364 Mr. Carmichael on the [Nov. 



testifying and corroborating the testimony of each other, that the 

 Romans, from whom they derive their languages, transmitted to 

 them also this mode of pronouncing them. 



But to return to Virgil, and the task we have assigned him : 

 — In separately studying the columns, as above arranged, he 

 woidd perceive several sounds very closely resemblino- each 

 other, yet at the same time distinctly different. I allude to the 

 syllables which rhyme to each other, such as )iia, ca, fa, la ; — 

 no, to, pro, mo, &c. He would clearly discover the simple sound 

 « or which he could distinctly pronounce, pervading all those 

 rhymes ; and he would at the same time ascertain that it was in 

 every instance combined with another and different sound, 

 which he could not separately articulate, but which, like an 

 invisible elastic fluid in a chemical investigation, would satisfy 

 him of its presence by its effects. 



Now for the fust time he would entertain sanguine hopes of 

 success ; and in the ardour of discovery he ' might possibly 

 hasten to dissect, and assign distinct characters to the sounds 

 in his several columns : or perhaps he would more systemati- 

 cally make a new arrangement of those columns, placing toge- 

 ther in separate groups the several rhymes, for the purpose of 

 entering on a more minute comparison of their component 

 sounds. If such was a necessary step in the process, the follow- 

 ing table may exhibit his new arrangement : 



In considering the first of the five columns in this table, he 

 would scarcely in his early essays be able to ascertain whether 

 the sound Ar at the head of the column were simple or com- 



