1808.] 
Nilus in extremum fugit perterritus orbem, 
Occuluitgue caput, quod adhuc latet: ostia 
septem 
Pulverulenta vacant, septem sine fumine valles. 
vw. 254. 
Minellius explains “ pulverulenta” (in 
the note) by pulvere plenu, & “ vacant” 
by vacua sunt agua, exactly agreeing with 
my notion of the sense throughout. 
Tf afterall this, a sound reason can be 
brought to prove that poor Phaéton could 
possibly obtain any water for love or 
money, when the whole globe was in 
such combustible. circumstances, [ pros 
mise henceforth neverto open ny mouth, 
or write a single word more upon the 
subject. Your's, &c. 
Canden-town, SamurLt WeEsLey. 
August 2, 108. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine, 
SIR, 
AVING noticed Mr. Wesley’s ob- 
H servations on the quantity of Amra- 
nudes in page $1 of your last number, I beg 
leave to oller a few remarks on them. 
Quoting the rule Iecthlipsis est, quo- 
tices M cum sud vocali perimitur, pror- 
ima dictione a vocali exorsd, he thence 
concludes that “ words ending in M, 
must either be long before a consonant by 
position. or entir ely cut off and annihila- 
ted before a vowel.” Vhe rule, however, 
as I understand it, doves not say that 
either must necessarily happen: it only 
says, that “* whenezer”, or “ as often as,” 
the latter does happen, “ ecthlipsis est.” 
But this ectilipsis does not always take 
_place: for I have shewn, in my * Latin 
Prosody”, (pages 110 and 162 of the new 
and improved edition) that the M often 
remains un-elided before a vowel; in 
which cases, it is most commonly short; 
and [have'quoted the authority of Teren- 
tianus, to prove that the final Mis natu- 
rally short, at Jeast in some terminations. 
Respecting the name Amramys, Mr. 
W. thinks that “#0 one could be capable 
of so hideous a cacophony as to call it Am- 
rémus."——Vhat it is not the most har- 
monious combination of syllables, I 
readily allow: yet | cannot perceive that 
it is more cacophonous to shorten the 
‘penultimate 4A in Amrdmus, than in 
Pyréimus, Orcha'mus, Lyzdd mus, Cin- 
numus: e. gr. 
Szpe, ut constiterant, hinc Thiche, Pyra’- 
musillinc.... (Ovid, Met. 4, 71. 
Rexit Achzmenias urbes pater agra os 
‘ isque.... (Owid, Met. 4, 212 
Lygda’mus in primis, omnis mihi causa que- 
BOE one = (Propertius, 4) 9) 53. 
Dr. Carey, on Amramides and final M. 
107 
Quod superest, Cizna'me,  tonsor 
eris, (Martial, 7, 63, 
To which may be added* Pridmus, Per- 
gdmus, thaliimus, culd mus, wore 105, 
mrczer uss, &c. &e. 
There is, however, in Amramus—a 
whether we lengthen or shorten the pe 
nultima—what an ancient Roman woul 
have deemed “ «a hideous’ cacophony 
indeed, and utterly repugnant to the gee 
nius of the Latin language, viz. the com- 
bination of ALR, which, in fact, he could 
not have pronounced ; the Roman pro= 
nunciation of the JZ being materially 
different from ours, as I hope [ have sa- 
tislactorily shewn in various passages of 
my “ Prosody” above mentioned.—If 
any classic author had attempted to ins 
troduce the name into his page, he would 
have written it AR Ramus or AM Bramus, 
With respect to the practice of the 
Jesuits’, though I am tar from wishing 
to depreciate their learning or taste, E 
humbly_conceive, nevertheless, that their 
example is 10 authority: and, for my 
own part, I should not “hesitate one mo- 
ment to write Amrdmides, making the 
first three syllables a dactyl—the only 
form, by the way, in which that patro- 
nymic can at all obtain admission into 
hexameter or pentameter verse—~as in 
the following extempore distich, which I 
here present to the reader, merely as in- 
dicative of my own private opinion, not 
by any means as an example to be fol- 
lowed; for, if nrodern authority were al- 
lowed to have any weight in a question 
of thiskind, the authority of the Jesuits, 
on the one hand, ought by far to out- 
weigh mine; and, on the other, that of 
Arthur Johnston the psalmist (quoted in 
your June Magazine) would alone be 
amply sufficient, without the addition of 
my little mite in the scale, 
Amrd ni“des per aquas sicco pede duxerat agmen 
Dum sitit agmen, aquas sufficit Amra’mi’d:s. 
Tursus, 
Yours, &c. J. CAREY, 
Tslington, August $, 1808. 
ee ; 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine 
SIR, 
IJE editor of Charlotte Richardson's 
Poems again + intreats your indul- 
gence, and that of your readers, whilst 
she states the oceasion of her attempt- 
TN — —n—nh kk OoOowmlEeaSoOwoeeoS Se 
* I Jay no stress on the folowing pznta~ 
meter, which I find quoted from Pauliruses 
Pauper in Abrabamo, dives in igne, jacetw 
Because the author might have intended to 
make the second foot a spondee, by syne@resis, 
Sce ** Latin Prosody made Easy”, p- 145. et seq. 
+ See Monthly Mag, yol. xx, p. 20°, 
ing 
