"In other places, the fand and argil had glided along,like torrents of lava, and large portions of mountains had been tranfported for the fpace of feveral miles into vallies without undergoing any change of form. Whole fields were precipitated into hollows in their original horizontal pofition; while foine remained inclined, and others vertical. In a space of ten leagues, by fix in breadth, included between the river Metrano, the mountains, and the fea, there was not a fingle acre, that had not fuffered fome change, either in form or pofition. We faw in feveral places, fprings of water which rofe to the height of feveral feet, and carried with them much fand and mud." Dolomien next attempts to explain why buildings raifed upon granite, and folid ground, fuffer lefs than others. On fimilar principles he renders it highly probable, that a cavern of an immenfe extent exists between Etna, and the northern part of Calabria, and concludes with offering fome conjectures on the caufe of this earthquake. In fupport of this defcription, I might add fome obfer vations from Sir William Hamilton, who preceded Dolomieu, and who himfelf witselfed the last fhocks of the earth quake; but as the principal circumitances of that cataftrophe are too well known to render that neceffary, I thall now proceed to give an explanation of the fubjoined plate which reprefents the more Ariking effects produced by the earthquake that occurred in the vicinity of Settizzano, in Calabria, during 1783. A. B. reprefent the vertical cut, nearly three hundred feet in height, of an extenfive plain planted with olive trees, in quincunxes, and very elevated. C. D. E. are hills, each confifting of feveral acres in extent, which formed a part of this plain, and which were projected into an immenfe hollow or ravine, to about a mile diftant Thefe maffes, variously inclined, form with the horizon angles from twenty-five to forty degrees; fome parts are vertical; in both the ftrata correfpond with those of the plain; but we seldom obferved, that the falient and oppofite angles of the plain and these maffe's, correfponded with each other: a circumftance which may be afcribed to their irregular projection, and the collifion fuftained in their of thofe on the borders, had experienced no change, for their items, or trunks, were uni formly perpendicular to the furface of the ground, and they stood at regular diftances Many examples, were it neceffary, might be adduced as furnishing exceptions to this pofition: from each other. The new fhoots, produced fince the period of the earthquake, had taken a vertical direction, and formed an angle with the trunk, which added ftill more to the fin gularity of the fcene. This effect has, however, been omitted in the plate. of F. marks the entrance of one of the subterranean hollows, excavated for the purpose It was found neceffary to have recourse to such expedients, as the earthquake produced two hun dred and fifteen different lakes or ponds, the ftagnant waters of which, corrupting by the extreme heat of the atmosphere, gave rise to peftilential difeafes, which carried off more inhabitants than had been destroyed by the earthquake. affording an outlet to the waters. We find then here, though on a finaller fcale, the image of many of the fingular forins of our continents, which may be attributed to the various convulfions that the furface of the earth underwent before and after its confolidation, viz, the vertical difpofition of the fides of feveral montains; the various inclinations of their ftrata, and of their fides; the angles which fometimes correfpond, and are at others diflimilar, the formation of vallies and lakes, by the accumulation of earth, even in the midit of plains; the acclivities of fea-coats, at the foot of which no bottom is difcoverable; ifolated peaks, and confiderable maffes of matter Icattered at a diftance below the moun tains, of which at one period they evidently conftituted a part; profound fiffures, either empty or filled with extraneous matter, and fome of which afford a paflage to volcanic eruptions; appearances of vertical ftrata, which are often merely folid cuts from the mountains themfelves. From the confideration of the above, and various other phænomena, we are neceffarily led to attribute thefe forms of the mountains to caufes fimilar to thofe which have given birth to the new hills of Calabria; the firongeft aualogy forces us to refer them to the fame origin, and to the falling, in of cavities contained within the cruft of our globe. F. DE BELLEVUE. