caufe of our language being called by foreigners the Hiffing Language, though, in reality, it does not abound fo much in that letter as either the Greek or Rothe finals, with us, having, for the moft part, the found of z.

man;

But if care be not taken early in forming the pronunciation, people are apt to contract a habit of hiffing before they utter the found of s, at the beginning of fyllables, as well as of

continuing it at the end. 'feen-Softly a while

are

As-o have I fome men there

Was it for this I fent thee to the passThat the disagreeableness of this letter arises wholly from the continuation of its found will appear from repeating properly the following lines, which contain a great number of them, and yet are certainly of a fine melody :

fweet remembrance fooths

With Virtue's kindeft looks his aching breast,
And fwells his foul to rapture.

This confused found at the beginning of words is equally disagreeable in all the semivowels; as, 1-ove, 1-oyal, m-ighty, n-ever, r-ight, th-in, th ofe f-avour, v-oice, &c. Upon the whole, after obferving thefe rules, whenever the power of the confonants is particularly fuited to the expreffion, their found fhould be enforced; when otherwife, foftened.

Having examined all the component parts of words, I fhall now enter upon a difcuffion of that article, which constitutes

the

very effence of words, as diftinguished from their component letters or fyllables.

As words may be formed of various numbers of fyllables, from one up to eight or nine, it was neceffary that there should be fome peculiar mark to distinguish words

from

from mere fyllables, otherwife fpeech would be nothing but a continued fucceffion of fyllables, without conveying ideas: for, as words are the marks of ideas, any confufion in the marks, must cause the fame in the ideas for which they ftand. It was, therefore, neceffary, that the mind fhould at once perceive, what number of fyllables belong to each word, in utterance. This might be done by a perceptible paufe at the end of each word in fpeaking, in the fame manner as we make a certain distance between them in writing and printing. But this would make difcourfe difguftingly tedious; and though it might render words diftinct, would make the meaning of fentences confused. They might also be sufficiently distinguished by a certain elevation, or depreffion of the voice upon one fyllable of each word, which was the practice of fome nations, as fhall presently be explained.

H 4

explained. But the English tongue has, for this purpofe, adopted a mark of the eafieft and fimpleft kind, which is called accent. By accent is meant, a certain ftrefs of the voice, upon a particular letter of a fyllable, which diftinguishes it from the reft, and, at the fame time, diftinguishes the fyllable itself to which it belongs, from the others which compofe the word. Thus, in the word hab'it, the accent upon the b diftinguishes that letter from the others, and the first fyllable from the laft. Add more fyllables to it, and it will fill do the fame; as, bab'itable. In the word, repute, the u is the diftin-. guished letter, and the fyllable, which contains it, the diftinguished fyllable. But if we add more fyllables to it, as in the word, reputable, the feat of the accent is changed. to the first syllable, and p becomes the diftinguished letter. Every word in our language,

language, of more fyllables than one, has one of the fyllables diftinguished from the reft in this manner, and every monofyllable has a letter. Thus, in the word hat', the t is accented, in háte, the vowel a. In Hence every

2

cub', the b, in cúbe the u. word in the language, which may properly. be called fo, has an accent; for the

particles, fuch as a, the, to, in, &c. which are unaccented, can scarce be called words, which feems to be implied in the name given to them, and they are the fitter to discharge their office by this difference made between them. So that as articulation is the effence of fyllables, accent is the effence of words; which, without it, would be nothing more than a mere fucceffion of fyllables. Thus fimple as the state of the English accent is, there is no article of fpeech has occafioned more perplexity in those who have treated of it, merely by confounding