Complete Works of Samuel Johnson

by Samuel Johnson

  5. Dissyllable nouns in er, as cánker, bútter, have the accent on the former syllable.

  6. Dissyllable verbs terminating in a consonant and e final, as compríse, escápe; or having a diphthong in the last syllable, as appéase, revéal; or ending in two consonants, as atténd; have the accent on the latter syllable.

  7. Dissyllable nouns having a diphthong in the latter syllable, have commonly their accent on the latter syllable, as appláuse; except words in ain, cértain, moúntain.

  8. Trissyllables formed by adding a termination, or prefixing a syllable, retain the accent of the radical word; as, lóveliness, ténderness, contémner, wágonner, phýsical, bespátter, cómmenting, comménding, assúrance.

  9. Trissyllables ending in ous, as grácious, árduous; in al, as cápital; in ion, as méntion; accent the first.

  10. Trissyllables ending in ce, ent, and ate, accent the first syllable, as cóuntenance, cóntinence, ármament, ímminent, élegant, própagate, except they be derived from words having the accent on the last, as connívance, acquáintance; or the middle syllable hath a vowel before two consonants, as promúlgate.

  11. Trissyllables ending in y, as éntity, spécify, líberty, víctory, súbsidy, commonly accent the first syllable.

  12. Trissyllables in re or le accent the first syllable, as légible, théatre, except discíple, and some words which have a position, as exámple, epístle.

  13. Trissyllables in ude commonly accent the first syllable, as plénitude.

  14. Trissyllables ending in ator or atour, as creátour; or having in the middle syllable a diphthong, as endeávour; or a vowel before two consonants, as doméstick; accent the middle syllable.

  15. Trissyllables that have their accent on the last syllable are commonly French, as acquiésce, repartée, magazíne, or words formed by prefixing one or two syllables to an acute syllable, as immatúre, overchárge.

  16. Polysyllables, or words of more than three syllables, follow the accent of the words from which they are derived, as árrogating, cóntinency, incóntinently, comméndable, commúnicableness. We should therefore say dispútable, indispútable; rather than dísputable, indísputable; and advertísement, rather than advértisement.

  17. Words in ion have the accent upon the antepenult, as salvátion, perturbátion, concóction; words in atour or ator on the penult, as dedicátor.

  18. Words ending in le commonly have the accent on the first syllable, as ámicable, unless the second syllable have a vowel before two consonants, as combústible.

  19. Words ending in ous have the accents on the antepenult, as uxórious, volúptuous.

  20. Words ending in ty have their accent on the antepenult, as pusillanímity, actívity.

  These rules are not advanced as complete or infallible, but proposed as useful. Almost every rule of every language has its exceptions; and in English, as in other tongues, much must be learned by example and authority. Perhaps more and better rules may be given that have escaped my observation.

  VERSIFICATION is the arrangement of a certain number of syllables according to certain laws.

  The feet of our verses are either iambick, as alóft, creáte; or trochaick, as hóly, lófty.

  Our iambick measure comprises verses

  Of four syllables,

  Most good, most fair,

  Or things as rare,

  To call you’s lost;

  For all the cost

  Words can bestow,

  So poorly show

  Upon your praise,

  That all the ways

  Sense hath, come short. Drayton.

  With ravish’d ears

  The monarch hears. Dryden.

  Of six,

  This while we are abroad,

  Shall we not touch our lyre?

  Shall we not sing an ode?

  Or shall that holy fire,

  In us that strongly glow’d,

  In this cold air expire?

  Though in the utmost peak,

  A while we do remain,

  Amongst the mountains bleak,

  Expos’d to sleet and rain,

  No sport our hours shall break,

  To exercise our vein.

  What though bright Phœbus’ beams

  Refresh the southern ground,

  And though the princely Thames

  With beauteous nymphs abound,

  And by old Camber’s streams

  Be many wonders found:

  Yet many rivers clear

  Here glide in silver swathes,

  And what of all most dear,

  Buxton’s delicious baths,

  Strong ale and noble chear,

  T’ asswage breem winters scathes.

  In places far or near,

  Or famous, or obscure,

  Where wholsom is the air,

  Or where the most impure,

  All times, and every where,

  The muse is still in ure. Drayton.

  Of eight, which is the usual measure for short poems,

  And may at last my weary age

  Find out the peaceful hermitage,

  The hairy gown, and mossy cell,

  Where I may sit, and nightly spell

  Of ev’ry star the sky doth shew,

  And ev’ry herb that sips the dew. Milton.

  Of ten, which is the common measure of heroick and tragick poetry,

  Full in the midst of this created space,

  Betwixt heav’n, earth, and skies, there stands a place

  Confining on all three; with triple bound;

  Whence all things, though remote, are view’d around,

  And thither bring their undulating sound.

  The palace of loud Fame, her seat of pow’r,

  Plac’d on the summit of a lofty tow’r;

  A thousand winding entries long and wide

  Receive of fresh reports a flowing tide.

  A thousand crannies in the walls are made;

  Nor gate nor bars exclude the busy trade.

  Tis built of brass, the better to diffuse

  The spreading sounds, and multiply the news;

  Where echoes in repeated echoes play:

  A mart for ever full; and open night and day.

  Nor silence is within, nor voice express,

  But a deaf noise of sounds that never cease;

  Confus’d and chiding, like the hollow roar

  Of tides, receding from th’ insulted shore;

  Or like the broken thunder heard from far,

  When Jove to distance drives the rolling war.

  The courts are fill’d with a tumultuous din,

  Of crouds, or issuing forth, or ent’ring in:

  A thorough-fare of news; where some devise

  Things never heard, some mingle truth with lies:

  The troubled air with empty sounds they beat,

  Intent to hear, and eager to repeat. Dryden.

  In all these measures the accents are to be placed on even syllables; and every line considered by itself is more harmonious, as this rule is more strictly observed. The variations necessary to pleasure belong to the art of poetry, not the rules of grammar.

  Our trochaick measures are Of three syllables,

  Here we may

  Think and pray,

  Before death

  Stops our breath:

  Other joys

  Are but toys. Walton’s Angler.

  Of five,

  In the days of old,

  Stories plainly told,

  Lovers felt annoy. Old Ballad.

  Of seven,

  Fairest piece of well form’d earth,

  Urge not thus your haughty birth. Waller.

  In these measures the accent is to be placed on the odd syllables.

  These are the measures which are now in use, and above the rest those of seven, eight, and ten syllables. Our ancient poets wrote verses sometimes of twelve syllables, as Drayton’s Polyolbion.

  Of all the Cambrian shires their heads that bear so high
,

  And farth’st survey their soils with an ambitious eye,

  Mervinia for her hills, as for their matchless crouds,

  The nearest that are said to kiss the wand’ring clouds,

  Especial audience craves, offended with the throng,

  That she of all the rest neglected was so long;

  Alledging for herself, when, through the Saxons’ pride,

  The godlike race of Brute to Severn’s setting side

  Were cruelly inforc’d, her mountains did relieve

  Those whom devouring war else every where did grieve.

  And when all Wales beside (by fortune or by might)

  Unto her ancient foe resign’d her ancient right,

  A constant maiden still she only did remain,

  The last her genuine laws which stoutly did retain.

  And as each one is prais’d for her peculiar things;

  So only she is rich, in mountains, meres and springs,

  And holds herself as great in her superfluous waste,

  As others by their towns, and fruitful tillage grac’d.

  And of fourteen, as Chapman’s Homer.

  And as the mind of such a man, that hath a long way gone,

  And either knoweth not his way, or else would let alone,

  His purpos’d journey, is distract.

  The measures of twelve and fourteen syllables were often mingled by our old poets, sometimes in alternate lines, and sometimes in alternate couplets.

  The verse of twelve syllables, called an Alexandrine, is now only used to diversify heroick lines.

  Waller was smooth, but Dryden taught to join

  The varying verse, the full resounding line,

  The long majestick march, and energy divine. Pope.

  The pause in the Alexandrine must be at the sixth syllable.

  The verse of fourteen syllables is now broken into a soft lyrick measure of verses, consisting alternately of eight syllables and six.

  She to receive thy radiant name,

  Selects a whiter space. Fenton.

  When all shall praise, and ev’ry lay

  Devote a wreath to thee,

  That day, for come it will, that day

  Shall I lament to see. Lewis to Pope.

  Beneath this tomb an infant lies

  To earth whose body lent,

  Hereafter shall more glorious rise,

  But not more innocent.

  When the Archangel’s trump shall blow,

  And souls to bodies join,

  What crowds shall wish their lives below

  Had been as short as thine! Wesley.

  We have another measure very quick and lively, and therefore much used in songs, which may be called the anapestick, in which the accent rests upon every third syllable.

  May I góvern my pássions with ábsolute swáy,

  And grow wíser and bétter as lífe wears awáy. Dr. Pope.

  In this measure a syllable is often retrenched from the first foot, as

  Diógenes súrly and próud. Dr. Pope.

  When présent, we lóve, and when ábsent agrée,

  I thínk not of Íris, nor Íris of me. Dryden.

  These measures are varied by many combinations, and sometimes by double endings, either with or without rhyme, as in the heroick measure.

  ’Tis the divinity that stirs within us,

  ’Tis heaven itself that points out an hereafter,

  And intimates eternity to man. Addison.

  So in that of eight syllables,

  They neither added nor confounded,

  They neither wanted nor abounded. Prior.

  In that of seven,

  For resistance I could fear none,

  But with twenty ships had done,

  What thou, brave and happy Vernon,

  Hast atchiev’d with six alone. Glover.

  In that of six,

  ’Twas when the seas were roaring,

  With hollow blasts of wind,

  A damsel lay deploring,

  All on a rock reclin’d. Gay.

  In the anapestick,

  When terrible tempests assail us.

