104° Application of the Principles of Musical Proportion, (Sept. ¥, 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the appLicaTion of the PRINCIPLES — 
Of MUSICAL PROPORTION in the TREAT- 
MENT Of IMPEDIMENTS Of SPEECH. 
URING the ten years in which I 
BF have been professionally engaged 
iu inculcating what appear to me to be 
the correct principles.of English Elocu- 
tion, and in exploding what I regard as 
the mischievous errors of _ established 
theories relative to that art, I have been 
so constantly solicitous for the diffusion 
of my science, and so little jealous of the’ 
advantages or reputation that other profes- 
sors or other writers, might derive frommy 
discoveries, that I have omitted no op- 
portunities, which professional engage- 
iments would permit, of putting the pub- 
lic in possession of the results of my en- 
quiries and experiments. Time, indeed, 
has not hitherto been found for any sys- 
* tematic or methodical work, even upoo 
any single branch of this extensivesubject ; 
and, in my recent “ Letter to Mr. Cline,” 
circumstances have been explained, 
which throw additional obstructions in 
the way of such an undertaking: but my 
brief and eccasional communications to 
your respectable miscellany, and some 
other periodical publications, have been, 
I trust, sufficiently explicit on some of 
the most difficult parts of my system,. to 
shew that I was superior to the little sel- 
fishness. of mysterious quackery; and 
when I propounded, as I did for several 
‘years successively, in my public lectures, 
(first in all the principal towns of the 
North, and afterwards, through two 
successive seasons, at my institution in 
London,) the whole scheme and theory 
of my system, not only to subscribers but 
to casual auditors, it was of course both 
in my calculation and in my wish, that 
my principles should be adopted, and 
acted upon by others. 
When, therefore, in the year 1806, 
after the promulgation of my lectures in 
London, Mr. Odell published his “ Essay 
on the Elements, Accents, and Prosody 
of the English Language,” (although I 
could not. but think that I discovered in 
that book, not only the acknowledged as- 
sistance derived froin the invaluable work 
of Joshua Steele, but many traits of 
striking coincidence between the systems 
of the’essayist and of the lecturer, whieh 
the mere perusal of that book couid not 
account for,) I did not pertinaciously in- 
quire, whether this coincidence were 
more likely to have arisen from acciden- 
tal sympathy of judgment, or unacknow- 
ledged imitation ; though I believe it will 
be admitted that the hue and cry of plas’ 
giarism has frequently been raised upon 
much slighter grounds of suspicion or 
provocation. The work, upon the whole, 
(though I have controverted several pas< 
sages in the margin of my copy) was ably 
executed ; and | was not so vertinazious 
as to be angry that another had executed 
auseful task, which it was probable I’ 
should myself never have the opportunity | 
of performing. I could not, indeed, but 
accuse the writer, in my heart, of some 
little want of ingenuous liberality when E 
read the following paragraph, with which 
he cencludes his work; 
“T may be permitted, in my turn, to 
express. my surprise, that to this day,” 
(and he adds ina note, ‘25th November, 
1802,’) ‘* the true nature of. accent, ex= 
plained nearly thirty years ago by Mr. 
Steele, appears to have been misunder- 
stood or overlooked by all our writers; 
Mr. Waiker bimself only excepted.” 
With respect to Mr. Waiker, perhaps, 
the expression ought’ not to have been’ 
only, but not excepted: for surely in the 
ful! extent and precise limitation of sigs 
nification, in which Mr. Odell as well as 
myself uses the term accent, Mr. Walker 
cannot be said accurately to have under. 
stood the true nature of that property of 
speech ; on the contrary, he is peérpetu- 
ally using the term in that vague and ins ~ 
applicable way, which has been the 
source of so large a portion of the con-_ 
fusion in the modern systems of elocution, 
That Mr. W. did not understand the 
system of Mr. Steele, he has himself ac- 
knowledged in the following nore, p. 138, 
Key to the Clas. Pron. of Gr. and Lat. 
Prop. Names: 
“ The attempt of this gentleman is hot 
so much to illustrate the accent and quans 
tity of the Greek language, as to prove 
the possibility of forming a notation of 
speaking sounds for our own; and of re- 
ducing them to a musical scale, and ac- 
cowpanying them with instruments, The 
attempt is undoubtedly laudable; but no 
farther useful than to show the impossi- 
bility of it, by the very method he has 
taken to explain it. For it is wrapped 
up in such an impenetrable cloud of music, 
as to be unintelligible to any but musi- 
claus: and the distinctions of sound are 
so nice and numerous, as ta discourage 
the most persevering student from lay 
bouring to understand him.” . 
I should be sorry to be suspected of 
injustice to the memory of Mr, W. whose 
merits in certain departments of elocu- 
tion, and whose diligence, general ac- 
curacy 
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