Hartes buld and flout, | wel re- pele the vil rout,

And folo fer Leeburtis Call;

Wel rube on the Foe,

And del Deathe in ech Blow,

Till Conequeft, and Honer, crun all.

The reader will judge how far nature or truth are confulted in such a system of profody

It is needless to multiply examples, in order to fet this difference between ancient and modern numbers in a stronger point of view. It is, therefore, a vain and fruitless attempt to make one the criterion of the other; nor have the modern poets, who have endeavoured to imitate the numbers of the ancients, been lefs fuccessful in their compofitions, than the critics, who have endeavoured to reconcile the numbers of modern and ancient poetry to the fame ftandard. As the ill fuccefs of the former, however, hath fufficiently fhewn, that modern languages do not admit of a kind of verse altogether dependent on long and

Not that the Author denies the existence of this fpecies of verse; on the contrary, he deems the following flanza as purely Anapatic as our language will permit, or the critics may require:

fhort fyllables; fo one would have thought the latter might have been thence induced to confult nature, rather than authority, in their future tracts on this fubject.

Not that I deny the real exiflence of this fpecies of modulation; but what I contend for, is, that fuch measures are merely mufical, and not poetical; being adapted folely to fuch verfes as are written to be fung. it is very cafy to write English Anapaftic verfes; but the above are not fuch, because they cannot be properly fet to mufic, without altering the natural length of the fyllables. It is alfo poffible to write Iambic, Trochaic, Hexameter, and every other fpecies of ancient verse, in English; but, while emphafis and accent have fo great a hate in the compofition of our numbers, a bare attention to the length of fyllables would make but very lame and imperfect

verfes.'

We should here clofe our account of this performance, having given fufficient fpecimens of it to enable the Reader to form fome judgment of the Author's abilities, but we must not pass altogether unnoticed The sketch of a plan for establishing a criterien, by which the pronunciation of languages may be afcertained; and in particular that of the English tongue, reduced to a fixt standard.' This sketch is added by way of appendix; the Author pretending to have difcovered that there are but fixteen diftinct founds in the English tongue, under one of which founds every fyllable in our whole language is comprized. If this be fact, it may lead to a very concife method of reducing our pronunciation to rules, and of facilitating its acquifition to foreigners. The farther illuftration of this sketch, however, is referved for a grammar and dictionary, which, it feems, the Author propofes to execute on a like plan.

Refications on the Painting and Sculpture of the Grecks: With Inructions for the Connoiffeur, and an Effay on Grace in Works of Art. Tranflated from the German Original of the Abbé Winkelann, Librarian of the Vatican, F. R. S. &c. By Henry Fuffeli, A. M. 8vo. 5s. boards. Millar.

T may be thought difficult, at this time of day, to advance any thing new or important, on fubjects fo frequently and variously treated of, as the arts of antiquity. It is true, that fcarce an anecdote of the ancient artists remains, that hath not been often repeated, and hardly any comparifon of their works is to be made with thofe of the moderns, that hath not fuggefted