THAT I AM, is the name of God: Whole words also are written in capitals, in the titles of books, for ornament sake. 8. When I or O are single words, they must always be writ in capitals, as I read, O brave! 9. It has also been the growing custom of this age in printing of every thing, but especially poetry or verse, to begin every name of a thing, which is called a noun substantive, with a great letter; though I cannot appprove it so universally as it is practised. CHAP. XVIII-Observations concerning the Size, Pages, Titles, &c. in printed Ecoks. 1. BOOKS are said to be printed in folio, in quarto, in octavo, or in twelves, or sometimes in twenty-fours. Books in folio, are those wherein a whole sheet makes but two leaves; in quarto, a sheet makes four leaves; in octavo, eight leaves; and in duodecimo, or twelves, twelve leaves, &c. 2. A page in a book, is all that is written, or printed on one side of a leaf. 3. A line signifies all the words that stand in one rank, from the left-hand of the page to the right. 4. But when the page is divided into several parts from the top to the bottom, one of those parts is called a column; as in bibles, testaments, news-papers, dictionaries, all tables of cata logues of words. 5. The spaces on the side, or bottom of the page, are called the margin, whether they be empty, or have notes in them, which are called marginal notes. 6. The first page of every book, which gives an account what that book treats of, is called the title page; and the first part of it is usually written or printed in capitals. 7. The word or sentence that stands over the head of every page is called the running title. 8. The word that is written at the bottom of the page, at the right-hand, is called the catch-word, and is repeated again at the beginning of the next page, to show that the pages are printed in true order, and follow one another aright. 9. The great or small letters and figures that stand under many of the pages, are marks of the printer, chiefly for the use of the book-binder to number the sheets; as, A, B, C, note the 1st, 2d, and 3d sheet, &c. 10. Where a line begins shorter than the rest, with a great letter, it is called a new paragraph. 11. As chapters are parts of a book, so sections are sometimes made parts of a chapter, and paragraphs are parts of a section. 12. The words or sentences written just before the beginping of a chapter or section, are called the contents of it, of sometimes the argument, CHAP. XIX.-Observations in reading the Bible. 1. THE Bible is divided into the Old Testament, and the New, and each of these divided again into several books, as the book of Genesis, the book of Exodus, &c. The books into chapters, namely, I, II, III, &c. and the chapters into verses, 1, 2, 3, &c. 2. There is generally a period at the end of every verse, though the sense sometimes is not complete; and oftentimes a colon in the middle of a verse, instead of a semicolon or comma; especially in the Old Testament. 3. This mark, T, is usually put at the beginning of every paragraph, as we took notice before. 4. In the bible those words only are printed in a different or italic letter, which are not found in the original Hebrew or Greek; but the translators have added them, to complete the sense, or to explain it, and therefore proper names are not distinguished by a different print, but by a great letter at the beginning. 5. In the Old Testament, where LORD is written all in capitals, the word in the Hebrew is Jehovah: Where it is written in small letters, Lord, it is some other word in the Hebrew, as Adón, or Adonai, &c. 6. In bibles with marginal notes, let these three things be observed: (1.) The little letters a, b, c, d, placed between the words, refer to other texts of scripture in the margin that have a like sense? and these are called references.-(2) An obelisk or daggert, is used to shew what are the words, or literal expressions of the Hebrew or Greek, which the translators have a little altered, to render them proper English.-(3.) A double stroke, or parallel, is used to shew how the words may be differently translated. Lastly, It is an useful thing also to remark, that the very same names are spelled different ways in the Old Testament, and in the New; because the words in the Old Testament are much according to the Hebrew, from whence they are translated, and the New are spelled according to the Greek. See the seventh table. CHAP. XX.-Of Reading Verse. THERE are two ways of writing on any subject, and these are prose and verse; or, in other words, plain language and poetry. Prose is the common manner of writing where there is no necessary confinement to a certain number of syllables, or placing the words in any peculiar form. English verse generally includes both metre and rhyme. When every line is confined to a certain number of syllables and the words so placed, that the accents may naturally fall on such peculiar syllables as make a sort of harmony to the ear; this is called the metre. When two or more verses, near to each other, end with the same, or a like sound, the verse is said to have rhyme : TAKE THESE EXAMPLES: "I've tasted all the pleasures here, OR THUS: "Patience a little longer hold, "A while this mortal burden bear; SIR R. BLACKMORE. "When a few moments more are told, "Immortal life will follow this, "And guilt and grief be chang'd for endless joy