ject is either raised above common life, or sunk below it into the mean and familiar. When the subject is elevated above common life, it adopts a language suitable to such an elevation, and the pronunciation of this language ought to be as far removed from the familiar as the language itself. Thus, in prayer, pronouncing thy like the, even when unemphatical, would be intolerable while suffering thy, when unemphatical, to slide into the in the pronunciation of slight and familiar composition, seems to lower the sound to the language, and form a proper distinction between different subjects. If therefore it should be asked, why, in reciting epic or tragic composition, we ought always to pronounce thy rhyming with high, while my, when unemphatical, sinks into the sound of me, it may be answered, because my is the common language of every subject, while thy is confined to subjects either elevated above common life, or sunk below it into the endearing and familiar. When, therefore, the language is elevated, the uncommonness of the word thy, and its full sound rhyming with high, is suitable to the dignity of the subjeet; but the slender sound like the gives it a familiarity, only suitable to the language of endearment or negligence, and for this very reason is unfit for the dignity of epic or tragic composition. Thus in the following passage from Milton :

Say first, for Heav'n hides nothing from thy view,
Nor the deep tract of Hell-

Parad. Lost, b. 1.

O thou, that, with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world; at whose sight, all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams.

Parad. Lost, b. 4.

Here pronouncing the pronoun thy, like the word the, would familiarise and debase the language to prose. The same may be observed of the following passage from the Tragedy of Cato;

Now, Cæsar, let thy troops beset our gates,
And bar each avenue; thy gathering fleets
O'erspread the sea, and stop up ev'ry port;
Cato shall open to himself a passage,
And mock thy hopes.-

Here the impropriety of pronouncing thy like the is palpable: nor would it be much more excusable in the following speech of Portius, in the first scene of the same tragedy:

Thou seest not that thy brother is thy rival;
But I must hide it, for I know thy temper.
Now, Marcus, now thy virtue's on the proof:
Put forth thy utmost strength, work ev'ry nerve,
And call up all thy father in thy soul.

As this pronoun is generally pronounced on the stage, it would be difficult for the ear to distinguish whether the words are

Thou know'st not that thy brother is thy rival-or
Thou know'st not that the brother is the rival, &c.

and this may be one reason why the slender pronunciation of thy should be avoided as much as possible.

Perhaps it will be urged, that though these passages require thy to be pronounced so as to rhyme with high, there are other instances in tragedy where the subject is low and familiar, which would be more suitably pronounced by sounding thy like the: to which it may be answered, when Tragedy lowers her voice, and descends into the mean and familiar, as is frequently the case in the tragedies of Shakspeare, the slender pronunciation of thy may be adopt

ed, because, though the piece may have the name of a tragedy, the scene may be really comedy. The only rule, therefore, that can be given, is a very indefinite one; namely, that thy ought always to be pronounced so as to rhyme with high, when the subject is raised and the personage dignified: but when the subject is familiar, and the person we address without dignity or importance, if thy be the personal pronoun made use of, it ought to be pronounced like the: Thus, if, in a familiar way, we say to a friend, Give me thy hand, we never hear the pronoun thy sounded so as to rhyme with high: and it is always pronounced like the when speaking to a child; we say, Mind thy book, Hold up thy head, or Take off thy hat. The phraseology we call thee and thouing is not in so common use with us as the tutoyant among the French; but as the second personal pronoun thou, and its possessive thy, are indispensable in composition, it seems of some importance to pronounce them properly.

F

How to pronounce the Adjective Possessive Pronoun MINE.

I CALL this word an adjective possessive when it is used before a substantive, as it constantly is in Scripture when the substantive begins with a vowel: as " Mine eyes have seen "thy salvation:" and a substantive possessive when it stands alone, as, "This book is "mine." In reading the Scripture we are at no loss about the pronunciation of this word, as the dignity and solemnity of the composition invariably directs us to give the i its long sound, as in the substantive; but in Milton, and other

D

composition, where there is no such dignity or solemnity, this pronunciation of the word has an intolerable stiffness, and ought not to be used. Thus, in the Spectator, N° 195, Mr. Addison says, "Were I to prescribe a rule for "drinking, it should be formed upon a saying "quoted by Sir William Temple:-The first glass for myself, the second for my friends, the "third for good humour, and the fourth for "mine enemies." In Milton too,

-Methought,

Close at mine ear, one call'd me forth to walk.

In Shakspeare also ;

-Sleeping within mine orchard,

My custom always in the afternoon,
Upon my secure hour thy uncle stole,
With juice of curs'd hebona in a phial,
And in the porches of mine ears did pour
The leperous distilment.-

Parad. Lost.

Hamlet.

In all these instances we find a formality, a staleness and uncouthness of sound, that is peculiarly displeasing to the ear: and as this mode of writing was introduced when our pronunciation may be said to have been in its infancy, for the sake of euphony (for it is clearly ungrammatical), so now that it may be said to have arrived at its maturity, the very same reason seems to entitle the present age to alter it: that is, I mean the pronunciation of it, by substituting my_pronounced like me in its stead.

The disagreeable sound which mine has, in these cases, to the ear, has inclined several readers to pronounce it min; but by thus mining the matter (if the pun will be pardoned me) they mutilate the word, and leave it more disagreeable to the ear than it was before. Readers therefore seem to have no choice but to pro

nounce it always as it is written, and to let the author be answerable for the ill sound: or, in all language, but that of Scripture, to change it into my pronounced like me. Shakspeare seems to have used this word ludicrously in the Merry Wives of Windsor, where Falstaff says, "Mine "host of the garter:-truly mine host, I must "turn away some of my followers:" and the host, by requesting Falstaff to speak scholarly and wisely, seems to intimate that this use of the word mine before a vowel or an h was the most correct way of speaking.

But though thy, in familiar or ludicrous language, will admit of being changed in sound to the, mine will on no occasion suffer an alteration into min. When it is used familiarly, it is always a burlesque upon the grave use of it, and therefore requires the grave sound to be retained, or the humour of it would be lost.

The indistinct sound of the word Nor.

FROM the frequent pronunciation of this word without the least necessity of placing an accent on it, we find it sometimes fall into an indistinct1 ness which almost reduces the sound of it to nothing. When it is emphatically opposed to something positive, as, Though he asserts it is so, I assert it is not so; here the word has its genuine full sound, rhyming with hot, shot, lot, &c.; but when there is no such opposition in the sense, we often hear it dwindle into nut, as, This is a hint which I have nut observed in any of our writers on this subject. Here we shall find the generality of readers lay an accent upon have, and pronounce the word not in the obscure manner I have been describing; where it may be observed, though there ought not to be any