A C C 



other, without any dirtiiii^ion of words or phrafcs •, fo that 

 without acciMits thi'v could fraiTtlv be intcUij^iblc ; and th:it 

 accents were necefTary to diiliiiwuifh ambii^iious wori'is, and 

 10 point out their proper meaning ; and this fentiment he 

 confirms from a difputc on a pnlTagc in Homer, mentioned 

 by Arillotle in his Poetics, ch. v. Accordingly he obferses, 

 that the Syrians, v. bo have tonic, but no ditUnc^ive accents, 

 have yet invented certain points, placed either above or 

 below the words, to (hew their mood, tenfe, perfon, or fenfe. 

 iSee farther, in his DlfTcrtatio Epitlolica de Acccntuum 

 'Grafcorum Antiquitate ef Ufu. Balil. r6S6. 



Montfaucon, (Pah Gi-rc. p. 33) after obfcrving that 

 Arillophqnes of Byzantium invented profody, or accents, 

 adds, that the Greek language was not, before his age, 

 totally deilitate of accents and afpirates, becaufe, without 

 thefe, no language can be pronounced ; but, that he directed 

 the regulation of them, invented the marks and forms by 

 which they were to be exprcffed, and tiie place in which 

 they were to be introduced. The fame lentiments are 

 •likewife mainViined by Dr. Foilcr, in his (" Eliay on the dif- 

 ferent Nature of Accent and Quantity. Eton. 1763. ed. 

 2d,") who explodes the notion that th.e Greek accent 

 teaches the quantity of pronunciation ; and who maintains, 

 with many others, that it is a mufical note. ProftlTor 

 Gefner, in a diiTertation " De Accentuum genuina Pro- 

 nuntiatione," printed in 1755, has laboured to remove the 

 principal ohjeclions againtl the antiquity of accents, viz. 

 that they Jo not coincide with the profody of the Greeks ; 

 and are, therefore, to be confidcred as a modern corruption 

 of the Greek language. His opinion amounts to this, 

 that the accents do not at all determine which fyllable is to 

 h: pronounced longeft ; that the accent *•. f . of avvfiwo,-, 

 being placed on the firft fyllable, does not oblige us to pro- 

 nounce the word as a dactyl ; that, as the Greeks fpoke 

 more mufically than we, liiey pronounced fome fyllables 

 more diftinrtly tiian others ; that they raifed their tone and 

 dropped it ; and that the elevation and full of the tone 

 were determined by the accents. Sec Monboddo's Origin 

 and Progrefs of Laiguage, vol. ii. b. 2. paffim. Mr. Marlh, 

 the learned trandator of Michaelis's Introduction to the 

 New Tellameut, informs us (vol. il. p. 892) that Eu- 

 genius, a Greek pried and archbifhop of Cherfon, in 

 reading Greek, dil^inftly marked by his pronunciation both 

 accent and quantity, lengthening the found without railing 

 the tone of his voice, when he pronounced a long fyllable, 

 which had not an acute accent, and raifrng the tone of his 

 voice without lengthening the found, v;\ea he pronounced a 

 fliort fyllable which had an acute accent ; in the fame manner as 

 in mufic, where the higheft note in a bar is frequently the 

 fliortcft. Hence he infers, that the opinion advanced by 

 Prof. Gefner and Dr. Fofter, is not merely theoretical, but 

 confirmed by aftual experience. An example of this kind, 

 however, is very rare ; becaufe the modern Greeks, in gene- 

 ral, pronounce accjrding to accent alone. In England the 

 Greek accents are rejeeV^d ; and quantity alone, as it is 

 generally iuppofed, is regarded in pronunciation. But Mr. 

 Marfh obferves, that we ftlll pronounce Greek according to 

 accent, though according to rales different from thofe which 

 are followed by the G'.eeks themfelves. In reading Greek 

 we obferve the fame rules Vi'ith rea;ard to the pol'ition of the 

 tone, as in reading Latin ; and here we do not regulate the 

 tone of the voice merely by the length of the fyllables. 

