guished from other pronouns, and consequently emphatical, are always pronounced with their full open sound, you, my. But it is as certain, if we observe the pronunciation of correct conversation, that we shall find them sounded ye and me, when they are subordinate words in the sentence, and have no emphasis on them. For example: You told him all the truth. Here the word you is a nominative case, that is, it goes before the word denoting action, and must therefore be pronounced full and open, so as to rhyme with new. In this sentence also, He told You before he told any body else; the word you is in the oblique case, or comes after the word denoting action, but as it is emphatical by being contradistinguished from any body else, it preserves its full open sound as before. But in the sentence, Though he told you, he had no right to tell you-here the pronoun you is in the oblique case, or follows the word denoting action, and, having no distinctive emphasis, invariably falls into the sound of the antiquated form of this pronoun, ye; and as if written, Though he told ye, he had no right to tell ye. *

The same observations hold good with respect to the pronoun my. If we were to say, My pen is as bad as my paper, we should necessarily pronounce my like me, as, in this sentence, pen and paper are the emphatical words; but if I were to say, My pen is worse than yours, here my is in

* Perhaps it was this pronunciation of the pronoun you, when in the oblique case, which induced Shakspeare and Milton sometimes to write it ye: though, as Dr. Lowth observes, very ungrammatically.

The more shame for ye, holy men I thought ye.
Henry VIII.

His wrath which one day will destroy ye both.

Milton, Par. Lost. b. ii. 1. 704.

antithesis with yours, and consequently must be pronounced long and full, so as to rhyme with high, nigh, &c.

The word your is exactly under the same predicament. When the emphasis is laid upon this word, it is always pronounced full and open, exactly like the substantive ewer; as, The moment I had read Your letter I sat down to write Mine: but, when it is not emphatical, it sinks naturally into yur; exactly like the last syllable of Lawyer, as, I had just answered yur first letter as yur last arrived. On the contrary, if it were to be said, I had just answered Your first letter as Your last arrived, with your sounded like ewer, as in the former sentence, every delicate ear would be offended. A few examples may serve to illustrate these observations still farther.

"Your paper is a part of my tea-equipage; "and my servant knows my humour so well, that calling for my breakfast this morning, (it being "past my usual hour) she answered, the Specta"tor was not yet come in." Spect. No. 92.

In this example we find every my but the fourth may be pronounced so as to rhyme with high, and it would intimate the singularity of the tea-equipage, the servant, and the humour, as opposed to, or distinguished from those who have no such tea-equipage, servant, or humour; but breakfast, having no such singularity or opposition of meaning to other breakfasts, cannot have my before it pronounced like high without being absurd. Not that the sense necessarily requires the full sound of my before the former words, but admits of it only; nay, the repetition of their sound being disagreeable to the ear, and the sense not demanding it, perhaps the best mode of reading this passage would be to confine

the full sound of my to that which precedes the word humour. Your at the beginning of the sentence, requires the full sound rhyming with pure; as it distinguishes the Spectator from other papers, but in the following part of the same letter:

Having thus, in part, signified the esteem "and veneration which I have for you, I must put you in mind of the catalogue of books "which you have promised to recommend to our sex; for I have deferred furnishing my "closet with authors, till I receive your advice "in this particular, being your daily disciple, "and humble servant,

"LEONORA."

However we may pronounce the word your preceding the word advice, the last your must necessarily be pronounced short like yur. This sound of the possessive pronoun your always takes place where it is used to signify any particular species of persons or things. Thus Addison, speaking of the metaphors which professional men most commonly fall into, says, "Your men of business usually have recourse to "such instances as are too mean and familiar." Spect. No. 421.-And Cleopatra, in All for Love, speaking of the Roman poets, says,

Mere poetry!

Your Roman wits, your Gallus and Tibullus,
Have taught ye this from Cytheris and Delia.

DRYDEN.

When of, for, from, and by, are to have a long, and when a short Sound.

A DISTINCTION similar to those we have been observing seems to have taken place in the pronunciation of the preposition of. The consonant

of this word is almost invariably pronounced like the consonant ; and when the word does not come before some of the pronouns at the end of a sentence, or member of a sentence, we sometimes suffer the vowel o to slide into the sound of the vowel u; and the word may be said to rhyme with love, dove, &c. Thus, in the wellknown couplet in the tragedy of the Fair Penitent:

Of all the various wretches Love has made,
How few we find by men of sense betray'd!

The two ofs in this couplet we find, may, without any very palpable departure from propriety, be pronounced as if written uo; rhyming with dove, &c.-but when the words it, him, her, them, or any other personal pronoun follows of, either in the middle or at the end of a sentence, the word of must then be pronounced as when heard singly, rhyming with the first syllable of nov-el, hov-el. Thus every ear will readily perceive the impropriety of reciting the following sentence in this manner,-We never know the true value wo time till we are deprived uv it; and the superior propriety, as well as harmony of this manner,We never know the true value uv time till we are deprived ov it.

The same observations hold good with respect to the words from, by, for, and every word that in certain positions may admit of a less distinct and emphatical sound; for we may allowably pronounce from as if written frum in the sentence, I delivered him FROM the danger he was in; but we must always pronounce it nearly as if written. fraum in such sentences as the following: I came FROM him: I delivered him FROM it.

The word by is liable also to a double sound in different situations; that is, sometimes like

the verb be, and sometimes like buy. Thus we may say either, He died by (be) his own hands: or, He died by (buy) his own hands: but we must necessarily pronounce it buy, when it comes before the word it, him, or any similar word at the end of a sentence: as, whatever was the weapon, he died by (buy) it.

In the same manner we may say, I wrote to a friend for (fur) his advice: but we must invariably say, He would not give me his advice though I wrote for (faur) it. In these instances we plainly perceive, that there is something left to taste, and something established by custom. But notwithstanding the little hold we have of these fleeting sounds, that convey to us these less important parts of a sentence, we have still sufficient perception of them for establishing this general rule. When these signs of cases, of, from by, for, are in the middle of a sentence, they are sometimes liable to a double sound; but when at the end of a sentence, or member of a sentence, and succeeded by it, him, her, or them, they are invariably pronounced as when heard singly of, from, by, for, &c.

How to pronounce the Possessive Pronoun THY.

FROM what has been already observed of the pronoun my, we are naturally led to suppose, that the word thy, when not emphatical, ought to follow the same analogy, and be pronounced like the, as we frequently hear it on the stage: but if we reflect, that reading or reciting is a perfect picture of speaking, we shall be induced to think, that in this particular the stage is sometimes wrong: The second personal pronoun thy is not, like my, the common language of every subject; it is used only where the sub