“These equal syllables alone require,
    Though oft the ear the open vowels tire.”
        —­Essay on Criticism, l. 344.

OBS. 2.—­Walker, too, in his Principles, 64 and 65, on page 19th of his Critical Pronouncing Dictionary, mentions a similar distinction of vowels, “which arises from the different apertures of the mouth in forming them;” and says, “We accordingly find vowels denominated by the French, ouvert and ferme; by the Italians, aperto and chiuso; and by the English [,] open and shut.  But whatever propriety there may be in the use of these terms in other languages, it is certain they must be used with caution in English for fear of confounding them with long and short.  Dr. Johnson and other grammarians call the a in father the open a:  which may, indeed, distinguish it from the slender a in paper; but not from the broad a in water, which is still more open.  Each of these letters [the seven vowels] has a short sound, which may be called a shut sound; but the long sounds cannot be so properly denominated open as more or less broad; that is, the a in paper, the slender sound; the a in father, the broadish or middle sound; and the a in water, the broad sound.  The same may be observed of the o.  This letter has three long sounds, heard in move, note, nor; which graduate from slender to broadish, and broad [,] like [those three sounds of] the a.  The i also in mine may be called the broad i, and that in machine, the slender i; though each of them is equally long; and though these vowels that are long [,] may be said to be more or less open according to the different apertures of the mouth in forming them, yet the short vowels cannot be said to be more or less shut; for as short always implies shut (except in verse,) though long does not always imply open, we must be careful not to confound long and open, and close and shut, when we speak of the quantity and quality of the vowels.  The truth of it is,” continues he, “all vowels either terminate a syllable, or are united with a consonant.  In the first case, if the accent be on the syllable, the vowel is long, though it may not be open:  in the second case, where a syllable is terminated by a consonant, except that consonant be r, whether the accent be on the syllable or not, the vowel has its short sound, which, compared with its long one, may be called shut:  but [,] as no vowel can be said to be shut that is not joined to a consonant, all vowels that end syllables may be said to be open, whether the accent be on them or not.”—­Crit.  Pron.  Dict., New York, 1827, p. 19.