that which is here made. The circumflex is unnecessary to this purpofe; as well because both these monofyllables must, and cannot but be pronounced with a circumflex, whether ⚫ marked or not; as because the different fenses are distin< guished by the different breathings-, with one and the fame accent, carrieth five different fenfes; whence the rea-' der can have no help from the accent, but the context, to difcover its particular fenfe in each place. But as fuch another inftance of five different fenfes to one word, under the fame accent, can hardly be produced, and the context removes the difficulty, it is a ftrong proof that accents can not be of great ufe, tho' they should be allowed to be of • fome―ava and dia prepofitions have an acute on the last fyllable, to diftinguish them from ava rex, and Tov Aía Jovem, but he must be an utter novice, who finds any difficulty in diftinguishing these without an accent. 2dly, Accents may be useful to diftinguish the quantity of fyllables: but then to do this they ought always to be placed according to quantity, which at prefent they are not. And therefore, as accents may fometimes lead us to the knowledge of quantity, fo it is certain they may also fometimes miflead • us.'-After these conceffions however, our author determines — Upon the whole, the advantages of accents are but small ; • but the difadvantages great and many, fince they introduce ⚫ unneceffary difficulties into a language, which hath fufficient • ones of itself.—They are placed by rules which are often arbitrary, and contrary to one another.-They deftroy all that harmony for which the Greek language is fo juftly esteemed and they encourage laziness. It is an eafy matter, continues our author, to see an accent marked over a fyllable, and to place the stress of the voice there; but it is not fo eafy to know the quantity of fyllables, and give to every part of a word its due proportion of time. We are hereby led and accustomed to trust to our eyes, and not to

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our ears.'

Having added, that accents are of lefs ufe in the Greek language than in moft others, from the fettled quantity of their long and fhort vowels, and from their twelve diphthongs, which fo frequently occur, he curiously reflects, that- Men

are led to accent their words partly by the conftitution of their language, and partly by their own natural temper. • One of a volatile temper will love fhort fyllables, and will not like to be stopped, either by quantity or accent. So that in pronouncing a word of three fyllables he will run on, and place the accent upon the laft, because he can run no • fur

further. On the contrary, one of a phlegmatic temper will ⚫ love long fyllables, and, being pleafed with the majesty of quantity and accent, in pronouncing a trifyllable, he will naturally lay fome ftrefs as foon as he can, and fix upon the firft for his accent.-Thus he inftances, amongst the Greeks, the Eolians were termed Bapuvrxaí, from placing their accents as foon as they could, which neceffarily brought a grave ⚫ upon the last.' We are not without several inftances of the different dialects of our own language, confifting, among other diverfities, fometimes in a different accentuation of the fame word, fpelt in the fame manner. Thus, an Englishman fays a reply, accenting the laft fyllable; a Scotchman, unaccustomed to the English accent, fays a réply, accenting the first; as we have often remarked: and undoubtedly many fuch diverfities of pronouncing may occur in different, and even fometimes in contiguous, counties.

Our curious author, who is not content to treat his subject in a loose fuperficial manner, imagines, that the prefent ufe ⚫ of accents was introduced into the Greek language when conqueft, and commerce, &c. brought foreigners into Greece. For then, each was naturally led to pronounce Greek according to the accents which prevailed in his mother-tongue : for inftance, he whofe mother-tongue abounded in anapafts, (as the French, which hath no trifyllable that maketh a dactyl) would naturally have placed the accent upon the laft fyllable, ⚫ and made Tavés an oxytone, tho' the penultimate is long by nature. And he whofe mother-tongue abounded in dactyls, (as the English, which hath no trifyllable that maketh an anapast) would naturally have placed the accent upon the antepenultimate, and pronounced rúar, with the ⚫ accent upon the firft, tho' the laft is long by nature, and the penultimate by pofition. And if you were to give to a Frenchman, and to an Englishman, who knew nothing of the Greek accents, two Greek words to pronounce, one confifting of three long fyllables, and the other of three short ones, in both cafes the Frenchman would certainly place the accent upon the laft, and make both words anapafts; and the Englishman would certainly place the accent upon the first, ⚫ and make both words dactyls."

Two incidents are cited by our author, from which the patrons of pronunciation by accent endeavour to prove their antiquity; in both of which Demofthenes was concerned. One of them occurs in his oration wepí 58Qave, in which his intention was to perfuade the people, that Efchines was the mercenary, μirdwros, not the guest, evos, of Philip and Alexander ;

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where

where, in propofing the queftion to them, he artfully laid the accent on the firft and wrong fyllable, faying io9wros; as foreknowing the people would repeat the word, wrós to him, in order to rectify his wrong pronunciation of it; in which it is faid, he met with the defired fuccefs; from thence affuming, the voice of the people had declared Efchines a mercenary. -This, he obferves, was an artifice too low for Demofthenes, and as the fuccefs of it was very uncertain, one cannot think he would in prudence have truffed to it.

The other inftance is from Plutarch's lives of the ten orators, where Demofthenes is fuppofed to have been cenfured for laying the accent upon Arxλios (Æfculapius) upon the antepenultimate, instead of the last fyllable, the common way of accenting it: the former of which he endeavoured to justify by faying he was 'mos, a mild benign god. And upon this account, fays Plutarch, he was often difturbed. But this our author affirms, doth not, nor can, come up to what is pretended, without overftraining and perverting the text, which he charges Baillius, a pronouncer by accent, with having done, who varies the common accent of this word on the last fyllable, to the penultimate. He remarks too, that Plutarch, in enumerating the defects of Demofthenes, never charges him with falfe accents; which, being a principal defect, he could not have omitted; and rationally concludes, it cannot be imagined that Demofthenes, who had been born and educated at Athens, could be faulty in this respect.

