tity than had that of the old Greeks or Romans, is a mere assumption,
originating in a false idea of what quantity is; and, that Greek or Latin
verse was less accentual than is ours, is another assumption, left
proofless too, of what many authors disbelieve and contradict. Wells's
definition of quantity is similar to mine, and perhaps unexceptionable; and
yet his idea of the thing, as he gives us reason to think, was very
different, and very erroneous. His examples imply, that, like Walker, he
had "no conception of quantity arising from any thing but the nature of the
vowels,"--no conception of a long or a short _syllable_ without what is
called a long or a short _vowel sound_. That "the Greeks and Romans based
their poetry on quantity" of that restricted sort,--on _such "quantity"_ as
"_fate_" and "_let_" may serve to discriminate,--is by no means probable;
nor would it be more so, were a hundred great modern masters to declare
themselves ignorant of any other. The words do not distinguish at all the
long and short quantities even of our own language; much less can we rely
on them for an idea of what is long or short in other tongues. Being
monosyllables, both are long with emphasis, both short without it; and,
could they be accented, accent too would lengthen, as its absence would
shorten both. In the words _phosphate_ and _streamlet_, we have the same
sounds, both short; in _lettuce_ and _fateful_, the same, both long. This
cannot be disproved. And, in the scansion of the following stanza from
Byron, the word "_Let_" twice used, is to be reckoned a _long_ syllable,
and not (as Wells would have it) a short one:

"Cavalier! and man of worth!
_Let_ these words of mine go forth;
_Let_ the Moorish Monarch know,
That to him I nothing owe:
Wo is me, Alhama!"

OBS. 8.--In the English grammars of Allen H. Weld, works remarkable for
their egregious inaccuracy and worthlessness, yet honoured by the Boston
school committee of 1848 and '9, the author is careful to say, "Accent
should not be confounded with emphasis. _Emphasis_ is a stress of voice on
a word in a sentence, to mark its importance. _Accent_ is a stress of voice
on a syllable in a word." Yet, within seven lines of this, we are told,
that, "A _verse_ consists of a certain number of _accented and unaccented
syllables_, arranged according to certain rules."--_Weld's English
Grammar_, 2d Edition, p. 207; "Abridged Edition," p. 137. A doctrine cannot