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, Hendon Grange near Ryhope, and in the vicinity of Hylton Ferry. During his refidence at the latter place, when he had nearly attained his 80th year, his occupation becoming unprofitable, he gave up his farm, and engaged himfelf in the fervice of a gentleman in the fame neigh bourhood, by whom he was employed in the fields or ftable, or in fuch other work as he was capable of attending to, being always contidered trufty and well-difpof ed. As he had long prided himself on his dexterity in mowing, when he was almost ninety, he anxioully folicited his employer for the loan of a guinea, to wager against the kill of a much younger competitor. For the laft fifteen years of his life, he refided in Sunderland, in the houfe of a grand-daughter, by whom, with the afiftance of other defcendants, he was decently and refpectably maintained; ftill, however, keeping up his connexion occafionally with the family of his late mafter, who had removed into the environs of the town. Being one day, when he was upwards of a hundred years old, requested by his miftrefs to purchafe her fome fowls, with an expectation that he would bring them from the market, which was held very near his own refidence in Sunderland, he fet out on foot for a village feven miles diftant, where he had fome acquaintance, and having procured fome fowls of a fuperior quality, returned home from his marketing without delay. He was a ftrong mufcular man, about five feet fix inches high; he was fimple and of an eafy temper, never diftreffing himself about any thing beyond the occurrence of the moment, a circumftance which probably contributed much to the prolongation of his life. Having never been afflicted with any species of infirmity or ill health, he retained his bodily vigour to a very late period, and his other faculties, with the exception of his fight which failed him in his last year, to his death at the advanced age of 106, in the fummer of 1805. He left a fon upwards of 70, whom he always called his lad, a man of ftouter make than his father, who bears at this moment every appearance of reaching a very advanced marks on the improper Elifion of Vowels) that reduces the fentence to fuch tautology and nonfenfe, that I am obliged to request the opportunity of a conspicuous correction. I had stated that many of our fyllables will be found, even in or dinary delivery, to be liable to a confi derable degree of latitude, both in QUANTITY and TUNE;" but your compofitor (who may very well be excufed for never having heard of the tune of fyllables, in the ordinary pronunciation of fpeech) has fubftituted the word time; and made ine dwell upon a diftinction (infinitely too fubtile, I fuppofe, for the apprehenfion of any of your readers) between the quantity of a fyllable and its time.* I throw no reproach, therefore, on the corrector of your prefs, on account of this inaccuracy: but as the difcrimination of the various properties of English fyllables is one of thofe topics, to which, both from tafte and from profeffional duty, I am in the habit of paying a very particular attention; I avail myfelf of the prefent opportunity to elucidate the diftinc tion alluded to in my laft communication. English fyllables then, Sir, I conceive (and I believe I might confidently affirma the fame of the fyllables of all languages, that ever did, or ever can exift) differ from each other, not only in the enunci ative elements (i. e.-the fimple qualities of the letters of which they are compofed) and in their respective quantities, (i. e. the time they occupy in pronunciation) but, alfo, in the following qualities, which conftitute (in the moit comprehenfive application of the word) their tune; and which I fhall endeavour to contradiftinguifh by appropriate fymbols, the greater part of which I have borrowed from the ingenious work of Mr. Jofhua Steele.† FIRST, fyllables differ from each other in their poife-that is to fay, in the affec tions of heavy (▲) and light (..)—the Thefis and Aris of the Greeks :—the alternations of which (not proceeding from * Either the lapfe of my pen, or of your compofitor, has brought me under the impu tation of another error, which though general idiom would excufe, accuracy would of courfe reject-I mean the phrafe "three first lines," in my paper upon Elifions, inftead of "firl three lines." Though I utterly abjure fuch colloquial phrafeology, in critical difquintion, I thould not have thought it worth while to correct it, if fome unknown correfpondent had not felt it of importance enough for epiftolary interrogation. Profodia Rationalis, or a Treatise on the Meafure and Melody of Speech. Nichols, 1779. mere mere taste and election, but refulting from the phyfical neceffities under which the primary organ of vocal impulse, and indeed all organs and implements of motion muft eternally act) conftitute thofe afcertainable and ineafureable cadences, by which alone (in the English language at leaft) the proportions and varieties of rythmus can be rendered palpable to the Kat-Thus Fancy Picture ear ||Picture | &c. con Δ A fitute cadences of common meafure; Abfolute || Meditate | &c. cadences A of nuendo, or foftnefs, than the other parts of speech: a circumstance, by the way, to which it would be well, if fome even of our very first rate players would pay more attention; as they would be fure to do, if they were but in the habit of obferving and analysing the pure unpremeditated Speech of thofe with whom (of whatsoever rank or intellect) they may