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"In other places, the fand and argil had glided along,like torrents of lava, and large portions of mountains had been tranfported for the space of feveral miles into vallies without undergoing any change of form. Whole fields were precipitated mto hollows in their original horizontal pofition; while fome remained inclined, and others vertical. In a fpace of ten leagues, by fix in breadth, included between the river Metrano, the mountains, and the fea, there was not a fingle acre, that had not fuffered fome change, either in form or polition. We faw in feveral places, fprings of water which rofe to the weight of feveral feet, and carried with them much fand and mud."

Dolomien next attempts to explain why buildings raifed upon granite, and folid ground, fuffer lefs than others. On fimilar principles he renders it highly probable, that a cavern of an immenfe extent exilis between Etua, and the northern part of Calabria, and concludes with offering fome conjectures on the aufe of this earthquake. In fupport of this defeription, I might add fome obfervations from Sir William Hamilton, who preceded Dolomieu, and who himself witnetled the last fhocks of the earthquake; but as the principal circumftances of that cataiirophe are too well known to render that neceffary, I fhall now proceed to give an explanation of the fubjoined plate which reprefents the more Briking effects, produced by the earth quake that occurred in the vicinity of Settizzano, in Calabria, during 1783.

A. B. reprefent the vertical cut, nearly three hundred feet in height, of an extenfive plain planted with olive trees, in quincunxes, and very elevated.

C. D. E. are hills, each confifting of feveral acres in extent, which formed a part of this plain, and which were projected into an immenfe hollow or ravine, to about a mile dif

tant Thefe maffes, varioufly inclined, form with the horizon angles from twenty-five to forty degrees; fome parts are vertical; in both the trata correspond with thofe of the plain

bat we feldom obferved, that the falient and oppofite angles of the plain and these maffes, correfponded with each other: a circumftance which may be afcribed to their irregular projection, and the collifion fuftained in their long paffage. The Irees, with the exception of thofe on the borders, had experienced no change, for their ftems, or trunks, were uni formly perpendicular to the furface of the ground, and they stood at regular distances

Many examples, were it neceflary, might be adduced as furnishing exceptions to this po

from each other. The new shoots, produced. fince the period of the earthquake, had taken a vertical direction, and formed an angle with the trunk, which added ftill more to the fingularity of the fcene. This effect has, however, been omitted in the plate.

F. marks the entrance of one of the fubof affording an outlet to the waters. terranean hollows, excavated for the purpose. It was found necessary to have recourfe to fuch expedients, as the earthquake produced two hundred and fifteen different lakes or ponds, the ftagnant waters of which, corrupting by the extreme heat of the atmosphere, gave rise to peftilential difeafes, which carried off more inhabitants than had been destroyed by the earthquake.

We find then here, though on a finaller fcale, the image of many of the fingular forms of our continents, which may be attributed to the various convulfions that the furface of the earth underwent before and after its confolidation, viz. the vertical difpolition of the fides of feveral montains; the various inclinations of their ftrata, and of their fides; the angles which fometines correfpond, and are at others dilimilar, the formation of vallies and lakes, by the accumulation of earth, even in the midst of plains; the acclivities of fea-coatts, at the foot of which no bottom is difcoverable; isolated peaks, and confiderable maffes of matter fcattered at a dittance below the mountains, of which at one period they evidently conftituted a part; profound fiffures, either empty or filled with extraneous matter, and fome of which afford a paffage to volcanic eruptions; appearances of vertical ftrata, which are often merely folid cuts from the mountains themfelves. From the confideration of the above, and various other phænomena, we are neceffarily led to attribute thefe forms of the mountains to caufes fimilar to thofe which have given birth to the new hills of Calabria; the strongest analogy forces us to refer them to the faine origin, and to the falling in of cavities contained within the cruft of our globe. F. DE BELLEVUE,

