There is a river in Macedon and a river in Monmouth: in like manner
there are positions in dancing and positions in Prosody.
The following vowels are long by position.
1. A vowel before two consonants, or before a double consonant in the
same word-- as pInguis, fat, Ingens, great, [A]jax, the name of a hero.
2. A vowel coming before one consonant at the end of a word, and another
at the beginning of the next, as
MajOr sUm quAm cui possIt tua virga nocere:
I'm a bigger boy than your rod is able to hurt.
The syllables _jor_, _sum_, _quam_, and _sit_, are long by position.
[Plate:
PATRES CONSCRIPTI TOOK A BOAT AND WENT TO PHILIPPI
TRUMPETER UNUS ERAT QUI COATUM SCARLET HABEBAT.]
3. Sometimes, but seldom, a short vowel at the end of a word placed
before two consonants at the beginning of the next; as
OccultA spolia hi Croceo de Colle ferebant:
These persons brought the secret spoils from Saffron Hill.
A _short_ vowel before a mute, a liquid following, is rendered common,
as in the word _patris_.
Sunt quibus ornatur Jenkins femoralia pAtris:
The breeches that Jenkins is rigged out in are his father's.
A vowel before another is always short, as t{u}a, thy, memor{i}a, memory.
Except the genitive cases of pronouns in ius, where the i is a common i,
although alter{i}us has always a short _i_ and alIus a long _i_.
Except, likewise, those genitive and dative cases of the fifth
declension where the vowel _e_, like Punch's nose, is made long between
two _i_'s, as faciEi, of a face.
[Illustration]
The syllable _fi_ also in fIo is long, except e and r follow together,
as f{i}erem, f{i}eri.
FIent quæ "F{i}eri Facias" mandata vocantur:
The writ which is called "Fieri Facias" will be made.
Fi. fa. is a legal instrument that deprives a poor man of his mattress
that a rich one may lounge on his ottoman. Ca. Sa. is a similar
benevolent contrivance for punishing misfortune as felony.
DIus, heavenly, has the first syllable long;-- Diana, common: and so has
the interjection Ohe!
Thus there's a common medium of connexion,
Between a goddess and an interjection.