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ber falls gradually into the cadence, and have passed from age to age to our own days.

Let us take another example:

It was said of Socrates, that he brought philosophy down from Heaven to inhabit among men; and I shall be ambitious to have it said of me, that I have brought philosophy out of clósets and libraries, schools and colleges, to dwell in clubs and assémblies, at téa-tables and in còffee-houses. Spectator, N° 10.

When this sentence is properly read, every ear will perceive a peculiar harmony in the cadence, but few will judge from whence it proceeds. If we analyse it, we shall see that four accented words are contrasted with other four, and that the inflexions on each are in an exactly opposite order. This number of accented words, and this order of the inflexions, is so agreeable to the ear, that a judicious reader will endeavour to fall into it as often as the sense will permit him, as in the preceding example; and if the sense will only allow him four accented words, as in the following example, he will be sure to preserve the same arrangement of inflexions.

Nature seems to have designed the head as the cupola to the most glorious of her works: and when we load it with such a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real beauties, to chìldish gewgaws, ribbons, and bone-láce. Spectator, No 98.

In pronouncing this finishing sentence of the essay, we ought to begin the cadence after the word figure: then to let the voice play up and down upon the words foolishly and contrive, call off, and the eye; that is, to give foolishly the rising and contrive the falling inflexion-the words call off the rising, and the eye the falling: then the last member after beauties, consisting of four accented words, should have the two inflexions ar

ranged as they are in the example; that is falling, rising, rising, falling, and these to be pronounced in a gradually descending tone till the close of the sentence.

But here it will be absolutely necessary to observe that though the period generally requires the falling inflexion, every period does not necessarily adopt this inflexion in the same tone of voice; if sentences are intimately connected in sense, though the grammatical structure of each may be independent on the other, they may not improperly be considered as so many small sentences making one large one, and thus requiring a pronunciation correspondent to their logical dependance on each other: hence it may be laid down as a general rule, that a series of periods in regular succession are to be pronounced as every other series; that is, if they follow each other regularly as parts of the same observation they are to be pronounced as parts, and not as wholes.

EXAMPLES.

Some men cannot discern between a noble and a mèan action. Others are apt to attribute them to some false end or inténtion, and others purposely misrepresent or put a wrong interpretation on them. Spectator, N° 255.

Though the first part of this passage is marked with a period in all the editions of the Spectator I have seen, nothing can be plainer than that it ought to be pronounced as the first member of the concluding series of three compound members. See article, Compound Series.

Thus, although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be short, the several divisions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is composed. The usurer would be very well satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present moment and next quarter-day. The politician would be contented to lose three years in his

life, could he place things in the posture which he fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time. The minor would be glad to strike out of his existence all the moments that are to pass away before he comes of age. Thús as fàst as our time rúns, we should be véry glàd, in mòst part of our líves, that it ran mùch fáster than it does.

Spectator, No 93.

Though here are no less than six periods in this passage, and every one of them requires the falling inflexion, yet the voice ought not to fall into a lower tone till the last sentence but one, where the words, before he comes of age, must fall gradually to the end. But in order to give variety, and form a cadence, the last sentence must be pronounced in a different manner from the rest, that is, the whole in a lower tone, with the last member falling gradually, and the different slides on the several words, as marked in the example. As the last of these sentences which forms the cadence does not fall into the same accentual portions as in the examples, page 125, 126, the inflexions are repeated in the same order upon the four last as on the four first words, and the last member adopts the same order of inflexions as in the series. See Elements of Elocution, page 113.

On Accented Force.

By accent is generally and justly understood a greater force on one syllable of a word than on another; but whether this force was pronounced in a higher, or only in a louder tone, was undecided, till, by distinguishing the voice into its two inflexions the accented syllable was found to be always louder, and either higher or lower than the rest of the syllables, according to the inflexion with which the accent was pronounced*.

* See Elements of Elocution, p. 186.

The seat of the accent, or that syllable in a word which has a right to it, in preference to the rest, is decided by custom, and does not form any part of the present inquiry. The question here discussed is, What is the nature of that force on a certain syllable of a word, which word cannot properly be called emphatical? Thus in the following sentence,

Evil communication corrupts integrity,

not a single word is emphatical. Every word is pronounced with an equal degree of force, and every word has one accented syllable pronounced evidently louder than the rest. But in the following sentence:

Censure is the tax a man pays to the public for being

eminent;

-in the pronunciation of this sentence, I say, we find the words in Italics pronounced with an equal degree of force, but that the others sink into a feebleness, distinguishable by the dullest

ear.

If we inquire what degree of feebleness it is which these words fall into, we shall find it to be exactly that which is given to the unaccented syllables of the words censure, public and eminent: so that if we consider the words in Roman letters as unaccented syllables of the others, and joined to them as such, we shall have a precise idea of the comparative force of each. Let us, for example, suppose them written in the manner following:

Cénsure isthetàx amanpàys tothepúblic forbeingèminent; and we find we have a precise and definite idea of the two forces, and need not recur to the common vague direction of "pronouncing some words more forcibly, but not so as to deprive the rest of all force: "-the forces of these two

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kinds of words are as much settled as the two kinds of force on accented and unaccented syllables, and these are sufficiently understood by all who have the gift of speech.

The first obvious distinction, therefore, between the sounds of words, with respect to force, is, into accented and unaccented; and while we know what force we ought to give to the unaccented syllables of a word, we can be at no loss for the force on unaccented words; and we need but consider these words as the unaccented syllables of the others, to pronounce them properly.

On Emphatic Force.

EMPHATIC force, or that force we give to words either placed in opposition to other words, or suggesting such an opposition,-this force, I say, is not quite so definite as the force of accent: very luckily, however, the degree of emphatic force is not so essential to emphasis, as the degree of accented force is to accented words if we pronounce the smaller and less important words of a sentence with the same force we do the more significant words, we shall soon find that accent is of much more importance to the sense than emphasis. Let us, for example, pronounce every word in the foregoing sentence (where there is no emphatic word) with an equal degree of force, and we shall find they want that light and shade which are necessary to form a strong picture of the thought. On the contrary, let us preserve the proper inflexions upon the accented syllables of emphatic words, and we shall find the sense fully and clearly brought out, without any more force upon these words than is given to the other accented words,

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