■"-•"• ' ; THE THEORY OF ELOCUTION: TO WHICH ARE NOW ADDED. PRACTICAL AIDS READING THE LITURGY. ' — By B. H. SMART, AUTHOa OF THE PRACTICE OF ELOCUTION, GRAMMAR OF PRONUNCIATION, PRACTICAL LOGIC, ETC. LONDON : PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR, 50, Connaught Terrace; AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN RICHARDSON, ROYAL EXCHANGE; G. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA LANE ; SEELEY AND SON, FLEET STREET ; THOMAS HOOKKAM, OLD BOND STREET, ETC. 1826. f E8 t a;c OF WILL !*• G. WOODFALL, A.NOKL COURT, skjnner street, iosios. PREFACE. TO THE WORK AS PUBLISHED IN 1820, At the commencement of the year 1810, 1 published my Practical Grammar of Eng- lish Pronunciation, in the Preface to which, I stated my intention of continuing my plan at some future time, by taking into consideration the higher requisites of De- livery. " Young in life, though not new to the business of instruction" I expected " to add some improvement to the method by which Elocution is taught" In the following work I have done my best to fulfil my promise ; but they who are aware how little leisure is afforded to a man dependent on a profes- sion of which the labours must be personal, will not wonder, that an intention formed ten years ago, has been executed in four weeks, determinately snatched, for the pur- pose, from other avocations. I am willing to flatter myself, however, a 2 IV PREFACE, that something has been gained by delay. Had I published my Theory of Elocution such as it existed in my mind only three years ago, it would have been very different from the one which I now give to the Pub- lic. The truth is. I felt there was some- thing deficient in all the Theories to which the practice of Elocution is referred. — I felt there was a principle by wrjich every speaker is guided, which had never yet been explained; and as I could not explain it myself, I forbore to add to the mass of publications on the subject already in ex- istence. I think I have now discovered that principle; I think that, following the steps of Mr. Walker with less ability but more good fortune, I can furnish a general clue to those intricacies of pronunciation, for which indeed he has given rules found- ed on theoretical views that apply to a certain extent, but which seem to want the support of a system. And I conceive it to be no mean proof of the soundness of my system, that in every the most minute in- stance, it embraces the same results ; that what he considers the best mode of pro- nouncing such and such sentences, I have PREFACE. universally found to agree best with those more general principles with which I have started ; and that, even in the explanations he has given, we agree as nearly as two persons can agree, whose views of the nature of language are different. This agreement will more plainly appear, by comparing the following with an ingenious work on the same subject lately published: for it so happens, that wherever the Au- thor of that work has deviated from Mr. Walker (which he has done in some ma- terial points), he has deviated from what my inquiries have taught me to consider the true principles of the Philosophy of Elocution. I have the pleasure of being acquainted with the Author, and I am sure he will pardon me for stating this dissent: — our Treatises are before the Public, and it must be his wish, as well as mine, to invite comparison, where any difference exists. I am to observe, in conclusion, that throughout the work, I have, in the text, avoided all controversy and all incidental remark, and have laid down the principles as scientific facts, that require no other support than to be properly stated. What- VI PREFACE. ever objections I have felt necessary to be made to contrary doctrines, whatever is incidental, or merely serves to prevent the text from being misunderstood, I have thrown into notes, which the reader will, of course, neglect, where he finds the text satisfactory. September 1st, 1819. ADVERTISEMENT. The following pages, as far as the Appen- dix, were first published as an Introduction to a Volume of Exercises called The Prac- tice of Elocution ; but the explanatory matter added to the second edition of the Practice having fitted it to stand alone, the Theory, with accessions for the purpose, is now offered as an Introduction to Reading the Liturgy. Thus adapted I am bound to acknowledge the seniority of a similar work — the treatise alluded to in the fore- going preface under the name of The Philo- sophy of Elocution^which is likewise elucidat- ed and exemplified by Readings of the Liturgy of the Church. My reason for publishing a work, so entirely resembling in plan, will appear by comparing my accentuation of the Liturgy with Mr. Wright's. On this important point I regret to say we com- Vlll ADVERTISEMENT. pletely differ. I do not at all admit the pro- priety of his deviations from Mr. Walker's principles, and am unable to conceive how a sentence can be harmoniously pronounced, without that varied alternation of the two accents which Mr. Wright condemns : — I am clearly of opinion that each accent is frequently used merely as a preparation for following accents, and therefore that the downward accent often occurs while the sense is incomplete. To employ only upward accents during any long succession of words, however dependent, would, in my opinion, be to imitate the Scotch ac- cent; at least I am sure it finds no pattern in the manner of speaking prevalent among the well-educated in London. Lastly, I see no reason for a rule to terminate sen- tences of supplication, merely on that account, with an upward accent. Differing from Mr. Wright on these points, I could not put his book into the hands of my clerical pupils, and have therefore prepared for them one which agrees with my own prac- tice. That I may not, however, seem to speak too positively of Mr. Wright's mode of ADVERTISEMENT. IX accenting the Liturgy, I acknowledge that a proper judgment cannot be formed without hearing the author read it himself according to his own marks. This is a salvo, the benefit of which I expect to share in common with him. I know that my ac- cents, as well as his, may be caricatured and made ridiculous ; and that the down- ward accents which occur among my marks while the sense is continuing, will perplex the construction if pronounced like those that signify completion of meaning. He, of course, mutatis mutandis, will put forward a correspondent plea. 50, Connaught Terrace, January 1st, 182G. CONTENTS. Page Introduction I Divisions of the Subject ib. Nature of Instituted Language 4 Chapter I. Mechanical Reading,, or Pronunciation. Section 1. Pronunciation and its Objects explained .... 25 2. Nature and Classification of Vowels and Con- sonants 28 3. The Vowels of the English Language 34 4. The Consonants of the English Language... 38 5. Usage the Rule for pronouncing Words .... 40 6. Interjunction of Words 46 7. The Accents or Notes of the speaking Voice 48 8. Variable Number of Accents in a Sentence 54 9. Rhythmus 58 10. Mechanical Structure of English Verse 60 11. Rhythmus of Ballad Poetry 71 Chapter II. Significant Reading, or Reading properly so CALLED. Section 1. False Habits of Reading 73 2. Suspensive, Conclusive, Conjunctive, Dis- junctive, and Harmonic Inflections, and Continuative Tone 79 3. Pause* 97 4. Parenthesis 99 5. Extra-suspensive and Extra-conclusive In- flections, and Pronominal Pronunciation... 100 Xll CONTENTS. Chapter III. Impassioned Reading, or Speaking. Page Section 1. Effects which the Necessity of employing Artificial Language produces on the State or Temper of the Mind in speaking 121 2. Correspondence of those Effects with the Signs of natural Expression without 125 3. Cases in which the natural Signs of Expres- sion do not correspond with the artificial... 128 4. The Narrative Manner of Speaking 130 5. The Argumentative Manner of Speaking... 135 6. The Meditative Manner of Speaking 138 7. Effects produced on the Speaker's Manner of Delivery, by the nature of the Composi- tion, and by the Relation in which he stands to his Audience 139 8. The Vehement Manner 141 9. The Plaintive Manner \ 143 10. The Gay and Lively Manner 144 11. The Gloomy and Solemn Manner ib. Chapter IV. Dramatic Reading, or Acting. The Difference between Speaking and Acting 146 Appendix: containing Practical Aids for Reading the Liturgy. Section 1. The Kind of Reading proper for the Liturgy 149 2. Pronunciation of Words occurring in the Liturgy 150 3. Explanation of the Marks adopted from page 165 to the end of the Volume 154 4. Remarks on some of the Readings here- after pointed out 156 7. The Chief Parts of the Liturgy with Marks to elucidate the Delivery 165 THE THEORY OF ELOCUTION, Xntrotiurtum, DIVISIONS OF THE SUBJECT. Exercise for improvement in the art of Oral Delivery can scarcely be conducted with advan- tage, but by having recourse to written lan- guage; and instruction in Elocution, (as modern usage employs the term,) is therefore the same with instruction in Reading. But the art of Reading aloud varies consider- ably in manner, according to the office which the Reader proposes to fulfil: — the Requisites which it demands necessarily vary with the same circumstance. A mere repetition of the words of written dis- course in connected succession, when the sense is not in question, as in a sentence quoted merely to exemplify the component sounds, or when the diction is purposely too explicit and too formal to require any illustration from the manner of the Reader, as in a law document — demands little more than that the words shall be rightly sounded, distinctly articulated, and smoothly in- B 2 INTRODUCTION. terjoined. This mode of Reading may be called MECHANICAL. A repetition of written discourse, with the intention of discriminating and enforcing the sense, but without that earnestness, or warmth, or passion, which would imply that the Reader is pronouncing his own sentiments — demands that the relation of the several parts of sentences to each other, and the oblique or referential meaning which some sentences are intended to convey, shall be signified by appropriate inflec- tions of the voice. This is significant reading, or reading, strictly so called. A repetition of written discourse, with the intention of making it a perfect imitation of good speaking — demands that the tone, the gesture, and the look of the Reader, shall exactly corres- pond with the subject and the supposed occa- sion. This may be called impassioned read- ing, or speaking. Lastly, a repetition of written discourse un- dertaken in an assumed character, if the charac- ter so assumed is supposed, either from age, or sex, or peculiar habits, to diner in manner of speaking from that which is natural to the Read- er — demands the mimickry of that peculiar manner. When characters are thus discrimi- nated, the mode of Reading may be called DRAMATIC. INTRODUCTION. 3 Such are the natural divisions of the art of Reading, and the divisions of the following work will correspond with them. The requisites of mechanical Reading may all be comprehended under the term Pronunciation, which will ac- cordingly form the subject of chapter the first. The second and third chapters will respectively treat of Reading, (properly so called,) and Speak- ing; and the fourth chapter will be a brief ex- planation of the difference between Speaking and Acting. The propriety and the utility of this division will be the more sensibly felt when it is consi- dered, that no one can become perfect in any of the higher kinds of reading, who is not pre- viously in full possession of all the requisites belonging to the lower : — a person, for instance, will inflect his voice to very little purpose in trying to read significantly, if his articulation be mumbling, vague, and indistinct ; and he will in vain endeavour to do justice to his subject by appearing to be moved by what he utters, if he fails to mark the sense while he is expressing the passion. As to dramatic Reading, it will pro- bably seldom form an object of the Student's acquirement, the peculiar talent which it de- mands not being necessary in any of the branches of public Speaking, except that of the Stage ; and not even in that, while the Speaker attempts b 2 INTRODUCTION. no other character than such as his own style of delivery will enable him to support. But before entering on the subject in any of the details here mentioned, it seems proper to premise a short inquiry into the nature of artifi- cial or instituted language 5 for as this is the sub- ject to which all the rules of Elocution are to be applied, any wrong conceptions of it must ma- terially obstruct the just understanding of the general principles which are to be developed, and on which the rules depend. NATURE OF INSTITUTED LANGUAGE. It may not, perhaps, be any where formally stated, yet the common opinion of language seems to be, that every separate word is the sign of a different idea, and that the progress and or- der of our words in speaking, represents a similar progression and order in our thoughts. But the greater part of words of which language is com- posed, are general terms, and the human mind is capable of conceiving only particulars : such terms, individually, cannot therefore correspond with our ideas. Let us take, for an example, the following portion of a sentence, — The cathe- dral church that stands in the midst of our city : — INTRODUCTION. O we may conceive the object designated by the whole sentence ; we may conceive the circum- stances which serve to point it out ; that object and those circumstances are particular : but let the words be taken individually ; — what can the word the suggest ? what can the word cathedral suggest, if not some particular cathedral, real or imaginary, that is to say, a cathedral of some one size and form ? but the word in an unqualified or unconnected state is general, and stands for a cathedral of any size and form. The same kind of remarks will extend to all the other words in the sentence. Now if none but words which designate particular things can correspond with ideas, while nearly all the words we employ in speech are of a general character, it must appear that the process of putting our thoughts into words, is not a process in which every separate word is the symbol of an idea, but a process in which a number of signs are put together, each having a certain value, and capable, in their col* lective capacity, of conveying the sentiment or recognition of the mind. Hence it is that we are able to convey the same sentiment, or to signify the same thing in so many different ways j for though, in two sentences, each sign separately may have a different value, yet their whole amount may be the same. 6 6 INTRODUCTION. The truth of this account will best appear by imagining how the different kinds of words em- ployed in language must have originated, taking care to keep clear of the errors which have mis- led some early inquirers on the subject. " The invention of the simplest nouns adjective," says Adam Smith, in his Considerations concerning the First Formation of Languages, " must have required more metaphysics than we are apt to be aware of." Nothing, however, can be more sim- ple. A certain fruit is called a chesnut : a cer- tain animal is called a horse : another animal oc- curs resembling it in every respect except colour, and that colour is the same as the chesnut. Therefore, to spare the invention of a new name for the animal, we put the two words together, and call it a chesnut horse. Or take it the other way : another fruit occurs resembling the ches- nut, but too large and coarse for man's use : a horse is a larger and coarser animal than a man, and therefore, by a natural analogy, we again put the two words together, and call the fruit a horse chesnut. Thus it appears that, even in the pre- sent state of languages, we often use substantives for adjectives to express the quality for which, as substantives, they are remarkable ; and this sufficiently shews how the adjective was originally set on foot, without any aid from metaphysics. INTRODUCTION. 