OBS. 2.—­Our modern accentuation of Greek or Latin words is regulated almost wholly by the noted rule of Sanctius, which Walker has copied and Englished in the Introduction to his Key, and of which the following is a new version or paraphrase, never before printed: 

RULE FOR THE ACCENTING OF LATIN.

One syllable has stress of course, And words of two the first enforce; In longer words the penult guides, Its quantity the point decides; If long, ’tis there the accent’s due, If short, accent the last but two; For accent, in a Latin word, Should ne’er go higher than the third.

This rule, or the substance of it, has become very important by long and extensive use; but it should be observed, that stress on monosyllables is more properly emphasis than accent; and that, in English, the accent governs quantity, rather than quantity the accent.

SECTION III.—­OF ELOCUTION.

Elocution is the graceful utterance of words that are arranged into sentences, and that form discourse.

Elocution requires a knowledge, and right application, of emphasis, pauses, inflections, and tones.

ARTICLE I—­OF EMPHASIS.

EMPHASIS is the peculiar stress of voice which we lay upon some particular word or words in a sentence, which are thereby distinguished from the rest as being more especially significant.[473]

As accent enforces a syllable, and gives character to a word; so emphasis distinguishes a word, and often determines the import of a sentence.  The right placing of accent, in the utterance of words, is therefore not more important, than the right placing of emphasis, in the utterance of sentences.  If no emphasis be used, discourse becomes vapid and inane; if no accent, words can hardly be recognized as English.

“Emphasis, besides its other offices, is the great regulator of quantity.  Though the quantity of our syllable is fixed, in words separately pronounced, yet it is mutable, when [the] words are [ar]ranged in[to] sentences; the long being changed into short, the short into long, according to the importance of the words with regard to meaning:  and, as it is by emphasis only, that the meaning can be pointed out, emphasis must be the regulator of the quantity.”—­L.  Murray’s Gram., p. 246.[474] “Emphasis changes, not only the quantity of words and syllables, but also, in particular cases, the sent of the accent.  This is demonstrable from the following examples:  ‘He shall increase, but I shall decrease.’  ’There is a difference between giving and forgiving.’  ’In this species of composition, plausibility is much more essential than probability.’  In these examples, the emphasis requires the accent to be placed on syllables to which it does not commonly belong.”—­Ib., p. 247.