15 OCTOBER 1898, Page 25

The Ancient Ure of the Greek Accents. By G. T.

Carruthers. (Bradbury, Agnew, and Co ) —Mr. Carruthers'e book is too technical to be discussed in these columns, but we may give an idea of its general aim. Briefly, it is to exhibit the use of the accents in making us understand how Greek was chanted or sung by the ancients. It is quite clear that though they may have been guides to ordinary pronunciation, "a slight inspection of a Greek play shows that the acute accent rarely coincides with the stress of voice demanded by the rhythm, but is generally placed upon the syllable in advance of the stress." The bearing of this remark upon Mr. Carruthers's general contention we must leave to our readers to discover for themselves.