ightland's Gram._, London, 1746, p. 156.

(3.) "Tempus cum accentu a nonnullis male confunditur; quasi idem sit acui
et produci. Cum brevis autem syllaba acuitur, elevatur quidem vox in ea
proferenda, sed tempus non augetur. Sic in voce _hominibus_ acuitur _mi_;
at _ni_ quae sequitur, aequam in efferendo moram postulat."--_Lily's Gram._,
p. 125. Version: "By some persons, _time_ is improperly confounded with
_accent_; as if to acute and to lengthen were the same. But when a short
syllable is acuted, the voice indeed is raised in pronouncing it, but the
time is not increased. Thus, in the word _hominibus, mi_ as the acute
accent; but _ni_, which follows, demands equal slowness in the
pronunciation." To English ears, this can hardly seem a correct
representation; for, in pronouncing _hominibus_, it is not _mi_, but _min_,
that we accent; and this syllable is manifestly as much longer than the
rest, as it is louder.

[490] (1.) "Syllables, with respect to their _quantity_, are either _long,
short_, or _common_."--_Gould's Adam's Lat. Gram._, p. 243. "Some syllables
are _common_; that is, sometimes long, and sometimes short."--_Adam's Lat.
and Eng. Gram._, p. 252. _Common_ is here put for _variable_, or _not
permanently settled in respect to quantity_: in this sense, from which no
third species ought to be inferred, our language is, perhaps, more
extensively "_common_" than any other.

(2.) "Most of our Monosyllables either take this Stress or not, according
as they are more or less emphatical; and therefore English Words of one
Syllable may be considered as _common_; i.e. either as long or short in
certain Situations. These Situations are chiefly determined by the Pause,
or Cesure, of the Verse, and this Pause by the Sense. And as the English
abounds in Monosyllables, there is probably no Language in which the
Quantity of Syllables is more regulated by the Sense than in English."--_W.
Ward's Gram._, Ed. of 1765, p. 156.

(3.) Bicknell's theory of quantity, for which he refers to Herries, is
this: "The English _quantity_ is divided into _long, short_, and _common_.
The longest species of syllables are those that end in a vowel, and are
under the accent; as, _mo_ in har_mo_nious, _sole_ in con_sole_, &c. When a
monosyllable, which is unemphatic, ends in a vowel, it is always short; but
when the emphasis is placed upon it, it is always long. _Short_ syllables
are such as end in any of the six mutes; as cu_t_, sto_p_, ra_p_i