Primary accent on the fourth syllable and secondary on the

Primary accent on the fifth syllable, and secondary on the

Primary accent on the sixth syllable, and secondary on the

incommunicability

incomprehensibility

incircumscriptibility

incontrovertibility irreconciliation

intercolumniation intercommunication

When three or more syllables follow the accent, there sometimes is, but more frequently is not, a secondary accent on one of them. When there is, it generally falls on the second syllable, but sometimes on the third after the primary accent. The following are a few instances:

Secondary accent on the second syllable after the primary.

Secondary accent on the third syllable after the primary.

Subjoined are a few instances of the accent followed by three

or more unaccented syllables :

The following Table shows the varieties of regular accentuation in words of different syllabic length :-the stars denote the primary accents, the larger dots the secondary accents, and the smaller dots unaccented syllables.

The secondary accent is, in all the preceding instances, separated from the primary, by the intervention of one or two unaccented syllables; but there may be a secondarily accented force on a syllable which is not separated from the primary. The discriminating ear will at once detect the presence of a secondary accent on the negative prefixes in the following lines, if expressively read:

"He sinks into thy depths with bubbling groan,

Without a grave, un'knelled", un'cof"fined, and un'known"."
"The wretch, concentred all in self,

Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down

To the vile dust from whence he sprung,

Un'wept, un'honoured, and un'sung" !

In these cases, the primary accent immediately follows the secondary; and such accentuation is not confined to words with negative prefixes, but any prefix may receive emphatical importance in the same way,- -as co'-e'qual, con'join", de'hort", e’duce”, il'le"gal, im'mense"! pan'soph"ical, preʼmer"'it, re'-ech'o, &c. We have the same accentuation in the common unlexiconed words, so'-so", tee'-to'tal, &c.; and the word amen, which is universally acknowledged as a doubly accented word, has not two equal accents, but a secondary and primary, thus, a'men". The word farewell, also, has two accents in its ordinary utterance,-the primary accent sometimes on the first and sometimes on the second syllable.

When words differing only, or chiefly, in one of their syllables, are antithetic, the emphasis of opposition is expressed by transposition of the accent to the syllable of difference. Thus instead of forgiv'ing, forbear'ing, injus'tice, undone', &c., we say

for'giving when opposed to giving

for bearing
in'justice

un'done

bearing

justice

done, &c.

When the opposition is between two prefixes otherwise unaccented, they take the primary force, and the ordinarily accented

syllable retains a secondary accent, as in

And so in antithetic terminations we might give them the primary accent, and mark the ordinarily accented syllable by secondary force, thus :

prin'ciple" when opposed to prin'cipal"

When the syllable of difference happens to be under the secondary accent, we mark antithesis by giving it the primary, and transferring the secondary accent to the regular place of the primary. Thus, we say

prop"osi'tion when opposed to prep'osi'tion

In practising the foregoing tables of variously accented words, the student would find it useful to beat time to his utterance, by making a downward stroke of the hand on each accent. This will lead him to distinguish the more clearly, accented from unaccented syllables by his voice; and it will serve, far better than any explanation we could give, to manifest the accentual differences to those whose ears do not readily apprehend them. In this way the possibility-if it be disputed-of the secondary accent occurring next to the primary, will be proved, and its presence detected; for if any two consecutive syllables be uttered with a downward action of the same hand accompanying each, they must both be accented; for it is manifest that there must be between them the time of an unaccented syllable, correspondent to the raising of the hand between its two descents.

In order to distinguish secondary from primary accents, let the hand or finger make a full stroke downwards upon the table, for the former; and a half stroke downwards towards the table for the latter. This will lead the voice, too, sympathetically, into a correspondently relative inflexion of the accents.

RHYTHM.

The adjustment of the force of syllables,-of the accents,—in sentences, constitutes RHYTHM; a subject which has been involved in much obscurity by the way in which writers have treated of it, but which is sufficiently simple to be transferred to practice, long before the complex theories of rhythmical writers could be fairly