[ 3% ] 



with the aid of a gentleman who is perfedly mafter of the Italian 

 language. Both the Greeks repeatedly affurcd us that verfc as 

 well as profe was read by accent, and not by quantity, and ex- 

 emplified it by reading feveral lines of Homer, with whofe name 

 they fcemed perfedly well acquainted. 



I SHALL give an inftance or two of their mode of reading: 

 B>i ax'tuv "srocfcx, ^7voi. •sroX\j(pXot<rSoio 9'«eXo!(r<rij{', 



'Ef S'epBTce.g STriJij^ej oiyufOfA,iv , Ig o lucurrofAMiriv 

 They made the t in ccxiiav — 7rpo(re(f>t/ and epirxg long. 



But when they read 



They made the fecond fyllable of the firft word KX<j9t fhort, 

 notwithftanding the acute accent: on my aflcing why, they de- 

 fired me to look back on the circumflex on the lirft fyllable, and 

 faid it thence neceflarily followed, for it is impoflible to pronounce 

 the firft fyllable with the great length which the circumflex de- 

 notes, and not to fhorten the fecond. The teftimony of the 

 fchoolmafter might be vitiated, but what could be ftronger than 

 that of thefe ignorant mariners as to the vulgar common pradice 

 of modern Greece, and it is remarkable that this confirms the opi- 

 nion of Bifhop Horfley, that the tones of words in connedion are not 

 always the fame with the tones of folitary words, though in thofe of 

 more than one fyllable the accentual marks do not change their po- 

 fition. I muft here add that thefe men confirmed an obfervation of 

 Vol. VII. ^ A our 