7 " The original invention of prepositions," says the same writer, " would require a yet greater effort of abstraction and generalization." No effort was used — the thing produced itself. Ex- amine the force and import of the word except, in the following sentence : In making up your party, leave out or except me : except is here a verb denoting action, and commanding that ac- tion to be done: — Examine it in the following sentence : All were there, except me : the action and the imperative force are lost sight of, and the word, from constant use in a similar mode of connexion, is worn into a mere prepositive sign of a certain value. Again : the word mid- dle or midst is an acknowledged noun; but in the sentence, He walks amid briars, it is a preposi- tion. Yet is it the same word reduced, by fre- quent use, into a mere sign, and somewhat alter- ed in form. This mode of accounting for the several parts of speech requires the aid of etymo- logy to carry it further, and we possess a work which confirms, by facts, what in these remarks might seem merely hypothetical ; for if Home Tooke's Diversions of Purley be consulted, it will be found that all the parts of speech were originally nouns or verbs. It is not, then, be- cause a thought is made up of many parts that we employ many words to express it, but because language does not furnish a single word to an- 8 INTRODUCTION. swer the purpose, and we are obliged to modify one by another, till the whole, collectively, amounts to the expression required. Upon this principle we may easily conceive why the same thing is sometimes expressed by a periphrasis, and sometimes by a single word ; why some lan- guages have terms which others have not, and which can be translated only by a circumlocu- tion ; and why a whole phrase can be an equi- valent in the grammatical construction of a sen- tence for an adjective, a noun*, or an adverb. They who are not acquainted with the works of any of our later metaphysical writers than Locke, will not perhaps very easily admit the truth of this state- ment; but they may be desired, in the words of Home Tooke, (Diversions of Purl ey, vol. i. p. 38.) " to read over the Essay on the Human Under- standing with attention, and they will find that all which its immortal author has justly concluded, will be found to hold equally true if we substitute the composition, &c. of terms, wherever he has supposed a composition, &c. of ideas. And if that, upon strict examination, appear to be the * The Greek language is remarkable for assuming an almost unlimited power in the composition of terms ; the substantiving of whole sentences, by prefixing to them the neuter article, is striking. Thus, in Demosthenes, To psWov ovvoic-m r* 9roA«, To t« t» ffoXE/ny rux v xat xonot xat^oy T^aTTEo-Sat, and Others much longer than these, are continually occurring. INTRODUCTION. 9 case, no other argument against the composition will be necessaiy, it being exactly similar to that unanswerable one which Mr. Locke himself de- clares to be sufficient against their being innate j for the supposition is unnecessary." But in affirming the parts of speech to have no connexion with the nature of our thoughts, and to be only necessary parts of artificial language, one difficulty remains behind, and that is, to ac- count, on the same principle, for the difference between the noun and the verb ; for if the prin- ciple is not true with regard to these, it will scarcely be admitted with regard to the others. Unfortunately, Home Tooke here leaves us in the dark ; for after having, with admirable acute- ness of inquiry, followed up every other part of speech till he had found it, in its early state, ei- ther a noun or a verb ; after he had said, " that a verb, as well as every other word, is a noun, but that a verb is something more than a noun, and that the title of verb was given to it on ac- count of that distinguishing something more than mere nouns convey"* — he still left this question, at the end of his two quarto volumes, unanswer- ed : " What is that peculiar differential circum- stance, which, added to the definition of a noun, constitutes a verbt?" All that he added to it * Diversions of Purley, vol. ii. p. 514. f Idem. 10 INTRODUCTION. was, a promise to return to the inquiry ; but his promise was never fulfilled ; and if he knew the secret, he carried it out of the world with him. Possibly, however, the metaphysics of Home Tooke were not the soundest, and as the question eluded his research as an etymologist, he might have mistaken his ground by supposing it capable of solution on a principle into which he after- wards found he could not resolve it. He states in one part of his work, (vol. i. p. 51.) " that the business of the mind, so far as it regards language, extends no further than to receive impressions, that is, to have sensations, and that what are called its operations, are merely the operations of language." The direct consequence of this principle is, that the first invented elements of human speech were nouns, that is, words to sig- nify those impressions, or, more properly, the sub- jects of them ; and this accordingly seems to be Home Tooke's notion, for he supposes that verbs arose, in the progress of improvement from nouns, by assuming that differential something which was found to be wanting. To this con- clusion he was possibly led by a too unqualified admission of Locke's doctrine concerning innate ideas : had he given it the same interpretation it has received from the best metaphysicians of the present day, (among whom Mr. Dugald Stewart must be mentioned with peculiar honour,) he INTRODUCTION. 1 1 would probably have concluded differently. He would then have seen, that to have sensations is not enough, but that the mind must observe and reflect, compare and judge, before any progress can be made in the work of language, and that these are not the operations of language, but the operations of the mind made manifest through language. The truth is, the powers and affec- tions of the mind belong to it in its own nature, and Locke's doctrine, that it has no innate ideas, must be understood to amount only to this — that in our present state of being, the perception of the objects of sense is the appointed means by which those powers and affections are primarily called forth. Admitting this interpretation, we must also admit that the business of language must, under any circumstances, extend much further than the mere naming of objects : for merely to name a thing is to communicate no- thing — is to say neither what we feel nor what we think concerning it; and a noun, in the true sense of the expression, is not a word, (verbum,) but an artificial sign formed, like the other arti- ficial signs or parts of speech, by the division of a word, and serving afterwards in conjunction with the other signs, to form a word or sentence (?*j/"«, dictum) expressive of the speaker's thought. To understand this, let us consider how it is pos- sible for men who have yet to acquire the use of 12 INTRODUCTION. conventional sounds to express their thoughts, to be led to that expedient. They would not begin by giving names to the objects around them, (for that supposes the pre-existence of the very thing they are to invent as the means of coming to a mutual agreement,) but they would begin by signifying their wants, their affections, their de- sires, by those sounds which Nature taught, and the first steps in artificial language would be slight and imperceptible improvements on the pattern of nature. The earliest sounds which children utter, the earliest which would be em- ployed in the fabrication of language, are virtual sentences. Even in lisping the sounds of artifi- cial language which he catches from others, it is long before a child uses them in an artificial manner — it is long before he puts two or three together to signify a single thought. When he utters the childish words for father or mother, he always means something beyond the mere act of naming, which something he includes in the word, and the word, in such case, is not a mere noun, but, in the strictness of the term, a word or sentence. The difficulty is to conceive how a mere noun should have originated, since the actual perception or conception of an object ne- cessarily involves a recognition or sentiment, or what would be called a mental proposition, while a mere noun designates the object, but implies INTRODUCTION. 13 nothing further. Yet as the same object is not always recognised in the same relation, nor pro- duces the same sentiment, it is impossible not to know that the object itself exists independently of any recognition, and therefore if we can only suppose a sufficient occasion, we may conceive how a name might be given to the object with- out regard to the actual recognition. Let us imagine, for instance, that unexpectedly meeting with a ditch, we express our surprise by a natural ejaculation ; that we afterwards recognise the same object in a new relation, not as the ditch that surprises, but the ditch offensive to the smell : this new occasion demands, like the other, an appropriate sound ; but the object is already known in connexion with the former recognition, and not yet in connexion with the latter : there- fore, in order to prepare for expressing the latter recognition, we might recal the former, by using the sound that was uttered with it. And if in every future recognition in which the same object was concerned, the same expedient was adopted, namely, of using the sound expressive of the first recognition, it is evident that this sound would become a mere name for the thing itself; — it would cease to awaken in the mind the original recognition, — this ditch surprises me, but would be understood as a mere sign standing indeed for a well known object, but forbidding that any 14 INTRODUCTION. recognition should be understood concerning it till the proper word were added*. The foregoing example has been fixed upon in preference to any other that might be ima- gined, because even in the present state of lan- guage, a name has actually been formed in the manner here described from a natural exclama- tion; a ditch which is so placed as to occasion surprise being called an ha-ha; and this example may stand in place of a hundred ; for the prin- ciple being once admitted, its further operation may be easily conceived. The necessity by which men were thus led to signify one recognition or sentiment by two, and finally, by several words, is precisely similar to the necessity which obliged them to signify one word in writing by several characters. No doubt the first idea of the inventors of writing was, to * It may be objected, that, if merely to be aware that we perceive or conceive an object is a recognition, then naming the object, as it implies the conception of it, implies that recog- nition. But herein consists the artificial quality of mere names that they do not imply that recognition; for that we merely perceive or conceive the object is seldom the recognition in- tended; and when it is intended, we generally add a word to the name, to give it such meaning : and if no word is added, but in pointing to the object we only utter the name, then is it more than a name, — it is a word conveying this proposition, I perceive that object, or J know that object by the name I give it. INTRODUCTION. 15 appropriate a character for every word; and even at this day we are told that something similar is practised in China. But it was soon found the immense number of characters this must require, would soon render the design im- practicable, and by degrees, therefore, the ex- pedient was adopted of spelling words. By this expedient, twenty-four characters, by their end- less varieties of position with each other, are capable of signifying the almost innumerable words of which language is composed. Just so it was in speech. At first every sound was a sen- tence. But the infinite communications which the intercourse of life required to be made, would soon have exhausted every possible variety of sounds. It was lucky, therefore, when a necessity arose to give to some of the sounds a less comprehensive force of signification; for then the sentence was expressed by two sounds already in use, and no new sound was required. Thus arose the separation of the noun from the verb. By degrees, as the benefit of this princi- ple was felt, nouns were divided into nouns sub- stantive and nouns adjective, and verbs were worn down into participles, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions. Thus we may be said to spell our thoughts by words, as we spell our words by letters. Take the most familiar example: — George is not walking with James, but with Harry. 16 INTRODUCTION. Can the thought present to the speaker's mind be resolved into as many ideas as the sentence is composed of words ? Certainly not: for how can he have an idea of George but in some state or action — standing, sitting, running, or walking? Or how can he have an idea of walking, but with the idea of somebody walking: that George walks with Harry and not with James, are equally parts of his actual thought, and the whole exists in his mind at once. The expressing of this thought or recognition by so many words, is, therefore, the mere contrivance of language. Thus also of an earlier example — " the cathedral church that stands in the midst of our city: 99 no one of the words taken separately denotes the object in the speaker's mind: cathedral means any cathedral, and might be employed in any sentence where such a term was wanted, just as letter a may be employed in any word where such a letter is wanted : the same may be said of the other words ; and some of them, indeed, as of, the, our, which, in, — are among the common materials that serve in all sentences, as certain letters more than others are employed in all words. But when these words are put together, then indeed they express the particular mean- ing, then the thought is spelt: and thus it might be shewn in any sentence, that the words composing it are on the footing of letters com- INTRODUCTION. 17 posing a word. The two cases would indeed be exactly parallel, were every person allowed to follow his own fancy in the spelling of words; but the rules of orthography are fixed, and they alone spell correctly who spell in one particular way. But in the spelling of his thoughts by words, every person is allowed to follow his own me- thod. Hence the endless varieties of style, and the possibility of expressing a thought awkwardly or confusedly, though conceived with clearness. If this account of the nature of language be correct, it is evident that Home Tooke never could have explained the difference between the noun and the verb on the principle on which he set out ; nor is it true that the verb arose from the noun, but the noun from the verb. Even the verb, as employed in a sentence in conjunc- tion with other parts of speech, is artificial : the natural verb is itself a sentence, as are the im- peratives go, come, forbear ', hark! hist/ &c. ; but in order to suit the purposes of speech, the verb is made capable of being less comprehensive, and instead of being itself a sentence^ it can, when necessary, be a mere sign to indicate a sentence. Thus in the examples, George is tall, George is walking, the artificial verb merely in- dicates that a thought or judgment is expressed j for the phrases tall George and George walking, sufficiently designate the objects conceived, and IS INTRODUCTION. it is only the absence of the artificial verb that forbids them to be understood as sentences. Strictly speaking, then, the artificial verb is not the pnpa, the dictum, the word, or communica- tion ; for that appellation belongs to the whole sentence ; but we are justified in continuing the title, because, without its aid, the word could not have been formed, and because it is the only part of speech which is capable, on occasion, of being by itself a word *. This artifice of converting words into the mere grammatical materials of other words or sentences, is, in fact, the great artifice of lan- guage 5 and if, from simple sentences we advance to complex, we shall find that this is still the artifice on which we proceed. Thus, for in- stance, George is tall; The cathedral church stands in the midst of our city, are words or sentences > but George who is tall; The cathedral church that stands in the midst of our city, are not sentences, * Quinctilian, speaking of the noun and. the verb, says, '* Allerum est quod loquimur, alterum de quo loquimur." Lib. i. cap. 4. : and this opinion Home Tooke quotes and adopts. (See his Work, Vol. i. p. 51.) Yet I still assert that this divi- sion into de quo and quod holds true only of the terms. In the sentences given above, my idea is tall George, or George walking; and if I conceive George in any other way, my con- ception is a different and a new idea. — When the sentence consists of a pronoun in the first or second person, and a verb, what becomes of the division into quod and de quo? INTRODUCTION. 