A question embodied in a declarative sentence is never pronounced as a separate question, unless in mimicry, but follows the tone and inflexions of a declarative sentence. I have generally observed, when a man is talking of his country house, that the first question usually asked him is, Are you in a good neighbourhood'? When a question is proposed and answered by the speaker, it is natural to give the answer in a different pitch of voice. As the question in cases of this kind serves to arouse the attention, and call it to something emphatic, the question is given in a higher key than the answer. Look upon the tombs. Are their inhabitants all old'? No; not at all. Many'? No, not many; the aged are a thinly scattered number. Where is to-morrow? In another world. SUPPLICATION Has in it the nature of a question; and in accordance with what has been stated of the propriety of the rising inflexion on questions asked even by pronouns or adverbs when they supplicate or deprecate, supplications, though conveyed in what is called the imperative mood, naturally take a slide upwards. A person in health asking something to drink, speaks imperatively, and pronounces drink with the falling inflexion; but the same person in extreme sickness would rise with the voice on drink, thereby beautifully denoting his dependence on another-that he was not sure of being gratified. The request here then approaches to a question, modified, however, by the tone of feebleness. The moan of a person in sickness has this inquisitive turn of the voice. As in supplication, and pathetic questions, the rising slide is founded in nature, so, in expressions of despair, the fall is natural. The minor third, as mentioned in page 26, is natural in such cases. EXCLAMATION. The inflexion which terminates an exclamation is regulated by the common rules of inflexion. This rule is of course broken through by passion, which has slides and notes of its own. As a general rule, it may be stated that exclamations of surprise and indignation take a high rising slide in a loud tone; those of sorrow, distress, pity, and love, the rising slide in a gentle tone; and those of adoration, admiration, awe, and despair, the falling inflexion. Oh! we shall be so happy'. What'! am I braved in my own house? How mysterious are the ways of Providence'!* MODIFYING CLAUSE AND PARENTHESIS. Any intermediate clause affecting the sense of the sentence is generally termed the modifying clause, and is pronounced in a different key from that in which the rest of the sentence is spoken. As the intermediate words are frequently the very pivot on which the sense of the sentence turns, the mind is directed to it by a change of voice. The voice sinks at the beginning of the clause, but rises gradually towards the conclusion. Age, in a virtuous' person, carries in it an authority which makes it preferable to all the pleasures of youth. A man, conspicuous in a high station, who multiplies hopes that he may multiply dependents', may be considered as a beast of prey. THE PARENTHESIS Is an intermediate clause, not necessary to the sense. It is pronounced in a different key from that in which the sentence is pronounced, in order to distinguish it from the body of the sentence, and it is pronounced more quickly, that the hearer may not be diverted by it from forgetting the connection of the sentence. It generally terminates with the inflexion of the clause preceding it. When it contains a strongly emphatic word, the falling inflexion is necessary. Young master was alive last Whitsuntide, said the coachman. Whitsuntide! alas! cried Trim (extending his arm, and falling instantly into the same attitude in which he read the sermon) what is Whitsuntide', Jonathan (for that was the coachman's name'), or Shrovetide, or any tide or time to this? Let us (since life can little more supply The parenthesis is frequently a most emphatic interruption, and *This may become a question by laying the emphasis on How. is then pronounced differently. In the following sentences it is pronounced slowly and forcibly. As far as the interests of Freedom are concerned, the most important by far of sublunary interests! you, my countrymen, stand in the capacity of the federal representatives of the human race; for with you it is to determine (under God) in what condition the latest posterity shall be born. Should you fall in this struggle, should the nation fall, you will have the satisfaction (the purest allotted to man) of having performed your part. Tell them, though 'tis an awful thing to die'! ("Twas even to thee')-yet, the dread path once trod, Heaven lifts its everlasting portals high, And bids "the pure in heart behold their God." The parenthesis is sometimes in a higher voice than the body of the sentence, when the pronunciation of the sentence is low, or when the parenthesis is a passionate exclamation. A ball now hisses through the airy tides, Any clause interposed by the author in his own character betwixt the parts of a sentence, spoken in the first person, or following what is thus spoken, is pronounced in a lighter and more rapid voice. How sweetly, said the trembling maid, "Tis Maria, said the postilion, observing I was listening -Poor Maria, continued he (leaning his body on one side to let me see her, for he was in a line between us) is sitting upon a bank playing her vespers on her pipe, with her little goat beside her. And who is poor Maria? said I. The love and pity of all the villages around us, said the postilion. When the intervening clause is short, as, says I, replied he, &c. there is no pause before it. Expressions in a direct address, when intermediate, follow without a pause the inflexions which precede them, in a light and rapid voice. We shall meet again', my friend, never to be separated. ECHO. The repetition of a word or thought introductory to some particulars, requires the high rising inflexion, and a long pause after it. This is frequently the language of excitement; the mind recurs to the exciting idea, and acquires fresh intensity from the repetition of it. Can parliament be so dead to its dignity and duty as to give its sanction to measures thus obtruded and forced upon them?