 e. g. V'trtus, pravus, fH'Sn, hf/nTu, are pronounced in the 

 fame manner, though they differ in quantity : and crlmims, 

 patulis, koniinis, luciins, are pronounced alike, though they 

 vary in quantity. We are therefore direfted in placing the 

 accent, or raifing the tone of the voice, by fome principle 



A C C 



diftinft from thr.t of quantity. The nile for placing the 

 accent in Latin words, which has been laid down by Latiii 

 grammari.ins, is the following. In Latm diffyllables the 

 accent is alwavs on the lirll fyllable, whether it be long or 

 (hort. In polyfylltibles the accent is on the penultimate, 

 if it be long ; but, if it be lliort, the accent is on the anlc- 

 pen\iltimate, v.hether this be long or (hoit. See Diomedcs 

 de Accentihus, 1. ii. p. 426, printed in the Gi-ammaticx 

 Latince Auciores Antiqui. Op. ct Stud. Helic Putfchii, 

 Hanov. 1 605, 4to. See alfo Quindihan Inll. 1. i. c. v. p. 59, 

 Ed. Burman. According to this rule, there is only one 

 cafe in which accent and quantity mult coincide, and that 

 is in poly fyllables, which have the penultimate long ; but, 

 ill polyfyllables which have the penultimate fliort, and in 

 all diifyllables, it is merely accidental, whether accent and 

 quantity coincide or not. This difagrec.nent conftitutei 

 the harmony of Latin verfe, vs-hich would be intolerable 

 if accent and quantity always coincided ; as any one will 

 find, wlio makes an hexameter confiiling of fix words, of 

 which the firil five are dactyls : whereas, thofe verfes arc '' 



the moil harmonious, in which the number of words, where 

 accent and quantity difagree, is equal to the number of thofe 

 in vhfch they coincide. In the fiiit line of Virgii's Bucolics, 

 which is a very harmonious verfe, accent and quantity toin- 'L 



cide in "7V/)'rr and /."fw/.vc, but dif:;gree in rectibar.t and pa.'ul^. m 



The Greeks adopted a very different principle from the 

 Latins in determining the fyllable which was to be elevated 

 in fpeaking ; for in ati^j^izo; they railed the antepenulti- 

 mate, in ai-Sfiils-a they fliortened the penultimate. Thus 

 Diomedes (ubi fupra, 1. iii. p. 421?.) obferves, that the acute 

 accent of the Greeks occupied three places, the ultimate, 

 penultemate, and antepenultimate ; but amongft the Latins | 

 only two places, viz. the penult and antepenult. Since we Ir 

 then, in order to avoid a method attended with fome dif- 

 ficulty, regulate the tone of the voice in Greek as we do in 

 Latin, it follows that we read Greek, neither according to 

 Greek accent, nor Greek quantity ; but according to the 

 rules of the Latin accentuation. The whole difficulty of 

 the Greek accents, fay Meffrs. Port Royal, confifts in two 

 points ; the firft, in knowing the quantity of the penulti- 

 mate and ultimate, and the fecond, in knowing on what 

 fyllable the words fhould have their elevation by nature i 

 becaufe, even fuppofing the fame quantity, the elevation 

 may not be the fame, which never happens among the 

 Latins. This is a difficult and embarraiiing t>ufinefs, for 

 which grammarians have given a nnmb:-r of rules and a 

 greater number of exceptions. See Port Roy. Gr. Gram, 

 vol. ii. p. 291, &c. 



The bed advocates for accents have not contended, that 

 the ancient Greeks ufed them in common book^, much lefs 

 in letters, but only in their fchools ; and Michaelis appre- 

 hends that they do not occur in any copies of the New Tef- 

 tament ftlli extant, which are antecedent to the 8th century, 

 and but feldom in thofe which are more modern. He adds, 

 tluy were not v.-ritten by the Apoftles ; but were probably 

 firtt added by Euthalius in the year 458. See Wetftein's 

 Prolegomena, p. 73. His trandat-or, however, has dif- 

 covered both accents and marks of afpiration in feverrd MSS. 

 w'lich he mentions ; particularly the Vatican »nd tiie Cla- 

 rom.ontane. The Alexandrian, Cambridge, and four other 

 MvSS. are without accents. Marfh's Tranfl. of Michaelis's In- 

 trod. vol. ii. p. S94. In a treatife de Rhvthmo Gnecorura, not 

 long fince publilh d, and afc-ibed to a learned Prelate of the 

 Englifh church, the author controverts the opinion, aliam 

 ejfe in fniuta oratinne fctinjlone rhyihmicam, aliam in r.tetris, in 

 oppofition to Faber, Dacier, Pearce, Cla-ke, and others. 

 Another learned writer, fuppofed to be Eilhop Horfeky, in 

 4 hia 