19 though the artificial verb remains in them as be- fore. We immediately understand that they do not express the actual recognition of the speaker, but are the mere materials by which he proposes to express it, and we expect another artificial verb, as the sign that the word is formed ; as, George, who is tall, walks with long strides; The cathedral church that stands in the midst of our city is much admired. Thus it is that the longest and most complicate sentences are made; and thus it is that language, from being the mere interpreter, becomes the instrument of reason. For that artifice, which is the mere necessity of language while the judgments or thoughts which we have to express are particular in their nature, becomes an advantage of infinite importance when from particulars we ascend to universals ; we then make use of words to assist us in our thoughts ; we work with them as the algebraist works with the letters which he makes to stand for predetermined quantities; we form the sub- ject or materials of a judgment out of a former judgment; or, as logicians say, the predicate of one proposition becomes the subject of the next ; and we arrive at general conclusions of the utmost importance to our conduct and happiness, which would for ever have defied the grasp of our minds, but for the assistance of so powerful an aid. c 2 20 INTRODUCTION. Thus we see the gradual steps by which the language of nature becomes the language of art*, and how, in this last shape, it is more fitted for the uses of a reasonable creature. Yet, though it boasts, in this shape, of a precision which thfr language of nature could never attain, yet on many occasions, and those the most common, we feel that its precision is accompanied by a * The account of language here given is not intended to in- terfere with the question respecting the divine origin of speech. It has always been deemed allowable to employ an hypothetical statement of its formation and gradual advance from rudeness to perfection, in order to unfold its theory ; and this method is adopted on the present occasion without any intention of questioning the scriptural account ; which indeed might easily be shewn not to be adverse to the one here given. In one way, at least, the present statement shews that speech, under any circumstances, must be of divine origin; for it ex- plains it as the necessary result of powers originally bestowed on us by our Creator ; it exhibits the progress from natural cries to artificial signs as being contemplated and provided for, in the constitution of the human mind; it shews the develope- ment of the parts of speech to be necessary and unavoidable ; and that men, being placed in society, and endowed with powers for observation, reflection, comparison, and judgment, must become pepoves or voice-dividers with as much certainty as they become bipeds or walkers on two legs, though they are born neither the one nor the other. In these respects the present differs from preceding hypotheses, which, in order to explain the origin of the parts of speech, exhibit men as hav- ing been led to invent them, by reflecting, on abstract and metaphysical principles, that such words were necessary. INTRODUCTION. 21 sluggishness that little accords with the rapidity and fervour of our conceptions, and we look about in vain for a more ready and forcible in- terpreter, such as the language of nature would be, if it could have the precision of the language of art. Could I embody and unbosom now That which is most within me — could I wreak My thoughts upon expression, and thus throw Soul, heart, mind, passions, feelings, strong or weak, All that I would have sought, and all I seek, Bear, know, feel, and yet breathe — into ONE WORD, And that one word were lightning — I would speak; But as it is, I live and die unheard, With a most voiceless thought, sheathing it as a sword. The Third Canto of Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Stanza xcvii. Now, as by the steps which have been pointed out, we render language capable of expressing all the thoughts we can conceive, and of serving as the interpreter of much more knowledge than we could have attained without its Kelp j so in order that the expression may correspond with the unity of the thought, we return on those steps, and, as far as possible, without losing the advantage gained, we make artificial language approach the simplicity of the language of na- ture. This is the secret of all the relative, com- 22 INTRODUCTION. plex, and general terms with which languages abound, and which are complex only inasmuch as they are abbreviations of sentences : this is the cause that verbs and nouns have lost the charac- ter they possessed in the early stage of the for- mation of artificial language, and have dwindled into abbreviations under the names of preposi- tion, conjunction, &c. ; and this is the secret in the construction of long and complex sentences, in which the several parts are merely gramma- tical divisions, that serve, in their united capa- city, to express but one thought. The art of Elocution is guided throughout by the same secret principle, and is, in fact, the art of effect- ing the same purpose ky the manner of pronounc- ing artificial language. The means which it employs are partly artificial and conventional, like the medium which is to be assisted ; con- sisting of inflections of the voice that mark the relative parts of a sentence, and unite them into one whole : and they partly consist in the adop- tion of the language of nature itself, which is made to accompany the artificial signs. The manner in which we employ these means, in order to secure the end, is the subject of the second and of the third chapter of the theory to be developed: for, in accordance with the divi- sion stated at the beginning of this Introduction, INTRODUCTION. 23 it is proposed, in the first place, to consider the materials of language without regard to their sig- nificance. If the preceding account of the nature of artificial speech should be deemed a true one, I am bound to acknowledge my obligations to the works of Mr. Dugald Stewart, which alone guided my steps in the inquiry. However, when I formed the opinions contained in the foregoing essay, I had seen no other work of Mr. Stewart's than the first volume of the Philosophy of the Human Mind; for, engaged in a laborious profession, my time scarcely allows me to read any other books than such as seem immediately to relate to it ; and Mr. Stewart's Philo- sophical Essays, from an ignorance of the subjects embraced by them, had never attracted my attention. The preceding Essay is copied from a lecture, which, two years ago, I read before the Philosophical Society of London, at the time when the Dukes of Kent and Sussex were its patrons, and Earl Carys- fort the president. Since that time I have perused Mr. Stew- art's Essay On the Tendency of some late Philological Specula- tions, and am highly gratified to find, that the opinions on the subject of language which I had formed from the perusal of his other work, are confirmed by the opinions of Mr. Stewart himself, so far as he has had occasion to express them inciden- tally in the course of the Essay just named. I think the fol- lowing passages will prove that I am not mistaken : " In reading the enunciation of a proposition, we are apt to fancy that for every word contained in it, there is an idea pre- sented to the understanding ; from the combination and com- parison of which ideas, results that act of the mind called judg?nent. So different is all this from fact, that our words, when examined separately, are often as completely insignifi- cant as the letters of which they are composed; deriving their 24 INTRODUCTION. meaning solely from the connection or relation in which they stand toothers." Philosophical Essays, Essay V. Chapter 1st. '* When we listen to a language which admits of such transpositions in the arrangement of words as are familiar to us in Latin, the artificial structure of the discourse suspends, in a great measure, our conjectures about the sense, till, at the close of the period, the verb, in the very instant of its utter- ance, unriddles the cenigma. Previous to this, the former words and phrases resemble those detached and unmeaning patches of different colours, which compose what opticians call an ana* morphosis; while the effect of the verb, at the end, may be compared to that of the mirror by which the anamorphosis is reformed, and which combines these apparently fortuitous ma- terials into a beautiful portrait or landscape. In instances of this sort, it will be generally found, upon an accurate exami- . nation, that the intellectual act, as far as we are able to trace it, s altogether simple, and incapable of analysis; and that the elements into which we flatter ourselves we have resolved it, are nothing more than the grammatical elements of speech; — the logical doctrine about the comparison of ideas bearing a much closer affinity to the task of a school-boy in parsing his lesson, than to the researches of philosophers, able to form a. just conception of the mystery to be explained. " Idem. CHAPTER I. MECHANICAL READING, OR PRONUNCIATION. Quod est igitur in his doctoris officium ? In primis vitia, si qua sunt, oris, emendet: ut expressa sint verba, ut suis quaeque literae sonis enuncientur. Quinct. 1 . PRONUNCIATION, AND ITS OBJECTS EXPLAINED. In the present chapter, the term Pronunciation, less comprehensive than when it signifies Deli- very in general, but more comprehensive than when it merely refers to the proper manner of sounding single words, is employed to include whatever is necessary to the just and harmonious utterance of a sentence, when the meaning is not suffered to influence the manner. A reader who has no other purpose in the repetition of a passage than to exercise the vocal organs, may be said merely to pronounce it; the clerk in a court of justice, who, in rehearsing a law-in- strument, feels that he is no more required to keep his attention awake to the meaning, than the copying-clerk who wrote it, may, in the same confined sense, be said to pronounce it. But in these and similar cases, however the sense may be disregarded, the written stops should be at- tended to ; all the words should be justly sound- 8 26 PRONUNCIATION, ed, and be linked together in smooth unbroken succession ; the articulation should be firm, dis- tinct, harmonious; the accents of the voice should rise and fall on those words to which the custom of the language assigns them, and should keep such distances from each other, that some degree of rhythmus is perceptible. These are the qualifications to which the present chapter is designed to lead the student^ and which he must labour to attain, before he can flatter himself with having laid a proper foundation for excel- lencies of a higher and nobler kind. The pro- nunciation which is acquired by habit alone, however correct and even elegant it may appear in common conversation, should never be taken as the ground-work of the superstructure. Form- ed by no certain principles, it will always be found imperfect when brought to the test of slow and distinct reading - 7 and it may with truth be asserted, there is not a single person that has passed through none other than the usual forms of education, whose pronunciation is not capable of being thoroughly remoulded and improved, by returning to the simple elements of speech, and acquiring systematically what he had before acquired on the loose warranty of custom. The most fertile source of this improvement will be found in an attention to the nature of the conso- nants — elements in the manner of uttering AND ITS OBJECTS EXPLAINED. 27 which, it is scarcely supposed two people can differ, and which are consequently little under- stood and little cultivated. But not only do strength and distinctness depend on the proper utterance of the consonants; even melody may be assisted by them: and those hard, harsh, hiss- ing sounds so much objected to our language by foreigners, abounding as it does with conso- nants, are much more the effect of an ill pronun- ciation, than of any natural defect in the lan- guage itself*. What chiefly defeats the end of study in the improvement of Pronunciation, are the confused and inadequate notions of vowels and consonants with which learners set forward. At the first mention of those terms, every one thinks of the letters of the alphabet, five of which he has been taught to call the vowels, and the rest, the consonants. But vowels and consonants are sounds, not figures described upon paper. In a language like the Italian, where sounds and * In the variety and harmony of its consonants, and in the changes they undergo in order to slide smoothly into each other, no other modern language approaches so near to the ancient Greek as the English. The only difference is, that the Greeks, who constantly employed the art of writing in subser- viency to the art of speaking, made their orthography always comply with their pronunciation; while we, by confining our study only to our books, fail to observe the change of the con- sonants in writing, and by this means suffer their excellences to pass unobserved and unimproved. 3 28 VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. letters are almost uniformly respondent, this false way of speaking may be of little ill conse- quence ; but in our language it is important to be more precise, and to let it be distinctly under- stood when we are speaking of letters, and when of sounds. It is solely from the neglect of this distinction that the grammarian and student so commonly fail, the one to convey, and the other to obtain, a just understanding of those elements of speech, which they are accustomed every in- stant to employ. To say that the word ought contains but one vowel and one consonant, could hardly fail to seem a strange assertion : every one immediately recurs to the orthography, and recollecting the several letters o, u, g, k 9 and t 9 thinks there must be a mistake. But the or- thography is not in question : the appeal should be to the ear, not to the eye. To render the student competent to this appeal, let him attend* for awhile, to the following considerations* 2. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. If we pronounce the monosyllabic word awe, and setting aside all recollection of its spelling, demand of the ear in what it consists, we shall find it to be nothing more than a simple utter- VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 29 ance of the voice, the sound of which has that peculiar modification from the peculiar position of the mouth : in other words, it is a simple vowel, that is to say, a voice sound. The interjection ah is another such sound, different from the other, because the position of the mouth is different. The name of the letter e is another. If the two sounds last mentioned are uttered in instantane- ous succession, with one impulse or effort, they form the word eye, which is either the name of the organ of sight, or the personal pronoun I, or the name of the letter u Thus combined, the two sounds count to the ear but as one. Let this compounded sound be followed by a hissing, formed by forcing the breath between the tip of the tongue and upper gum, kept in gentle con- tact, and the word ice will be formed. If instead of forcing the breath, we endeavour to force the voice, the hiss is converted into a buzz, and the word ice becomes eyes. Let the same compound- ed sound be preceded by a forcible expulsion of the breath, and the word eye, I, or i, is convert- ed into the word high. Return to the word first mentioned, awe : pronounce it, and, in finishing, place the tip of the tongue to the upper gum, as was done in pronouncing ice, preparation being also made at the same moment to force forward the breath as in that instance ; but instead of suf- fering it to make its way between the tongue and 30 VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. gum, as before, check it for a moment, and then forcibly separating the tongue and gum, suffer it, in that manner, to explode : in this way is formed the word which was asserted to have in it but one vowel and one consonant, namely, the word ought. If in bringing the tongue and gum into contact, the voice is not wholly checked, but is kept murmuring in the throat, and the tongue and gum then forcibly separated as before, the word ought is changed into aud, the former part of the word aud-ience. In all the preceding in- stances the vowel sounds, in being properly pro- nounced, require a certain duration or protrac- tion : if instead of thus dwelling on the vowel sound in the last instance, the action of the tongue and gum suddenly stops, or shuts in, the efflux of the voice at the very instant of its first exertion, by this means the syllable aud is con- verted into the word odd. — These examples, if they have been properly understood, afford spe- cimens of every species of element out of which words are formed. The words awe, ah, and e, are examples of simple vowels, or, in equivalent terms, simple voice sounds. The word eye or I, is an example of a diphthongal vowel, that is to say, a double voice sound. The hissing produced by forcing the breath between the tongue and gum, as at the end of the word ice, and the explosive ef- fect of separating these organs after the breath has VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 31 for a moment been checked, as at the end of the word ought, are specimens of what may be termed breath consonants*. The buzzing noise which was formed at the end of the word eyes, and the obscure murmur of the voice within the throat with the subsequent separation of the organs at the end of aud and odd, are examples of what may be called voice consonants t. The forcible expulsion of the breath which converts the word eye or 7, into high, is, properly speaking, neither a vowel nor a consonant, but is justly designated when we term it the aspirate t. The vowel sound in odd, which seems to be shut in by the follow- ing consonant, and which the just pronunciation of the word will not permit us to lengthen, let * The latter consonant is one of those usually called mutes, on account of the momentary cessation of all sound, both of the breath and voice. As, however, these mutes require an expulsion of the breath, and are not a mere contact of the or- gans, as the name might lead us to suppose, it is judged proper, for the sake of simplicity of arrangement, to call them breath consonants. f The latter consonant is usually called an impure or a flat mute. But why call it mute, if, in forming it, the voice may be heard ? J Murray, the author of the well-known Grammar, quotes, from the Encyclopaedia Britannica, an assertion, that the sound here spoken of is something more than a mere aspirate. Try whether and requires any thing more than a forcible expulsion of the breath before it to make it hand. S2 VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. our delivery be ever so slow, may* with propriety, be denominated a stopped or shut vowel sound ; while, in all other cases, vowels must be consi- dered open, whether circumstances render them long or short, or whether, in quality, they are broad, narrow, or contracted* : the broad sound awe, for instance, is to be considered open both in audience and audacious, though in the latter word it will probably be shorter, because it is not accented as in the other. And so the narrow sound e in decent, and the same sound in devout, in both is to be esteemed an open sound, though, for the reason just given, it will be longer in one than in the other. The same remark applies to the contracted sound o in oval, and in opinion. This distinction of the vowels into the open and * To call a sound broad, narrow, or contracted, is certainly but an obscure way of explaining its quality ; for broad and narrow are qualities of objects of sight or touch, not of hearing. Lan- guage is defective in not having proper terms by which to con- vey these simple ideas. That the student may not be misled by the catachresis necessarily resorted to on this occasion, let him understand, by abroad sound, one that requires the mouth to be broadly opened ; by a narrow sound, one that makes the mouth narrower by bringing the upper and lower parts nearer together, and extending it at the sides ; and by a contracted sound, one that lessens the mouth by a round contraction of the lips. By some writers, open and shut are employed in the same sense as broad and narrow are here employed ; but the student observes that those terms are used above in a very dif- ferent sense. VOWELS AND CONSONANTS. 33 the shut, is the only one that, for practical pur- poses, it will be necessary to regard. To dis- tinguish them accurately into the simple and the diphtkongal 9 v?ou\d lead to unnecessary, and, what the learner would find, perplexing niceties. — Some of them, indeed, are universally acknow- ledged to be diphthongal, as the vowel we hear in boy, and that we hear in ?iow. But that we hear in eye, I, high, buy, &c. (for the vowel is in all the same) is likewise, as has been shewn, a diphthongal sound ; and some others, which usually pass for simple sounds, would, if skilfully examined, be also found of the same description: for it matters not whether a diphthong be de- noted on paper by one letter, or two, or more: it is for the ear to judge whether it be of a simple or compound nature. Luckily, however, as the examination would be perplexing, it is not, for practical purposes, important ; and the distinc- tion above mentioned, into vowels open and shut, needs alone to be regarded. With a view to an equal simplicity of arrangement, the student is advised to observe no other division of the conso- nants than that which separates them into breath consonants and voice consonants, disregarding the ordinary classification into aspirates, semi- vowels, mutes, and semi-mutes. 34 3. VOWELS. The vowels of the English language are as follows : First, those open vowels which are severally de- noted by a, e, i, o, u, when we name the letters. Secondly, those shut vowels which are sever- ally denoted by the same letters in the syllables at, et, it, ot, nt. These ten sounds are the regular vowels, or, in other words, the sounds which the vowel let- ters most commonly denote. Thirdly, the open vowels heard in far, (i. e. ah) Jail, (i. e. awe) move, (i. e. oo) and in fur, boy, and now. And, lastly, the shut vowel heard in pull : mak- ing, in the whole, seventeen sounds, clearly distin- guished from one another either by the different position of the mouth in forming them, or by their difference as to open and shut*. * All the shut sounds are the same, or nearly the same, as some of the open : the shut sound in the syllable at, is nearly the same as the open vowel in far, — nearly the same, for it is not quite so broad. The shut sound in the syllable et, is nearly the same as the open sound a, — nearly the same, because the latter is liable, when prolonged, to become diphthongal, by finishing with the sound of e. The shut sound in it, is the same as the open sound e. The shut sound in ot, the same as the open sound in fall. The shut sound in the ut, the same as VOWELS. 35 It is one great characteristic of a good speaker that he employs a definite number of sounds, which he utters with precision, distinctness, and in their proper places ; that is, in those places to which the best usage of the language assigns them, without any further regard to orthography than usage permits. There are very few occa- sions on which a vowel may be allowed to re- main doubtful between one and another of the sounds given above, — so few, that it will be as well to point them out at once. They are as follows : i. The sound represented by letter a final in a syllable, when without accent, is an indefinite sound which wavers between the vowel #/z and the natural vowel; (namely, the vowel heard in fur.) Ex. a-bound, ide-0, tra-duce, admira-ble. ii. The words to, you, your, for, the, which, when uttered singly, or with accent the open sound in fur. And the shut sound in pull, the same as the open sound in move. Taking away the shut sounds, there are only eleven remaining ; and if we further reject i, u, oy, and ow, which are manifestly diphthongal, or compounds of other sounds, we shall have only seven, the arrangement of which being as follows, will perhaps exhibit the natural vowels, which, with slight variations, will be found nearly in all lan- guages : awe, ah, a, e, f(«)r, o, oo. The first of these opens the mouth fully in all directions; — the second narrows the dis- tance beween the jaws, and stretches it a little at the sides; — D 2 36 VOWELS. in composition, are severally pronounced too, yoo, yoor,faur, thee, permit their vowels to lose their distinctness, and sink, or nearly sink, into the natural vowel, when circum- stanced as in the following phrases : he goes to London ; she loves you ; give me your hand ; I wrote for his advice ; tlw day of the month. iii. The shut sound denoted by letter a, followed by a consonant in a syllable with- out accent, is a sound that wavers between that in at and that in ut. Ex. Combat, no- bleman, abjure. (N.B. The sound in ut is the natural vowel stopped or shut.) iv. The shut sound denoted by letter o under the same circumstances wavers be- tween those in ot and ut. In final syllables it generally acquires the latter sound de- the third narrows it more; —the fourth still more ; — the fifth relaxes it at the sides preparatory to a contraction in another direction, and this sound being' uttered with the mouth slightly opened without effort, may be called, for distinction's sake, the natural vowel ; — the next contracts the mouth at the sides ; and the last contracts it in the same manner a little more. The French u is a still further contraction of the last sound ; and between all the other vowels there may be intermediate degrees of narrowness or contraction, which form those differences of vowels observable in different provinces and different countries. — It should be observed, that the tongue assists in narrowing or enlarging the spaces within the mouth. VOWELS. 37 cidedly. Ex. conjecture, method (methud,) cannot (cannut,) sha\\~?iot (shall-nut,) the value of (uv) time, from danger (frum danger.) v. The open vowel u which comes aftei h j> s* t, and d, circumstanced as in lute, sluice, juice, censure, leisure, nature, ver- dure, does not completely lose its charac- ter, and identify with the sound oo, as is the case with the sound denoted by letter u in rude, and other words where letter u comes after r ; nor is it pronounced so de- cidedly and distinctly as it ought to be when it comes after other consonants , as in cube, mute, tube, suit. These may be assumed, with tolerable safety, as the only cases of medium vowels which slow and distinct reading allows. Not that words are ever to be pronounced as they are spelled when good usage forbids ; not that the alpha- betical and syllabical sounds of the letters are to be retained in opposition to the great norma loquendi, which so often requires them to give way ; but that, in all other cases, the defection of a letter from its regular sound must be a de- cided change for another sound. Thus, for in- stance, the ou in the first syllable of courage must be sounded as u in ut, and the a in the second as the i in it. The out in wotdd, could, 38 CONSONANTS. should, must be supplied by the sound of u in pull, ia in mink-ture must be sounded as the e in devout. Cases will indeed occur as to which of two sounds it may be best to use ; whether, for instance, it may be best to give the i in ci-licious its alphabetical sound, or the sound of e in devout ; but on such occasions the speaker must determine for himself one way or the other, and not suffer his pronunciation to hang between the two. The same decision is neces- sary with respect to the consonants ; but, before our remarks include them, they must be enu- merated. 4. CONSONANTS. The consonant letters are b, c 9 d,f 9 g 9 h 9 j, k 9 /, m 9 n 9 p, q 9 r, s 9 t 9 v, w 9 x, y 9 z. Of these setting aside c 9 j 9 q and x 9 for reasons to be mentioned presently, we shall have First, those breath consonants, which are se- verally denoted by f 9 h 9 k, p 9 s 9 and /, in foe 9 hay 9 key, pay 9 say and tie. And secondly, those voice consonants which are severally denoted by b 9 d, g 9 1 9 m 9 n 9 r, v 9 w, y 9 and z 9 in boy 9 day, gay, low, my, no 9 ray 9 vie, wo, ye, and zeal. Beside these, there are two breath consonants 6 CONSONANTS. 39 and three voice consonants, for which the al- phabet does not furnish appropriate marks. The breath consonants are those severally denoted by sh and th in show and thaw. And the voice consonants those severally de- noted by ng, s, and th, in ring, vision, and they. With regard to the letters c, j, q, and x : — c supplies the place of /• or s ; j denotes two sounds uttered in immediate succession, namely those denoted by d in day and s in vision ; q with u supplies the place of k with w ; and x supplies the place of k and s, or g and z. It appears, then, that we have twenty-two consonants ; and these, if auricular ly examined, will be found clearly distinguishable from each other either by the different action of the organs of speech in forming them, or by their difference as to breath or voice*. Nor does it ever happen that a consonant should be less decisive at one time than another, if we except merely the following case. Between the sound of the t and the fol- lowing vowel in righteous, nature, &c. there is decidedly interposed the sound of sh in * Many of the consonants have no difference as to organic formation, but differ only in the last mentioned respect : thus /, a breath consonant, corresponds with v, a voice consonant. And in the same manner, k corresponds- with g, p with b, s wilh 2, t with d, sh with 5 in vision, and th in thaw with th in they. 40 USAGE THE RULE FOR show : and between the sound of the d and the following vowel in soldier, grandeur, &c. there is likewise decidedly interposed the sound of s in vision*. Analogy is strictly in favour of a similar pronunciation of pi- teous, duteous, &c. and of Indian, odious, he. ; but custom is not equally decisive. Here the speaker may take a middle course : let not the sounds which incline to come between be carefully avoided, and the or- gans of speech in passing from the t or d to the vowel, will of themselves slightly in- troduce them. Making this exception, the consonants should, in all cases, be pronounced firmly and distinctly ; and in sounding the voice consonants, as much voice should be uttered with them as possible, so as to keep them clearly distinct from those formed only with the breath. 5. USAGE THE RULE FOR PRONOUNCING WORDS. Before the decision of utterance here re- commended with regard both to the vowels * Letter j, as was mentioned, is the usual mark for d and the sound of 5 in vision uttered in close succession, and ac- cordingly by writing soldier, grandeur, &c. with aj instead of 3 PRONOUNCING WORDS. 