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

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Hendon Grange near Ryhope, and in the vicinity of Hylton Ferry. During his refidence at the latter place, when he had nearly attained his 80th year, his occupation becoming unprofitable, he gave up his farm, and engaged himfelf in the fervice of a gentleman in the fame neighbourhood, by whom he was employed in the fields or table, or in fuch other work as he was capable of attending to, being always confidered trufty and well-difpofed. As he had long prided binfelf' on his dexterity in nowing, when he was almost ninety, he anxiously folicited his employer for the loan of a guinea, to wager against the fill of a much younger competitor. For the laft fifteen years of his life, he refided in Sunderland, in the houfe of a grand-daughter, by whom, with the affiftance of other defcendants, he was decently and refpectably maintain ed; still, however, keeping up his connexion occafionally with the family of his late mafter, who had removed into the environs of the town. Being one day, when he was upwards of a hundred years old, requested by his mistress to purchase her fome fowls, with an expectation that he would bring them from the market, which was held very near his own relidence in Sunderland, he fet out on foot for a village feven miles diftant, where he had fome acquaintance, and having procured fome fowls of a fuperior quality, returned home from his marketing without delay. He was a ftrong mufcular man, about five feet fix inches high; he was fimple and of an eafy temper, never diftreffing himself about any thing beyond the occurrence of the moment, a circumftance which probably contributed much to the prolongation of his life. Having never been afflicted with any fpecies of infirmity or ill health, he retained his bodily vigour to a very late period, and his other faculties, with the exception of his fight which failed him in his last year, to his death at the advanced age of 106, in the fummer of 1805. He left a fou upwards of 70, whom he always called his lad, a man of ftouter make than his father, who bears at this moment every appearance of reaching a very advanced age.

Dec. 20, 1806.

M. Y.

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marks on the improper Elision of Vowels) that reduces the fentence to fuch tautos logy and nonfenfe, that I am obliged to request the opportunity of a confpicuous correction. I had stated that "many of our fyllables will be found, even in ordinary delivery, to be liable to a confiderable degree of latitude, both in quaNTITY and TUNE," but your compofitor (who may very well be excufed for never having heard of the tune of fyllables, in the ordinary pronunciation of (peech) has fubftituted the word time; and made inc dwell upon a diftinction (infinitely too fubtile, I fuppofe, for the apprehension of any of your readers) between the quantity of a fyllable and its time.*

I throw no reproach, therefore, on the corrector of your prefs, on account of this inaccuracy: but as the diferimination of the various properties of English fyllables is one of thofe topics, to which, both from tafte and from profethional duty, I am in the habit of paying a very particular attention; I avail myfelf of the prefent opportunity to elucidate the diftinction alluded to in my last communication.

English fyllables then, Sir, I conceive (and I believe I might confidently athrin the fame of the fyllables of all languages, that ever did, or ever can exift) differ from each other, not only in the enunci ative elements (i. e. the fimple qualities of the letters of which they are compofed) and in their respective quantities, (i. e. the time they occupy in pronunciation) but, alfo, in the following qualities, which conflitute (in the most comprehensive application of the word) their tune; and which I fhall endeavour to contradiftinguish by appropriate fymbols, the greater, part of which I have borrowed from the ingenious work of Mr. Jonia Steele.†

FIRST, fyllables differ from each other in their poife-that is to fay, in the affections of heavy (A) and light (.)-the Thefis and Arfis of the Greeks the alternations of which (not proceeding from

Either the lapfe of my pen, or of your compofitor, has brought me under the impu tation of another error, which though general idiom would excufe, accuracy would of courfe reject-1 mean the phrafe "three first lines," in my paper upon Elifions, inftead of "first three lines." Though I utterly abjure fuch colloquial phrafcology, in critical difquiution, I thould not have thought it worth while to correct it, if fome unknown correfpondent had not felt it of importance enough for epiftolary interrogation.

+ Profodia Rationalis, or a Treatife on the Meafure and Melody of Speech Nichols, 1779.

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nuendo, or foftnefs, than the other parts of fpeech: a circuinitance, by the way, to which it would be well, if fome even of our very first rate players would pay more attention; as they would be fure to do, if they were but in the habit of obferving and analyfing the pure unpremeditated Speech of thote with whom (of whatsoever rank or intellect) they may occafionally.

converie. Thus Fancy Picture | &c. con

Δ . Δ

fiitute cadences of coinmon meafure; Abfolute || Meditate &c. cadences of 11

A

A. triple measure. So alfo the monofyllables man and horfe to horfe and harfe to

Δ

| Man to Ma A : Δ A and the following mixture of monofylla bles and diffyllables "Oh golden

A

days appear pear confitute cadences of A

A

common; and the following,

country he figh'd when at Δ .... repairing"

"For his

twilight A

cadences of triple time, SECONDLY Syllables may be further diftingu:fhed by the property of percufion (that is to lay, by an explosive force fuperadded to the heavy pole, or more emphatic part of the cadence. Such percuffion is always tuperadded to fome one fyllable of every word that has more heavy fyllables than one

Intrepidity Se

Abfolutely A

A

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as

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We should not then fo fre

quently hear the fine fentences of our immortal Shakespeare deformed and deof unimportant particles; nor would our graded by the preternatural tumefaction ears be shocked by thofe frequent thunderings of "he, the, it, and, we, ye, they" which remind us of the wretched fpectacle of a rickety child; the feebleness of

waited mufcles, are deplorably compen fated, by the largenefs of his wrifis and ancles.

