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THE

MONTHLY REVIEW,

For OCTOBER, 1780.

ART. I. A General Dictionary of the English Language. One main Object of which is, to eftablish a plain and permanent Standard of Pronunciation. To which is prefixed, a Rhetorical Grammar. By Thomas Sheridan, A. M. 4to. Two Volumes. 11. 11s. 6d. Boards. Dodfley. 1780.

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S this work feems to be the laft of feveral publications by the fame Author, all of which tend to a defign of carrying a long concerted plan of his Dictionary into execution, before we can properly estimate the value of the prefent performance, it will be requifite to have fome retrospect to his former treatifes on the fubject before us.

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About twenty years ago, Mr. Sheridan published an effay, entitled British Education," in which he endeavoured to prove, that most of the evils complained of in this country arofe from an erroneous and defective education; and he enlarged particularly on the bad confequences attending the neglect of tudying our own language; and the art of elocution. The cultivation of thefe ftudies was infifted upon by him, as of the higheft importance in promoting the caufe of religion and virtue; in propagating knowledge, and the refinement of writing in poetry and profe; and in raifing the liberal arts to any de'gree of perfection among us. When this work first appeared, it was much read and admired by many perfons of tafte and judgment; among whom the late Lord Chefterfield was very warm in his commendations of it, as may be feen in fome of his Letters. The novelty of the matter contained in it, and Mr. Sheridan's original manner of treating his fubject, excite curiofity. But though no particular attempt was made to confute his doctrine, yet his conclufions, upon the whole, were for very furprifing and extraordinary, that a general incredulity prevailed with reVOL. LXIII,

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gard to them, and the fcheme was confidered as vifionary, and impracticable.

Among many objections made to the practicability of the defign, none was more common among the literati, who had cultivated only the written language, and had paid no attention to the art of delivery, than that it was impoffible to teach elocution as an art. Of this our ingenious Author took notice in a pamphlet published foon after, entitled, "Heads of a Plan for the Improvement of Elocution, &c." in which he saysWith regard to the second article, that of rendering the acquirement of a juft, forcible, and graceful delivery, easy to fuch as fhall apply to it, though it be generally allowed to be a moft defirable object, yet few think it a point that can be compaffed. Many will not allow that elocution either is, or can be taught as an art. That it was fo, and the most favourite art among the Greeks and Romans, cannot be denied. What has been, may be. But to thofe who fay, that because it never has been taught or practifed as fuch amongst us, therefore it never can be, I fhall not attempt an answer.'

Mr. Sheridan, however, did not long reft upon that argument; but, in order to fhew the practicability of the defign, delivered, and afterwards published, a course of lectures on Elocution, in which he laid open the principles on which that art is founded, and the general rules by which it is governed, under the feveral heads of articulation; pronunciation; accent; emphafis; tones or notes of the fpeaking voice; pauses or stops; and key or pitch, or management of the voice. In all these he made it his bufinefs to expofe the ignorance, and detect the errors, of the few literary men who had written any thing upon the subject, and to establish his own principles and rules upon a folid foundation. These were new, and the result of his own investigation. In this courfe our learned Writer purfued the analytic method, as being the moft proper to gain the attention of the adult, for whofe ufe the Lectures were chiefly intended.

Our Author having thus eftablished his theory, the next thing wanting was to affift, in the practical part, those who were defirous of cultivating the ftudies recommended by him. With this view, he published a courfe of lectures on the Art of Reading, in two parts; one, refpecting profe; the other, verfe. In the first of these, he pursues a method oppofite to that of the former, proceeding in the fynthetic way, in order to teach the art regularly, from the firft fimple elements, to their most extended combinations. In the whole of this part, we discern the same original train of investigation, the fame evidence of the truth of his pofitions, and the fame detection of the errors of preceding writers. In the fecond part, Mr. Sheridan endeavoured to lay open the whole profody of our language, on principles hich,

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he thought, had never been touched upon before. But it is certain, that Mr. Say had fome, though not a fufficiently determinate, idea of them, and that Mr. Mason, in his Effay on the Power of Numbers in Poetic Compofitions, has ftated part of these principles with no fmall degree of perfpicuity, though not in fo accurate and copious a manner as our Author has done and particularly, he was miftaken in making accent the fole ftandard of English quantity, without confidering how much the beauty and variety of our verfification depend upon emphafis. Mr. Sheridan, we are fatisfied, had never feen what had been written upon the fubject by Say and Mason.