Within a few pages after our author gives three lines from the Iliad, accented in the manner of the moderns, and in that of the antients, by which it appears they muft read barbarously and diffonantly by the accentuation of the former: and at length concludes his work in the following manner, after fummarily averring his former objections to the modern use of Greek accents.

There are undoubtedly fome difficulties to be met with on the fubject of accents, both in the Greek and Latin languages. But thefe may, perhaps, be removed by confidering, that in all languages the pronunciation of fome words is founded only upon cuftom, which is above all the laws of grammar.

There are feveral inftances of this in Quintilian, Prif cian, Feflius, Gellius, and Charifius: San&tius particularly confeffing, there were fome things in the ufe of accents among the antient Romans, (which our author fuppofes equally applicable to the antient Greeks) of which we have no perfect conception. If then the patrons of the modern doc

trine of accents, in the antient Greek language, think they

‹ can

can reconcile it with a due obfervation of quantity, they are ⚫ free to retain it: but I muft fincerely confefs, I cannot fee • how they can. On the contrary, we plainly fee that, in fact, they do not: and that in verfe they do not fo much as pretend to it.-And therefore, if we would preferve uniformity, and keep to what we can fafely rely on, we must not admit of any ufe of accents in the antient Greek language, but what is confiftent with quantity. And if we have loft the nicer part of the antient pronunciation, we have the more reason to adhere to that effential part which still • fubfifteth.'

Thus have we attempted fuch an abftract of this curious and critical piece, as we hope will excite thofe admirers of Greek literature, who maintain the oppofite fyftem of accents, or are yet undetermined on this head, to perufe the whole. The ingenious and learned author has well obferved, in a former part of his treatife, that the nature of accents had not been fufficiently confidered; and that there was but one accent, • viz. an acute in nature, the grave being a privation of ac'cent.' He has entered throughout the fequel into as analytical an investigation of the fubject, as it admitted; and difcovers not only a critical knowledge of the Greek tongue, but a taste of the abftrufer nicieties of language in general; while he conducts the whole in fuch a manner, as to join fome entertainment with his information.

K

MONTHLY CATALOGUE for December, 1754.

MISCELLANEOUS.

Ifcellanies in profe and verfe. Containing, The General Refurrection, a fatire,-fables, fongs, epitaphs, epigrams, & all entirely new. By Charles Hallifax. 8vo. is. Hooper, &c.

This performance ranks with the Fourth Grace, mentioned in our laft month's catalogue, art. 29.

II. Merlin's Life and Prophecies, &c. 8vo. 1s. Cooper, Reeve, and Simpfon.

The above is published on occafion of the late contests about the rights of Richmond park. All the old legendary tales concerning Merlin, are here raked together, for the fake of introducing a very fhort narrative of the late trial, which determined the difpute between the ranger of the aforementioned park, and the inhabitants of Richmond. Whether this narration be a juft one or not, we are uncertain, not having been prefent at the trial, of which no genuine account has been publifhed.

III. The

III. The origin of the grandeur of the court of Rome. By the late Abbé Vertot. Tranflated from the French, by John Farrington, efq; 8vo. Is. 6d. Dodfley.

This we take to be the leaft valuable of all the works of the Abbé Vertot. It contains nothing but what is related in a much more fatisfactory manner, in feveral different hiftories of the popes; of whom we have no account in this pamphlet, after the death of Charlemain the Great. Nor have we any thing to fay in commendation of the prefent tranflation; which, if we mistake not, is the fecond we have had of this unimportant piece. Mr. Nourfe published one a few years ago, which we have not feen; price one fhilling.

IV. The Free-thinker's Catechifm; that is to fay, an inftruction to be learned by every young fellow before he can know the world, &c. &c. 8vo. 6d. Mannerly.

Specimen.

Quest. What is your nick-name?

Anf. Buck, Blood, Jolly Dog, Queer Devil, Wit, Critic, Tom, Dick, Harry, Bob, &c. &c. &c.

Quest. Who gave you these names?

Anf. The choice fpirits upon the town; wherein I was made a member of White's, the child of mother Douglas, and an inheritor of the Hell-fire Club!

Queft. What did they then for you?

Anf. They did promife and vow three things in my name; First, That I fhould renounce the creator and all his works, follow the pomps and vanities of the polite world, and all the fashionable lufts of the flesh. Secondly, That I 'fhould ridicule all the articles of the chriftian faith. Thirdly, That I fhould keep the purlieus of Covent-garden, and walk in the fame all the days of my life.'

The author has borrowed a free-thinking creed, (written in the fame fpirit) from the Connoiffeur, No. IX. He then continues the dialogue, and introduces a fett of commandments, of which take the following fample.

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Remember that no day in the week can be more holy than another. The feventh day is the fabbath, and a day of reft and devotion to low tradefmen and mechanicks, who go to church to hear nonfenfe from a pulpit; but as thou haft no business there, thou shalt follow any manner of pleasure, thou, and thy fon, and thy daughter, and the vifiter that is within thy gates. Thou fhalt get drunk, thou shalt intrigue, thou fhalt play at cards.'

Thou shalt not ideal. Thou fhalt not pick a pocket, or break open a fhop like a petty rogue; thou shalt rob like a VOL. XI.

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gentle