us we are sons of earth.

Browne.

He needed not one to prompt him, because he could say the prayers by heart. Stilling fleet.

I was too hasty to condemn unheard;
And you, perhaps, too prompt in your replies.

Dryden. We understand our duty without a teacher, and acquit ourselves as we ought to do without a prompter. L'Estrange.

Had not this stop been given him by that accidental sickness, his great courage and promptness of mind would have carried him directly forward to the enemy, till he had met him in the open plains of

Persia.

South.

Every one some time or other dreams he is reading books, in which case the invention prompts so readily that the mind is imposed on. Addison.

Still arose some rebel slave, Prompter to sink the state than he to save. Prior. Firm and rigid muscles, strong pulse, activity, and promptness in animal actions, are signs of strong

fibres.

Arbuthnot.

Spenser.

The stream and current of this rule hath gone as far, it hath continued as long as the very promulgation of the gospel. Hooker. Those to whom he entrusted the promulgating of the gospel, had far different instructions.

Decay of Piety. External promulgation, or speaking thereof, did not alter the same, in respect of the inward form or quality. White.

It is certain laws, by virtue of any sanction they receive from the promulgated will of the legislature, reach not a stranger, if by the law of nature every man hath not a power to punish offences against it.

Locke.

The promulgers of our religion, Jesus Christ and his apostles, raised men and women from the dead, not once only, but often.

Id.

PRONAOS, in the ancient architecture, a porch to a church, a palace, or other spacious building. See PORCH.

PRONAPIDES, an ancient Greek poet of Athens, who was preceptor to Homer. He also, it is said, first taught the Greeks to write from the left to the right; as they formerly wrote in the Oriental manner from right to left.

PRONATION, among anatomists. The radius of the arm has two kinds of motion, the one called pronation, the other supination. Pronation is that whereby the palm of the hand is turned downwards; and supination, the opposite motion thereto, is that whereby the back of the hand is turned downwards. Bending PRONE'NESS, n. s. downwards; not erect; PRON'ITY. propense; inclined: proneness and pronity, state of being prone.

PRONE', adj.

Lat. pronus.

Sprecipitous; headlong;

The Holy Spirit saw that mankind is unto virtue hardly drawn, and that righteousness is the less accounted of by reason of the proneness of our affections to that which delighteth. "Hooker.

The soul being first from nothing brought, When God's grace fails her, doth to nothing fall; And this declining proneness unto nought, Is e'en that sin that we are born withal. Of this mechanic pronity, I do not see any good tendency. More's Divine Dialogues.

Davies.

There wanted yet a creature not prone, And brute as other creatures, but endued With sanctity of reason, might erect His stature, and upright, with front serene Govern the rest. Milton's Paradise Lost. Down thither prone in flight

He speeds.

Id.

Upon these three positions in man, wherein the spine can only be at right lines with the thigh, arise those postures, prone, supine, and erect.

Browne. He instituted this worship, because of the carnality of their hearts, and the proneness of the people to idolatry. Tillotson. Those who are ready to confess him in judgment and profession, are very prone to deny him in their doings.

South.

If we are prone to sedition, and delight in change, there is no cure more proper than trade, which supplies business to the active, and wealth to the indigent. How great is the proneness of our nature to comply with this temptation! Rogers.

Addison.

While storms remote but murmur on thy ear,
Nor waves in ruinous uproar round thee roll,
Yet, yet a moment check thy prone career,
And curb the keen resolve that prompts thy soul.
Beattie.

All else was prone, irrational, and mute,
And unaccountable, by instinct led. Pollol.

So good a lady, that no tongue could ever
Pronounce dishonour of her.

Shakspeare. Henry VIII. How confidently soever men pronounce of themselves, and believe that they are then most pious, when they are most eager and unquiet; yet 'tis sure this is far removed from the true genius of religion. Decay of Piety.

Language of man pronounced By tongue of brute, and human sense expressed. Milton.

Sternly he pronounced the rigid interdiction. Id. The design of speaking being to communicate our thoughts by ready, easy, and graceful pronunciation, all kind of letters have been searched out, that were serviceable for the purpose. Holder. Though diversity of tongues continue, this would render the pronouncing them easier.

Id.

It were easy to produce thousands of his verses, which are lame for want of half a foot, sometimes a whole one, and which no pronunciation can make ctherwise. Dryden. Absalom pronounced a sentence of death against his brother. Locke. Every fool may believe and pronounce confidently: but wise men will, in matters of discourse, conclude firmly, and in matters of fact, act surely. South's Sermons. pronouncer thereof shall be condemned in exAyliffe. We do not believe the character which a man

The penses.

gives us of another, unless we have a good opinion of his own so neither should we believe the verdict which the mind pronounces, till we first examine whether it be impartial and unbiassed.

