mode of utterance, like finging, to a mufical proportion: for, furely there is nothing in the nature of things, to prevent our mo→ difying the various notes of the fpeaking voice, by a due proportion, any more than those of the finging voice. We know for certain, that the Greeks and Romans did modulate their feveral languages in that way, and carried the point to perfection; though in this we do not find they were ever followed by any other people. Yet I think I fhall be able to point out clearly to the most common apprehenfion, what the ufe of accents was among the ancients, by an example with which we are all acquainted, I mean the speech of the inhabitants of North Britain; with whom, the three kinds of accents used by the Greeks, are constantly employed in com mon discourse, but in an irregular and dif cordant state.

It

It is indeed the use of these accents chiefly, which renders the northern speech fo difagreeable to the ear; and yet it was to accents, or tones of the fame nature, that the Greek owed that delightful melody, which captivated the cars of all who heard it fpoken. The only difference is, that these accents or tones, being left wholly to chance among the Scots, are void of proportion, and difcordant; whereas the Greek accents, being regulated with the utmost pains and art, by that nation of Orators, obtained a mufical proportion, which delighted the ear with accordant founds. But I am to fhew you, that the Scots have in constant ufe, accents of the fame nature as those of the Greeks; that is, that every word they utter, has a fyllable diftinguished by an acute, grave, or circumflex. The best way to prove this, and at the fame time to point out the difference between the Scotch and English

English accent, will be, to open a dictionary, and let a Scotchman who speaks no other dialect but that of his own country, pronounce any number of detached words, fuch as, battle, borrow, babit, &c. The Scotchman utters the first fyllable, in a middle note, dwelling on the vowel; and the fecond, with a fudden elevation of the voice, and fhort. As bā-tlě, bāu-rò, hā-bit. The Englishman utters both fyllables without any perceptible change of tone, and in equal time; as bat'tle, bor'row, hab'it. Shew a Scotchman any polyfyllable, with the ftrefs on the antepenultima, or last syllable but two, and you will perceive a low or grave note on that fyllable, followed by a higher on the next, and ending in a very acute, or fuddenly elevated note; as in the words political, phenomenon. Shew him any diffyllable, with the ftrefs on the laft, and you will perceive that he always uses a

circumflex on the last vowel; that is, he begins the found of the vowel in a low note, and finishes it in a high one. As in the words-before-behind-bel`o'wThey also use the circumflex on all monofyllables, except particles; fuch as, pâstbôth-bâll-yês-nô. Whereas an Englishman never uses more than one noté, upon one vowel, and therefore is utterly unacquainted with the circumflex. Every word in every fentence that a Scotchman utters has one of these accents belonging to it; which has given rife to the term canting or chanting, applied to their pulpit elocution; fo disgusting to an English ear, as being at once difcordant, and quite oppofite to the genius of the English tongue. The difcordance of this chant, arifes from the abuse of these accents, which are fo far from being regulated, by the juft rules of the Greeks and Romans, that for the most part

they

they are quite oppofite to them. Thus, among the ancients, the acute, or high note, was generally placed upon the penultima or antepenultima, where the Scotch place the grave; and feldom on the last fyllable, never among the Romans: Whereas every last fyllable in the Scotch is acuted. In the circumflex, the ancients began with an acute, and ended with a grave; the Scots begin with a grave, and end with The general process of the ancients was, from high to low; that of the Scots, in an oppofite direction, from low to high. Thus the fentences of the Scotch always finish with a high note, directly oppofite to all principles of mufic, as well as fenfe; fince Nature herself feems to dictate a fall of the voice to mark that the fenfe is closed; as the fuftaining of it, points out that it is to be continued, according to the practice of the English. Thus, as the laws

an acute.