41 and consonants, can be put in practice, it is ne- cessary to know what sounds really compose a word. Orthography, as we have seen, does not indicate them with any degree of certainty, since every letter is liable to denote other sounds than that to which it regularly belongs, and since more or fewer letters are often used than there are sounds in a word : what then, it may be asked, is the proper guide ? The answer must be the one already given — usage. Neither in this part of the volume, nor in any other, is it intended to oppose theory to established custom : no theory that regards language can be sound which proposes such an object. But the inten- tion of theory is, to lay open the secret reasons which influence custom, in order that they may operate with greater precision and certainty. It is presumed the student is politely educated, and pronounces the words of his language like other well-bred people*: the intention, then, of the foregoing remarks is, to induce him to analyze the sounds he employs, not that he may a d, we so far indicate the pronunciation. The sounds de- noted by / in righteous, nature, are precisely the same as are denoted by ch in chair, each, church, &c. * To those who are not so fortunate as to possess a polite London utterance, I take the liberty to recommend my Practical Grammar of English Pronunciation, as the only work in existence that supplies a regular course of study and exercise for the object it professes. 42 USAGE THE RULE FOR change, but that he may improve them. As to doubtful cases, he cannot have a better guide than Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary, — a dic- tionary much superior to any other of the kind, because it reconciles custom, as far as possible, to itself, and to the analogies and tendencies of the language. It is true, fashion may have al- tered, and may hereafter alter, many of its de- cisions. When this is the case, when the stu- dent is certain that a word has undergone a change, and that the pronunciation marked would seem singular and uncouth, he must fol- low the stream and adopt the new pronuncia- tion. It may perhaps be thought that this is giving up too much to the caprice of custom, but the fact is, every speaker who adheres to an obsolete pronunciation, or ventures on a new one, is sure to do himself an injury 5 for, besides running the risk of being thought a pedant or a coxcomb*, he draws the attention of his hearers from his matter to his manner — from * In words, as fashions, the same rule will hold, Alike fantastic if too new or old; Be not the first by whom the new are tried, Nor yet the last to lay the old aside. POPE. And the rule, with regard to pronunciation, will hold good to its full extent: an old man may be allowed to retain a few peculiarities of pronunciation which would be unpardonable in a younger one. PRONOUNCING WORDS. 43 the information he conveys to the means of con- veying it. But, it may be asked, is there no merit in attempting to reduce a word to regu- larity? Perhaps there may be; but at all events, before any one attempts the task, let him study the natural tendencies of the language, without knowing which, he cannot be certain what is irregular and what is not, and is only likely, by his meddling, to render " confusion worse confounded." No one has a right to question any customary manner of sounding a word, who is unacquainted with the general rules that secretly influence custom — who is ig- norant, for example, of such principles as the following : i. The shortening power of the antepen- ultimate accent, which makes the difference between the a in nature, nation, patron, and in natural, national, patronage. ii. The tendency of all compound words to shorten the parts of which they are com- posed. Thus, shepherd from sheep-herd, vineyard from vine -yard, brealcfast from break-fast, knowledge from know-ledge. iii. The tendency of a vowel which was long in the present tense of a verb, to shorten in the past ; thus, bite in the present, be- comes bit in the past ; say becomes said -, read, read ; and hear, heard. 44 USAGE THE RULE FOR iv. The power of w over the following sound : hence the sound given to o in worm, word; and the broad sound denoted by a in "water, wan, quantity, quality. v. The constant tendency of the unac- cented sound whose regular mark is letter y initial, but which is more frequently de- noted in part by u long, or by i or e — to produce changes in c, s, t, or d, preceding it, when the syllable which the consonant begins, is not accented ; as in ocean, nau- seous, censure, roseate, nation, nature, lec- ture, righteous, soldier, verdure. vi. The tendency of a breath consonant to become vocal when joined to a voice consonant, and vice versa. Thus p becomes vocal in cupboard; s is vocal in disband, disburse, cosmetic, boars, hams, and always where it forms a plural, or third person of a verb after a voice consonant. vii. The power of letter e to restore s to its breath sound when coming after a liquid: thus we say, pulse, sense, course — coursing, parse — parsing. The only means of ascertaining the reality of these, and of other similar principles, is, to com- pare with actual usage all the words of the lan- guage on which each of them can possibly bear; and if a much greater proportion (for particular PRONOUNCING WORDS. 45 exceptions prove nothing) is found to agree than to disagree with it, the principle must be admitted as a rule of the language, which nothing ought to countervail but usage decidedly superior. Should the investigation necessary for arriving at these data be deemed too laborious, then let it not be thought too much to follow implicitly an orthoepist like Walker, who really had made the investigation : excepting only those cases in which, to agree with him, would be to violate indubitable usage — cases which will sometimes occur from the variation of usage since his Dic- tionary was written. To exemplify these re- marks by common instances — ought we say eether and neether [either and neither] or i-ther and ni4her? Mr. Walker recommends the for- mer pronunciation, on the ground that, as the words which require el to be sounded e, very much outnumber those that require the same letters to be sounded i, it therefore best agrees with the tendencies of the language, and good usage was besides not averse to that pronuncia- tion : to decide the question, therefore, we ought merely to consider whether good usage remains as it was. — To take one more instance — Mr. Walker marks the word Rome to be pronounced with o in its more contracted sound, as belong- ing to that small class of words in our language which require the o to be so sounded ; viz. do, 46 INTERJUNCTION OF WORDS. to, prove, move, lose, &c. ; and because he did not think that custom permitted it to run with the larger, and therefore the regular current, which gives to o its alphabetical sound: — the question then is, whether custom remains as it was, or whether it has become more favourable to the regular sound. Where reasons almost balance, every person must make his choice : — to argue the point strongly either for or against, would prove the disputant to be ignorant of the real grounds of the question. 6. INTERJUNCTION OF WORDS. Hitherto pronunciation has been consi- dered only with regard to words individually. We have next to put them together, and strength and facility of interjunetion are first to be attend- ed to. In the pronunciation of a sentence, the breath and voice, between the pauses of sense, ought to be in continual flow, and the beginning sound of one word to follow the final sound of another without break or interruption. Every member of a sentence, considered in this light, is an unbroken chain of varied syllables, and the organs of speech compose a curious piece of mechanism, in which, from the formation of the first sound to the finishing of the last, there is no INTERJUNCTION OF WORDS. 47 cessation from action. An imperfect reader fails to preserve this continuity of sound and motion, and offends the ear by frequent and sud- den interruptions, either from a want of flexi- bility in the organs to start with ease and readi- ness from one position to another, or from a misguided effort to distinguish the finishing of one word and the beginning of the next, when final and initial sounds seem in danger of being mistaken by a hearer. Thus, if reading slowly, he will perhaps check himself between the words chief object, that they may not sound as if written chief f object: yet, if the next word begins with the consonant that ends the preceding word, as in chief folly, he will probably feel equally scru- pulous, and break the continuity, that he may utter the consonant twice. He will be guilty of the same fault between such words as less zeal, atchieve fame, "weep bitterly, quick gaze, because the consonants which meet in the junction of those words are alike in respect to formation, and dif- fer only in a change from breath to voice, or voice to breath, a change which he finds a diffi- culty in accomplishing. The meeting of two vowels, as in new onset, free egress, go over, no aim, no honour, true heir, will be another cause of this defect ; a difficulty in forming the aspirate without some previous preparation another ; as, see him, true happiness, his handkerchief, a rash 48 THE ACCENTS OR NOTES hypothesis, a riding horse; and the meeting of ng before a vowel another ; as in hanging arras, being eminent, writing always, striking object. These faults must be removed by frequent prac- tice, and in the exercises which are employed for this particular purpose, the interj unction may be made with greater force than would be pro- per on other occasions; and where p, b, t, d, k, or g, finishes a sentence or clause of a sentence, the separation of the organs should make the ear sensible of a kind of rebound, similar to that which constitutes the French e mute. 7. THE ACCENTS OR NOTES OF THE SPEAKING VOICE. Supposing the sounds of a sentence (vow- els and consonants) to be justly pronounced, and properly interj oined, we have next to con- sider the notes or accents which accompany those sounds. That a sentence is never pro- nounced in a perfect monotone, except by a chanting school-boy or a parish-clerk, may be made evident by designedly uttering a sentence in unison with any single key of a musical in- strument*. On the other hand, we evidently * With this simple experiment to prove the contrary, it is astonishing- that they who thought at all on the subject should OF THE SPEAKING VOICE. 49 do not change from note to note in the same manner as in singing, because singing and speak- ing would then coincide. The fact is, the notes of speech never rest in any one part of the mu- sical scale, but are continually moving up and down within an interval greater or smaller, and are precisely of the same nature as those sliding ever have imagined that a sentence, naturally pronounced, had no change of key. Yet Mr. Sheridan compares the notes of speech to those of a drum, differing only in degrees of force; and Mr. John Rice, a teacher of Elocution, colemporary with Sheridan, informs us, in his Introduction to the Art of Reading, that, u He repeated, at different times, several passages from Milton and other poets in the hearing of one of the greatest masters of the science of music, who after paying the utmost attention to the several articulate sounds in each sentence, de- clared them to be all of the same tone." — I know not whether the merit of having first given a better account of the matter, is due to Mr. Joshua Steele, author of the Prosodia Ratio* nalis, or to the anonymous author of The Art of Delivering Written Language; since both these treatises in their first edi- tion, bear the same date, 1775. But the merit of giving an account still nearer the truth, and of having formed a prac- tical system on the subject to be used in teaching, is undoubt- edly due to Mr. John Walker. In one respect Mr. Walker has erred : he confesses himself entirely ignorant of music, and hence has been led to say, that a succession of words is sometimes pronounced in a perfect monotone, when it is monotonous by comparison only. I have remarked this error in my Grammar of Pronunciation, and have since found a similar remark in an Essay on the Accents, Prosody, &c. of the English Language, by Mr. Odell 50 THE ACCENTS OR NOTES tones on a violin, when the string is not pressed at one place, but the finger is carried up and down upon it. All the syllables of every word, when we read or speak unaffectedly, are in tones of this kind: in the comparatively even tenor of quiet conversation, it is not indeed very easy to distinguish them 5 but in impassioned discourse, in loud angry contention, they assume a more decided character \ and hence, a number of these tones repeated briskly on a violin, give a ludi- crous idea of scolding. These tones or notes of speech are called by modern writers on Elocu- tion, Inflections; by the ancients they were term- ed Accents. In our language, the term accent is generally supposed to include nothing more than a force or stress of the voice on one syllable of a word above others. It is, nevertheless, matter of experiment, that accent in this latter sense, and inflection, uniformly go together ; for it is only on syllables we call accented that a new or a renewed inflection takes place, the inflection of the accented syllable being continued, if there is no pause after it, during the unaccented sylla- bles following till the arrival of the next accent; and then, and not till then, the voice either changes its inflection, or goes back to its former pitch, and commences the same inflection over again \ or to express the whole in a few words, OF THE SPEAKING VOICE. 51 accent of force, uniformly coincides in our lan- guage with accent of tone # . • The greater force which generally accompanies the accent- ed syllable does not seem essential, the accent of tone being of itself sufficient to distinguish any syllable on which it is placed, inasmuch as whatever slide may precede or follow it, is merely a preparation for, or a continuation of that slide. Let the following word be pronounced as an example: Compensation. Standing by itself this word must have a grave or downward accent, in the same manner as if it finished a declarative sen- tence. But it is an instance in which the accent is not to take place till the third syllable — the voice therefore slides gently upwards during the first two syllables, till having reached the proper place, the downward accent commences, and is con- tinued throughout the word. Or let the word be in a situa- tion which requires it to have the acute or upward accent. Did you say compensation ? — compensation ? The voice now slides gently downwards on the first two syllables, and on the proper syllable the required accent takes place, which, as be- fore, is continued throughout the word. Thus an accented syllable (called accented by pre-eminence) will always be clearly distinguishable from other syllables, though it should not be accompanied by any increase of force. The discovery of this fact, coupled with his musical prepossessions, led Mr. Joshua Steele into those singular opinions respecting the Melody and Measure of Speech, which form the subject of his Prosodia Rationalis. It is pretty well known that the first note of every bar in music is called by musicians the accented note. Mr. Steele thinks the term improperly applied, and prefers calling it the heavy note ; but this heavy note, as he shews, is not necessarily piu forte — more forcible than another. Now as he had discovered that the accented syllable in speech is not necessarily more forcible than another, and had not dis- covered how that syllable really manifests itself, he took it for E 2 52 THE ACCENTS OR NOTES Thus, in the following sentence : EXAMPLE I. Disappointment-repeated destroys-expectation. The first change of tone is at the accented granted there could be no other difference between it and the other syllables of a word, than between the accented note, and the other notes of a bar of music. Accordingly he thinks the term accented as improper in this case as in the other, and calls the accented syllable the heavy syllable. But without stopping to inquire what may be the meaning of the word heavy, as applied to sounds, unless force is in some degree in- cluded under it, we may be easily convinced that what is called accent in speech is a very different thing from what is called (perhaps improperly) accent in music. Compare to- gether the accented and unaccented syllables of a word when rhythmus is out of the question — there^is an evident difference between them — a difference which the dullest ear can distin- guish — a difference independent of the rhythmus. Compare together any successive equal notes of music, one of which was first in a bar, and which are detachedly repeated, precisely in the same manner as they were played by a musician who kept time, but was careful not to make one piu forte than another : — who will be able to discover the distinctive difference which it is impossible not to discover between an accented and an un- accented syllable? Mr. Steele's whole system, then, is unsound at the very foundation, and the melody and measure of speech must be explained on other grounds than those which he has assumed. Yet, it is true, the tones of speech are sliding tones such as he describes; it is true that language has its rhythmus, which depends on the constant return of the accented syllable. And this mixture of truth and error, in an attempt so im- posing as that of establishing a complete parallel between the two arts, misled Mr. Steele himself, and may probably mislead many a wrong-headed enthusiast who shall follow him. Ac- OF THE SPEAKING VOICE. 