1 Full Melody-93 Accents. Can we believe a thinking being, that is in a 111 11/1 171 perpetual progress of improvement, and travelling 1 on from perfection to perfection," after having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator, and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, Made á discoveries of his infulto 丿 wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting / ハ out, and in the very beginning of her inquiries? Exception to Rule 8th-1. When a question of this kind is repeated with passion and emphasis; as, Have you prepared your task? 2. When the question is formed of two opposite parts, separated by the disjunctive conjunction; as, Have you prepared your task, or trifled away your time? 3. When a threat or condition is implied; as, Will you do so? 4. When a question of this kind ends a paragraph. 5. When no answer is expected, questions of this kind generally terminate with the grave accent. 9. In reading a parenthesis, the voice ought to be lowered, the words pronounced somewhat quicker than the other parts of the sentence, and with the U same inflexion at the end of it, as is given to the clause immediately preceding. By Rule, 2 Accents. Though religion removes not all the evils of life, though it promises no continuance of undisturbed prosperity, (which, indeed, it were not salutary for man always to enjoy), yet, if it mitigates the evils which necessarily belong to our state, it may be justly said to give "rest to them who labour and are heavy laden.” Full Melody-88 Accents. // ད། Though religion removes not all the evils of life, though it promises no continuance of undisturbed prospéritý," (which, indeed," it were not salutary י for man' always to enjoy"), yet, if it mitigates the may be justly said to give "rest to them who [ J / / labour and are heavy laden." In the exemplification of these nine rules, it will be observed, that the accents or inflexions, as directed by them, are in proportion to those that good reading, or the full melody requires, as one to forty-six. Had long sentences been selected, the difference might have been doubled. The rules respecting the exclamation, the simple and compound series, &c., are considered so vague in their application, as not to demand insertion here. Mr Walker has said a great deal about Harmonic inflexion; and his numerous imitators and copiers seem to have taken for sound doctrine all that he has written on this subject in his Elements of Elocution, a work, in many respects, of great merit. The principal object of this inflexion, or accent, seems to be variety, where the form of the sentence might be apt to lead those who are guided by rules into a similarity of accent. How accents, introduced for the purpose of variety, can be called Harmonic, is certainly very extraordinary; for the truth is, the accents, or inflexions so called, have no more connection with harmony, than those that occur in any other part of the sentence. Correctly speaking, no accents or inflexions can be said to be harmonic, because one human voice, in speaking as well as in singing, can produce only a succession of sounds. Harmony requires simultaneous sounds-melody, successive sounds :-Hence we speak of the melody of a solo, never of its harmony; and of the harmony of two or more voices, or instruments. When a sentence ends a paragraph, the voice should gradually, yet sensibly fall off, to the end of it, in order to form a cadence, but the accents depend altogether on the structure of the period, and should be so varied, as to produce a melodious, not an harmonious effect upon the ear. No rule, therefore, with regard to accents, is applicable to this part of the sentence the whole period must be varied in such a manner as to produce the most pleasing melody, by an agreeable succession of acute and grave accents or inflexions of voice, not unfrequently intermixed with circumflexes. When our writers on elocution, and our teachers of the art of reading and speaking, are acquainted with the music of language, we shall not meet with such indefinite phraseology, as harmonic inflexion, prosaic and poetic harmony, accents of prose and accents of verse; nor ever see such passages as the following:-"It is accent, or emphasis, and these only, and not any length or openness of the vowels, that forms English metre, or that rhythmus which is analogous to it in prose. Hitherto I have only considered poetic and prosaic harmony as arising from an harmonious and rhythmical arrangement of accent; and it is with some diffidence I venture upon a farther explication of this subject, upon principles (viz. those of the harmony of prosaic inflexions), which have never yet been thought of: but I presume it will be found, upon inquiry, that the various and harmonious arrangement of the rising and falling inflexions of the voice, is no less the cause of harmony, both in verse and prose, than the metrical arrangement of accent and emphasis. The melody both of prose and verse seems to consist as much in such an arrangement of emphatic inflexion, as suits the sense, and is agreeable to the ear, as it does in a rhythmical disposition of accented and emphatic syllables." I have set down the nine preceding rules, which are certainly of considerable use in elocution, principally with the view of correcting a very general opinion, but one which betrays great ignorance of the music of language, viz. that if the inflexions which the rules direct are made correctly, the other inflexions in the same sentence cannot be wrong. Although I have studied the art of reading and speaking, and have been employed in teaching it for upwards of twenty-five years, I, in no instance, have found this to be the case. In addition to the demonstrations given above, I shall only add one short sentence of four short words. Will you | dó só? | --Will you dò | só? | Will so ? | I am very far from thinking that the melody that I have applied to the foregoing examples is perfect; without the fear of contradiction, however, I have not hesitation in maintaining the perfection of the system; and I hope it will be found, that the manner of read ing, according to the plan of this Grammar, approaches nearer to perfection than any other that has yet been given to the public. I have no doubt but that some good readers may not approve, in every respect, of the melody which I have given to many of the examples, and it will afford me great pleasure to see, by any such, a different, if an improved melody, fully written out. This will be of the utmost importance to public speaking and reading. It will prove that we are making rapid progress in the knowledge of the music of language; that no rules, however applicable to particular words or phrases, can be a complete and infallible guide for the full melody of any sentence; and it will also prove, what is a most material object of this Grammar, that the altering or misplacing of any one accent, which must be constantly happening, while the accents are not represented to the eye by symbolical marks, must, in the nature of the thing, most materially affect the melody of the sentence. These are points I am most anxious to establish. Let those, therefore, who do not approve of all the melody, as exhibited in this Grammar, have charity enough, on account of the difficulty of the undertaking, not to condemn it, until they shew the public, not only a different, but an improved melody. By this means, our knowledge of the music of language, and our manner of reading and speaking, must infallibly improve; we will have good and bad sets of the same piece of reading, as we have good and bad sets of the same tune or song. QUESTIONS ON CHAPTER FIRST. 1. WHAT was the original use of music? 3. What is the extent of the laws of musical and metrical proportion? 4. Do these laws prevail in all languages |