AD MP 6 407 
elevating—or rough and terrific. Such words ought al= 
fo to be chofen as when repeated neceifarily produce in 
the features the paflions diCtated by the theme, and the 
hearer fhould be Jed along by its variety. As all words 
are not, in certain fituations, calculated for particular f{pe- 
cies of poetry, authors have taken many liberties, and 
have changed, not only the meafure of the word but fome- 
times its accent. Poetry has thus tended, in the opinion 
of fome, to correct the emphafis, and is thought in all 
languages, particularly the dead ones, to preferve a know- 
ledge of the true found of words. 
It is, by no means, my intention to dwell upon thefe 
fubje&ts, fome of which would require diftiné treatifes, 
and the world hath already been favoured with feveral, by 
many ingenious men, (Thomas Sheridan, Noah Web- 
fter, &c.) but I was obliged to purfue particular ideas 
into thofe devious paths. I muft now fay a few words on 
the Mieroglyphicks of writing, among which I cannot but 
rank what are{improperly) called the fops [and ought ra- 
ther to be termed /ymbols of variation in fpeech*] as well 
“as the | Arabic numerals, chemical charaéters, and aftro- 
nomical figns, &c. 
Stops. 
Many Chinefe words have different meanings accord- 
ing to their different { tones; and fome of our ftops 
2 which 
* As letters denote the component parts of words, the AGoruAsIs or AGOPHONIKS denote 
the pitch or key and tone of the letter, worc, or fentence; the flexions, force, and various 
meanings which are to be derived from cadence; and are to the letters in reading what the 
flats, fharps, refts, &c. are to the notesin mufic. 
+ Edward Gibbon obferves (in his Hiftory of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. 
v. page 321.) that ‘* under the reign of the Caliph Waled, the Greek language and characters 
¢*-were excluded from the accounts of the publicrevenue. Ifthis change was productive of the 
‘* invention or familiar ufe of our prefent numerals, the Arabic characters or cyphers, as they 
** are commonly ftyled, a regulation of office has promoted the moft important difcoveries of 
*¢ arithmetic, algebra, and the mathematical fciences.”’ 4 
“© According to a new, though probable notion, maintained by M. de Villoifon (Anecdota 
Greca, tom: ii: pag. 152, 157.) our cyphers are not of Indian or Arabic invention. They 
were ufed by the Greck and Latin arithmeticians long before the age of Boethius. After the 
extinction of {cience in the weft, they were adopted in the Arabic verfions from the original 
M. S. S, and refored to the Latinsabout the XI. century.” 
+ See note page 3oT. 
