As the sound of waters deep, Hoarse murmurs echoed to his words applause. P. L. 5. The very expression a hollow sound shows how close is the association of a hollow space with depth and fullness of sound. Hence the broad vowels are sometimes used to express mere breadth and concavity. So high as heav'd the tumid hills, so low Hell at last, P. L. 7. Yawning received them whole, and on them clos'd. P. L. 7. The observation of Bacon relative to the sound of ng may be generalized in like manner. There is no doubt that all the three nasals have a close affinity to any deep low sound; such as a hum, a murmur, or the twang of a musical string slowly vibrating. The reason I take to be the distinctness with which the vibrations of the voice are heard in pronouncing these letters, and the low deep tone in which they are generally spoken. VOL. I. Through the foul womb of night H 5. 4. Chorus. Macbeth. The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums Where the beetle winds His small but sullen horn, As oft he rises mid the twilight path Against the pilgrim borne in heedless hum. Collins. The bum-cock humm'd wi' lazy drone, The kye stood rowtin i' the loan. Where each old poetic mountain Every shade and hallowed fountain C Burns. Gray. Even Johnson, notwithstanding the ridicule he has thrown upon enquiries of this nature, has admitted that particular images may be "adumbrated by an exact and perceptible resemblance of sound." But the law of resemblance that first great law of association—is not to be confined thus narrowly. If the mere sound of the words hiss and bah recall the cry of the animal, so may the muscular action, which the organs exert in pronouncing the words struggle, wrestle, call up in the mind the play of muscle and sinew, usual in those encounters. Wherever there is resemblance there may be association. We will now enquire what means our poets have used to fix their associations in the reader's mind, more especially in those cases, in which the connecting link has been the disposition or the action of the organs. In the first place, we may observe that in making any continued muscular effort, we draw in the breath and compress the lips firmly. Now this is the very position in which we place the organs, when pronouncing the letters b, p. I have no doubt that to this source may be traced much of the beauty of the following verses. Behemoth, biggest born of earth, upheav'd The mountains huge appear P. L. 7 Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave The envious flood Kept in my soul, and would not let it forth, But smother'd it within my panting bulk, P. L. 7. Which almost burst to belch in the sea. R 3. 1.4. But first from inward grief His bursting passion into plaints thus pour'd. P. L. 9. Who thrusting boldly twixt him and the blow, F. Q. 4. 8. 42. R 3. 4. A grievous burthen was thy birth to me. دم که جان . When the mind is seiz'd with fear and amazement, the lips open and voice fails us. If the surprize be sudden, a whispered ejaculation escapes, suppress'd almost as soon as utter'd. In this way I would account for that combination of letters st, which Spenser and others of our older poets affect, whenever they have to describe this feeling. Its fitness for the purpose seems to lie in the sudden stop, which is given by the t to the whisper sound of the s— letters, be it observed, which are formed without the agency of the lips. The giant self dismayed with that sound In haste came rushing forth from inner bow'r, Had wrought that horror strange and dared his dreaded pow'r. F. Q. 1. 8. 5. Stern was their look like wild amazed steers, Staring with hollow eyes and stiff upstanding hairs. F. Q. 2. 9. 13. He answer'd not at all, but adding new F. Q. 1.9. 24. When too the sinews are overstretched, or shaken with sharp and jerking efforts, the same kind of broken breathing generally follows the strain upon them. The sound too is harsh and grating. Hence, in part at least, the effect produced by the combinations st, str, in the following passages; Staring full ghastly like a strangled man, His hair uprear'd, his nostrils stretched with struggling, But th' heedful boatman strongly forth did stretch H 6. F. Q. 2. 12. 21. The distinction also between the connected letter sounds zh and sh does not appear in our orthography, though at once sensible to the ear in comparing the sound of azure with that of Ashur. That wh represents the whisper sound of w will, I think, be clear, if we compare the initial sounds of where, when, while, with those of were, wen, wile. It is probable that in the Anglo-Saxon hwær, hwen, hwile, the w may have been vocal, and the h may have represented a distinct breathing; but it would be difficult to account for the change of hw into wh, which took place at so early a period (perhaps as early as the 12th century), unless it indicated a change in the pronunciation; and this change would naturally be to the whisper sound of the w. In this view of the case w may put in a fair claim to the title of consonant. If the true definition of a vowel be, that it is a letter which makes any part of a word, into which it enters, a distinct syllable, then w has clearly no right to the title of vowel. Nor can we reasonably call the initial sounds of were, wen, wile dipthongal, unless we allow the initial sounds of where, when, while, to be dipthongs also. But were this so, we should have part of a dipthong a mere whisper while the other part remained vocal. Our w then, amid a choice of difficulties, may, perhaps, be allowed the title of consonant; but the same reasoning does not apply to the y. The latter, I think, can only be considered as a letter indicating the initial sound of a dipthong. The whisper sounds of the two liquids 1, r, constitute two distinct letters in Welsh, and in several other languages. I am also inclined to think that the Latin rh, if not the Greek 'p, indicated merely the whisper sound of the r. That these letters p, t, k, f, &c. are the whisper sounds of b, d, g, v, &c. may, I think, be shown without much difficulty. If we try to pronounce the words ab, ad, ag, av, &c. in a whisper they cannot be distinguished from ap, at, ak, af, &c. Again, the vibrations of the organs, which are obvious while we are pronouncing a vocal letter, cease immediately we change to the whisper sound; but the disposition of the organs remains unchanged. Thus, in pronouncing the v of av, if we change to a whisper, the vibrations of the lips and teeth cease; and without any change in the position of the organs we find ourselves pronouncing f. The number then of English consonantal sounds, if we consider was one, amounts to twenty-two; whereof... thirteen are vocal and nine mere whisper sounds. The vowels are eleven in number. The long a, e, o, u, as heard in father, reel, roll, rule; au and a as heard in aught, ate; and the short a, e, i, o, u, as heard in pat, pet, pit, pot, put. The dipthongs are twelve, ei, oi and ou, as heard in height, hoity, out; and eleven others formed by prefixing y to the eleven vowels. These are heard in the following words, yardn, yean, yoke, yule, yawn, yare, yap, yell, yif, yon, young. Having said thus much on the formation of our elementary sounds, we will now consider in what way and to what extent they may be rendered useful, in embellishing and perfecting the rhythm. If, as is often the case, besides the idea which the usage of language has connected with certain words, there are others which are naturally associated with the sounds or with the peculiarities of their formation, it is obvious, that the impression on the mind must be the most vivid, when the natural associations can be made to coincide with such as are merely artificial and conventional. In all languages there are certain words in which this coincidence is perfect. In our own we have hiss, kaw, bah, and a few others, in which the natural sound so closely resembles the articulate sound which represents it, that many have fallen into the error of supposing the latter a mere imitation of the former. The number, however, of these imitative sounds in any language is but scanty, and |