therefore be pronounced with the falling inflexion: it may be obferved likewife, that these sentences are of the nature of those conftructed on conjunctions; as the laft member of this would easily admit of then at the beginning, to show a kind of condition in the former, which correfponds with and modifies the

latter.

Inverted Period.

Rule I. Every period, where the first part forms perfect fenfe by itself, but is modified or determined in its fignification by the latter, has the rifing inflexion and long paufe between these parts as in the direct period. See p. 35.

EXAMPLES.

Gratian very often recommends the fine taste, as the utmost perfection of an accomplished man.

In this fentence, the first member ending at tafte forms perfect fenfe, but is qualified by the laft; for Gratian is not faid fimply to recommend the fine tafte, but to recommend it in a certain way; that is, as the utmost perfection of an accomplished man. The fame may be obferved of the following fentence:

Perfons of good taste expect to be pleased, at the fame time they are informed.

Here perfect fenfe is formed at pleased; but it is not meant that perfons of good tafte are pleased in general, but with reference to the time they are informed: the words taste and pleafed, therefore, in these fentences, we muft pronounce with the rifing inflexion, and accompany this inflexion with a paufe. For the fame reasons, the fame paufe and inflexion

muft precede the word though in the following examples:

I can defire to perceive thofe things that God has prepared for those that love him, though they be fuch as eye hath not feen, ear heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive. Locke

The found of love makes your foft heart afraid,

And guard itself, though but a child invade. Waller.

Loofe Sentence.

A loofe fentence has been shown to confift of a period, either direct or inverted, and an additional member which does not modify it; or, in other words, a loose fentence is a member containing perfect fenfe by itself, followed by fome other member or members, which do not reftrain or qualify its fignification. According to this definition, a loose fentence muft have that member which forms perfect fenfe detached from thofe that follow, by a long paufe and the falling inflexion. See p. 36.

As, in fpeaking, the ear feizes every occafion of varying the tone of voice which the sense will permit; fo, in reading, we ought as much as poffible to imitate the variety of speaking, by taking every opportunity of altering the voice in correfpondence with the fenfe: the moft general fault of printing, is to mark those members of loofe fentences, which form perfect sense, with a comma, instead of a femicolon, or colon; and a fimilar, as well as the moft common fault of readers, is to fufpend the voice at the end of these members, and fo to run the sense of one member into another: by this means, the sense is obscured, and a mo

1

notony is produced, inftead of that distinctness and variety which arifes from pronouncing these members with fuch an inflexion of voice as marks a certain portion of perfect sense, not immediately connected with what follows; for as a member of this kind does not depend for its sense on the following member, it ought to be pronounced in fuch a manner, as to fhow its independence on the fucceeding member, and its dependence on the period, as forming but a part of it.

In order to convey precisely the import of these members, it is neceffary to pronounce them with the falling inflexion, without fuffering the voice to fall gradually as at a period; by which means the paufe becomes different from the mere comma, which fufpends the voice, and marks immediate dependence on what follows; and from the period, which marks not only an independence on what follows, but an exclusion of whatever may follow, and therefore drops the voice as at a conclufion. As this inflexion is produced by a certain portion of perfect fenfe, which, in fome degree, feparates the member it falls on, from those that follow, it may not improperly be called the disjunctive inflexion. An example will affift us in comprehending this important inflexion in reading:

All fuperiority and pre-eminence that one man can have over another, may be reduced to the notion of quality; which, confidered at large, is either that of fortune, body or mind: the first is that which confifts in birth, title, or rìches; and is the most foreign to our natures, and what we can the leaft call our own, of any of the three kinds of quality. Spect. No 219.

In the first part of this sentence, the falling inflexion takes place on the word quality; for this member, we find, contains perfect fense, and the fucceeding members are not neceffarily connected with it: the fame inflexion takes place in the next member on the word riches; which, with respect to the fense of the member it terminates, and its connection with the following members, is exactly under the fame predicament as the former, though the one is marked with a comma, and the other with a femicolon, which is the common punctuation in all the editions of the Spectator: a very little reflection, however, will fhew us the neceffity of adopting the fame paufe and inflexion on both the above-mentioned words, as this inflexion not only marks more precifely the completeness of sense in the members they terminate, but gives a variety to the period, by making the first, and the succeeding members, end in a different tone of voice; if we were to read all the members as if marked with commas, that is, as if the sense of the members were abfolutely dependent on each other, the neceffity of attending to this inflexion of voice in loofe fentences would more evidently appear. This divifion of a fentence is fometimes, and ought almost always to be marked with a femicolon, as in the following sentence at the word poffefs:

EXAMPLE.

Foolish men are more apt to confider what they have lost than what they poffèfs; and to fix their eyes upon those who are richer than themselves, rather than those who are under greater difficulties. Spectator, No 574.

t

But though we fometimes find thefe indes pendent members of fentences pointed properly by the femicolon, we much oftener fee them marked only by a comma; and thus are they neceffarily confounded with those members which are dependent on the fucceeding member, where a comma is the proper punctuation. An and, a which, a where, or any of the connective words, commencing the fucceeding member, is a fufficient reafon with most printers for pointing the preceding member with a comma, even where these connective words do not qualify the preceding member, and confequently do not join members together as they are parts of each other, but as they are parts of the period; which is the cafe in the examples already produced.

The following examples afford a proof of the neceffity of adopting the falling inflexion, in order to feparate the first member which contains perfect fenfe, from thofe which follow, let the punctuation be what it will.

The foul, confidered abftractedly from its paffions, is of a remifs and sèdentary nature, flow in its refolves, and languishing in its executions. Spectator, N° 255.

The faculty (tafte,) muft in fome degree be born with us, and it very often happens, that those who have other qualities in perfection are wholly void of this. Ibid. N° 409.

This therefore is a good office (the planting of trees) which is fuited to the mèaneft capacities, and which may be performed by multitudes, who have not abilities to deserve well of their country, and recommend themselves to their pofterity by any other method. Ibid. N° 583.

In these last examples we may obferve, that the first member, which is diftinguished by a comma in most editions of the Spectator, is