[93] This accent is not wanted for Englishmen of the present day. Noah Webster (Dissertations on the English Language, Boston U.S. 1789, p. 118) says: "Our modern fashionable speakers accent European on the last syllable but one. This innovation has happened within a few years.... Analogy requires Euro'pean and this is supported by as good authorities as the other." He adds in a footnote. "Hymenean and hymeneal are, by some writers, accented on the last syllable but one; but erroneously. Other authorities preserve the analogy." Milton has hymenéan, P. L. 4, 711. Milton's line "Epicurean, and the Stoic severe," P. Reg. 4 280, is strange, however the word may be accented; Shakspere's "keep his brain fuming; Epicúrean cooks," A. and C., act 2, sc. 1, sp. 9, v. 24, is distinct enough. If the long diphthong or vowel in Latin were a proper guide, we should have to say inimī'cal, doctrī'nal, amī'cable. These words are accented on the same plan as those taken from the French. And this would give the common Eurō'pean, which is now strictly tabooed.—A. J. Ellis.
[94] The probable breitmannish form of scythes is given in these pages. Compare "Pargerswill, Box [Parkersville, Bucks] Kaundie Pensilfäni."
Chickis, near Columbia, Pennsylvania,
Feb. 16, 1870.