With respect to the terminations _ial_, _ian_, &c. after _r_, I must believe it impossible to blend these letters in one syllable. In the word _ministerial_, for example, I cannot conceive how _ial_ can be pronounced _yal_, without a pause after the syllables, _minister-_. Sheridan's manner of pronouncing the letters _ryan_, _ryal_, in a syllable, appears to be a gross absurdity: Even allowing _y_ to have the sound of _e_, we must of necessity articulate two syllables. But supposing the modern pronunciation of _immediate_ to be liable to none of these exceptions, there is another objection to it, arising from the construction of our poetry. To the short syllables of such words as _every_, _glorious_, _different_, _bowery_, _commodious_, _harmonious_, _happier_, _ethereal_, _immediate_, _experience_, our poetry is in a great measure indebted for the _Dactyl_, the _Amphibrach_, and the _Anapæst_, feet which are necessary to give variety to versification, and the last of which is the most flowing, melodious and forceable foot in the language. By blending the two short syllables into one, we make the foot an Iambic; and as our poetry consists principally of iambics, we thus reduce our heroic verse to a dull uniformity. Take for example the following line of Pope. "THAT sees immediate good by present sense"-- If we pronounce it thus: THAT sees | imme|jate good | by pres|ent sense; the line will be composed entirely of Iambics. But read it thus: THAT sees | imme|di-ate good | by pres|ent sense; and the third foot, becoming an anapæst, gives variety to the verse. In the following line: "SOME happier island in the watery waste:" If we read _happier_ and _watry_, as words of two syllables, the feet will all be Iambics, except the third, which is a _Pyrrhic_. But if we read _happier_ and _watery_,[67] in three syllables, as we ought, we introduce two anapæsts, and give variety and flowing melody to the verse. These remarks will be more fully confirmed by attending to the last verse of the following distich: "In martial pomp he clothes the angelic train, While warring myr|iads shake | the ethe|rial plain." Philosophic Solitude. On Sheridan's principles, and by an elision of _e_ in _the_, the last line is composed of pure Iambics; whereas in fact, the three last feet are anapæsts; and to these the verse is, in some measure, indebted for its melody and the sublimity of the description. These considerations are directly opposed to the fashionable pronunciation of _immediate_, and that whole analogy of words. In addition to this, I may remark, that it is not the practice of people in general. Whatever may be the character and rank of its advocates, in this country they compose but a small part, even of the literati. _Of_ MODERN CORRUPTIONS _in the_ ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION.