Viola. It gives a very echo to the seat,
Where love is thron'd.

Twelfth Night.

These observations lead us to the necessary distinction of the image from its effect; of its beauty as a visible object, from its energy as a source of pathetic emotions. Thus we draw the line between painting and music; nor does the occasion call for a masterstroke, their situation will be marked in the choice of their objects: as, painting—

Long, Pity, let the nations view

Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest blue,
And eyes of dewy light.

Thus music:

COLLINS' Ode to Pity.

Deserted at his utmost need,
By those his former bounty fed,
On the bare earth expos'd he lies,
With not a friend to close his eyes.

Alexander's Feast.

If, instead of expressing our own, we describe the feelings of others, and so enter into their conditions as to excite a lively sense of their several affections, we retain the spirit of the drama, though we abandon the form. The most perfect poem of this kind, in our language, is the Feast of Alexander, by Dryden. Here music unites with poetry in the character of a descriptive art; but then the objects of her descriptions are her own impressions.

It was objected by Aristotle, to the poets of his time, that they were the principal speakers in their own poems, contrary to the practice of Homer, who well knew, that while the poet speaks, the imitation or the drama ceases. It is remarkable, that this is the very era when Plutarch dates the corruption of music. When the poet ceased to write from the movements of the heart, the musician began to sing from the caprice of the imagination.

This abuse-for, when applied to language, it deserves no better name, was so thoroughly established before the revival of the arts, that no mere composer of music felt any concernabout lingual accent, quantity or poize,

but was quite indifferent, whether, in compliance with his musical whim, he extended a single syllable to the length of twenty cadences, either on a single tone, or articulated into a hundred and sixty, through all the extent of the voice; or whether he crammed eight or ten syllables, which might, in their natural quantities, be spondaic, into the narrow compass of one cadence. Notwithstanding the great improvements in music, in many respects, this still prevails; and many passages may be found, both in Handel and Haydn, and other eminent composers, where no attention is paid to any of the five accidents of language.

Let us now see the consequences of this ancient and modern poetico-musical composition.

The ancient Greeks, previous to the separation of music from poetry, always accustomed to hear the same accentuation of their language, both in common discourse, and in musical melodies, were never led astray; but by habit came to know as familiarly the accentual and rhythmical properties of every word, as we do at present the quantities of every common hackneyed tune; in which no one, who has any ear for music, is materially mistaken. This was the time when the ancients produced those wonderful effects by their music, which all their historians are unanimous in narrating.

But as to modern languages, their accentual and` rhythmical properties being constantly violated by musicians, it is no wonder, that even learned men have been hitherto so far misled, as not to perceive that they have precisely every accentual and rhythmical property that the Greek language had; properties which must necessarily belong to every language; for our ignorance of these is no argument that they do not

exist.

All refinements have a tendency to efface the principles of the art into which they are introduced. Hence it generally happens, that when things arrive at a certain point of perfection, luxurious refinement, in great communities, seldom fails to lead men into error and confusion. The physician, quitting his pharmacy, trusts the life of his patient to the hazardous handling of a second-hand profession. The lawyer, no longer

composing his own pleadings, lifeless in the cause, blunders through the blunders of a subaltern blunderer!

As imitative, and not arbitrary sounds, must have had the principal share in the formation of original language, the same cause would operate with equal force in the government of modulation. No language can be incapable of meter, unless the nature of its construction should be such, as that all its syllables must necessarily be pronounced in equal time. It was reserved for the spirit of modern criticism to conceive the existence of such a language; and, to render the examples still more remarkable, it has been fixed upon the Jews; a people who, to a natural heat of temper, united the most ardent enthusiasm, and were distinguished from every other nation, by the quickness of their feelings, and the vehemence of their passions, Let those who can insist on such a paradox, reconcile it to history and to nature.

The Attic poet, therefore, whoever he was, that first submitted the poizing of language to a mere musician, laid the foundation of our lingual disgrace. To rectify this, there is no method so sure, as to adopt, in that particular, the ancient Greek prudence, under which the study of music and letters were intimately blended together-an humble attempt at which is the object of this Grammar.

It is demonstrable, that all that part of language which belongs to utterance, is entirely to be regulated by the principles of music; that is, of sound and measure, or melody and rhythm. How then is it possible, according to the present modes and systems of teaching, to bring that part of it to the perfection of which it is capable, while, on the one hand, we have no marks to represent the accidents of language, and, on the other, while our men of letters are so ignorant of the music of language, as to doubt or deny its existence.

CHAP. II.

Constituents of all Language-Five Accidents, or properties of Speech-Accent defined and restored to its original meaning-Causes of varie.. ties of Accent-How they become the distinguishing characteristics of peculiar Modes of Speech-the Acute Accent-the Grave Accentthe Acute and Grave, and Grave and AcuteComplete and partial Circumflexes, or Grace Notes-Exercises on the Accents.

SPEECH Consists of melody by accentual slides, acute and grave, loud and soft; of measure or rhythm, of sound or motion; and of silence or rest, governed by emphatic cadences, heavy and light, metrically subdivided by quantity, long and short.

These are expressed thus:

1. ACCENT.-2. QUANTITY.-3. PAUSE.4. EMPHASIS.-5. FORCE, or quality of sound..

ACCENT.

Accent restored to its true and original Meaning;: its Varieties explained, and their Application exemplified.

ACCENT, as originally used and applied here, means all the varieties of inflexions or slides of the human voice, that can exist in spoken language.

This was the meaning of accent among the Greeks, where we find it first mentioned.

Although accents must be as ancient as language itself, yet, according to History, Aristophanes of By

zantium, was the first who invented marks to represent them. He invented these marks 200 years before the Christian Era, or 684 years after Homer wrote his Iliad.

The puzzling obscurity relative to the melody and measure of speech, which has hitherto existed between modern critics and ancient grammarians, has been chiefly owing to a want of terms, sufficient to distinguish clearly the several properties of language.

In this Grammar, accent is used exclusively to mean inflexions or slides of the voice.

It is, therefore, never applied, as we generally find it in books of elocution, in Grammars and Dictionaries, to signify stress or force of any kind, on any syllable or word; nor does it ever supply the place of quantity.

ACCENTS, HOW VARIED IN THEIR

APPLICATION.

All the varieties of accents, however varied in their application, originate from two simple modifications of voice; namely, the acute and grave accents :-acute grave\, or

The application of the accents must always vary according to the position of the words; whether in question or answer, in a suspended, or in a final pause; in a negative, a conditional, or an affirmative expression.

The accents vary in degree, according to the pitch of the voice; its highness or lowness, loudness or softness, harshness or smoothness.

They are affected by all the possible varieties of