iT4 



will appear not merely a matter of possibility, but an ev6ril 

 of natural occurrence. 



Let us begin the investigation by tracing, if we can, the 

 mode of proceeding which rtiight have been adopted by any of 

 our great epic poets, if he had not the means of recording his 

 verses, yet was anxiously bent on transmitting them to post- 

 erity. Let us suppose Homer, Virgil, or Milton, labouring 

 under this predicament, and endeavouring distinctly to note 

 down the successive sounds which compose the first verses 

 of the Iliad, iEneid, or Paradise Lost. Let us select one pf 

 this immortal triumvirate ; and as the Latin Language is 

 more uniform in its sounds than the English, and the Ro- 

 man letter more convenient than the Greek for combining 

 two or more characters into one, as will be found serviceable 

 in explaining the process of the invention, let the Roman 

 Poet on the present occasion be our guide. 



Having composed and committed to memory the four 

 first lines of the ^neid, he would have no difficulty in divid- 

 ing the words into syllables as he pronounced them. 



Ar-ma vi^rum-que ca-no, Tro-jae qui pri-mus ab o - ris 

 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13, U. 15. 



I-ta-li-am, fa-to pro-fu-gus, La-vi-na-que ve-nit 

 16.17."18. 19. 20.21.22. 23. 24. 25. 26.27. 28. 29.30. 



Lirto-ra: mul-tum il-le et ter-ris jac-ta-tus et al-to, 

 31. 32. 33. 34. 33. S6.S7.38. 39 40. 41. 42. 48. 44. 45. 46. 

 Vi su-pe-rum, sse-vae me-mo-rem Ju-no-nis ob i-ram.* 

 47.48.49. 50. 51. 52. S3. 54. 55. 56.57. i8. 59. 60. 61. 



• Numbers are placed under the sereral syllable* that the reader may trace them 

 in the subsequent tables. 



