"Besides the increase of loudness, and the sharper tone which distinguishes the accented syllable, there is also a tendency to dwell upon it, or, in other words, to lengthen its quantity. We cannot increase the loudness or the sharpness of a tone without a certain degree of muscular action: and to put the muscles in motion requires time. It would seem that the time required for producing a perceptible increase in the loudness or sharpness of a tone is greater than that of pronouncing some of our shorter syllables. If we attempt, for instance, to throw the accent on the first syllable of the word _become_, we must either lengthen the vowel, and pronounce the word _bee-come_, _or add the adjoining consonant to the first syllable, and so pronounce the word_ _bec-ome_. We often find it convenient to lengthen the quantity even of the longer syllables, when we wish to give them a very strong and marked accent. Hence, no doubt, arose the vulgar notion, that accent always lengthens the quantity of a syllable. "It is astonishing how widely this notion has misled men, whose judgment, in most other matters of criticism, it would be very unsafe to question. Our earlier writers, almost to a man, confound accent with quantity."--B. i. C. iv. * * * * * {172} CHAPTER VIII. THE PRINCIPLES OF ORTHOEPY. s. 240. The present chapter is one, not upon the details of the pronunciation of the English language, but upon the principles of orthoepy. For the details of pronunciation the reader is referred to Nares' Orthoepy, and to the common pronouncing dictionaries, with the preliminary recommendation to use them with caution. _Orthoepy_, a word derived from the Greek _orthon_ (_upright_), and _epos_ (_a word_), signifies the right utterance of words. Orthoepy differs from orthography by determining how words are spoken, whereas orthography decides how they are spelt. The one is a question of speech, the other a question of spelling. Orthography presupposes orthoepy. s. 241. Of pronunciation there are two kinds, the colloquial and the rhetorical. In common conversation we pronounce the _i_ in _wind_, like the _i_ in _bit_; in rehearsing, or in declamation, however, we pronounce it like the _i_ in _bite_; that is, we give it a diphthongal sound. In reading the Scriptures we say _bless['e]d_; in current speech we say _blest_. It is the same with many words occurring in poetry.