140 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



peated fibilation thereby occafioned is undoubtedly very difa- 

 greeable to the ear. Of this, a noted paflage in the Medea of 

 Euripides, which has been feverely cenfured by fome critics, 

 is a fuiEcient proof. 



Y,(raiTct, If , ag 'i(rcctrii> 'EXX^vs^v ocot 



The poet, however, had not attended to this circumftanoe^ 

 otherwife he would have avoided fuch an ofFenlive tautology. 

 Cicero, from inadvertence of a fimilar fort, has begun his 

 Topka with the following fentence : " Majores nos res fcribere 

 " ingreflbs, C. Trebati, et iis libris, quos brevi tempore fatis 

 " multos edidimus, digniores, e curfu ipfo revocavit voluntas 

 " tua." Several fuch paffages might be produced from the 

 beft authors, both Greek and Latin, if it were worth while to 

 collecfl them. 



It is remarkable, that in the Englifh tongue, where almofl 

 no inflexion takes place, and confequently where the S has no 

 peculiar duty to difcharge, that letter is of more frequent oc- 

 currence than in any other language, and occafions, efpecially 

 in the ears of foreigners, a conftant and difagreeable hiding f. 

 Such a language would have been confidered as harlh and bar- 

 barous in an extreme degree, by thofe ancient authors who were 



offended 



* Verfe 47:7. 



f " S (fays Johnson) has m Englifh the fame hiffing found' as in other languages, and 

 ** unhappily prevails in fo many of our words, that it produces in the ear of a foreigner 

 " a continued fibilation." Di3. Letter S. Addison too had obferved, "^That a change 

 " has happened in our language, by the abbreviation of fcveral words that are termi- 

 " nated in eth, by fubftituting an S in the room of the laft fyllable, as in drowns, -walks, 

 " armies, and innumerable other words, which, in the pronunciation of our forefathers,. 

 " were drowneth, walketh, arriveth. This (adds he) hath wonderfully multiplied a lel- 

 " ter which was before too frequent in the Englifh tongue, and added to that hilFing in 

 " our language, which is taken fo much notice of by foreigners." SpeBator, No. 135. 



