[ 37^ 3 



Tife of long or fhorc fyllables in profe, if we are not to attend to 

 them when accent comes in the way ; but to gentlemen on the 

 other fide, I can only anfwer, that in the firft place accent doth 

 not always interfere, and then quantity is our guide, and ac- 

 cent often accords with quantity. Secondly, metre determines the 

 number of feet or meafures in each verfe, and thereby produces 

 a general analogy and harmony through the whole, and it is 

 to be obferved, that, as I apprehend, accent doth not change the 

 number of feet, though it doth the nature or fpecies of them. 

 Thus when we read 



Arma.virumque cano, Trojce qui primus ab oris, 

 we do not make more feet than when we fcan the line, nor 

 employ more time than in pronouncing the next line in which 

 the accent happens to accord with the qviantity, viz. ItaUam fato 

 profugus, Lavinaque venit. Thirdly, The poet in meafuring 

 his verfe certainly muft be confined to fome certain nvimber 

 and order of long and fhort fyllables, in order to produce 

 a concordance through the whole, and even to regulate the 

 pofition of accent, which though not fubdued by quantity will 

 certainly have fome relati m to it, cuphonias gratia ; but furely 

 the length or fliortnefs of a fyllable cannot determine where 

 emphafis fliall be placed — that mufl depend on the meaning 

 and the thought; and it would be molt abfurd for the poet 

 to fay to the reader, you ftiall not reft upon this emphatic and 

 fignificative word becaufe its fyllables are fliort, and wherever 



there is a reft, there muft be length and intonation. 



On 



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