282 PROFESSOR BLACKIE ON THE 



of emphasis stand in our pronouncing dictionaries, viz., to ensure a correct 

 orthoepy in the reading and recitation of the language. The assertion once 

 boldly flung forth by the early opponents of Greek accents, that they were pro- 

 perly marks of musical intonation, having nothing to do with spoken eloquence, 

 can now be hazarded by no philologer. Whatever the accents meant, they 

 were intended to direct the reading of prose ; had they been anything else 

 indeed, it is impossible to understand how they ever found their way into 

 the familiar notation of prose. But for the sake of those who may not be 

 familiar with the evidence on which this point rests, we shall here set down 

 the testimonies of two eminent grammarians : first, Dionysius Thrax, who 

 lived at Rome about 80 B.C., and whose re^i? ypappaTLK-rj, quoted by Sextus 

 Empiricus (Adv. Math., i. 12), has been recently printed in the second volume 

 of Bekker's Anecdota (p. 629). This grave authority tells us that the art ot 

 grammar, as it was then practised, consisted of six parts — 



1. avayvoxTLs ivTpijSrjs Kara irpoo-o&lav — assiduous reading, according to accen- 

 tuation. 



2. Explanation of the meaning, according to the significance of the tropes 

 used by the writers. 



3. Explanation of the historical facts and of the glosses or peculiar words. 



4. Etymology. 



5. Consideration of linguistical analogies. 



6. A critical appreciation of the work expounded, in its beauties and defects. 

 Now, there can be no doubt here as to what Trpoacp&ia means ; for, though 



the plural of this word sometimes is used in a wider sense, as we talk of the 

 Hebrew points, so as to include aspirations, pauses, quantities, and every affec- 

 tion of which spoken and written words are capable, when used in the singular 

 as a special technical term, it signifies accent, and nothing else. The second 

 grammarian whom I quote is Theodosius, who lived in the time of the Emperor 

 Constantine, and whose treatise on grammar was published by Goettling in 

 the year 1822. This author, in the chapter (p. 58) entitled Trios XPV wayiy- 

 vaxTKeLv, says that good reading consists in three things — 



1. vTTOKpiaris, dramatic expression, arising out of a sympathetic conception 

 of character. 



2. rrpoo-oxtia — or reading Kara tov<; aKpLfieis tovows — according to the exact 

 accents — irpoo-a&ia yap 6 tovos — for accent and tone, are the same. 



3. SiacTToXrj, attention to pauses and punctuation. 



Now, if any person further inquires whether the ancients did not read their 

 prose according to quantity also, I answer that of this there can be no doubt ; 

 but that the prominence in correct reading is naturally given to accent, because 

 quantity is the specialty of poetry, and unless where we talk specially of poetry, 

 by the word reading we are understood to mean prose. But that correct read- 



