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    of faeies , he would probably be punished us having committed a false quantity , as having lengthened a short syllable . But if the master were not a blunderer himself , he would know

    that it is no such thing . The quantity is equally regarded , and equally violated , whether the word be pronounced as the trembling little culprit nronounced it , or in the way which

    his magisterial authority has declared to be correct . The boy was certainly wrong in reading faeies : he misplaced the accent , because the usage of the Latin tongue , as we learn from Quinctilian , required that in such a case the accent should fall on the

    antipenultiraa . The place of the accent is determined by the quantity , both in Latin and Greek . To misplace the accent , in either language , is to disregard the established rules of the tongue , but is not to be confounded with corrupting or changing the quantity , with which , it has no necessary connexion * Since then * neither in

    Greek nor Latin , are we accustomed to pay any other attention to the quantity than to place the accent where we apprehend the quantity requires it should be , we may see that the charge brought against the Greek accents , of corrupting the quantity , resolves itself into this : that the

    Greek accents are not placed where the quantity requires that they should be , according to thje rules which we have been used to observe . This is very true , and this is the whole amount of the objection . The rules we have been used to observe are

    those which regulate the Latin accent : the rules which regulated the Greek accent happen to be somewhat different from these : and therefore we suppose that the Greek accents are not where the quantity requires that they should be . First we say , they

    corrupt the quantity : this means merely , that they are not conformed to the quantity in the way prescribed by a certain rule : this rule is that of the Latin accent : and the objection rightly stated ends in this : the rules

    01 the Greek accent differ from those of the Latin . For example $ the laws ot Greek require that the accent : of oXvfA 7 ro <; should be on the first syllable : tins gives offisneet we say the quantity is corrupted i we mean the accent is misplaced ; and wh y * because it is

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    not placed where it wouM be placed in Latin * Such then I conceive is the explanation of a mystery which has puzzled some learned men more than one would have thought possible * We have now taken a view of the

    true nature of quantity and aeeent ; we have marked the essential distinction that there exists between them , and the nature of that dependence of the one on the other which is created by the usages of different languages . We have thus * been able to trace the

    ground of that opinion , that the Greek accents are inconsistent with the quantity : shewing that it amounts to no more than that they are inconsistent with the Latin accents . Although , however , this be the true ground of the objection , as generally felt by those that urge it , there is still a more rational form into which

    it can be thrown , and which it will be proper to consider . It is obvious enough that there is no reason for requiring the pronunciation of Greek to be conformed to the rules of Latin : but it has been alleged , that our

    present Greek accentuation is not really the genuine ancient method ; and to confirm this opinion , it has been said that it is naturally inconsistent with the observance of the quantity . Each of these positions I shall now endeavour to disprove .

    In the first place , I shall attempt to shew by direct evidence from antiquity , that the place of the Greek accent is the same now that it was in ancient times . In this place it may

    be well to take notice , that when the antiquity of our Greek accents is asserted , we are not to be understood as speaking of the little strokes by which they are expressed in writing , but of the tones themselves which are

    represented by them . The marks are indeed of no modern date ; but as I believe that few will be inclined to quarrel with them who believe that they correctly point out the ancient pronunciation , I shall dismiss the consideration of them very briefly . It is admitted that they were not used in the time of Aristotle : their

    introduction , in some form , is ascribed by the ancients to Aristophanes the grammarian , who flourished about 200 yean * before Christ , and to whom the invention of the marks of punctuatioiii ® also attributed : but after ki&

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    Argument in favour of the Greek Accents . 44 ft

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1823, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1787/page/13/