occafionally converfe. We fhould not then fo frequently hear the fine fentences of our immortal Shakespeare deformed and de graded by the preternatural tumefaction of unimportant particles; nor would our triple meafure. So alfo the monofyllables ears be thocked by thofe frequent thun Man to Δ .. man and horfe to horje || dhich remind us of the wretched fpecta and the following mixture of monofyllables and diffyllables "Oh! Oh! | golden A days ap pear cle of a rickety child; the feebleness of whofe trunk and the flaccidity of whose wasted muscles, are deplorably compenfated, by the largenefs of his wrists and ancles. I ufe the word loudness in the above paragraph, in preference to the word force; and, indeed, in contradiftinction to it, though they are fo generally con founded. Force is, indeed, rather an object of attention in the general manage ment of the voice, than a property of particular fyllables: though its diftincindeed be fuper-added to particular fyllables, or combinations of fyllables, as one of the modifications of em phais: but a well regulated utterance will render the fofteft and the lightest fyllables forcible; as well as the loud, the heavy, and the percuffed. tions may FOURTHLY-Syllables differ from each other in thofe moft evanefcent, yet highly important properties - their mufical accents. But with what an unfortunate word am I obliged to conclude this enu- "6 re and fourth on the fecond fyllable; but although precifely the fame property of light thefis or heavy, which is given to the fyllable fan, in" fancy," pair, in “repairA A ing," &c. is given to lute, in "abfolutely," A.S to in, in "intrepidity," and to ring, in "Serringapatam," here the term accent A.. is by the generality of writers abfolutely denied to thefe mere heavy fyllables, and exclusively confined to the individual fyllable that receives the fuperadded and perfectly diftinct quality of percuffion, So that we have the fame name applied to two diftinct properties of utterance; and the appellation pofitively denied in one inftance to the very fame quality which in another is infifted upon as conftituting its fole and indifputable effence. But that is not all. That confusion may be ftill worse confounded, the very application of the term accent is, by all our, grammarians, imperiously denied to all monofyllables; although fuch of our mo nofyllables as are fubftantives have, uni» verfally, by the moft deducible and imperious law of English pronunciation, of neceffity, that identical quality of heavis ness, or affection to thefis, which in words of two fyllables is called their accent; and are even liable, as has been already fhewn, to that fuperadded quality of percuffion, to which the name of accent is configned in the longer words. But the measure of abfurdity is not yet full. What grammarian is there who, after all his confused applications of this unfortunate word, would fcruple to talk of a Scotch accent, an Irish accent, a Welch accent, a Northumbrian accent, a French accent, &c. Yet most affuredly the different modes of utterance thus in cuffed cor Yet nothing can be more different than their accents-that is to fay, (for in this refpect, and this only, the vulgar application of the term is rect) than the Idiomatic tune of the refpective provinces; or the mode and fyftem of what old Ben Jonfon fo accurately defines, "the tuning of the voice, by lifting it up and down in the musical that has been written upon the fubject of fcale:"- -a definition which is worth all accent, from the days of that admirable but which we cannot be furprised that grammarian, to thofe of Joshua Steele ; fince old Ben himself feems to have forfucceeding grammarians have forgotten; from his pen: having abfolutely, in the gotten it the very inftant it was difmiffeḍ practical illuftration of his own axiom, confounded it again, with that very pro perty of percuffive force, from which it feemed to have separated it for ever. Thus then by the terin accent, I mean "the tuning of the voice, by lifting it up and down in the mufical fcale;" and fined) muft of neceffity be regarded as I mean nothing elfe. Accents (thus deuniverfal and indifpenfable properties of fyllables: every fyllable (whether fpoken by a certain portion of tuneable found; or fung) being neceffarily characterized which must be either higher or lower in mufical proportions. And, further, it an afcertained, or afcertainable fcale of may be ftated, that if fuch fyllable be Spoken, it must not only have its characteriftic elevation or depreflion in fuch fcale, but also its motion through a certain portion of that fcale, either upwards or downwards, or both; for if we dwell, during the interval of any fyllable, and especially any of the long fyllables, on an uninterrupted monotone, finging and not accents of fpeech have not only their diffpeaking is the confequence. Thus the tinétions of high and lo., like the notes of common mufic (though on a fcale of more minute divifion) but have alfo their minute movements, or apparent flides;. that is to fay-their