endeavoured to prove that they did fo in Greek, but this is on the bold 

 fuppofition that the accent doth not fall where the mark is placed. 

 The objection to this hypothefis, which feems to have been admitted 

 by all writers, and confidered as decifive by fome as to profe, by 

 all as toverfe, is that fuch a mode of pronunciation or reading muft 

 deftroy metre, or Rhutbmot. From this pofition, however univerfal, 

 or however it may have been taken for granted, I totally diffent. 

 That it will oppofe the metre or quantity I readily agree, but that 

 it will deftroy the Rhythmos, by which, whatever learned de- 

 fcriptions there may have been of its meaning, I underftand 

 nothing more than the melody or fmooth flowing of the verfes or 

 their harmony if you pleafe, if harmony be properly applied to fuc- 

 ceflive and not fynchronal founds. On the contrary, nothing can 

 be more difagreeable or unmelodious than the reading verfe by- 

 quantity, or fcanning of it, as it is vulgarly called. Let us try the 

 line fo often quoted — 



Arma, virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris, 

 inftead of Arma virumqiie cano, Trojas qui primiis ab oris, 

 or. In nova, &c. 



No man ever defined Rhuthmos better than Plato, ordinem 

 quendam qui in mbtibus cerniiur \ the motion or meafure of the 



3 A 2 verfc 



hearing a native of Lucknow, but born of Perfian parents, who was lately in Dublin, 

 Abu^Talib Khan, read an ode of Hafiz; accent and quantity always went together : 

 BedehSakec me'i Bakee, &c. &c. : with refpeft to the pofition of the accent, Sir W, Jones 

 remarks, that the Perfians, like the French, ufually accent the laft fyllable of the 

 word, and thsjlrtngth of accent which he has noted was remarkable in the gentleman 

 I have mentioned, and almofl; amounted to recitative. 



