Example to both cases:

He that thinks he can afford to be negligent of his expenses, is not far from being poor.

In pronouncing this sentence, the most perceptible inflections would be the upward slide on the word 'expenses,' and the downward slide on the word 'poor.' Nor would it be necessary, in order to convey the plain meaning, to make any other inflections particularly distinguishable. And in describing the mode of delivering the other parts of the sentence, it would be sufficient to say that they were pronounced with a continuative tone. This mode of introducing a gradual ascent and descent into every sentence, is very commonly practised in reading. At first it passes off very smoothly, and pleases the ear; but it soon becomes wearisome from the regular recurrence of similar sounds, and from the feeble manner in which the meaning of the words is presented to the mind. If it be required to avoid monotony, to speak slowly and distinctly, and at the same time to convey the intended signification with clearness and force, a different plan must be adopted. An attentive listener to a correct speaker, when conversing seriously in polished society, will soon remark that the upward and downward slides of the voice are rendered per

ceptible at many other parts of a sentence besides at the place of the principal pause and at the end. In the management of such a speaker, the example which has been already quoted, might be rendered more sententious and graceful, by allowing several more inflections to be heard than were introduced in the former mode; and this might be effected without producing any of that sing-song manner which is so justly despised and ridiculed:

He that thinks he can afford to be nègligent of his expenses, ìs not far from béing pòor *.

Here the suspensive and conclusive slides would still be the most audible in the sentence; but the secondary inflections might be rendered perceptible to the ear, and be made to harmonize with the principal ones, and thus add grace and force to the whole. Previously,

* This sentence, read according to the system adopted in "The Philosophy of Elocution," would be marked thus: He that thinks he can afford to be négligent of his expénses, ís not far from being pòor.

The rising inflections gradually ascend on the scale till the voice attains the highest suspension at the word "expenses;" and then it as gradually declines, each inflection rising less than its immediate predecessor, till the occurrence of the extreme falling inflection at the end; where the voice would descend to one-fifth below the note with which the sentence began.

however, to any further remarks on the subject, it is necessary to specify the Rules respecting

THE PRIMARY USES OF THE INFLECTIONS.

RULE I. A sentence which maintains a dependent construction to the end, and does not require the indication of any referential or oblique meaning, terminates with the CONCLUSIVE

SLIDE.

• Modulation in speaking deserves our attention.

N. B. On referring to the musical notation, p. 11, it will appear that the conclusive slide descends to a lower note than at any other part of the sentence; but though lower on the scale, it often requires to be the loudest and most forcible of all. This distinction is of the highest importance; and the neglect of it is a most fruitful source of that monotonous manner which is so frequently heard among public readers *.

RULE II. In a sentence constructed like the

• Though it may happen that every sentence in a paragraph terminates with a conclusive slide, yet these slides need not become monotonous; because as every sentence may vary in the commencing note, it may likewise vary in the concluding

note.

following, the SUSPENSIVE SLIDE, or highest rising inflection, and the PRINCIPAL PAUSE, take place at the end of the words or phrases belonging to the nominative case :

Ex. The predominance of a favourite study, affects all the subordinate operations of the intellect.

RULE III. Sentences which consist of two principal members, require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first member. Such sentences admit of the following classification:

(a) Sentences, in which the second member qualifies the first, require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first member:

No evil is insupportable, but that which is accompanied with consciousness of wrong.

(b) Sentences, having their two principal members connected by correspondent conjunctions or adverbs, expressed or implied, require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first member:

1. As there is an essential difference between sweet and bitter, between pleasure and pain, between light and darkness; so, there is an essential and unalterable distinction between virtue and vice.

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2. Whenever you see a people making progress in vice; whenever you see them discovering a growing disregard to the divine law; there you see proportionable advances made to ruin and misery.

3. When honour is a support to virtuous principles, and runs parallel with the laws of God and our country, (then) it cannot be too much cherished and encouraged.

4. Though laughter is looked upon by the philosophers as the property of reason, (yet) the excess of it has always been considered a mark of folly.

(c) Sentences beginning with a participle, or with an adjective, require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first principal member:

1. Having thus begun to throw off the restraints of reason, he failed of success.

2. Full of spirit, and high in hope, we set out on the journey of life.

(d) Inverted sentences, in which the first principal member might be put last, require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first member:

Among the uncertainties of the human státe, we are doomed to number the instabilities of friendship.

(e) Antithetic sentences require the suspensive slide and the principal pause at the end of the first principal member: