It appears, however, that philologists have been disappointed in the results of this test, as the differences between the two idioms are often so wide and material. Yet, nevertheless, a Greek of the nineteenth century must be allowed to be a rather important witness in taking evidence on such a question, as the whole strength of received tradition and a _primâ facie_ argument are on his side; and when we find that he gives to the long E or ητα the force of A, and to the diphthong οι that of E, we grow somewhat sceptical as to our right to impose on those particles a different function, especially seeing that the Ionic dialect and the metrical arrangement of the _Iliad_ ostensibly support this interchange of phonetic values. I need scarcely advert to the favourite theory that, so far as the Greek long E is concerned, it had its source in the vocal intonation of the sheep, which is, after all, far from an invariable standard. The Englishman, in dealing with such themes as foreign spelling and pronunciation, treads upon eggs, so to speak, as he lives within the knowledge of the whole world in a glass house of his own. IV. But scarcely any books in the Greek character were printed in England until Edward Grant, head-master of Westminster School, brought out his _Græcæ Linguæ Spicilegium_, or Greek Delectus, in 1575. It saw only a single edition, and is still a common book, not having been apparently successful; and the next attempt of the kind did not even appeal to the English student, though the work of a native of North Britain; for Alexander Scot published his _Universa Grammatica Græca_ at Lyons in a shape calculated to invite a yet more limited circulation than the essay of Grant. Perhaps one of the earliest English publications relative to the study of Greek poetry was the _Progymnasma Scholasticum_ of John Stockwood, published in 1596. Stockwood had been master of Tonbridge School, a foundation established by the Skinners' Company, and while he was there brought out one or two professional works. This was avowedly taken from the _Anthology_ of Stephanus, and presents a Greek-Latin interlinear text. Again, in 1631, William Burton, the Leicestershire historian, and a schoolmaster by profession, delivered at Gloucester Hall, Oxford, an oration on the origin and progress of Greek, which many years later, when he had charge of the school at Kingston-on-Thames, was edited by Gerard Langbaine. It was a scholarly thesis, and of no educational significance, except that it exhibited the survival of some languid interest in the topic at the University.