280 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 



and what the Weimarian sage here says of beautiful days, is equally true of 

 beautiful verses or of beautiful words. Hence arises the sure canon — 



That language is superior in point of accentual effect which gives no partial 

 predominance to any one accentual place, but gives the rising inflexion free play 

 over all the syllables of a word, so far as the range is consistent with a full 

 vocalisation. Now, when we compare the Greek and Latin language by this 

 rule, we find a decided and universally admitted superiority in favour of the 

 Greek ; for this language admits of the acute on any one of the three last 

 syllables, while Latin allows it to fall only on the penultimate and the antepen- 

 ultimate. English, on the other hand, in this view, asserts one point of decided 

 superiority over both the classical languages ; for words so accented as 

 Idmentable and heritable, on the fourth syllable from the end, are not at all 

 uncommon with us, while the Greeks and Romans, who had no such accents, 

 fell into the very natural error of thinking that they were contrary to nature. 

 But, though with help of this peculiarity we are able to marshal a much larger 

 army of what the ancients called proceleusmatic feet in words than either Greeks 

 or Romans, we have gained this small advantage at a great risk in point of 

 general weight and majesty ; and we may be thankful to the graceful pedantry 

 of our classical scholars, who, in retaining the penultimate accent of many 

 Latin words, have done something to balance our habit of flinging the principal 

 accent far back and skipping over the remaining part of the word. The next 

 canon deducible from the test of variety is, that of any two compared languages 

 that is the more rich and beautiful in respect of accent, in which the acute accent 

 is placed not on the long syllable but on the short, so that, while the accent gets 

 fair play in one syllable, the quantity stands out in another, and thus a richer 

 and more various melody is distributed over every part of the word. For this 

 reason such words as columbine, renegade, are more beautiful than glb'rious and 

 victorious, engineer and volunteer, because in these last words, whether oxytone 

 or proparoxytone, all the wealth of sound is spent upon one syllable, while the 

 others remain comparatively weak and ineffective. On the same principle the 

 Greek avOpamos is richer than the same word accented in the Latin way, 

 auOpuiTos, and ' Apia-TO(f>dv7]<; is more beautiful than Aristophanes, if, as the English 

 habit has generally been, the final es of the word is pronounced short. 



On the fourth principle, by which the comparative excellence of accents 

 may be determined, I place very little value. No doubt, as languages, like 

 buildings, are intended for use, convenience as well as theoretic excellence must 

 be consulted ; but as utilitarian considerations have changed many an archi- 

 tect's noble plan for a great building into a grand incongruity, so considerations 

 of mere convenience have spoiled many a fine language. For convenience, 

 really, in a great majority of cases, means haste and carelessness, or sloth and lazi- 

 ness, and in all such cases proves eventually a hostile and destructive force acting 



