that
accent controls quantity, so far at least that, in the construction of
verse, a syllable fully accented cannot be reckoned short. And this mistake
is practical; for we see, that, in three of his examples, out of the four
above, the author himself misstates the quantity, because he disregards the
accent: the verb _re-cord'_, being accented on the second syllable, is an
_iambus_; and the nouns _rec'-ord_ and _man'-ner_, being accented on the
first, are _trochees_; and just as plainly so, as is the word _f=av~our_.
But a still greater blunder here observable is, that, as a "_due
pronunciation_" necessarily includes the utterance of every syllable, the
explanation above stolidly supposes _all_ our syllables to be _accented_,
each "according to its Quantity, (whether it be long or short,)" and each
"_with a stronger Force or Stress of Voice_, than _the other_ Syllables!"
Absurdity akin to this, and still more worthy to be criticised, has since
been propagated by Sheridan, by Walker, and by Lindley Murray, with a host
of followers, as Alger, D. Blair, Comly, Cooper, Cutler, Davenport, Felton,
Fowler, Frost, Guy, Jaudon, Parker and Fox, Picket, Pond, Putnam, Russell,
Smith, and others.

OBS. 8.--Sheridan was an able and practical teacher of _English
pronunciation_, and one who appears to have gained reputation by all he
undertook, whether as an actor, as an elocutionist, or as a lexicographer.
His publications that refer to that subject, though now mostly superseded
by others of later date, are still worthy to be consulted. The chief of
them are, his Lectures on Elocution, his Lectures on the Art of Reading,
his Rhetorical Grammar, his Elements of English, and his English
Dictionary. His third lecture on Elocution, and many pages of the
Rhetorical Grammar, are devoted to _accent_ and _quantity_--subjects which
he conceived to have been greatly misrepresented by other writers up to his
time.[495] To this author, as it would seem, we owe the invention of that
absurd doctrine, since copied into a great multitude of our English
grammars, that the accent on a syllable of two or more letters, belongs,
_not to the whole of it, but only to some_ ONE LETTER; and that according
to the character of this letter, as vowel or consonant, the same stress
serves to lengthen or shorten the syllable's quantity! Of this matter, he
speaks thus: "The _great distinction_ of our accent depends upon its
_seat_; which may be either upon a vowel or