225 



2. It saved much trouble to pronounce both languages with the 

 same accentuation. 



3. The Greek accent perpetually clashes with quantity ; the 

 Latin much more rarely ; never, indeed, in that syllable of which 

 the quantity is most marked — the penultima. 



Isaac Vossius (1650-60) advocated the disuse of accentual marks 

 altogether, as the invention of a barbarous age to perpetuate a bar- 

 barous pronunciation. 



After showing the meaning of the word ' accent ' as applied to 

 modern languages, and discussing' the accentuation of the German, 

 English, French, &c, he proceeded to say : 



" There are three methods of emphasizing a syllable: — 



1 . By raising the note ; 



2. By prolonging the sound ; 



3. By increasing its volume. 



" Scaliger, De Causis Linguae Latince, lib. ii. cap. 52, recognizes 

 this division when he says that a syllable may be considered of three 

 dimensions in sound, having height, length, and breadth. 



" Now in our own language, when we accent a syllable, which 

 of these dimensions do we increase ? Generally all three, but not 

 necessarily ; for when the prayers, for example, are intoned, i. e. 

 read upon one note, the accent is marked by increasing the volume 

 of sound (the third method), which involves also a longer time in 

 utterance, i. e. a lengthening of quantity. In speaking, all three 

 methods are employed, but one more prominently than the other, 

 according to individual peculiarities of the speakers. What we 

 blend, the Greeks kept distinct. 



" We cannot understand the Greek system unless we bear this in 

 mind. They never confounded accent with quantity. Ineradicable 

 habit prevents us from reverting in practice to their method, just as 

 they would have been unable to comprehend ours. 



" It is clear from Dionysius, De Comp. Verb. lib. xi. cap. 75, that 

 the dialogue in tragedy preserved the ordinary accentuation, which 

 was disregarded only in choral passages set to music." 



The practical conclusion was this : that while it would be desirable, 

 if possible, to return to the Erasmian system of pronunciation, it 

 would be extremely absurd to, adopt the barbarous accentuation of 

 modern Greek, which has quite lost the old essential distinction 

 between accent and quantity. In this respect, as we cannot recover 

 practically the ancient method, it is better to keep to our own system 

 of the Latin accent, which does not confuse the learner's notion of 

 quantity in verse as the modern Greek does. 



An Athenian boy has the greatest difficulty in comprehending the 

 rhythm of Homer or Sophocles. Hence it is not blind prejudice 

 (as Professor Blackie asserts) which makes us keep to our old usage, 

 but a well-grounded conviction that we should lose more by changing 

 than we should gain. 



