[36; ] 



mifed above, to men of more learning, but I think it at leaft fo pro- 

 bable as to make it worth while to communicate to the Academy the 

 inftances which occurred in proof of this aflertion more parti- 

 cularly. Of the two firft perfons whom I met, one, the fteward of 

 the fhip, an inhabitant of the ifland of Cephalonia, had had a 

 fchool education : he read Euripides and tranflated fome eafier 

 paffages without much difficulty. By a ftay in this country of 

 near two years he was able to fpeak Englifh very tolerably, as 

 could the captain and feveral of the crew, and almoft all of them 

 fpoke Italian fluently. The companion however of the fteward 

 could fpeak only modern Greek, in which I could difcover that he was 

 giving a defcription of the diftrefs in which the fhip had been, and 

 though not able to underftand the context could plainly diftin- 

 guifti many words, fuch as SevSpa — ^vXov, and amongft the reft the 

 found of AvS^uTTog pronounced fliort ; this awoke my curiofity, 

 which was ftill more heightened when I obferved that he faid 

 Ayd^uTTuv long, with the fame attention to the alteration of the ac- 

 cent with the variety of cafe, which a boy would be taught 

 to pay at a fchool in England *. Watching therefore more clofely, 



and 



* It will not be fuppofed that this man knew the rule, fi ultima fit longa, acuitur 

 penultima, fi brevis, antepenultima. I cannot avoid here lamenting the total inat- 

 tention to the rules of accent in our fchools in Ireland. Suppofe it to be an 

 ufelefs part of learning, if cuftom in England has made it thought ornamental and 

 neceflary, the Irifh fcholar who is ignorant of it will be cenfured, however 

 undefervedly. I have known men of high literary name in this country who did not 

 know the meaning of the marks which diftinguifli encliticks, and gave to oxytones the 

 very converfe of their real meaning. An Englifli fcholar who publiflies a Greek 

 elalEc, could accent it without looking on an accented copy. 



