n element that tends to silence. When mighty
winds have swept over sea and land, and the voice of the _Ocean_ is raised,
he speaks to the towering cliffs in the deep tones of a _long_ quantity;
the rolling billows, as they meet the shore, pronounce the long-drawn
syllables of his majestic elocution. But see him again in gentler mood;
stand upon the beach and listen to the rippling of his more frequent waves:
he will teach you _short_ quantity, as well as long. In common parlance, to
avoid tediousness, to save time, and to adapt language to circumstances, we
usually utter words with great rapidity, and in comparatively short
quantity. But in oratory, and sometimes in ordinary reading, those sounds
which are best fitted to fill and gratify the ear, should be sensibly
protracted, especially in emphatic words; and even the shortest syllable,
must be so lengthened as to be uttered with perfect clearness: otherwise
the performance will be judged defective.

OBS. 10.--Some of the vowels are usually uttered in longer time than
others; but whether the former are naturally long, and the latter naturally
short, may be doubted: the common opinion is, that they are. But one author
at least denies it; and says, "We must explode the pretended natural
epithets _short_ and _long_ given to our vowels, independent on accent: and
we must observe that our silent _e_ final lengthens not its syllable,
unless the preceding vowel be accented."--_Mackintosh's Essay on E. Gram._,
p. 232. The distinction of long and short vowels which has generally
obtained, and the correspondences which some writers have laboured to
establish between them, have always been to me sources of much
embarrassment. It would appear, that in one or two instances, sounds that
differ only in length, or time, are commonly recognized as different
elements; and that grammarians and orthoepists, perceiving this, have
attempted to carry out the analogy, and to find among what they call the
long vowels a parent sound for each of the short ones. In doing this, they
have either neglected to consult the ear, or have not chosen to abide by
its verdict. I suppose the vowels heard in _pull_ and _pool_ would be
necessarily identified, if the former were protracted or the latter
shortened; and perhaps there would be a like coalescence of those heard in
_of_ and _all_, were they tried in the same way, though I am not sure of
it. In protracting the _e_ in _met_, and the _i_ in _ship_, ignor