OF ARTS AND SCIENCES. 185 



some of the rhythms — as the dactylic — the Roman accent more fre- 

 quently coincides with the ictus of the rhythmical time, than does the 

 Greek accent ; but in many of the rhythms it does not, and it does 

 not uniformly in the dactylic. For example, in the first line of the 

 -^neid, • 



' Arma virumque cano Trojse, qui primus ab oris,' 



in the word cano, the natural accent falls on the short syllable cd, 

 while the metrical ictus falls on the syllable no. The rhythmical ictus 

 and the natural accent coincide four times. 

 " In the first line of the Iliad, 



M^i/ij/ aeiBe, 6ed, Ilr]\r]'idBea> 'AxtXX^of, 



the metrical ictus and the natural accent coincide three times. Prob- 

 ably, take the languages through, the proportion of four to three rep- 

 resents the comparative frequency, in the Greek and Latin, of this 

 coincidence. In scanning both Latin and Greek verse, we substitute 

 accentual beat for musical time. In Latin, as well as Greek, the 

 natural accent does not coincide with the quantity. "We do not accent 

 a Latin hexameter as we accent the words which compose it in a prose 

 sentence. We do not accent a Greek hexameter, as we accent the 

 words which compose it, in a prose sentence, whether we accent these 

 words according to the Greek or Roman system. In the ancient 

 musical recitation, quantity was so predominating an element, that ac- 

 cent almost disappeared ; as the English accent disappears in singing 

 an English song. By our accentual reading of ancient verses, we pro- 

 duce only an analogous effect, not at all an effect identical with that of 

 the ancient musical recitation. There is all the difference between 

 them that there is between music and reading, — between singing and 

 saying. 



" The learned Greeks of the present day admit the loss of quantity 

 from their language; and this has been conspicuously shown by the 

 singular fact, that some of their poets have lately introduced, among 

 their poetical rhythms, the accented hexameter, both in original poems 

 and in translations from the ancient classics. Alexander R. Rangabes, 

 one of the most learned professors in the University of Athens, now 

 the able Secretary of Foreign Affairs, — a gentleman of such indefati- 

 gable industry that, amidst all the cares and labors that fall upon him 

 as a leading member of the Cabinet, he has never omitted a lecture 

 in the University, — this gentleman, a distinguished poet, as well as 



VOL. IV. 24 