I ufe the word loudness in the above paragraph, in preference to the word force; and, indeed, in contradiftinétion to it, though they are fo generally con-founded. Force is, indeed, rather an object of attention in the general manage ment of the voice, than a property of particular fyllables: though its diftinctions may indeed be fuper-added to par ticular fyllables, or combinations of fyllables, as one of the modifications of einphafis: but a well regulated utterance will render the fofteft and the lightest fyllables forcible; as well as the loud, the heavy, and the percuffed.

FOURTHLY-Syllables differ from each other in thofe most evanefcent, yet highly important properties their musical accents. But with what an unfortunate

word am I obliged to conclude this enumeration?-decent ! that word fo perpe tually ufed by our grammarians and profoditis, but fo little underttood.-Accent! that unfortunate fervant of all work in the houtehold of English rytlunical criticifin, almoft inceffantly employed in every office it is unfit for, while the department for which it is exclusively qualified, remains almost entirely neglected. For example, the term accent is applied in

will do us duty." -Profe and verfe the cafe of all words (either of two or

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A..A

"Serringapatan," here the term accent

is by the generality of writers abfolutely denied to these mere heavy tyllables, and exclufively confined to the individual fyllable that receives the fuperadded and perfectly diftinét quality of percuffion. So that we have the fame name applied to two distinct properties of utterance, and the appellation pofitively denied in one inftance to the very fame quality which in another is infifted upon as conftituting its fole and indifputable efience. But that is not all. That confufion may be ftill worfe confounded, the very ap plication of the term accent is, by all our grammarians, imperiously denied to all, monofyllables; although fuch of our monofyllables as are fubftantives have, univerfally, by the most deducible and imperious law of English pronunciation, of neceffity, that identical quality of heavinefs, or affection to thefis, which in words of two fyllables is called their accent; and are even liable, as has been already fhewn, to that fuperadded quality of percuffion, to which the name of accent is configned in the longer words.

But the measure of abfurdity is not yet full. What grammarian is there who, after all his confused applications of this unfortunate word, would fcruple to talk of a Scotch accent, an Irish accent, a Welch accent, a Northumbrian accent, a French accent, &c. Yet moft affuredly the different modes of utterance thus in

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cuffed
Yet nothing can be more dif-
ferent than their accents:-that is to fay,
(for in this refpect, and this only, the
vulgar application of the term is cor
rect) than the Idiomatic tune of the re-
fpective provinces; or the mode and
rately defines, "the tuning of the voice,
fyftem of what old Ben Jonfon to accu-
by lifting it up and down in the mufical
that has been written upon the fubject of
fcale" "-a definition which is worth all
accent, from the days of that admirable
but which we cannot be furprised that
grammarian, to thofe of Jofhua Steele ;
fucceeding graminarians have forgotten;
fince old Ben himfelf feems to have for-
from his pen having abfolutely, in the
gotten it the very inftant it was difmiffed
practical illuftration of his own axiom,
confounded it again, with that very pro-
pesty of percuffive force, from which it
feemed to have separated it for ever.

Thus then by the term accent, I mean "the tuning of the voice, by lifting it up and down in the mufical fcale;" and I mean nothing elfe. Accents (thus defined) muft of neceffity be regarded as fyllables: every fyllable (whether fpoken univerfal and indifpenfable properties of by a certain portion of tuneable found; or fung) being neceffarily characterized which must be either higher or lower in mufical proportions. And, further, it an afcertained, or afcertainable fcale of may be ftated, that if fuch fyllable be Spoken, it must not only have its characteriftic elevation or depretion in fuch tain portion of that feale, either upwards fcale, but also its motion through a ceror downwards, or both; for if we dwell, during the interval of any fyllable, and efpecially any of the long fyllables, on an uninterrupted monotone, finging and not accents of fpeech have not only their dif fpeaking is the confequence. Thus the tinctions of high and low, like the notes of common mufic (though on a fcale of more minute divifion) but have alfo their minute movements, or apparent flides; that is to fay-their diftinctions of acute (), grace (), gravo-acute (*) and acutograve (*), or circumflexes; fome one of which motions of the voice, muft neceffarily take place, during the pronunciation of every fyllable (whether the voice, at the commencement of fuch fyllable, fame diftribution of heavy and were pitched high or low), or the character

