(2.) “It is by the accent chiefly that the quantity of our syllables is regulated; but not according to the mistaken rule laid down by all who have written on the subject, that the accent always makes the syllable long; than which there cannot be any thing more false.”—­Ib., p. 57.

(3.) “And here I cannot help taking notice of a circumstance, which shews in the strongest light, the amazing deficiency of those, who have hitherto employed their labours on that subject, [accent, or pronunciation,] in point of knowledge of the true genius and constitution of our tongue.  Several of the compilers of dictionaries, vocabularies, and spelling books, have undertaken to mark the accents of our words; but so little acquainted were they with the nature of our accent, that they thought it necessary only to mark the syllable on which the stress is to be laid, without marking the particular letter of the syllable to which the accent belongs.”—­Ib., p. 59.

(4.) “The mind thus taking a bias under the prejudice of false rules, never arrives at a knowledge of the true nature of quantity; and accordingly we find that all attempts hitherto to settle the prosody of our language, have been vain and fruitless.”—­Sheridan’s Rhetorical Gram., p. 52.

[496] In the following extract, this matter is stated somewhat differently:  “The quantity depends upon the seat of the accent, whether it be on the vowel or [on the] consonant; if on the vowel, the syllable is necessarily long:  as it makes the vowel long; if on the consonant, it may be either long or short, according to the nature of the consonant, or the time taken up in dwelling upon it.”—­Sheridan’s Lectures on Eloc., p. 57.  This last clause shows the “distinction” to be a very weak one.—­G.  BROWN.

[497] “If the consonant be in its nature a short one, the syllable is necessarily short.  If it be a long one, that is, one whose sound is capable of being lengthened, it may be long or short at the will of the speaker.  By a short consonant I mean one whose sound cannot be continued after a vowel, such as c or k p t, as ac, ap, at—­whilst that of long consonants can, as, el em en er ev, &c.”—­Sheridan’s Lectures on Elocution, p. 58.  Sheridan here forgets that “bor’row” is one of his examples of short quantity.

Murray admits that “accent on a semi-vowel” may make the syllable long; and his semivowels are these:  “f, l, m, n, r, v, s, z, x, and c and g soft.”  See his Octavo Gram., p. 240 and p. 8.

[498] On account of the different uses made of the breve, the macron, and the accents, one grammarian has proposed a new mode of marking poetic quantities.  Something of the kind might be useful; but there seems to be a reversal of order in this scheme, the macrotone being here made light, and the stenotone dark and heavy.  “Long and short syllables have sometimes been designated by the same marks which are used for accent, tones, and the quality of the vowels; but it will be better[,] to prevent confusion[,] to use different marks.  This mark may represent a long syllable, and this . a short syllable; as,