3807. } 
tune of fyllables; in the application of 
which (as well as of the attribute of 
quantity, or duration) it was my meaning 
to atlirm, that, in many inftances, con- 
fiderable latitude is allowed, in the ordi- 
hary converiational delivery, even of the 
moit correét and harmonious fpeakers; 
and to the extent of which latitude, (and 
no further) 1 confider the write* and the 
reader ot verje to be at liberty, nay to be 
called upon, to extend his difcretionary 
felection ; in what to the refpective pro- 
vinces of the writer and the repeater can 
practically belong. 
I-am confcious, Sir, that this hafty and 
imperfeét fcrawl may expofe your com- 
potitor to frefh difficulties; and, what 
is worfe, perhaps, from the want of 
perfpicuous and futficient elucidation of 
what is new or difficult in the theory, 
may rather tend to perplex than to in- 
form the ftudent of Englith profody. But 
the inceffant calls of protetfional duty, (as 
a pubhe and as a private teacher,) forbid 
me the opportunities both ef more am- 
pie and explicit developement of my 
ideas, and of the neceflary tatk of reviing 
what I have fo hattily fet down. It has, 
indeed, been long my wifh to fubmit to 
the world a methodical and ample deve- 
lopement of that entire fyitem of elocu- 
tionary fcience, which the labour of ten 
years has enabled me m fome degree to 
digeft, thouch at prefent it has no writ- 
ten exiftence, except in thofe {hort notes 
‘which have been prepared for the pur- 
pofe of my public lectures, and which in 
reality can be intelligible to no one but 
mytfelf. But the publication of a work 
of fuch extent is fo formidable a {pecu- 
lation; and it is, in faét, fo much ‘more 
profitable to talk to mankind than to 
write tor them, that I am much inclined 
to believe that, notwithftanding the dif- 
advantages of detached and partial dif- 
guilitiohs, upon a fubject which ought to 
be examined as a whole, an occafional 
hatty effay like the prefent, is likely, for 
fome years at leatt, to be all that attention 
to the intere{ts of my family will permit me 
to commit to publication. I have hopes, 
however, that a part of what I had me- 
ditated, will be executed by an abler 
hand. My learned and very ingenious 
triend, Mr. Roe, of Stramore, * in Ire- 
* Mr. Roe has already publithed an ele- 
mentary work upon this fubject, of great 
though negleéted merit—‘ Elements of En- 
glith Metre, both in Profe and Verfe, by 
Richard Roe,” Longman and Rees, 1801, 
which, perhaps, the more enlarged work he 
On the Phrase “ In spite of Ins Teeth. 3] 
land, will, I truft, oblige the public with 
his fyitematic and admirable work on the 
genius and elements of Englith metré; 
and the world will then have little reafon 
to regret that other labours than thofe of 
the pen, engrofs the time and attention of 
Your’s &e. 
Bedford Place, J. THELWALL. 
Peer te; 1600" | 
ee ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
HERE is a whimfical expreffion in 
our language which I never could 
ecypher, till the other day chance let 
ine into the fecret. I mean the pbrafe, 
in fpite of his teeth. ~ Looking into a 
French dictionary under the word aidant, 
I found this pafface : On difoit autrefois, 
Malgré lui & fes atpans, dont ona fait 
ce proverbe corrompu, Malgré lue & fes 
dents. It feems then that this phrafe, 
like fo many others in our language, is a 
literal trantlation from the old French, in 
which the words which anfwered to his 
afjifiants, happening to refemble in found 
thofe which anfwer to his teeth, the latter 
words, by negligence, or drollery, came 
ta be fubftituted inftead of the former. 
! Tam, Sir, your’s, &c. 
PHILOLOGUS, 
ee 
of the Monthly Magazine. 
Dec. 12, 1806. 
To the Editor 
SIR, 
CANNOT but diffent from the vali- 
dity of fome obfervations which Mr. 
Pickbourn has made on my letter relative 
to the nature of Greek accents.* To the 
paflage which was quoted from Bifhop 
Hare, Mr. P. has given the following 
meatung:—** Accent gives a little addi- 
tion to a long vowel, but the privation of 
accent does not occafion a long fyllable 
to become fhort.” Now this appears to 
me to convey a meaning directly con-. 
trary to the words and intention of the 
at prefent meditates, ought not entirely to 
fuperfede, To thofe who are not already in- 
itiated in the ordinary fyftem of mufical no- 
tation, the fimple proportions of a meafured 
{cale, and the dire@tions for the ufe of a mte- 
chanical index, in the original work, cannot 
but be highly acceptable ; the mufical nota- 
tion adopted in the enlarged performance will 
be, however, much more fatisfa€tury to the 
{cientific ftudent, andthe more comprehenfive 
view that is taken of the fubje&t, increafes the, 
intereft and enhances the value of the per 
formance. 
* Vide Monthly Magazine, vol. XX. 
p. 499 ; and vol, XXI, p, 104, 
learned 