  And mountainous billows affright,

  Nor power nor wealth can avail us,

  But skilful industry steers right. Ballad.

  To these measures and their laws, may be reduced every species of English verse.

  Our versification admits of few licences, except a synalœpha, or elision of e in the before a vowel, as th’ eternal; and more rarely of o in to, as t’ accept; and a synaresis, by which two short vowels coalesce into one syllable, as question, special; or a word is contracted by the expulsion of a short vowel before a liquid, as av’rice, temp’rance.

  Thus have I collected rules and examples, by which the English language may be learned, if the reader be already acquainted with grammatical terms, or taught by a master to those that are more ignorant. To have written a grammar for such as are not yet initiated in the schools, would have been tedious, and perhaps at last ineffectual.

  AN ACCOUNT OF THE HARLEIAN LIBRARY.

  To solicit a subscription for a catalogue of books exposed to sale, is an attempt for which some apology cannot but be necessary; for few would willingly contribute to the expense of volumes, by which neither instruction nor entertainment could be afforded, from which only the bookseller could expect advantage, and of which the only use must cease, at the dispersion of the library.

  Nor could the reasonableness of an universal rejection of our proposal be denied, if this catalogue were to be compiled with no other view, than that of promoting the sale of the books which it enumerates, and drawn up with that inaccuracy and confusion which may be found in those that are daily published.

  But our design, like our proposal, is uncommon, and to be prosecuted at a very uncommon expense: it being intended, that the books shall be distributed into their distinct classes, and every class ranged with some regard to the age of the writers; that every book shall be accurately described; that the peculiarities of editions shall be remarked, and observations from the authors of literary history occasionally interspersed; that, by this catalogue, we may inform posterity of the excellence and value of this great collection, and promote the knowledge of scarce books, and elegant editions. For this purpose, men of letters are engaged, who cannot even be supplied with amanuenses, but at an expense above that of a common catalogue.

  To show that this collection deserves a particular degree of regard from the learned and the studious, that it excels any library that was ever yet offered to publick sale, in the value, as well as number, of the volumes, which it contains; and that, therefore, this catalogue will not be of less use to men of letters, than those of the Thuaniau, Heinsian, or Barberinian libraries, it may not be improper to exhibit a general account of the different classes, as they are naturally divided by the several sciences.

  By this method we can, indeed, exhibit only a general idea, at once magnificent and confused; an idea of the writings of many nations, collected from distant parts of the world, discovered sometimes by chance, and sometimes by curiosity, amidst the rubbish of forsaken monasteries, and the repositories of ancient families, and brought hither from every part, as to the universal receptacle of learning.

  It will be no unpleasing effect of this account, if those that shall happen to peruse it, should be inclined by it to reflect on the character of the late proprietors, and to pay some tribute of veneration to their ardour for literature, to that generous and exalted curiosity which they gratified with incessant searches and immense expense, and to which they dedicated that time, and that superfluity of fortune, which many others of their rank employ in the pursuit of contemptible amusements, or the gratification of guilty passions. And, surely, every man, who considers learning as ornamental and advantageous to the community, must allow them the honour of publick benefactors, who have introduced amongst us authors, not hitherto well known, and added to the literary treasures of their native country.

/>   That our catalogue will excite any other man to emulate the collectors of this library, to prefer books and manuscripts to equipage and luxury, and to forsake noise and diversion for the conversation of the learned, and the satisfaction of extensive knowledge, we are very far from presuming to hope; but shall make no scruple to assert, that, if any man should happen to be seized with such laudable ambition, he may find in this catalogue hints and informations which are not easily to be met with; he will discover, that the boasted Bodleian library is very far from a perfect model, and that even the learned Fabricius cannot completely instruct him in the early editions of the classick writers.

  But the collectors of libraries cannot be numerous; and, therefore, catalogues could not very properly be recommended to the publick, if they had not a more general and frequent use, an use which every student has experienced, or neglected to his loss. By the means of catalogues only, can it be known what has been written on every part of learning, and the hazard avoided of encountering difficulties which have already been cleared, discussing questions which have already been decided, and digging in mines of literature which former ages have exhausted.

  How often this has been the fate of students, every man of letters can declare; and, perhaps, there are very few who have not sometimes valued as new discoveries, made by themselves, those observations, which have long since been published, and of which the world, therefore, will refuse them the praise; nor can the refusal be censured as any enormous violation of justice; for, why should they not forfeit by their ignorance, what they might claim by their sagacity?

  To illustrate this remark, by the mention of obscure names, would not much confirm it; and to vilify, for this purpose, the memory of men truly great, would be to deny them the reverence which they may justly claim from those whom their writings have instructed. May the shade, at least, of one great English critick rest without disturbance; and may no man presume to insult his memory, who wants his learning, his reason, or his wit.

  From the vexatious disappointment of meeting reproach, where praise is expected, every man will certainly desire to be secured; and, therefore, that book will have some claim to his regard, from which he may receive informations of the labours of his predecessors, such as a catalogue of the Harleian library will copiously afford him.