ooey eve,
A summer's day."

I am perfectly willing that they should do so, reserving always my own
right to say "dyooey." It would not at all surprise me to learn that
Milton said "dooey;" but neither would it lead me to alter the
pronunciation which, as one of the present generation of Englishmen, I
have learnt to prefer.

It is said that when Mr. Daly's company returned to New York, after a
long visit to England, they pronounced "lieutenant" according to the
English fashion, "leftenant," but were called to order by an outburst of
protest. Though, for my own part, I say "leftenant," I heartily
sympathise with the protesters. "Leftenant," though a corruption of
respectable antiquity, is a corruption none the less, and since it has
died out in America, it would be mere snobbery to reintroduce it.

So, too, with questions of accentuation. We say "prim-arily" and
"tem-porarily;" most (or at any rate many) Americans say "primar-ily"
and "temporar-ily." Here there is no question of right or wrong,
refinement or vulgarity. The one accentuation is as good as the other.
It may be argued, indeed, that our accentuation throws into relief the
root, the idea, the soul of the word, not the mere grammatical suffix,
the "limbs and outward flourishes;" but on the other hand, it may be
contended with equal truth that the American accentuation has the Latin
precedent in its favour. Neither advantage is conclusive; neither,
indeed, is, strictly speaking, relevant; for Englishmen do not make a
principle of accentuating the root rather than the prefix or suffix,
else we should say "inund-ation," "resonant," "admir-able;" and the
Americans do not make a principle of following the Latin emphasis, else
they would say "ora-tor" and "gratui-tous," and the recognised
pronunciation of "theatre" would be "theayter." It is argued that there
is a general tendency among educated Englishmen to throw the accent as
far back as possible; that, for instance, the educated speaker says
"in-teresting," the uneducated, "interest-ing." True; but until this
tendency can be proved to possess some inherent advantage, there is not
a shadow of reason why Americans should be reproached or ridiculed for
obeying their own tendency rather than ours. The English tendency is a
matter of comparatively recent fashion. "Con-template," said Samuel
Rogers, "is bad enough, but bal-cony makes me sick." Both forms have
maintained themselves up to the present; but will they f