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fubject is imitated by harfh-founding words; and words of many fyllables pronounced flow and smooth, are expreflive of grief and melancholy. Words have a feparate effect on the mind, abftracting from their fignification and from their imitative power: they are more or lefs agreeable to the ear, by the fulness, sweetness, faintnefs, or roughnefs of their

tones.

These are but faint beauties, being known to thofe only who have more than ordinary acutenefs of perception. Language poffeffeth a beauty fuperior greatly in degree, of which we are eminently fenfible when a thought is communicated with perfpicuity and fprightlinefs. This beauty of language, arifing from its power of expreffing thought, is apt to be confounded with the beauty of the thought itfelf: the beauty of thought, transferred to the expreflion, makes it appear more beautiful. But thefe beauties, if we wish to think accurately, muft be diftinguifhed from each other. They are in reality fo diftinct, that we fometimes are confcious of the highest pleafure language can afford, when the fubject expreffed is difagreeable: a thing that is loathfome, or a fcene of horror to make one's hair ftand on end, may be defcribed in a manner fo lively, as that the difagreeableness of the fubject fhall not even obfcure the agreeablenefs of the defcription. The caufes of the original beauty of language, confidered as fignificant, which is a branch of the prefent fubject, will be explained in their order. I fhall only at pref

ent

* Chap. 2. part 1. feft. 5. Demetrius Phalereus (of Elocution, fect. 75) makes the fame obfervation. We are apt, fays that auther, to confound the language with the fubje&t; and if the latter be nervous, we judge the fame of the former. But they are clearly diftinguishable; and it is not uncommon to find fubjects of great dignity dreffed in mean language. Theopompous is celebrated for the force of his diction; but erroneoufly his fubject indeed has great force, but his flyle very little.

ent obferve, that this beauty is the beauty of means fitted to an end, that of communicating thought: and hence it evidently appears, that of feveral expreffions all conveying the fame thought, the most beautiful, in the fenfe now mentioned, is that which in the most perfect manner answers its end.

The feveral beauties of language above mentioned, being of different kinds, ought to be handled feparately. I fhall begin with thofe beauties of language that arife from found; after which will follow the beauties of language confidered as fignificant ; this order appears naturai; for the found of a word is attended to, before we confider its fignification. In a third fection come thofe fingular beauties of language that are derived from a refemblance between found and fignification. The beauties of verse are handled in the laft fection: for though the foregoing beauties are found in verfe as well as in profe, yet verfe has many peculiar beauties, which for the fake of connection must be brought under one view; and verfification, at any rate, is a fubject of fo great importance as to deferve a place by itself.

SECTION I.

Beauty of Language with refpect to Sound.
THIS fubject requires the following or

der. The founds of the different letters come first: next, thefefounds as united in fyllables: third, fyllables united in words: fourth, words united in a period : and in the last place, periods united in a difcourfe.

With refpect to the firft article, every vowel is founded with a fingle expiration of air from the wind-pipe, through the cavity of the mouth. By varying this cavity, the different vowels are founded for the air in paffing through cavities differing in fize produceth

A 2

produceth various founds, fome high or fharp, fome low or flat: a fmall cavity occafions a high found, a large cavity a low found. The five vowels accordingly, pronounced with the fame extenfion of the wind-pipe, but with different openings of the mouth, form a regular feries of founds, defcending from high to low, in the following order, i, c, a, o, u.* Each of thefe founds is agreeable to the ear and if it be required which of them is the most agreeable, it is perhaps fafeft to hold, that thofe vowels which are the fartheft removed from the extremes, will be the most relifhed. This is all I have to remark upon the first article for confonants being letters that of themselves have no found, ferve only in conjunction with vowels to form articulate founds; and as every articulate found makes a fyllable, confonants come naturally under the fecond article; to which we proceed.

A confonant is pronounced with a lefs cavity than any vowel; and confequently every fyllable into which a confonant enters, muft have more than one found, though pronounced with one expiration of air, or with one breath as commonly expreffed: for however readily two founds may unite, yet where they differ in tone, both of them must be heard if neither of them be fuppreffed. For the fame reason, every fyllable must be compofed of as many founds as there are letters, fuppofing every letter to be diftinely pronounced.

We next inquire, how far fyllables are agreeable to the ear. Few tongues are fo polifhed, as entirely to have rejected founds that are pronounced with dif

ficulty;

In this fcale of founds, the letter i must be pronounced as in the word intereft, and as in other words beginning with the fyllable in; the letter e, as in perfuafion; the lettera as in bat; and the letter 2 as in umber,

ficulty; and it is a noted obfervation, That fuch founds are to the ear harsh and difagreeable. But.. with refpect to agreeable founds, it appears, that a double found is always more agreeable than a fingle found every one who has an ear must be fenfible, that the dipththong oi or ai is more agreeable than any of these vowels pronounced fingly the fame holds where a confonant enters into the double found; the fyllable le has a more agreeable found than the vowel e, or than any vowel. And in fupport of experience, a fatisfactory argument may be drawn from the wisdom of Providence: fpeech is beftowed on man, to qualify him for fociety; and his provifion of articulate founds is proportioned to the use he hath for them; but if founds that are agreeable fingly, were not alfo agreeable in conjunction, the neceffity of a painful felection would render language intricate and difficult to be attained in any perfection; and this felection, at the fame time, would abridge the number of ufeful founds, fo as perhaps not to leave fufficient for answering the different ends of language.

In this view, the harmony of pronunciation differs widely, from that of mufic properly fo called. In the latter are discovered many founds fingly agreeable, which in conjunction are extremely difagreeable; none but what are called concordant founds having a good effect in conjunction. In the former, all founds, fingly agreeable, are in conjunction concordant; and ought to be, in order to fulfil the purpofes of language.

Having difcuffed fyllables, we proceed to words which make the third article. Monofyllables belong to the former head polyfyllables open a different scene. In a curfory view, one would imagine, that

the

;

the agreeablenefs or difagreeablenefs of a word with refpect to its found, fhould depend upon the agreeableness or difagreeablenefs of its component fyllables: which is true in part, but not entirely; for we must alfo take under confideration, the effect of fyllables in fucceffion. In the first place, fyllables in immediate fucceffion, pronounced, each of them, with the fame, or nearly the fame aperture of the mouth, produce a fucceffion of weak and feeble founds; witnefs the French words dit-il, pathetique: on the other hand, a fyllable of the greateft aperture fucceeding one of the fmalleft, or the contrary, makes a fucceffion, which, becaufe of its remarkable difagreeablenefs, is diftinguished by a proper name, biatus. The most agreeable fucceffion is, where the cavity is increased and diminished alternately within moderate limits, Examples, alternative, longevity, pufillanimous. Secondly, words confifting wholly of fyllables pronounced flow, or of fyllables pronounced quick, commonly called long and fhort fyllables, have little melody in them; witnefs the words petitioner, fruiterer, dizziness: on the other hand, the intermixture of long and fhort fyllables is remarkably agreeable; for example, degree, repent, wonderful, altitude, rapidity, independent, impetuofity. The caufe will be explained afterward, in

treating of verfification.

Diftinguishable from the beauties above mention, ed, there is a beauty of fome words which arifes from their fignification, when the emotion raifed by the length or fhortnefs, the roughness or smoothnefs, of the found, resembles in any degree what is raised

by

*Iralian words, like thofe of Latin and Greek, have this property almoft univerfally: English and French words are generally deficient. In the former, the long fyllable is removed from the end, as far as the found will permit; and in the latter, the laft fyllable is generally long. For example, Senator in English, Senator in Latin, and Senateur in French.

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