53 syllable of disappointment ; here the downward inflection or accent is continued through that and the two following syllables : the next accent is an upward inflection, which, if no pause is made after the word repeated, is continued in the same manner through all the following syllables : the next accent is a similar upward inflection, to perform which, the voice necessarily returns to its former pitch ; this having also been continued through the following unaccented syllables, is changed at the proper syllable for the downward inflection, which concludes the sentence. A sentence wholly or partly composed of monosyl- labic words, is equally liable to the same varieties with one composed of words of many syllables j for some monosyllables are equivalent to the ac- cented, and some to the unaccented syllables of longer words. Thus, for instance, the following sentence, so far as accent is concerned, is pre- cisely on a parallel with the other : EXAMPLE II. To-be-marrM-in-our-hopes is-a-check-we-are-bdrn-to. cording to him, there is no such thing in speech as accent by distinction, but each syllable has its accent independently, as it might have its note if the sentence were sung- instead of spoken; and according to him " Every sentence in our lan- guage, whether prose or verse, goes in minuet or jig time" with as much regularity as music. 54 VARIABLE NUMBER OF To a person acquainted with musical notation, the following illustration, in which the tones of the preceding sentences are signified on the five lines will shew at once the meaning of all the preceding remarks. EXAMPLE III. Disap pointment re peated de stroys expec tation. To be marr'd in our hopes is a check we are born to. If a suspensive pause is made after the word repeated in the first line, and hopes in the second, the unaccented syllables following those words will be cut off from their connection with the preceding accent, and in such case the voice will slide gently downwards in pronouncing them ; but if no pause is made, they will be embraced by the preceding accent, and the voice, having completed one upward inflection, will return at once, and recommence the next. 8. VARIABLE NUMBER OF ACCENTS IN A SENTENCE. According to the principles exhibited in the introductory essay, a sentence, in point of expression, is but a single word, the parts of ACCENTS IN A SENTENCE. 55 which it is composed being merely grammatical divisions more or less closely connected in this respect, but not at all related to any correspond- ent division in the thought, which, in their united capacity, they serve to express. As to pronun- ciation, therefore, we may expect that a sentence will be liable to the same affections as a single in- dependent word, and, making the necessary allow- ances for differences of length, this will be found universally the case. A single independent word, when it consists of many syllables, is liable to have more than one accent, as jjrocrnstindtion, indivi- sibility : hence, also, a sentence, in proportion to its length, will have manyaccents; but the accents of a single independent word, excepting the principal accent, may be omitted or retained at pleasure. The preceding words, for example, may be pronounced either of the following ways : EXAMPLE I. Thus, also, in a sentence, there are some prin- cipal accents which cannot be neglected; but the others, (provided the omission of them does not give the sentence an unintended oblique mean- ing*) will yield to the taste of the reader. The * This would be the case, were any accent omitted in any of 56 VARIABLE NUMBER OF following example is from Mr. Walker, who says it may be pronounced with ten accents, or only four, with no other difference of effect than sen- tentiousness of manner in one case, and collo- quial familiarity in the other. EXAMPLE II. Pitch upon that course of life which is the most excellent, and custom will make it the most delightful. EXAMPLE III. Pitch upon that course of life which is the most excellent, and custom will make it the most delightful. To pursue the comparison further : In a single independent word, there are some syllables which cannot, at the speaker's option, receive a se- condary accent, but must be without accent: so also in sentences, there are certain monosyl- labic words that are not liable, like other mono- syllabic words, to be accented or not, but, by the general custom of the language, are always with- out accent*. But in a single independent word, the sentences previously illustrated: not that the meaning might not be more forcible, but it would go beyond the plain meaning. Opportunity will occur for explaining this subject hereafter. * These are chiefly articles, prepositions, and generally conjunctions. The word upon, though of two syllables, is without accent in both ways of pronouncing the foregoing sen- tence. The auxiliary verbs are generally without accent, but ACCENTS IN A SENTENCE. 57 a syllable which, on all common occasions, is un- accented, may receive an accent to make the word convey a referential meaning, as To give, and to forgive : and, in the same manner, a mo- nosyllabic word in a sentence, which, by general custom, never has an accent, may receive one in order to make the sentence convey a referential meaning. EXAMPLE IV. He rides from London. He rides to London. No, he rides from London. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt steal. No, thou shalt not steal. not so decidedly as the adverb not; for with that particle, they form words of two syllables, accented on the first, as can- not, shdll-not, will-not, do-not, &c. The first alone is written as one word, but they are all pronounced so. I have some- where met with a rule directing the negative, in these cases, to have the accent in preference to the auxiliary, because the negative designates the more important idea. But how came practice to have overlooked the more important idea which theory pretends to have discovered ? Truly for this reason, that the meaning of a sentence is not made up of ideas of dif- ferent degrees of importance, but the meaning is one and en- tire, and the proper manner of expressing it, is that alone which custom determines. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery. This is the proper accentuation in reading these commandments. The negative should, indeed, be very distinctly uttered, (as should all the words,) but not with accent. 58 9. RHYTHMUS. Upon a general equality of interval between the accents depends the rhythmus of our lan- guage. In verse, and numerous prose, the care devolves upon the writer to make the distances between the accents as regular as a regard to variety, within certain bounds, will permit; but, in ordinary prose, the disposition of the accents, except sometimes at the conclusion of the periods, is little attended to by the writer, and the rhyth- mus will depend very greatly on the reader, who, by having the liberty of pronouncing a sentence with a fewer or greater number of accents, and also of accelerating the utterance of an interval of unaccented syllables when they are many, and retarding it when they are few, can generally keep up a tolerably even rhythmus*. In com- * Mr. Steele is of opinion that, during all our pauses in speak- ing, we continue, mentally, to beat time, as during the rests in music, and that by such pauses co-operating with the means mentioned above, the accented syllables are always kept at dis- tances that enable us to beat true musical time at the coming of each accent. That this may be done when the accents are de- signedly or accidentally at distances nearly equal, as in Ex. iii. page 54, and, generally, in very regular verse ; — that it may be done in other composition by an artificial manner of read- ing, I do not deny ; but I do deny that it generally takes place in the ordinary drift of a good speaker's pronunciation. We do not 8 RHYTHMUS. 59 mon discourse, we are less attentive to rhythmus than on other occasions ; and hence, in the sen- tence lately quoted, Pitch upon, fyc. the second mode of pronunciation leaves little perception of rhythmus. In that kind of reading, therefore, which imitates colloquial discourse, we may leave the rhythmus to the natural drift of the sen- tences, nor need we be at any pains to support it where the author himself has been negligent, look for the regularity of musical time in the rhythmus of speech; we do not expect (at least, we are not in the general habit of expecting,) the accents to fall at regular distances. If we find their return tolerably regular, the feet are equal, and we account the rhythmus agreeable ; if the return is irregular, the feet are unequal, and there is little rhythmus. It is otherwise with accent in music ; for there the rhythmus makes the ac- cent, instead of accent the rhythmus. The player having to measure off a certain portion of time, beats at that note at which the measurement may best begin, and the note is accounted accented, or, as Mr. Steele phrases it, affected to the heavy, in consequence. His hand or toe rises when half or two thirds of the time is elapsed, in order to be ready for the next beat, and as soon as the portion of time is quite finished, a new pulsation marks the beginning of another equal portion. In order that the same thing should take place in speech, it would be neces- sary to have the power of laying the accents of a sentence at every part of it where equal portions of time should be elapsed. But we have not this power : the accents must come where the customary pronunciation of the words, and the construction of the sentence, ordain them ; and with all the liberties of omis- sion, retardation, and acceleration, mentioned in the text, it will be impossible, with sentences in general, to reconcile strict musical time with a strictly natural, unaffected delivery. 60 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE Mr. Walker quotes the following sentence as one of remarkable harshness, on account of a long interval of unaccented syllables which occurs to- wards the end. EXAMPLE I. We are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. In colloquial reading, this sentence might be given as the ordinary accentuation of the words directs ; but an oratorical or more solemn delivery would require a little pains from the reader to mend the rhythmus. For this purpose, he may give an accent to the words though and would, not a principal accent equal to that on the other words, but a slight secondary accent, like that we give to some of the syllables of a long single word : by this means, the ear may be satisfied, and the judgment not offended. — EXAMPLE II. We are always complaining our days are few, and acting as though there would be no end of them. 10. MECHANICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH VERSE. In verse, as the rhythmus becomes a particular object of the writer's attention, it should seem that it must depend much less on the manage- OF ENGLISH VERSE. 61 ment of the reader. True it is, more care is generally required in reading verse to avoid, than to maintain, a too measured accentuation ; for, generally speaking, the rhythmus ought to stand in need of no accents, but such as we might with propriety adopt in reading it as prose. But since in prose a latitude is allowed, and one person will employ more or fewer accents than another, it becomes necessary to know, in reading verse, how to make use of this liberty with most advan- tage to the rhythmus. And as besides it very often happens, either through an original fault of the poet, or some change effected by custom in the accentuation of words, that the verse is ma- nifestly defective, it becomes still more necessary to know by what means to conceal or amend the deficiency. Some account of the mechanical structure of verse will therefore be necessary. Writers on English Versification have been at the pains of explaining it on the system of the Ancients ; and even Mr. Sheridan, who exposes many absurdities of this mode of treatment, di- vides it into the several varieties of Iambic, Tro- chaic, Anapaestic, and Amphibrachic, and speaks of the introduction of spondees, and pyrrhics, and dactyls, and tribrachs, in order to diversify those metres. But discarding the ancient terms altogether, which were adapted to verse depend- 62 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE ing not on accent, but on quantity*, it seems possible to explain the Structure of English Verse much more easily. In the first place it will be found substantially of two kinds only, namely, dissyllabic and trisyllabic. The dissyl- labic has for its regular interval one unaccented syllable between each accent — the trisyllabic two unaccented syllables. All the other differences in English verse consist only in varying the length of the lines, in omitting an unaccented * The question which so long agitated the learned world, whether or not, in our English Pronunciation, we read Greek and Latin according to quantity, is now at rest. It is admitted, that while we follow our own idiom in the method of sounding words, and apply our own accent, though according to the Latin rule, we do not, and we cannot, read according to quan- tity ; nor do those peculiarities of pronunciation which some affect, as can-o for ca-no, nov-us for no-vus, bring them in the least nearer the object. It is not the perception of quantity that constitutes the pleasure we feel in reading Latin or Greek verse, but the accidental rhythmus arising from our own ac- cent. See, on this subject, Mitford's Harmony of Language, second edition, sect. 12. The reader may also find some re- marks on the same subject in a note, at page 349, of my Prac- tical Grammar of English Pronunciation. I beg, however, that he will be so kind as to correct one or two errors which, through inadvertency, have crept into that note : at the bottom of the page (349) the word spondee is twice used for iambus, in quoting from Sheridan's Lectures; in page 353, euro is printed for furo, and two pages further ^wojuevow for x 000 ^ ^- I have also to mention a little change of opinion respecting our English accent. That accent of tone and of stress go together, was my opinion then, as now, but I thought stress was princi- pally necessary : I am now convinced of the contrary. OF ENGLISH VERSE. 