dicated, depend upon fomething effentially diftinct from thofe qualities of fyllables indicated by the term accent in any of the former inftances. With very few exceptions, the Scotchman, the Irishman, the Welchinan, the Londoner, the native of Northumberland, &c. would place the percuffion precifely on the fame

fyllable, and would make,

through

sentence,

A

the

Out' any given
A.. A.. A.. Δ ́ .. A..

A..

A..

A.. A..

of Speech is toft.
Such are the diftinct properties of the

Lane

tune of fyllables; in the application of which (as well as of the attribute of quantity, or duration) it was my meaning to affirin, that, in many inftances, confiderable latitude is allowed, in the ordinary converfational delivery, even of the molt correct and harmonious speakers; and to the extent of which latitude, (and no further) I confider the writer and the reader of verfe to be at liberty, nay to be called upon, to extend his difcretionary felection; in what to the refpective provinces of the writer and the repeater can practically belong.

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To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

SIR,

THE

Dec. 12, 1806.

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

HERE is a whimsical expreffion in language I am confcious, Sir, that this hafty and decypher, till the other day chance let imperfect fcrawl may expofe your com- me into the fecret. I mean the phrase, pofitor to freth difficulties; and, what in spite of his teeth. is worfe, perhaps, from the want of French dictionary under the word aidant, Looking into a perspicuous and fufficient elucidation of I found this pallage: On difoit autrefois, what is new or difficult in the theory, Malgré lui & fes AIDANS, dont on a fait may rather tend to perplex than to in- ce proverbe corrompu, Malgré lui & fes form the ftudent of English profody. But dents. It feems then that this phrafe, the inceffant calls of profeffional duty, (as like fo many others in our language, is a a public and as a private teacher,) forbid literal tranflation from the old French, in me the opportunities both of more am- which the words which answered to his ple and explicit developement of my affiftunts, happening to refemble in found ideas, and of the neceffary talk of revifing thofe which anfwer to his teeth, the latter what I have fo hastily fet down. It has, words, by negligence, or drollery, came indeed, been long my wish to fubmit to to be fubftituted inftead of the former. the world a methodical and ample developement of that entire fyftem of elocuI am, Sir, your's, &c. onary fcience, which the labour of ten PHILOLOGUS. years has enabled me in fome degree to digeft, though at prefent it has no writtea exiftence, except in thofe fhort notes which have been prepared for the purpofe of my public lectures, and which in reality can be intelligible to no one but myfelf. But the publication of a work of fuch extent is fo formidable a fpecu lation; and it is, in fact, fo much more profitable to talk to mankind than to write for them, that I am much inclined to believe that, notwithstanding the difadvantages of detached and partial difquditions, upon a fubject which ought to be examined as a whole, an occasional hafty effay like the prefent, is likely, for fome years at leaft, to be all that attention to the interests 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 band. My learned and very ingenious friend. Mr. Roe, of Stramore, in Ire

• Mr. Roe has already published an ele. mentary work upon this fubject, of great though neglected merit-" Elements of Englith Metre, bath in Profe and Verfe, by Richard Roe," Longman and Rees, 1801, which, perhaps, the more enlarged work he

SIR,

CANNOT but diffent from the vali

fome obfervations which Mr.

Pickbourn has made on my letter relative to the nature of Greek accents. To the paffage which was quoted from Bishop Hare, Mr. P. has given the following meaning:-"Accent gives a little addition 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 contrary 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 nofeale, and the directions for the ufe of a metation, the fimple proportions of a measured chanical index, in the original work, cannot but be highly acceptable; the mufical notation adopted in the enlarged performance will fcientific ftudent, and the more comprehenfive be, however, much more fatisfactory to the view that is taken of the fubject, increases the intereft and enhances the value of the performance.

* Vide Monthly Magazine, vol. XX. p. 499; and vol. XXI. p. 104, learned

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