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Our ingenious Writer's laft Work feems defigned to crown. the whole, by laying open a method of teaching a juft delivery of the English tongue by the organs of speech, and establishing an obvious, general, and permanent ftandard of pronunciation. This Work consists of two parts. The firft is called a Rhetorical Grammar, as treating only of the spoken language, to diftinguish it from those which treat only of the written. The intention of this Grammar will be beft explained in the Author's own words: The great difficulty of the English tongue lies in the pronunciation; an exactnefs in which, after all the pains they can take, is found to be unattainable not only by foreigners, but provincials. The chief caufe of this has been the want of method in teaching it, by a well digefted fyftem of rules. Some of our grammarians, indeed, begin their work with a definition that would lead us to expect a regular treatife on the fubject. They fet out with telling us, that grammar confifts of two parts; Orthoepy, or the just manner of pronouncing; and Orthography, or the just manner of writing words. So that they define grammar to be the art of teaching people to speak and write correaly, according to the cuftom of thofe whofe language we learn. But after having made this diftinction, they fcarce take any notice of orthoëpy, and their whole pains are employed about the other article, orthography. They were deterred from this part of the work, by the immenfe difficulty of the undertaking; and as there never has been any public encouragement to fuch a work, either by focieties, or royal munificence (means which produced the regulation and refinement of their feveral tongues in neighbouring countries), there has been no one hardy enough to engage in fo laborious an undertaking upon a precarious prospect of reward. This is the task on which I am now employed, to restore the first and nobleft part of grammar to its just rank and power, and to reduce the other to its due fate of fubordination: to make the fpoken language, as it ought to be, the archetype, of which the written fhould be confidered only as the type.'

It must be allowed, that Mr. Sheridan has executed this part of his work in a very masterly manner; having laid open, in the Grammar before us, a plain, comprehenfive method of teaching the whole of orthoëpy, or the right manner of delivering English by the organs of fpeech, in as clear and obvious a way, as

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judiced in favour of a language taken in by the eye, when it is confidered, that whoever undertook to execute the task fhould be poffeffed of a chafte uncorrupt ear, cultivated with the nicest care from early childhood; and that, whilft he was capable of penetrating into the myfteries of a very deep and intricate fcience, he should be fo circumftanced as to have his fpeculations aided by conftant practice, and their truth brought to the teft of experiment. Some circumftances in Mr. Sheridan's life feem to have peculiarly qualified him for the prefent undertaking; and as the fubject has employed his thoughts from his early days, his labours have been crowned with fuccefs. What he has laid down is so plain as to carry conviction with it. He hath erected, upon the broad basis of science, a comprehensive system of rules, by which the art of elocution may be taught, from the first fimple elements, to their most extended combinations.

With regard to the Dictionary, the main intention of it is thus fet forth by the Author: In his Dictionary he has reduced the pronunciation of each word to a certainty, by fixed and visible marks; the only way by which uniformity of found could be propagated to any distance. This we find effectually done in the art of mufic, by notes; for in whatever part of the globe mufic is fo taught, the adepts in it read it exactly the fame way. A fimilar uniformity of pronunciation, by means of this Grammar and Dictionary, may be fpread through all parts of the globe, wherever English fhall be taught by their aid.'

Mr. Sheridan was the firft among the moderns, who conceived the idea of establishing a certain ftandard of pronunciation by vifible marks. Having thrown out this idea many years fince, when he first laid open his plan of his Grammar and Dictionary, the thought was greedily feized on by the late Dr. Kenrick, who refolved to foreftal our Author's Work. However, as it fortunately happened that Mr. Sheridan had kept fecret his intended manner of marking the founds, Dr. Kenrick was obliged to have recourse to his own invention for this purpose, which availed him fo little, that his contrivance is remarkably clumfy and inartificial. To point out the different founds of our vowels, he has had recourse to no lefs than fixteen marks; which Mr. Sheridan has accomplished by the ufe of only three. In Dr. Kenrick's way, befides the extreme difficulty of producing a correct edition with fuch a multiplicity of characters, the time which it would take up, for perfons who confult his Dictionary, to become masters of his marks, would be very great; whereas our Author's scheme is the fimpleft that can be conceived. The whole is done by the ufe of the three figures, 1, 2, 3; and all that is required of the learner is, to get a fmall fcheme, confifting of feventeen words, by heart, or to hold it in his hand when he confults the Dictionary; and then he cannot poffibly miftake the pronunciation of the word according to its marks. The

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