—measures', my lords, which have reduced this late flourishing kingdom to scorn and contempt. Shall I, who was born, I might almost say, but certainly brought up, in the tent of my father, that most excellent general-shall I', the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this half-year captain? A captain'! before whom should one place the two armies without their ensigns, I am persuaded he would not know to which of them he is consul. On, on, ye noblest English, Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war-proof! Have, in these parts, from morn to even fought, III. EMPHASIS. [The subject of Emphasis is interposed at this place in the work, in order to give the pupil a more clear knowledge of what succeeds in regard to the comparative importance of words, so that the ear and judgment may be cultivated together.] Elocutionists have regarded the force with which words are pronounced, as feeble, accented, and emphatic. Conjunctions, prepositions, articles, auxiliaries, and sometimes the verb to be, and adjectives, are pronounced with feeble force; nouns and verbs with the middle or accented force; and all words in contradistinction with the strongest or emphatic force. Honour is the subject of my story. In this sentence the words is and the are clustered with subject, and of and my with story, so that the sentence contains three oratorical words. Honour, subject, and story, are spoken with the middle *The last shall I may be considered as emphatic-the height of the climaxand of course takes the strong falling slide. force; is, the, of, and my, with the feeble; is the subject, and of my story, are pronounced, then, as if they formed two words, the accent lying on subject and story. This division of sentences into oratorical words is obvious, and it quickly explains at what places there should be a slight pause, and where the more minute inflexion, which is necessary to the delicacy of speech, should take place. Hitherto, the inflexion has been pointed out as affecting words before a comma or semicolon; the nicer distinction of oratorical words shows those intervals where the modified inflexion should take place. Of course, the great regulator of inflexion, the completion of the sense, has its influence here also. In the example above, the sense may be said to be beginning to be formed at the verb is; hence a slight pause and a slide upwards: a further developement of the meaning begins at the word of; hence another slight pause, and a slide upwards, though more modified than at is, as the connection is closer. In such sentences as this, and even when they are much longer, the student who has acquired the knowledge of the inflexion which regulates the termination of grammatical clauses merely, or those clauses which are bounded by the grammatical points, is apt to rush on with undistinguishing haste to the end of a clause without any variety of inflexion. This is a common fault with those who attend elocution for a short time; they bound up at the end of a clause, and then run the succeeding clause in the same key with great rapidity, till they descend on the last word with a vehemence which renders the pronunciation of the whole revolting and ludicrous. In the above example, there is no word in contradistinction to another; hence there is no emphatic force on any of the words. Emphasis breaks through the oratorical arrangement of words, and renders the most insignificant particle important. When words are in contradistinction to other words, either expressed or understood, they are pronounced with emphatic force; when the contradistinction is not expressed, the emphasis must be strong, so as to suggest the word in contradistinction. Before the application of the system of inflexion, the emphatic word would be given sometimes with the rising, and sometimes with the falling inflexion, as the ear would regulate the speaker. Walker has attempted to bring the inflexion of the emphasis within precise limits, but the varied markings of different elocutionists give evidence that his attempt has not been altogether successful. As a general rule, it may be stated that the inflexion of the emphasis is regulated by the structure of the sentences, as illustrated in the foregoing rules; that an emphatic word contained in a question asked by a pronoun, requires the falling inflexion; in a question asked by a verb, the rising inflexion; and that the completeness and incompleteness of the sense affect it also. Walker says, when we affirm in the emphasis, and deny what is opposed to it in the antithesis, we use |