ic feet, many late grammarians substitute the
terms _accented_ and _unaccented_ for _long_ and _short_, as did Murray,
after some of the earlier editions of his grammar; the only feet recognized
in his _second_ edition being the _Iambus_, the _Trochee_, the _Dactyl_,
and the _Anapest_, and all these being formed by _quantities_ only. This
change has been made on the supposition, that accent and long quantity, as
well as their opposites, nonaccent and short quantity, may oppose each
other; and that the basis of English verse is not, like that of Latin or
Greek poetry, a distinction in the _time_ of syllables, not a difference in
_quantity_, but such a course of accenting and nonaccenting as overrides
all relations of this sort, and makes both length and shortness compatible
alike with stress or no stress. Such a theory, I am persuaded, is
untenable. Great authority, however, may be quoted for it, or for its
principal features. Besides the several later grammarians who give it
countenance, even "the judicious Walker," who, in his Pronouncing
Dictionary, as before cited, very properly suggests a difference between
"_that quantity which constitutes poetry_," and the mere "_length or
shortness of vowels_," when he comes to explain our English accent and
quantity, in his "_Observations on the Greek and Latin Accent and
Quantity_," finds "accent perfectly compatible with either long or short
quantity;" (_Key_, p. 312;) repudiates that vulgar accent of Sheridan and
others, which "is only a greater force upon one syllable than another;"
(_Key_, p. 313;) prefers the doctrine which "makes the elevation or
depression of the voice inseparable from accent;" (_Key_, p. 314;) holds
that, "unaccented vowels are frequently pronounced long when the accented
vowels are short;" (_Key_, p. 312;) takes long or short _vowels_ and long
or short _syllables_ to be things everywhere tantamount; saying, "We have
_no conception_ of quantity arising from any thing but the nature of the
vowels, as they are pronounced long or short;" (_ibid._;) and again: "Such
long quantity" as consonants may produce with a close or short vowel, "an
English ear _has not the least idea of_. Unless the sound of the vowel be
altered, we have _not any conception_ of a long or short
syllable."--_Walker's Key_, p. 322; and _Worcester's Octavo Dict._, p. 935.

OBS. 2.--In the opinion of Murray, Walker's authority should be thought
sufficient to settle any question of prosodial