As we cannot discern the shadow moving along the dial-plate, so the advances we make in knowledge are only percived by the distance gone over.

RULE IV. Every inverted period requires the rising inflection immediately preceding the modifying member.

EXAMPLES.

With this view he framed a reply, as amiable in the manner, as it was well adapted to the purpose.

In the midst of this security, the warrant for their destruction was issued by the sovereign, on whose word they had relied.

I can desire to perceive those things which God has prepared for those that love him, though they be such as eye hath not seen, ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

DEFINITION. A loose sentence is one which consists of a period, either direct or inverted, and an additional clause which does not modify it.

RULE V. A loose sentence requires the falling inflection at the completion of the sense, that is, immediately preceding the loose clause.

EXAMPLES.

The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.

In this sentence not only is there a perfect sense in the first clause, but it is a sense which is not modified by the second clause, which is a mere adjunct or after-thought. So, also, in the following sentence, the sense of the first clause ending at mother, is not modified by what follows, which merely assigns the reason of the command:

Honour thy Father and thy Mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.

In Poland, as well as in Turkey, magazines must be formed at a great expense, and food must be obtained from a distance, which circumstances are almost insurmountable obstacles to the keeping a large army together.

RULE VI. When words or clauses form an antithesis, the opposite parts must always have opposite inflections.

EXAMPLES.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying little.

Homer was the greater genius, Virgil the better artist; in the one we must admire the man, in the

other the work. Homer hurries us with a command/

ing impetuosity, Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty.

Few of mankind have able heads, all have hearts; and all hearts may be touched, if the speaker is master of his art.

'Tis sweet to believe of the absent we love,

If we miss them below, we shall meet them above.

RULE VII. Except in the case of loose sentences, or when emphasis requires the contrary, the last member of a sentence, and that immediately preceding it, must always be read with opposite inflections.

EXAMPLES.

During the darkness of the night, Queen Margaret was beset by robbers, who, either ignorant or regardless of her quality, despoiled her of her rings and jewels, and treated her with the utmost indignity.

The clearness of the heavens, the serenity of the air, and the soft tranquillity in which nature reposes, contribute to harmonize the mind, and produce the most calm and delightful sensations.

You may strive in vain to catch a breath of enthusiasm to buoy you up in the arms of death.

RULE VIII. Interrogations formed with interrogative words, terminate with the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

When do you go to college?

How can it enter into the thoughts of man, that the soul, which is capable of immense perfections, and of receiving new improvements to all eternity, shall fall away into nothing almost as soon as it is created? Spectator.

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I will say unto God my rock, Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning because of the oppression of the enemy? As with a sword in my bones mine enemies reproach me, while they say daily unto me, Where is thy God? Why art thou cast God

down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted soul? within me?—Psalm xlii. 9-11.

EXCEPTION. When the question is repeated with passion, or with strong emphasis, as,

When do you go to college?

RULE IX. Interrogations formed without interrogative words, terminate with the rising inflection. These interrogations expect an answer by Yes or No.

EXAMPLES.

Are you going to college?

Did he grant your request?

Do you know when the Tower of London was built?

Have you prepared your task?

Can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvements, and travelling 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, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out, and in the very very beginning of her inquiries ?-Spectator.

EXCEPTIONS.

1st. When a question of this kind is repeated with passion or emphasis; as,

Are you going to college?

Have you prepared your task?

2ndly, When a threat or a command is implied. As,

Will you do so?

which is as much as to say, I will compel you to

do it.