And God, beholding, saw

Mason.

The fair design, that from eternity
His mind conceived, accomplished; and, well pleased,
His six days finished work most good pronounced,
And man declared the sovereign prince of all.

Pollok.

PRONUNCIATION. Interweaving an English Lexicon with the other portions of our alphabet, we may be expected to say something on this

·

important part of a living language. It is that part of it, however, we apprehend, upon which instruction is least communicable by books; and what constitutes elegant or even correct pronunciation is so much matter of fashion, and everchanging modifications, that Pronouncing Dictionaries' have, we confess, long given place in our library to many less laborious performances. Dr. Watts is said to have proposed in badinage, as a rule of English spelling and pronunciation, that the one should be as unlike the other as possible.

Mr. Walker, however, is clearly entitled to praise for his researches into this subject: yet he confesses that he was afraid to attempt all that he considered necessary, and in general contented himself with ascertaining, and exhibiting, existing, and what has been called polite usage. Nothing more than this, perhaps, can ever be accomplished; and in this he was certainly successful; so that his Dictionary is regarded as the standard of English pronunciation. But he has evidently, after all, attempted too much. For it cannot surely be necessary to mark the sound of every word in the English language: it must be quite sufficient to mark those in which pronunciation is likely to err. Such words only should be marked by a different spelling, which deviate in any respect from the analogy of the language: the pronunciation of all the rest may be sufficiently indicated by the accent, with the first denoting that a vowel is long-the_sethe assistance, occasionally, of the marks - and ˇ, cond, that it is short: as, contemplate, alb. The reader will find the following particulars respecting English pronunciation and its marks worth consideration.

1. The accent should be understood as falling on the letter immediately preceding the mark or sign: as, ac'cent, n. accen't, v. a.; fa'vor, endeav'or.

2. When the letter immediately preceding the accentual mark is a vowel, it is long; but, if a consonant immediately precede the mark, the preceding vowel is short: thus, fa'vor, fab'ric, which is equivalent to favor, fabric.

But,

3. Final e renders the preceding vowel long, except when it is followed by a double consonan: as, mate, mete, mite, mote, mute, na'ture, remo'te, &c., pronounced as if marked, māte, mēte, mite, möte, müte, nā'tūre, rēmō'te. when two or more consonants come between the final e and the preceding vowel, it is short: as, battle, babble, badge, &c.. pronounced as if marked battle, băbble, bădge. In such words as intestine, fu'tile, &c., the vowel preceding the final e is made short by Mr. Walker; but in the opinion of the writer it is better to make all such instances conform to the rule; and the long vowel sound is an improvement in all such connexions to the English language; for it is, in general, both harsh to the ear and hard to the mouth, from having too few open and too many shut vowel sounds.

4. When the accent is not placed on a vowel, and when it is not followed by a final e in the same syllable, the vowel is to be always considered short: as, fatt'en, hab'it, &c., pronounced as if marked fǎtten, hăbit.

5. In monosyllables terminating with all, a has the same sound as aw or au: as, all, ball, call, &c., pronounced awl, bawl, caul. In all cases, when the accent is placed before the l, a is to be pronounced aw; when the accent is put after 1, a is to be pronounced short: as, false, maʼlt, fa ́lter; al'b, al'titude, cal'umny, cal'let; pronounced as if marked-fawls, mawlt, fawlter; alb, ǎl'titude, &c.

6. The following diphthongs have uniformly the long sound of a (except when one of the vowels is in the italic character), ay, ai, ei, ey: as, Maid, pail, say, rein, they, &c., pronounced like made, pale, &c. But, when one of the vowels is silent, the other vowel is short: as, plaid, raillery, mountain, &c., pronounced plad', ral'lery, mountin.

7. Au, aw, are to be uniformly considered as sounding the same as in caul, awl, except when the pronunciation of the words containing them is particularly indicated. For au before n is pronounced like a in far, and in the colloquial, words ca'nt and sha'nt, except when a different sound is particularly indicated: thus, aunt, askaunce, askaunt, haunt, &c., are pronounced like tan't, t can't.

8. Ea, ee, are generally pronounced like e long as, anneal, peel, fear, feed. The exceptions, however, are numerous, and are thus marked in some pronouncing dictionaries: bread', head', earl, pronounced bred, hed, erl.

9. Ew, eu, ue, are always pronounced like u long, except when a difference is particularly indicated: as, few, feud, due. But after r, ue, ew, are generally pronounced like oo: as, true, screw, pronounced troo, scroo.

10. Oa and oe always sound like long o, except when a difference is particularly indicated in the dictionary; as, moat, sloe, pronounced mote, slō.

11. Oy, oi, have uniformly the compound sound of o and i, except where a departure from rule is indicated: thus, joy, spoil, &c.