63 syllable at the beginning, or adding one at the end, and in departing more or less from that re- gularity of accentuation which is taken as the standard, and which, however it may occasionally give way, still predominates. The reader may satisfy himself of the truth of this account by merely inspecting the examples furnished in any English Prosody ; still remembering that it is not the feet in any single line that determines the character of the rhythmus, but the predomi- nant movement of the whole stanza. Now the different lengths of the lines, and the different ways of beginning and ending them, are obvious varieties, and it therefore only remains to explain under what limitations the poet, and conse- quently the reader, is allowed to deviate from that regularity of accentuation which is the foun- dation of the rhythmus. First, then, for our ten syllable verse* with the dissyllabic movement, * Ten syllables are the standard, but for the sake of variety and peculiar expression, an additional syllable is occasionally permitted, exclusive of the double ending. Yet, of many lines given as instances of superabundant syllables, it is doubtful whether the ear really perceives the excess. And the shrill sounds ran echoing through the woods O'er many a frozen, many a fiery alp And many an amorous, many a humourous lay, Which many a bard had chaunted many a day. When two unaccented vowels meet, as in these instances, the ear counts them for one or for two syllables, just as the 64 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE which kind of verse is by far the most common, and suffers greater liberties with its accentuation than any other. The limitations to variety of accent in this verse are as follows : There must be an accent to mark the end of the lines, and, consequently, that on the tenth syllable can never be removed without reducing the line to prose. metre requires. And with regard to the unaccented syllable ur, (which is variously spelled ar, er, ir, or, wr,« our,) its exist- ence, as a syllable, is frequently doubtful : higher, for instance, which is spelled in two syllables, rhymes with fire, spelled as one ; and both words may be found, in poetry, sometimes oc- cupying the place of one, sometimes of two syllables. How- ever, in the following lines from Milton, to which innumerable others might be added, from poets of the present day, there are eleven distinct syllables : All her original brightness, nor appeared Ominous conjecture on the whole success A pillar of state : deep on his front engraven Some capital city, or less than if this frame These are deviations from the standard number of syllables, but their comparatively unfrequent occurrence is a proof that the standard exists. OF ENGLISH VERSE. 65 EXAMPLE I. Which of us who beholds the bright surface Of this ethereous mould par. lost, vi. 472. Beyond all past example and future. par. lost, x. 840. Here we must adopt the accentuation marked, though contrary to all good modern usage*. Lines in dramatic poetry often have eleven syllables, but the last is only a kind of rebound to the preceding accent, and forms, with it, what is properly called a double ending. EXAMPLE II. The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before-ms, But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon-it. ADDISON. The next essential accent in this kind of verse is that on the sixth syllable : EXAMPLE III. Angels held their residence, And sat as princes, whom the supreme King Exalted, &c. par. lost, i. 735. who shall with us extol Thy goodness infinite, both when we wake And when, &c. par. lost, iv. 734. • In the line, which of us, Sfc. the proper accent is an upward slide, because the sense is dependent on what follows : in the other, the sense is not so dependent, and the accent is a down- ward slide. The unaccented syllables should have as much stress as the accented, in order not to shock the ear too much with the unusual accentuation : to signify this stress, the preparatory sliding of the voice ha9 the mark of accent. F 66 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE Here, in order to support the former line, we must accent whom, and, to support the latter, we must accent both, though in prose neither of the words, as they are circumstanced, would decid- edly claim an accent. Or, if the accent is neg- lected on the sixth syllable, it is still possible to support each of these verses by accenting the fourth and eighth. The fourth, indeed, in both of them must, in any case, have an accent. And sat as princes, whom the supreme King Thy goodness »zfinite, both when we wake Hence the accents on the fourth and eighth syllables, when the sixth will not bear an accent, are essential to the support of a line. Irreconcf/eable to our grand fee, Who now, &c. par. lost,, u 122. EXAMPLE V. the tree, Which tasted work* knowledge of good and evil. ibid. vii. 543. The necessity of these accents is evident on this simple principle : — the natural division of an heroic line is at the sixth syllable; the accent at that place is therefore the chief accent; it is in the middle, and is the great stay or support of the line: take away that support, and you can OF ENGLISH VERSE. 67 supply it only by two others at equal distances from it toward each end. — Such are the limita- tions to variety of accent in our English heroic verse; and these are all of them; for as to the other syllables, it is at the poet's option to omit or impose an accent on any one he pleases. Not, indeed, that every line will be equally har- monious, however accented in other respects, but, harmonious or not harmonious, it will be a verse: without the accents mentioned, it will be absolute prose. These, therefore, may be called the essential accents of an epic line*: it is by * For the discovery of these accents, (a discovery it certainly is,) I am indebted to Mr. John Maury, a Spaniard, who, during the short time he was in this country, did me the honour to receive instruction from me. I had always felt there was something in blank verse which distinguished it from nume- rous prose, but never penetrated the reason, till my friend's indication opened my eyes to it at once. And now, in reading for a second time the sixth section of Mitford's Harmony of Language, I cannot help regretting that so acute and elegant a writer should be groping for a principle of which he is evi- dently in want throughout the section — a principle which (when explained) is so simple and obvious. It is to be observed, that, in lines of a superabundant num- ber of syllables, as those in the note, page 64, the fifth and the seventh syllables count instead of the fourth and the sixth. The remark may perhaps be worth making, that lines of the two different constructions alternately, have something of the effect of the Latin hexameter and pentameter. Where shall we find the man that bears affliction, Great and ma/Vstic in his griefs, like Cato? F 2 68 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE these that blank verse is distinguished from nu- merous prose ; it is by these, when the sense of one line runs into that of another, we are enabled to know when the one ends and the other be- gins, and not by any pause at the end of the lines, which, if not required on any other ac- count, is unnecessary and useless. And as each verse depends on these accents for its existence as an heroic verse, whatever remains is inci- dental, and renders it grave or familiar, or smooth or harsh, without essentially changing it. Lines which have accents at all the even sylla- bles, as they exhibit the verse in its standard form, are, individually, the most harmonious, though the harmony is scarcely diminished when the accent is on the first, instead of the second syllable. Lines having more than the regular number of accents, are slow and heavy; and the fewer the accents, the more nearly the lines ap- proach the ease of conversation*. There will, besides, be a variety in respect to the pauses of * Hence, in dramatic poetry, where the ready flow of con- versation is imitated, a constructive accent may sometimes be neglected; as, Untaught, uncultivated as you were. PHILIPS. If this occurred in an epic poem, the particle as ought to be accented, as being the eighth syllable, and no accent at the sixth. OF ENGLISH VERSE. 69 different lines : speaking of them individually, those lines are the most harmonious in which the sense permits a pause, or, as it is technically called, a ccesura, to be immediately after the constructive accent in the sixth place, or failing there, after that in the fourth. But whether the sense allows us to pause at one, or both, or nei- ther of these, or whether we are obliged to pause after the unaccented syllable following the con- structive accent, as after disobedience, in the first line of the Paradise Lost, the lines will pass for verse, and will conduce, by these varieties, to the harmony of the whole. — The general rule, then, when an epic line is deficient in construction, is, to pronounce the sixth and last syllables with accent — if not the sixth, the fourth and eighth ; if the sense will at all permit, to make a momen- tary pause after these accents, and to avoid, if possible, laying a strong accent on the syllables immediately preceding; and that method of read- ing which accomplishes these points with the least deviation from the manner in which the line would be read if it occurred in prose, will be the best way in which it can be read as verse. Ten syllable verse in the dissyllabic move- ment being thus explained, the remaining varie- ties in this movement may be dispatched in a few words. In all kinds there must be a con- 70 MECHANICAL STRUCTURE OF ENGLISH VERSE. eluding accent; but this, as the kind already mentioned, may be followed by an additional syllable, to form a double ending. In eight syl- lable verse the constructive accent is on the fourth syllable, or failing there, on the second and sixth ; in six syllable verse it is also on the fourth, or failing there, on the second, which, with the last, will be a sufficient support to the verse* EXAMPLE VI. Far in the windings of a vale, Fast by a sheltering wood, The safe, &c. MALLET. A refuge to the neighbouring poor And strangers led astray. GOLDSMITH. The merchant robbed of pleasure, Views tempests with despair; But what's the loss of treasure To losing of my dear ? GAY. In eight syllable verse the initial syllable is sometimes omitted. EXAMPLE VII. Sometimes walking not unseen, By hedge- row elms on hillock green, Right against the eastern gate, Where the great sun begins his state. MILTON. RHYTI1MUS OF BALLAD TOETRY. 71 When this is continued without the intermix- ture of perfect lines, it goes, in the language of grammarians, by the name of Trochaic verse. We come next to verse in the trisyllabic movement, of which the following are speci- mens: EXAMPLE VIII. Three feet. ye woods spread your branches apace, To your deepest recesses I fly, 1 would hide with the beasts of the chase, I would vanish from every eye. SHENSTONE. Four feet. May I govern my passions with absolute sxoay y And grow u>/ser and better as life wears away. DR. POPE. The licences permitted to lines of this move- ment are but few: the double-ending is allowed as in dissyllabic verse; a syllable, and even two, may be omitted at the beginning, and in the middle after a pause, though, except at the be- ginning, the liberty is but rarely taken. 11. RHYTHMUS OF BALLAD POETRY. In reading ballads and ballad poetry, a more palpable time-keeping is necessary than in other composition. The vulgar ear seems to 72 RHYTHMUS OF BALLAD POETRY. require a tune in pronouncing it, and there was a time when this tune was in favour with the polite. A taste for ballad metres is at present very prevalent, and the reader of it must always judge for himself to what degree the preposses- sions of his audience expect him to humour the structure by the manner of delivery. CHAPTER II. SIGNIFICANT READING, OR READING PROPERLY SO CALLED. Mira est natura vocis, cujus quidem e tribus omnino sonis inflexo, acuto, gravi, tanta sit, et lam suavis varietas per- fecta CICERO. 1. FALSE HABITS OF READING. Mr. Sheridan, in one of his lectures, states it as a remarkable circumstance, that if a person who had been speaking in earnest conversation, were given the same words to read, by one who had secretly taken them down in writing, his manner, from being spirited and significant, would be dry and lifeless ; a decisive proof, he thinks, of a false habit in reading. But the change, in so far as it consisted in dropping the signs of emotion or of earnest feeling, would be perfectly natural: the person pronounces in a new capacity, and his change of manner indi- cates the change in the state of mind which it produces. If, indeed, with the signs of emotion or earnest feeling, he also dropped or confounded the accents which marked the sense, we should 74 FALSE HABITS OF READING. be justified in drawing Mr. Sheridan's conclusion. For there is this difference between the former class of signs and the latter: — the signs of emo- tion and passion which indicate the state of the mind in speaking, belong to the language of nature, and it is only to feel the state of mind to use them properly; but the accents of the voice, as they are employed to indicate and enforce the sense, belong to, and are a part of, the instituted language of art: they borrow their significance from custom and tacit agreement; and if a per- son's manner of using them agrees with custom when he speaks, but departs from it when he reads, we justly call his manner of reading false*. From these remarks we may infer, that the common opinion is right, which considers the kind of reading that adapts itself to the senti- ment and the supposed occasion, as an orna- mental art, depending, like other ornamental arts, on the culture of the imagination. In the case of a person pronouncing his own composi- * In different nations and provinces we find great diversity in the manner of uttering and applying the accents, which is what we have in view when we speak of a national or a pro- vincial accent. A Scotch or Irishman does not, in speaking, inflect his voice like a Londoner: — if, in reading, he inflects his voice in the same way, his manner is still provincial, but not false. FALSE HABITS OF READING. 75 tion, he must lose sight of his office, and recal the original occasion, before he can catch the spirit of a speaker; an effort of imagination which becomes more difficult when the compo- sition is not his own, nor the occasion familiar. And it is in this light— as an art of accomplish- ment, that Heading is generally regarded, when the master of Elocution is called in to teach it. Mere significant Reading, on the other hand, is considered as a common acquirement, within the reach of every one who will be at the pains of understanding the sense of what he reads. It is certain, however, that very few are competent even to this kind of reading: almost every one that attempts to pronounce written composition, falls into some set peculiar manner that never varies with the sense and construction of sen- tences, but is always the same. The reason of this may perhaps partly be, that the structure of written, is more artificial than of oral discourse : greater artifice in the construction requires greater artifice in the manner of reading ; the inflections must be so managed as to give the most agreeable harmony, without any violation of the principles by which they are secretly regu- lated in common discourse ; the accomplishing of these points is somewhat difficult, and the reader who is sensible that some artifice is ncces- 76 FALSE HABITS OF READING. sary, yet fails in the manner of it, easily drops into the faulty practice alluded to. Still, how- ever, the art of reading long and unusual sen- tences with propriety of inflection, is not so difficult but that the learner would of himself grow into it, if an inveterate habit of reading mechanically did not stand in his way. The origin and growth of such a habit may be thus traced: — When we first learn to read as chil- dren, we learn mechanically: it cannot be other- wise; because a child is unable to follow, with sufficient rapidity, a connected succession of words, so as to take in the sense of a whole sen- tence. On our first entrance upon the art, a mechanical tone or manner is therefore neces- sarily employed, which infallibly grows into a habit, unless particular care is afterwards taken to remove it. That a child should get rid of it by self-impulse is extremely unlikely; because the ability to comprehend whole sentences at a glance, (an ability absolutely necessary before a person can read with propriety,) is acquired only by degrees, during which time the habit is daily gaining strength, so that at last he cannot help falling into it, whenever he takes a book in hand, whether the sense is comprehended or not. Nor is it likely to receive a check from those teach- ers, who having from their youth been accus- FALSE HABITS OF READING. 