diftinétions of acute (), grave (), gravc-acute (*) and acutograce (), or circumflexes; fome one of which motions of the voice, muft neceffarily take place, during the pronunciation of every fyllable (whether the voice, at the commencement of fuch fyllable, heavy and were pitched high or low), or the character of fpeech is loft. dicated, depend upon fomething effentially diftinct from thofe qualities of fyllables indicated by the term accent in any of the former inftances. With very few exceptions, the Scotchman, the Irifliman, the Welchman, the Londoner, the native of Northumberland, &c. would place the percuffion precifely on the fame fyllable, and would make, through A any given fentence, the out any A.. A... fame diftri bution A.. A. A. tune of fyllables; in the application of which (as well as of he attribute of quantity, or duration) it was my meaning to affirm, that, in many inftances, confiderable latitude is allowed, in the ordinary converfational delivery, even of the moit correct and harmonious speakers; and to the extent of which latitude, (and no further) I confider the writer and the reader of verfe to be at liberty, nay to be called upon, to extend his difcretionary felection; in what to the respective provinces of the writer and the repeater can practically belong. SIR, Dec. 12, 1806. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. HERE is a whimsical expreffion in THER our language which I never could I am confcious, Sir, that this hafty and decypher, till the other day chance let imperfect fcrawl may expofe your com- me into the fecret. I mean the phrase, poutor to freth difficulties; and, what in spite of his teeth. Looking into a is worle, perhaps, from the want of French dictionary under the word aidant, perfpicuous and fufficient elucidation of I found this paffage: On difoit autrefois, what is new or difficult in the theory, Malgré lui & fes AIDANS, dont on a fait nay rather tend to perplex than to ince proverbe corrompu, Malgré lui & fes forin the ftudent of English profody. But dents. It feems then that this phrafe, the incefiant calls of profeffional duty, (as like fo many others in our language, is a public and as a private teacher,) forbid literal tranflation from the old French, in me the opportunities both of more am- which the words which anfwered to his ple and explicit developement of my affiftants, happening to resemble in found ideas, and of the neceffary task of revifing thofe which anfwer to his teeth, the latter what I have fo haftily fet down. It has, words, by negligence, or drollery, came indeed, been long my wifh to fubmit to to be fubftituted inftead of the former. the world a methodical and ample deveI am, Sir, your's, &c. lopement of that entire fyftem of elocuPHILOLOGUS. tionary fcience, which the labour of ten years has enabled me in fome degree to digeft, though at prefent it has no written existence, except in thofe fhort notes which have been prepared for the pur-dity of fome obfervations which Mr. pofe of my public lectures, and which in Pickbourn has made on my letter relative reality can be intelligible to no one but to the nature of Greek accents.* myfelf. But the publication of a work paffage which was quoted from Bishop of fuch extent is fo formidable a fpecu- Hare, Mr. P. has given the following lation; and it is, in fact, fo much more meaning:-"Accent gives a little addiprofitable to talk to mankind than to tion to a long vowel, but the privation of write for them, that I am much inclined accent does not occafion a long fyllable to believe that, notwithstanding the dif- to become fhort." Now this appears to advantages of detached' and partial dif- me to convey a meaning directly conquifitions, upon a fubject which ought to trary to the words and intention of the be examined as a whole, an occasional baty effay like the prefent, is likely, for fome years at least, to be all that attention to the interests of my family will permit me to commit to publication. I have hopes, however, that a part of what I had meditated, will be executed by an abler hand. My learned and very ingenious friend, Mr. Roe, of Stramore,* in Ire Mr. Roe has already published an elementary work upon this fubject, of great though neglected merit-" Elements of Englith Metre, both in Profe and Verfe, by Richard Roe," Longman and Rees, 1801, which, perhaps, the more enlarged work he SIR, CANNOT but diffent from the vali To the at prefent meditates, ought not entirely to fuperfede. To those who are not already initiated in the ordinary fyftem of mufical notation, the fimple proportions of a measured fcale, and the directions for the ufe of a mechanical index, in the original work, cannot but be highly acceptable; the mufical notation adopted in the enlarged performance will be, however, much more fatisfactory to the fcientific ftudent, and the more comprehenfive view that is taken of the fubject, increases the intereft and enhances the value of the performance. * Vide Monthly Magazine, vol. XX. p. 499; and vol. XXI, p. 104. learned |