12. Oo has generally the same sound as in food, soon, fool, &c.

13. Before l, u has uniformly the sound of oo shortened, except when a difference is particularly indicated: as, bull, full, handful; the sole difference between full and fool is, that the diphthong in the last is longer than in the first.

14. Ow, ou, uniformly sound as in our, now, except when w or u is marked as silent, in which case the pronunciation is the same as long o: thus, flow, source, mould, pronounced, mōld, sōrce, flō. When ow terminates a word of more than one syllable, it is uniformly pronounced like long o: as in hollow, sorrow, &c., pronounced holló, sorrō.

15. In monosyllables y and ie are always pronounced like long i; but in words of more than one syllable they are pronounced like short e: as, try, tries, pronounced tri, tries, &c.; carry, carries, pronounced carry, carries, &c.

16. Before nd, i has uniformly the long sound; as in mind, kind, &c.: but every other vowel before nd is uniformly short; as in hand, end, ́ fond, fund.

17. Before lk, a sounds aw, and is silent; as in balk, talk, pronounced bawk, tawk.

18. Before Im, a has the broad German sound, and is silent; as in calm, balm, &c. 19. Before and ld, o is always long as, poll, old, fold, cold, &c., pronounced pole, ōld, fold, &c.

20. Before single r, a has uniformly what is termed the broad German sound, except in unaccented syllables, where it has the common short sound: as, far, part, partial; ram'părt, &c.; and before double r, a has uniformly the short sound; as in carry, tarry, &c.

21. Before a, o, u, C is always pronounced like K; but before e, i, y, it is pronounced like S: as, card, cord, curd, pronounced kard, kord, kurd; cement, city, cynic, pronounced sement, sitty, cinnic. When c ends a word or syllable, it always sounds the same as k; as, music, flaccid, siccity, pronounced mu'sik, flak'sed, sik'sity: k after c is now very properly discarded, except in such words as back, pack: as, music, physic, &c., not musick, physick. It would be well to discontinue the k in every case, (i. e. in connexion with c), or to substitute it for c, which last letter is wholly superfluous in the English alphabet; and, if k and's were made to supersede this double-sounding character, much inconvenience would be obviated.

22. Ch has three sounds, viz. tsh, as in chair, child, chin, &c.; sh, as in chaise, chagrin, machine, &c.; k, as in chaos, character, chorus, anchor, mechanic, epoch, &c. When ci, ti, si, come before a, e, o, they are to be considered as sounding like sh, with some exceptions, as, special, occasion, diction, petition, captious, &c. pronounced speshal, okazhun, petishun, capshus : tious, cious, are always pronounced shus; cion, sion, tion-shun; but short, as if put shn.

23. G, like C, has two sounds; before a, o, u, 1, r, or when terminating a syllable, it is hard; as in game, go, gun, fig, fag, &c.; before e, i, y, G is pronounced like J; as in gem, genus, gin, gibe or gybe, gymnastic, age, eulogy, &c.; exceptions, however, occur, such as get, geld, &c. Such words as the following are not exceptions, because the g is properly the last letter of a syllable, and therefore has the hard sound, viz. shaggy, shagged, ragged, rugged, dagger, anger, finger, &c. The intention in doubling the g in shaggy, beggar, &c., was to indicate the hard sound. When gn begins or terminates a word, g is silent; as gnaw, gnat, condign, malign, feign, deign, sign-pronounced naw, nat, condine, maline, fain, dain, sine. The vowel preceding the silent g or gh is uniformly long; as impugn, right, blight, &c.-pronounced impune rite, blite. Except in ghost, ghast, and their derivatives (pronounced gost, gast), gh is to be considered as uniformly silent: there are a few instances in which it is pronounced f, as in cough, &c.-and k, as in lough-and g hard, as in burgh.

24. When kn begins a word, k is silent; as, knab, knack, knee, know, &c.-pronounced nab, nak, nee, no.

25. H is always sounded at the beginning of words, except in heir, heiress, honest, honesty, honor, honorable, hospital, hostler, hour, humble, humor, humorous, humorsome. It is always silent after r; as in rhetoric, rhubarb,

myrrh. When the final letter, and preceded by a vowel, it is always silent; as in ah! oh! sirrah! When wh begins words, it is pronounced hoo; as in whale, wheel-pronounced hooale, hooeel, in one syllable. In the Saxon vocabulary, such words are more properly spelled hu or hw.

26. The affix or, our, is uniformly pronounced ur; as in candor or candour, favor or favourpronounced candur, favur. The shut or short vowel sounds in unaccented syllables cannot be distinguished as having any difference; and therefore it seems unnecessary to mark er as if it were pronounced ur in such words as lover, mother, father, &c.

