in the time of Chaucer appears to have been employed or neglected at pleasure, has long been wholly obfolete. From a prodigious number of words this letter has fince been dropped in the orthogra phy; where it is still retained, it is for one of the purposes following:

1. To lengthen a preceding vowel, which forms the fole diftinction between hat and hate, bar and bare, man and mane; and a prodigious number of other words. Of this ufe, and the reafon for it, more will be faid when we come to treat of Quantity. See Part III. Chap. iii.

In Midfummer Nights Dream we have moones as a diffyllable, vol. iii. p. 24. În Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdefs, we find leaves, shapes, owne, and griefe, used in the fame manner; most of which instances are noticed by the editors.-Miftes is alfo conjectured by them in one place (act iii. fc. 8.); but it makes fo bad a verfe, that I fhould rather read "all the mifts."-Other inftances doubtlefs might be found.

2. To modify a preceding confonant ; as for inftance,

To foften c, as in piece, office, dance,

&c. which without it would have the found of peak, offik, dank, &c.

To soften g, in like manner: thus, to fing and to finge, are difcriminated: thus alfo, fwing and fwinge, Spring and springe, and

fome others.

To form an obfcure fyllable with 1 or r impure *, as in able, ruffle, metre, lucre, &c. &c...

To preferve to its own sharp found, which it lofes when it is a final letter, as in the words difpenfe, expanfe, &c.

Those who are not converfant in grammatical phrafes, fhould be told, that a letter is called pure when it is preceded by a vowel, and impure when by a confonant.

+ Some words of this kind have formerly been otherwise written; as luker, theater, fepulcher, &c. and on the contrary chambre, numbre, vinegre, edgre, which are now written with er. So fays Wallis, at eaft, p. 58.

C

To

3.

4.

To foften th: thus bath is made to bathe, breath to breathe, &c. See under TH.

To point out an etymology; as in belle, caufe, guife, &c.

Το prevent unusual terminations, as that in v* or u; as for inftance, in give, live, and in the very numerous polyfyllables in -ive, where the effect of e final in lengthening the preceding vowel has long been loft; alfo in fue, blue, accrue, &c. and words terminated in ve impure, as folve, fwerve, &c.

In fome words the final E answers feveral ends at once, as in face, rage, &c. where it lengthens the a, foftens c or g, and marks the etymology.

In the formative termination ed, the e has by degrees become almost as entirely quiefcent as the e final. It is however

*After its original ufe was to distinguish that letter from u, by placing it between two vowels; but the characters which exprefs these founds being now different, that neceffity exifts no longer. See Wallis, p. 60.

pronounced,

pronounced, when it follows d or t,'as in added, faded, admitted, requited; and after gg in these four words, ragged, cragged, dogged, rugged; also in learned and winged fometimes. Very folemn reading may be allowed, perhaps, to differ occafionally from the common ufage as to this matter, and to retain the found of -ed entire, in words where it ufually is fuppreffed. E is filent in arfenic. It is filent alfo in the termination -es, unless it be immediately preceded by a foft c, a soft g, or a foft ch; or by s, fh, or z, as in graces, changes, niches, cafes, phrafes, afhes, mazes. E is pronounced alfo in -es, in the final fyllables of the following words, derived from the Greek and Latin languages; though in them it is preceded by other letters than thofe above enumerated: aborigines, agonistes, antipodes ; arachnoides (and other technical terms in anatomy and medicine ending in -ides), caries, cantharides, caryatides, congeries, manes

* Not the plural of mane, but the poetical word which fignifies the remains of the dead.

millepedes; pyrites (and other names of foffils ending in -ites) fanies, fatellites, fordes, forites, fuperficies; add to these alkermes, derived from Arabic.

N. B. In both thefe lifts the es is pronounced, but it is pronounced differently. In the former the e has the found of fhort i, as graciz, changiz, &c. See p.

21.

In the latter lift, the e has its own proper long found, as aboriginēs, &c. See Part III. Chap. iv.

§ 3. Of the improper Sounds of E. Sometimes, but not very frequently, this vowel takes the founds of other letters. It is pronounced

like a long, in ere, there, where, and in tête-a-tête, a French phrase adopted by us, but not yet fully naturalized. It is fo pronounced in hyena very commonly, but I think improperly; as it is alfo in demesne, where it ought to have its own long found. A fhort, in celery (generally), in clerk,