1. In words of more than two syllables, if, according to the received prosodies, two or more short syllables, exclusive of the final syllable, occur together, the second of those short syllables, counting from the beginning of the word, was slurred over. For Instance, in some cases the changing a vowel i or e into the sound of a y, or of a vowel a, o, or into the sound of a w, would be the simplest mode of effecting such a 'molt. Thus, adtrIldiere, pirrimus, eonsgium, would, upon our theory, be pronounced adtribicere, pergimus,consilyiim, the last of which is confirmed by Horace'a use of the same word in his odes, and the Italian consiglio, Fr. conseil, Sp. consejo ; and at any rate our pronun ciation of the two former is more consistent with the quantity of the vowels than the mode usually adopted, namely, per.1-imus, adtribaere. Bentley has himself observed (' Bun.; ii. 2, 36) that the words mailer, rnulleris, &c., are always so placed in Terence as to have the accent on the first syllable ; which, by the way, is consistent with the Italian inosiGe, and the Spanish 'Iver. We doubt, however, whether the dative and ablative plural would be found to obey the law laid down by Bentley. In those cases where the second short vowel is followed by a consonant, the abbreviation proposed becomes impracticable, if at least that consonant: be really to be sounded. In such cases the right course, is probably to drop the syllable altogether. Thus miacria, familia, and such words, I iermann (' De Re 3letrica ') truly says, are to be pronounced with the accent on the first syllable, and this In defiance of the law laid down by all the grammarians, that the accent cannot be carried farther from the end of a word than the antepenult. Hermann has not attempted to reconcile the two assertions, but they fall at once into agreement if we are right in dropping the second syl lable, for then the first becomes virtually an antepenultimate ; and we are only doing what is common in our own language, as in every, lovely. This principle, moreover, may be clearly traced in forms acknowledged to be Latin. Thus, from populus should be formed populicus, but that becomes poplicus or publicus. If pello has a perfect eado a perfect eecidi ; tho compounds with rc should strictly give us repepidi, rececidi ; but we find reppuli, reccidi. Again, In con nection with opifex we ought to have opificium and opificina ; but these have been supplanted by °Plum, offleina. So, too, the Greek f WilffEOF becomes in Latin oppidum, as opposed to the ar.r, or citadel ; and the adverb .111a.EWr takes the form of oppido, an equivalent in meaning to plane.
II. The accent of a Latin dissyllable or polysyllable will fall upon the penult, if long. 'Where that penult is long by the nature of the vowel, and at the same time the final syllable is short, the accent upon the penult is called a circumflex ; in other cases an acute accent.
Secondly, if the penult be short, put an acute accent upon the ante penult, always performing the previously mentioned abbreviation, if need be ; the necessary effect of which is to give a long antepenult, if the penult itself be short.
III. The preceding rules dispose of every case except two classes of words, namely, dissyllables with a short penult, and monosyllables. The former are either to be pronounced as monosyllables, or else to be attached to the preceding or following word ; and the double word thus formed to be accentuated as a polysyllable. When a word is attached in pronunciation to that which it precedes, it has already received in common use the name of enclitic. Hermann, who first observed that there are also words which attach themselves to those which follow, has proposed to give them the name of proclitics. The Greek article, for instance, belongs to this class, as also not unfrequently the Latin hie, here, &c. The same is true of prepositions, when really prepositions, that is, when they precede their noun ; and the Latin non or tie, like the Greek es, should perhaps in many eases be pronounced in immediate connection with the following verb, just as we, who are accustomed to place our not after a verb, write cannot as a single word.
Many little conjunctions also may probably require such treatment, as ti, at, &c. ; in confirmation of which it should be observed that Latin manuscripts, even of a Into date, almost habitually write these little words in immediate connection with the following word. Again, the list of enclitics should be extended so as to include most of the con junctions which require to be placed second in a sentence, and even conjunctions in general, together with the relative itself when they are forced, if the word may be used, into a second place, as, for instance, in the first line of the ./Eneid; which acquires additional power by the pronunciation Troiae-qui. In the same way a postponed preposi tion becomes an enclitic, as in the phrase altis-de montibus. In this way many dissyllables and monosyllables will coalesce into polysyllables, and be accentuated accordingly. We even entertain a strong suspicion that a verb in the middle of a sentence must often be treated as an enclitic, to give tone to some important word before it. Such a pro nunciation was indeed demanded by Carey, in his Prosody,' for the Virgilian lerfs-rolat. The verb eat, again, is known to have been very generally an enclitic ; and the best Sanskritists have held that the verb must very frequently in verse be so attached to the word which pre cedes it. We trace the same law in a fact which governs the order of words in the Latin and Hungarian, and probably many other languages, namely, that when a verb occupies a place in the middle of its clause, it is safe to infer a strong emphasis for the word which precedes it.
IV. The principle of elision will often modify the accent of a word. Thus, cumprimum, saribendum, argument°, would in ordinary circum stances have the accent as marked. But if elision take place, they sometimes have the accent displaced. • In this way the first and eleventh lines of the Prologue to the 'Andria ' should be read : " Podta tlin' adscribenff tidpulit ; " and "Non it' dissfmli stint arg0ment' &stamen." It should also be observed that elision often destroys the initial vowel of the second word, instead of the final syllable of the preceding word, as acne tutimst off Icium, rather than nuns tie Eat offIcium.
V. The pronunciation of Latin words in the days of Plautus and Terence differed in several respects from that which holds good for the later poets, and this for the most part In one direction—syllables being long in the old Latin drama, which afterwards became short. Thus, and mileas, grains. and ?limekiln, were always trisyllabic. The first syllable of A cheroots was already in a state of transition, generally long, yet at times short ; cacula is another word of varying quantity in the same syllable. Then, again, norninatives in or, as vixe.. (Plant., Stk.,' v. 140), Mild& (Ibid., glace.; v. 123), may have the last syllable long, and this with the more reason as they really stand for wzors, station. In the same way, pater, like the Greek Taisqp, has a long final syllable in the ' Trin.,' v. 64; if we follow the Ambrosian palimpsest. Then, again, in verbs we have a long final in the first person of the reflective, as perpetiir (' Most.; v. 621), and in the third person singular of the active, provided the other parts-of the tense in question prove the vowel to be in itself long, as sit (` Mil.; v. 242), odificat ('Merc.,' v. 648), habit, not tut habet (' Trim.,' v, 206), decide et, capectet, for so the MSS. (' Mil.,' 244), and, above all, in perfect tenses, as opilyit Stic.,' v. 334), astitit (' Mil.,' v. 213), repperit (' Stic.,' v.