27. The affix some is uniformly pronounced sum ; as in handsome, deli'ghtsome-pronounced han'sum, deli'ghtsum. This affix is spelled in Saxon, som, sam, sum: and it would be well to return to sum, or at least to discard the final e; for, as we have so frequently intimated, spelling and pronunciation should coincide.

28. The affix ous is uniformly pronounced us; as in covetous, righteous-pronounced cuv'etus, ri'ghtyus; ous (like our for or) is the French mode of expressing the Latin affix os.

29. When w begins the word, it has the sound of oo; as in ware, wet, wile, &c.-pronounced ooare, ooet, ovile, in one syllable: u before e, i, o, has generally the same sound; as, languish, banquet, languor, language; pronounced lan'gwish, or langooish, ban'kwet, langwur, langwage.

30. S has two sounds, the one sharp and hissing, as in us, this; the other precisely like z; as in his, was, as, &c. Double s has uniformly the sharp hissing sound.

31. Th has two sounds; the one as in thin, &c.; the other as in thine. When not particularly indicated, th is always to be considered as having the first sound; but, when followed by final e in the same syllable, th has uniformly the second sound; as in breathe, writhe, &c. When th is pronounced as t, the h is marked as silent; thus, thyme, asthma, pronounced time, ast'ma.

32. F and ph have the same sound; and f sometimes that of v; double f has uniformly the sound of f, or ph, as in off, staff, &c.

33. Before on and ous, i generally sounds like y, at the beginning of a word or syllable; as in minion, million, tedious, &c., pronounced minyun, milyun, tedeyus.

34. When final e comes after 1 and r, it is to be pronounced as if put before them; as in fickle, mingle, theatre, nitre, pronounced fikkel, mingul, theater, niter. This pronunciation is quite familiar to the French (from whom the mode of spelling and pronouncing such words was adopted), and other foreigners must remember that final e is never pronounced as a distinct syllable in the English language.

35. Tis always silent between s and en or le; as in hasten, listen, castle, &c., pronounced haysen, lissen, kassel.

36. X has two sounds, viz. ks and gs, except when particularly marked, it is to be understood as having the first sound.

37. Qu has always the sound of koo. 38. The verbal affix ed, is seldom pronounced as a distinct syllable except after d; as feared,

confessed, pronounced feard, confessd; but in such words as branded, commanded, &c., it is a distinct syllable.

The irregular character of English pronunciation has been (like that of English spelling), too often noticed, and is too manifest to require any comment whether it be more or less anomalous han that of other languages is a question of no importance; but there is evidently much importance, i. e. utility, in rendering it as simple and regular as possible. Influential speakers (who have always least reason to dread petty criticism) should set the example of bringing English pronunciation to English spelling. The latter might be materially reformed (see our article GRAMMAR) without much trouble; and the great desideratum is coincidence between the one and the other. It is in general, however, safer to make the pronunciation conform to the spelling, than to make the spelling conform to the pronunciation; and to make the one correspond to the other ought evidently to be a rule with every sensible speaker and writer.

In all those words which are differently pronounced by respectable speakers, that mode is worthy of preference which is most agreeable to analogy and most conformable to orthography; as, yea, pronounced ye and yay; wound, pronounced like found and woond; break, pronounced breek and brake; oblige, pronounced oblige and obleege; knowledge, pronounced nōledge and nolledge, &c., &c. The first of these modes of pronunciation is evidently that which should be universally adopted. Influential speakers should endeavour to bring the general practice to analogy in all cases. It is unworthy of persons who have any respect for utility, to follow the blind guidance of mere custom, or to comply with the anomalous caprices of fashion. The only chance for simplicity, uniformity, and immutable stability to a living language, is to follow the guidance of reason. When learned or foreign words are adopted, they should be made to conform to the English idiom or manner of spelling and pronouncing. This plain sensible rule is surely better than pedantry or affectation: and in this we might profit by the example of the French, in imitating whose language we have given such a motley character to our own.

PROOF, n. s. & adj. Į From PROVE, which PROOF LESS. Ssee. Experiment; evidence; testimony; hence firm temper; impenetrability; armour hardened in a high degree; the rough draught, or copy of a printed sheet: as an adjective, impenetrable; capable of firm resistance; taking to or against before the object proofless is, not to be proved, or destitute of proof.

Though the manner of their trial should be althe testimony of such persons as the parties shall tered, yet the proof of every thing must needs be by produce. Spenser.

This has neither evidence of truth, nor proof sufficient to give it warrant. Hooker. That which I shall report will bear no credit, Were not the proof so high. Shakspeare.

He Bellona's bridegroom, lapt in proof, Confronted him. Id. Macbeth. Nothing can be more irrational than for a man to