22% Myr. Smart's Answer to Mr, Thellwall's Accusation. [Oct 
fixed to Walker’s Dictionary. My third 
chapter * The Praxis,” which forms the 
principal, and I believe most useful, pors 
tion of the volume, is compiled from the 
last-ementioned treatise, from Nare’s 
Elements of Ortboepy, and from Wal- 
ker’s Rhyming Dictionary. The rules 
in the fourth chapter ‘On Accent,” were 
formed after a perusal of Nare’s .and 
Sheridan’s rules, on the same subject. 
The first article in the chapter ‘* On the 
Pronunciation of Sentences,” was sug- 
gested by my own experience, joined to 
a hint in Herries; and in-the remaining 
articles, I have closely followed Mr. Wal- 
ker. In regard to the sixth and fast 
- chapter, it must have been observed, 
that though Mr, T. ‘* exonerates me 
from any suspicion of having purloined 
irom him any part of it,” yet be would 
make it believed that, without his hep, 
d could, not have conceived the wonder- 
ful idea of endeavouring to remove a 
habit of stammering, “ by enforcing the 
necessity of an even and well-ordered 
movement in discourse:”—(the words 
which he quotes from me.) ‘ By 
whom,” he asks, ‘(do I mean to insi- 
nuate that the idea in question was con- 
ceived and brought to the test of success- 
ful experiment ?—Wasit by the author of 
the Practical Grammar of English Pro- 
nunciation?” I have to confess, in an- 
swer, that such an idea did certainly 
come into my head; but if it was a disco- 
very, so little pride do I derive from it, 
that Mr. Thelwall, if he pleases, or any © 
kody else, is welcome to all the merit. 
That teachers do not usually direct their 
pupils to the rules of prosody, in order 
to remove a stammering delivery, is true;* 
but.the smallest reflection points out the 
propriety of this method, especially 
when these rules are brought to bear 
upon prose as well as verse: and it is well 
known, that stammerers are less likely to 
be influenced by their defect when they 
evar OtNeese mie bid | Ses eer oes ev ee eres ov ee 
_™ Mr Thelwall, it appears, has recourse 
to the principles of tnusical proportion for 
this purpase. How the strictness of musical 
time can be uniformly applied to speech, 
without destroying that unaffected delivery 
which is founded in nature-and just taste, 1 
‘own myself at a loss to conceive. For my 
part, though }-spoke of using the hand or toe 
to mark the movement of discourse, (as Mr. 
Herries has done before me,) yet I never 
dreamed of making my pupil beat time with 
the regularity of a musician; so that joining 
the two discordant feet, and talking of minim, 
breve, and semibreve, amount to nothing but 
@ misreptesentation. “ 
feel a rhythm in a sentence, than when 
they feel none. My chapter “ On Pro- 
sodiacal Admeasurement,” was com-« 
posed therefore with a view of its being 
applied to this purpose; and, without 
vaunting my experience, I leave the pub- 
lic to judge how far it appears likely te 
have the intended effect: hoping, how. 
ever, that those who would form an ade 
quate idea of it, will read it throughout, 
and not rest any judgment upon a single 
illustration deprived of its own content, 
and adorned with Mr. Thelwali’s. As 
to the theory advanced in it, though it is 
new an several respects as a system of 
prosody, yet the reader will find I have 
built on the principles of Mr. Walker. 
I refer, in proof, to the Flements of Elo- 
cution, under the head “ Harmony of 
Prose ;” and to the second of two me- 
thods given for marking the different 
forces of words in the “‘ Rhetorical Gram- 
mar.” ‘These principles, however, are 
not Mr. Thelwall’s principles; and, there- 
fore, as he observes, either he or I know 
very litle of the matter, 
Mr. Thelwall) charges me with mean- 
ness; but now, sir, let circumstances be 
reviewed, and then Jet the public decide 
who most deserves this charge. fam, 
sir, but a young man yet, having been 
long engaged in teaching, to which I was 
destined from my earlier years, I con- 
ceived that, by “ an attempt* to combine 
every thing which my experience nad 
taught me was really useful in the wri- 
tings of our best orthoepists,, within such 
a system as might render pronunciation 
capable of being studied from its elemen- 
tary principles, and become, as other 
branches of learning, an object of me- 
thodical acquirement,” I should be ren- 
dering a material service to the cause of 
-education, and doing some hittle credit 
to myself, As I have never made pre- 
tensions to the original materials, so | 
can claim no other merit in the volume 
than what may be found in the plan and 
methed of treatment; and on these 
points, it is somewhat gratifying to find 
that even Mr. Thelwall allows, “ there 
are parts in the compilation that are well 
arranged, tolerably digested, and intel- 
ligihly explained.” My work being 
published, this gentleman, through the 
medium of your Magazine, would per- 
suade the public, that popular rumour 
has laid it at his door, and that, in truth, 
he does lay claim to many of the early 
® See the Preface te my Grammar. 
rs 
- 
=r 
Fs 
pages in the book, many illustrations, ~ 
‘ Nd X 
modes 