and bliss.” Sir R. B. Sometimes a double rhyme is used, and the two last syllables chime together; but this is seldom admitted, except in comical, pleasant, or familiar verse: as, "What made thee, Tom, last night so merry? "Was it good ale, or good canary?" Sometimes English verse is written without rhyme, and is called blank verse. For instance of this, take the description of hell in Milton's admirable poem, called Paradise lost. "Regions of sorrow, doleful shades, where peace "Still urges; and a fiery deluge fed "With ever-burning sulphur unconsum'd." But in this sort of verse the metre is observed, as much as if it had rhyme also. In English metre the words are generally so disposed, that the accent may fall on every second, fourth, and sixth syllable; and on the eighth, and tenth, and twelfth also, if the lines are so long. The firstsix lines of Sir Richard Blackmore's excel lent poem, called Prince Arthur, happen to give us an înstance of this without one variation. "I sing the Briton and his gén'rous árms, "Who vérs'd in sufferings, and the rude alarms "And úndismáy'd sustáin❜d incessant toil, "To bless the isle which long his ábsence moúrn'd.” Now, because English verse generally takes this turn, ignorant persons are ready to imagine that it must be so universally, and that it is absolutely necessary to give this sort of sound to every line in poesy, and to lay a stress upon every second syllable; whereas there is a great deal of just liberty and variation, which poesy allows in this case, without destroying the harmony of the verse, and indeed it adds a beauty and grace to the poetry, sometimes to indulge such a variety, and especially in the first and second syllables of the line. But for want of this knowledge, most people affect to read verse in a very different manner from prose; and they think it not sufficient to place a common accent, but lay a very hard and unnatural stress on every other syllable; and they seem to stop and rest on it, whether the natural pronunciation of the words will allow it or no. By this means they give a false and wretched accent to many words, and spoil good English, to make it sound like verse in their opinion. In short, they would not only read the song, but give it a tune too, Let the following instance be given, wherein one of these mistaken readers will be guilty of this fault in a shameful degree: Note, I have placed the accents in this example, not where they ought to lie, but where such a common reader would place them. "Anglés invísible to sense, "Spreading their pínions for a shield. What an hideous harmony doth this stanza make on the lips of such a pronouncer? The great and general rule therefore of reading English verse is, to pronounce every word, and every sentence, just as if it were prose, observing the stops with great exactness, and giving each word and syllable its due and natural accent; but with these two small allowances, or alterations. I. At the end of every line, where is no stop, make a stop about half so long as a comma, just to give notice that the line is ended. II. If any words in the line happen to have two sounds, choose to give that sound to it which most favours the metre and the rhyme. To favour the metre, is to read two syllables distinct, or to contract them into one, according as the metre requires; as the word glittering must make three syllables in this line; "All glittering in arms he stood." But in the following line it makes but two; as, The metre also is favoured sometimes by placing the accent on different syllables in some few words that will admit of it; as the word avenue must have the accent on the first syllable in this line, "Wide avenues for cruel death.” But in the next line it must be accented on the second sylla. ble; as, "A Wide avenue to the grave." To favour the rhyme, is to pronounce the last word of the line so as to make it chime with the line foregoing, where the word admits of two pronunciations; as, "Were I but once from bondage free, "I'd never sell my liberty." Here I must pronounce the word liberty, as if it were written with a double ee, libertee, to rhyme to the word free. But if the Verse ran thus ; "My soul ascends above the sky, "And triumphs in her liberty." The word liberty must be sounded as ending in i, that sky may have a juster rhyme to it. But whether you pronounce liberty as though it were written with ee or i, you must still pronounce that last syllable but feebly, and not so strong as to misplace the accent, and fix it on the last syllable. So in this Verse; "Unbind my feet, and break my chain, "For I shall ne'er rebel again." Here you must give the diphthong ai its full sound, in the word again, but it must be pronounced agen in the following verse; as, "Put Daniel in the lions' den, "When he's released, he'll pray again." Now having made these two small allowances, if the verse does not sound well and harmonious to the ear when it is read like prose, the fault must be charged on the poet, and not on the reader; for it is certain that those verses are not well composed, which will not be read gracefully according to the common rules of pronunciation. Make an experiment now in the lines before mentioned, and if you read them like prose, you will find the justness of the natural accent is maintained in every word, and yet the harmony or muse of the verse sufficiently secured. |