Particularly tf the LETTER 2 IF MA, 127 



" places, efpecially the aorifts of verbs, it may be pronounced 

 " either as a fimple or a double letter *." This reafon is inge- 

 nious ; but, tipon examining it narrowly, it does not appear to 

 be fatisfadtory. Indeed Dr Clarke himfelf does not feem 

 quite fatisfied with it, and offers it only as a conje6lxire. There 

 is no doubt, however, of what this accomplifhed fcholar has 

 elfewhere "f fhewn, that the penult of the firfl aorift of fuch a 

 verb as siKLZa is fhort, but that the poets, as Homer has fre- 

 quently done, may make it long, by doubling the o-, or rather 

 by reftoring the <f, which had been thrown away in the forma- 

 tion of the firfl future %. Nor is it improbable, that when the 

 poems of Homer were firfl committed to writing, the ir was 

 fet down fingle, even when the verfe made it requifite to pro- 

 nounce it double. It happens, however, that this privilege of 

 being occafionally doubled, is not peculiar to the <t. We find, 

 among the poets, other confonants, mutes as well as liquids, 

 frequently in the fame fituation. Thus, 



And 



"Tot »») vmAAsKretv y^uKu^ig S-£o(, sJe Tiiijtrccii §. 



Here 



* mixaiTcri.'] " Ita jam fcribendum , neceflario ; quia mf^xe-i {ecundam corripit. Dubitari 

 " tamen poteft, utrumne Graeci antiquiores ifto modo fcripferint. Nam quum <r, fuee po- 

 " tejlatis literam dixerunt, haud fcio an hoc fibi voluerint ; literas ^, |, ipj nccelTario qui- 

 " dein duplices efle ; confonantium reliquas omnes, Jimplices ; unicam autem o-, iftiuftnodi 

 " efle, ut permultis in locis, zcpracipue in verborum Aoriftis, Jtmplex duplexve ex aequo 

 " pronunciari poflit.'' Ad Iliad. /, I. 



t Vide ad Iliad, a, 140. f, 432. 



% According to the rule, which direils, that, in verbs not liquid, the firft future 

 Chould arife from the prefent, by inferting a cr before m, ?rsA«'|», which is the fame with 

 srt^aJtr*, would have in the firft future 7rsXa'{(r», or iriXaitram. But a fpecial rule direrts, 

 that before 01 we muft, in the future, throw away t, t, 9, o-, which makes that tenle of 

 ■xitJi{u to be mhtiau- hence the firft aorift wsAaVa, to which reftore the rejefted ir, and it 

 becomes i'nixdcraa. Vide MooR Element. L, Gr. p. 128.. 



II Iliad. «', 33. 



§ Ibid, a, 406. 



