Here the word sharper has the strong emphasis and falling inflection, as envy is not said, with emphasis, to be a sharper spur than pay; for envy is not here opposed to any other disposition, or to a disposition less malevolent; nor is pay opposed to any other, or to a less reward; but the emphasis is confined to the comparative word, sharper; as if he had said, Envy is not only a spur equally sharp, but sharper than pay.

On these principles we may account for the emphasis which a good actor always places on the first part of the antithesis in the following examples:

Ham. What! look'd he frowningly?

Hor. A countenance more in sorrow than in

It is a custom

anger. Shakes.

This last example is the parallel of that from Gay; and it is presumed, that a judicious actor would lay the great stress, that is, the emphasis with the falling inflection, on the word more, and give the words lion and hare the weak emphasis and rising inflection. For Hotspur, in this passage, is talking of dangers, and is not so much comparing them as the advantages that arise from them; and the paraphrase of this emphasis would be, the resistance we make to great and small danger is not equal; a great danger stirs the blood much more than a small one.

This paraphrasing or drawing out the signification of emphatick words seems the best guide where the sense is not quite obvious, and will lead us to decide in many doubtful cases, where nothing but

the taste of the reader is commonly appealed to. To illustrate this still farther, let us examine a line in Otway's Venice Preserved, where Pierre, expatiating on the wretched state of Venice, says,

Justice is lame as well as blind among us.

The phrase, as well as, signifies nothing more than parity, and is nearly similar in sense to the conjunction and; if, therefore, we lay the falling inflection on blind, it would be equivalent to saying, Justice is not only lame, but blind; and this is a piece of information we did not want: For justice is always supposed to be blind. But the falling inflection on lame, and the rising on blind, is equivalent to saying, Justice is not only blind, as she is every where else, but in Venice she is lame as well as blind. And that this is the true meaning of the passage, cannot be doubted. If the poet had writen the line in this

manner:

Justice is as lame as she is blind among us :

The falling inflection placed on blind, would imply, that Justice is not only very lame, but even as lame as she is blind. Thus we see the sense varies with the different emphasis we adopt, and is never fully and forcibly displayed without the kind of emphasis that is peculiarly suited to it.

But it may be asked, since the sense must be fully conceived before we can adapt the emphasis to the words, of what use is it to ring all these changes upon the different emphases, when, though we conceive them ever so distinctly they will only suggest one particular sense, but will never tell us which we shall adopt as most suitable to the meaning of the author. To this it may be answered, that whatever tends to show the different import of each kind of emphasis, enables us the better to judge of the suitable

ness or unsuitableness of each emphasis to the sense. This unfolding and displaying of what is suggested by each emphasis is that assistance to the understanding which spectacles are to the eye; magnifying glasses are not calculated for those whose powers of sight are so strong and clear as to have no need of them, nor for those who have no sight at all; but for such as wish to view objects distinctly, and with less labour than without this assistance. Where the sense is clear, we need no such assistance: but where the sense is obscure and dubious, it can scarcely be doubted that displaying and unfolding it by such paraphrases as are suggested by the application of different kinds of emphasis, will tend greatly to take away the ambiguity, will show which kind of emphasis is most suitable to the sense, and enable us to pronounce with greater confidence and security.

From what has been said of the nature of emphasis, it will evidently follow, that pronunciation is a kind of supplement to written language. As vivacity and force depend greatly on brevity, and brevity borders naturally on obscurity; in order to preserve the meaning without losing the force, pronunciation interposes, and, as it were, supplies the ellipsis in the written words, by a stress and inflection of voice, which imply what belongs to the sense, but which is not sufficiently obvious without oral utterance. Hence we may conclude, that language is never perfect till it is delivered. A just pronunciation brings to view its latent and elliptical senses, without clogging it with repetitions which would retard its communication and enfeeble its strength. Thus by pronouncing the following sentence: Exercise and temperance strengthen an indifferent constitution By pronouncing this sentence, I say, with the falling inflection on the word indifferent, I convey as much to the understanding as if I had

said, Exercise and temperance strengthen not only a common constitution, but even an indifferent constitution. And the inferiority of the latter sentence, from its tautology and pleonastick tardiness, sufficiently shows the necessity of a just pronunciation to supply the ellipses of written language.

Double Emphasis.

THE double emphasis, as we have already observed in page 213, seems most frequently to be regulated by the harmony of the sentence; for as it is a general rule, that the rising inflection must take place in the middle of such a sentence, the second branch of the first member must necessarily have the rising inflection, and the rest of the branches must have such an emphasis and inflection as contribute most to the harmony of the period. With this general rule, that the two parts of the antithesis have each of them the two different inflections, arranged in an opposite order; that is, as two inflections in the same member cannot be alike, if the second branch of the first member has the rising, the first branch must, of course, have the falling inflection; and as the last branch of the second member forms the period, and therefore requires the falling, the first branch of this member must necessarily have the rising inflection; this is the arrangement of inflection which seems universally adopted by the ear, as it will be found, upon experiment, no other is so various and musical. An example will soon convince us of this:

The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding. Spect. No. 411.

In this example, the ear perceives the necessity of adopting the rising inflection on the word sense; and, for the sake of variety, lays the falling inflection on gross; and, by the same anticipation, perceiving the period must have the falling inflection on imagination, adopts the rising inflection on refined; by these means, the greatest variety is obtained, and the sense inviolably preserved; for if we were to repeat this passage with contrary inflections on the first member, we should soon perceive the impropriety:

The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding.

Here we perceive the whole sentence is monotonous, by adopting the same inflections in the same order on the first and last members; and the sense is manifestly injured by laying the strong emphasis and falling inflection in the middle of the sentence, contrary to the general rule.

The nature of the double emphasis expressed, respecting the inflection of voice which each antithetick part adopts rather in compliance with the ear than for the purpose of enforcing the sense, will be farther illustrated by the treble emphasis.

Treble Emphasis.

THE treble emphasis, where all the parts are expressed, occurs but seldom; and when it does, there is seldom any difficulty in pronouncing it; for as each part has its correspondent part expressed, there is scarcely any necessity to enforce one more than the other, and they easily fall into a just and harmonious arrangement. Thus, in the following lines: