£797. | 
nunciation. 
thing in nature, which decides in their 
favour. For, in pronouncing the vow- 
els. a, e 2; 0, #, they begin with a very 
wide opening of the mouth, and gradu- 
ally clofe it, as they proceed to the other 
letters, tillthey utter # with thé fmall- 
eft pofible opening. But though there 
maybe. imperfections in our mode of 
pronouncing Latin, yet Lam fhocked at 
our author's extreme cenfure. 
P75, -he days,“ the-accents, as. we 
give them, both in the Greek and Latin 
language, generally marr, and fome- 
times utterly defiroy, the melody of 
verfe, and the rhythm of profe.”’ ‘And, 
p. 23, “in cur way of {peaking, all the 
quantity of metre, and all the rhythm 
of profe, is moft completely deftroyed. 
Long is made fhort, and thort is made 
long ; daétyls and anapetis are confound- 
ed; and the former, in heroic veérfe, 
often turned into amphibrachs, cretics, 
bacchii, and antibacchit. Thus, in “Arma 
Virumque cauo,’. as we {peak it, the dacs 
tyne ramqte ci-, + 4s turned into a cre- 
tic, ‘rimgie ne Again, in ¢ Rupe fue 
aéria’—the dadty| ‘ aéri,’ becomes, in our 
recitation, an amphibrach ¢ géi.”’ 
In feanning, fylables: are only divid- 
ed into long add thort ; butin pronounc- 
ing by accent—a thing, i in which all the 
literati, not only in England, but in all 
countries, and in all ages, at leaft fince 
the days of Prifcian (Mekerkus, If. 
Vofius, and a few others, excepted) 
have, with very general confent, agreed 
—in pronouncing, I fay, by accent, a 
good ear will diftineuith fix or feven dif- 
ferent dengths of fyllables. For, as 
Quintilian cbferves, Et longis lonsiores, 
_ @ brewibus funtorewiorés /yllabe. uan- 
tity and accent mutually depend upon, 
and affect each other. No laws of lan» 
guage are more fmple, or more invVari- 
able, than thofe by which the feat of 
_ the Latin accent is determined; and in 
polyfyHables, it. isalways regulated by 
quantity. And, by the fharp ftroke of 
the voice upon the fyllable on which it 
‘ falls, the length of that fyllable ts ne- 
cefiarily increafed. But, whatever ad- 
dition is made to the accented fyllable, 
it is taken away from fome other fylla- 
ble of the fame fcot, or, at leaft, of the 
fame word. So that the time of the 
foot, generally, and that of the word, al- 
ways, remains the fame, Confequentl Y> 
neither * the rhythm of profe, nor the 
melody of verfe, can be greatly injured 
by the Englifh pronunciation. 
MONTHLY nh Nee No. XVII. 
Latin Pronunciation....Phofphorus in Oyfters: 
There feems to be fome- 
The: 
Soe 
principal thing in which we differ from 
foreigners, is, in the found of the vowels, * 
In other refpects, our reading and their's 
nearly ceincide. For my ears have been 
as much offended with the unpleafant 
found of falfe quantity in the Nether- 
lands, Germany, France, 8c. as ever 
they have been in Eogland. 
If we fuppofe the general time of a 
daétyl or foondee to be 16, we may; I 
thiak, pretty nearly éxprefs our, com= 
mon mode of reading, by marking the 
particular time of each fyilable’as ‘fol- 
lows : 
Ge} BSN nS SS Dashe ok) 35.957 “y 34 14 7 
In nova fert animus mmtatas dicere fogmAS) 
Spe) OeMiere 7 WD AOU On8 a4 7 
Conticuere omnes, intentique ora te nebant. 
Theie words were marked haftily ; 
nor do J fuppofe the plan to be. pert fcéll y 
accurate., 1 fugecit it asa hint, which 
I think capable of improvement, in 
hopes ‘of receiving information on the 
fines from you, or fofne of your learn~ 
ed correfpondents. 
Oh) Bia, g 3. TED) 9 34 YL 
Vig, a Si quid novi rectius lftis, 
Th HO 8a e LBs 8 Bre Die 3dr 9 ar 
Candidus dmpest fi non, his utere mecum. 

To the Ed) tor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
1 you think the following curious faét, 
which happened under my own in- 
{fpeétion, worthy of infertion in your 
Mifcellany, itis much at your fervice : 
Some little time ago, in the opening of 
an oyfter, I was much furprifed at ob- 
ferving a-very bright flame about the 
centre, which, when examined a little 
clofer, I found to proceed aétually from 
afmall quantity of real pbofpborus; the 
quantity L could not afcertain, but there 
might be half a grain. I took it from 
of: the oyfter, and immerfed it in wa ater, 
till | had an opportunity of obferving it 
more minutely ; which, when I did, L 
found it to be in every refpect the fame 
as the phofphorus obtained from bones, 
urine, &c. and which is known’ by the 
name of Kinkel’s a us. Lhe oyfter 
itfelf was perfeétly alive and treth, fo 
that it could not happen from any de- 
compofition of the conftituent parts of 
the fhell, by the aid of putrefaétion 3 
it muft have proceeded from tome other 
fource. As I never read of this fub- 
ftance being furnithed perfectly ready 
formed, in nature, any elucidation of the 
fubje&, from fome of your numerous 
correfpondents, will be very acceptabie 
to, fir, your very obedient feryant, 
Leith, May-%1, 1797. os 
a To 