77 tomed to the practice, are not aware even of its existence in their pupils*. The consequence, * Let any one enter our best schools, and listen to the man- ner in which the lessons are read and repeated — he will have abundant illustration of these remarks. The mechanical tones save the learner some trouble : — were he obliged to read ac- cording to the meaning, he must make himself acquainted with it; as the matter stands, and so long as no questions are put to him, he can either attend to it or not, as he pleases. Will it be invidious to ask, whether the teacher may not also find some convenience in allowing a defective manner of read- ing ? He is not obliged to know that any parts of the lesson are above the pupil's comprehension, and require explanation, or that bis mind is wandering from what he is able to compre- hend. Besides, the teacher must of necessity allow of the me- chanical manner in some cases, and it will often be difficult to draw a line between them and others. A child just entered on the study of Latin, repeats the words Propria quce maribus tri- bumitur mascula dicas, as so many dead sounds ; nor can he do otherwise; for his mind has not yet formed any kind of con- nexion with them. May there not be general propositions ex- pressed in general terms that impose the same necessity even in his own language? Take at random any of the definitions in some of the grammars intended for very young children — the defini- tion of nouns common, for instance : " Common names stand for kinds containing many sorts, or for sorts containing many individuals under them." A child may undoubtedly learn to distinguish a noun common from a noun proper, by being made to compare particular instances of each, and thus by the gradual advance of the mind, ascending from particulars to universals, (the way in which nature teaches the mind to ad- vance,) he may come to the general proposition here quoted ; but till he himself has arrived at the truth so enounced, is not the sentence enouncing it " all Greek to him?" Those chil- 78 FALSE HABITS OF READING. therefore, under the present state of circum- stances, seems inevitable, and the master of Elo- cution has not only to teach what is with good reason considered to belong to his peculiar de- partment, but the art of reading significantly becomes, chiefly through the prevalence of these bad habits, one main object for which his tuition is required. These remarks are intended to point out the importance of the instruction contained in this division of the work. In pursuing the subject, dren generally best learn the elementary branches of educa- tion, who are taught by intelligent women out of the numerous little books which have been contrived by authors of that sex in a style and on a plan adapted to children; and such chil- dren almost universally read with a spirit and significance that would put an overgrown school-boy to the blush. Yet in ap- parent disdain of such helps it is gravely said that, " it is bet- ter to lead children forward and improve their language by proper examples, than to exhibit such as will confirm them in a feeble and puerile mode of expression." Undoubtedly; but the proper means of doing this is the question: and of the two extremes, which is the more dangerous — that which keeps the knowledge of words, always in advance of the knowledge of things; that which generates a habit — a habit which is but too frequently never conquered — of taking the sense for granted when the forms of expression are familiar; that which, filling the head with the terms, phrases, and idioms of books, begets an opinion of substantial improvement; — Or that which never suffers a child to deal with language above the reach of his powers of comprehension and conversation — with language that he cannot assist, by his own significant manner of delivery? 5 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 79 it will be necessary to consider sentences, first as having a plain or direct meaning ; and secondly, as having an oblique or referential meaning. The remarks in the following sections, as far as the end of Section 4th, refer to sentences of the former kind. wtttnct* Jjabmrr a plain ffltmxin& 2. SUSPENSIVE, CONCLUSIVE, CONJUNCTIVE, DIS- JUNCTIVE, AND HARMONIC INFLECTIONS ; AND CONTINUATIVE TONE. It has been seen in the introductory essay, that the expressing of a single recognition or sentiment by several words is, at first, the effect of necessity; for language not having a word proper for the occasion, is obliged to form an expression equivalent to such a word out of a number of artificial signs. But that which was at first a necessity, became a convenience; for the form* of a sentence being thus established^ * The forms of sentences are arbitrary, most of them being* convertible into each other, without any alteration of meaning. And there are some forms into which all sentences might be reduced. Suppose one of these, and that the deviations from it are merely for the sake of convenience and variety, not necessity — that form is here meant. SO SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. we can employ the same form to express a re- cognition arising from one or more that have preceded it, and thus give the force and com- pactness of a single thought, to what could not otherwise have been conveyed but as two or three. Thus, instead of saying in three sen- tences, EXAMPLE I. The sun rose this morning in the east. It is now declining in the west. It will appear again to-morrow morning with renewed splendour. we can say in a single sentence : EXAMPLE II. The sun which rose this morning in the east, and which is now declining in the west, will appear again to-morrow morn- ing with renewed splendour. And by this means, the train of thought which brought the whole together, is much better sig- nified. But there must be limits to the length and complexity of a sentence ; it must clearly discover all its parts, and their relation to each other, or its intention, as a sentence, cannot be perceived. Hence, when premises and their conclusion stretch out to any length, it would be vain or impossible to comprehend them in a single sentence — we must exhibit them in shorter parts or sentences, in the same manner as the SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 81 thought in the latter of the foregoing examples is exhibited in three sentences in the former. Still, however, the train which connects the whole together in the speaker's mind is the same, and it is desirable that that connexion should be in some way signified. Language accordingly has its contrivances for this purpose, and the three sentences in the former example may be connected thus : EXAMPLE III. The sun rose this morning in the east, and is now declining in the west; but it will appear again to-morrow morning with renewed splendour. When several sentences are thus united, they are generally esteemed a single sentence, and pointed as such. But sentences of this kind must not be confounded with those that are properly called sentences ; for it is possible that an intended meaning cannot be conveyed but by such a difference of pronunciation as distinguishes the complete dependence of the several members in one case, from their inde- pendence (in regard to construction) in the other. The following is an instance : EXAMPLE IV. All gaming should be avoided, which tends to give a feverish stimulus to the mind. 82 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. EXAMPLE V. All gaming should be avoided, which tends to give a fever- ish stimulus to the mind. This sentence has the fault of being liable to two meanings: for the sense may be, All gaming of that kind which tends to give a feverish stimulus to the mind should be avoided; or, All gaming should be avoided ; for all gaming tends to give a feverish stimulus to the mind*. The intended meaning cannot therefore be signified but by such a mode of pronouncing as shall clearly shew it to be meant for a single proposition in one case, and two propositions in the other. Supposing the first to be the meaning, we shall use an up- ward accent or inflection at the word avoided, which may be called, in this place, a suspensive inflection, since its object is, to shew that the construction of the sentence is yet undetermined, and that something is to be added in order to complete it; while the inflection at the end, which is a downward slide, may be called con- clusive. Supposing the other meaning to be * The latter is, in reality, two sentences. They are, never- theless, parts of the same train of thought, and might be ex- pressed in a single sentence, thus: As all gaming tends to give a feverish stimulus to the mind, it should be avoided. It is therefore only in regard to construction , that the two sentences are said to be independent. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 83 intended, we shall use a downward inflection at the word avoided, which, in this place, had better be called disjunctive than conclusive. Thus, at first view, it would appear that the upward inflection is proper to terminate the member of a sentence while the construction remains imperfect, and the downward is proper to be used at the end of the sentence itself, and at the end of every member of what is less pro- perly called a sentence, when that member is in* dependent, in point of construction, of the next. But this, though not incorrect as a general rule,is liable to very numerous modifications; for it must be remembered there are but two radical accents of the speaking voice*, and hence the necessity of applying them to various purposes beside those which are here mentioned. Propositions following each other as parts of the same train of thought, are not always liable to be confounded as in the last example; and the upward slide may generally be employed, without any risk, as one of the means by which we mark their con- nection with each other. Thus, in Example in. the upward inflection should be used at the word east, in order to join the two propositions ex. pressing the premises more closely together : but * The acute and the grave ; for the inflex accent is com- pounded of those two. The force of this last accent in our language, is to be mentioned hereafter. G 2 84 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. the general rule will operate with advantage in keeping the last proposition separate from the others, which will be done by a disjunctive in- flection on the word west. There is yet greater necessity for the upward inflection in Example i., on account of the absence of every other means to mark the connexion of the sentences as parts of the same train of thought; nor will it be at all improper to use the upward inflection at the end of both propositions, namely, at east and at west; at the latter word, however, in a lower key than at the other. When the upward inflection is used for the purposes here pointed out, it may very properly be called conjunc- tive*. With regard to Example n. 5 which is * It will easily be seen, from the foregoing account, that the use of the conjunctive or of the disjunctive inflection must fre- quently be optional. In reading the following portion of the Lord's Prayer, for instance : " Give us this day our daily bread ; and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass against us ; and lead us not into temptation, but de- liver us from evil." As each of the members here divided by semicolons contains an independent member of the whole sen- tence, the passage cannot be said to be incorrectly pronounced, if each is terminated by the disjunctive inflection. But the conjunctive inflection at those places will by no means give a wrong meaning : on the contrary, it will signify, what is pre- sumed to be the «ase, that the speaker, in beginning the pas- sage, has a prospective view to the whole series of petitions contained in it; and though he might have this view, and still use the disjunctive inflection, yet it would not be signified that SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 85 completely periodic, a suspensive inflection must be used at the word west, for it is there the sen- tence divides into its two principal dependent parts; and a conclusive inflection will of course be employed at the end. These two being the chief or significant slides of the whole sentence, the remainder will be significant in proportion as they subserve to, and prepare for them, in the same manner as the secondary accents prepare for the principal in a single independent word : (See Chap. I. Sec. 8. Ex. i. page 55,) and hence the remaining inflections may take the name of harmonic or preparatory. — Therefore, instead of pronouncing east with an upward inflection, according to the general rule, because the con- struction is imperfect, it will be better, in this place, to employ a downward slide, which, as it cannot be mistaken for a disjunctive inflection, since the sense is manifestly unformed, will im- he had. For my own part, I should choose the latter mode of reading, not only for the reason assigned, but also because the whole passage is kept distinct from the portion of the prayer which precedes, and the portion which follows it — a threefold division which will be found perfectly agreeable to the tenor of the prayer. As to the first portion, I should choose to ter- minate the members thus : " Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. " I wish to be understood as merely giving my own mode, not as questioning the propriety of a different one. 86 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. mediately be felt by the ear as a preparation for the suspensive slide at the end of the next mem- ber: and if there is a similar preparation through- out, the sentence will reach the ear and the understanding as one compact whole, w 7 hile a different manner of pronouncing would seem to break it into desultory phrases, connected by conjunctive inflections. In proportion to the length and complexity of sentences, the necessity increases of regulating the harmonic inflections in subserviency to each other, and all of them to the suspensive and con- clusive slides ; so that the ear shall constantly perceive the nature of the member to be con- cluded, and of that which is to follow, by the tune that pervades, and the preparation that ends it. Difficult as this process may seem in de- scription, a reader, uncorrupted by false habits, falls into it with the greatest ease, guided by nothing but his ear, and a clear prospective in- sight into the sentence. Without this insight he would begin with the wrong slides ; but, dis- covering his error, he would feel the necessity of returning to the commencement, and adopting slides probably the very reverse of those he em- ployed at first. Of this remark, take an easy example : EXAMPLE VI. Exercise and temperance strengthen the constitution, and sweeten the enjoyments of life. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 87 If a reader had begun this sentence with an idea that it terminated at constitution, and were afterwards to discover the propriety of using a conjunctive instead of a conclusive inflection at that word, he would feel that a different prepa- ration was necessary, and would begin the sen- tence again with slides the contrary of those at first employed; and thus do we instinctively harmonize the secondary accents of a sentence with the principal and more significant. A mi- nute account of them in any sentence would include all the slides it contained — an account which would, unfortunately, be liable to these objections ; that the arrangement of them is seldom so fixed and determinate that good speakers, in pronouncing the same sentence, if it be of any length, do not vary from each other ; and that the best reader, if he had formed him» self only by his ear, would be unable to recog- nise his own practice in a written description. With regard, indeed, to certain parts of sen- tences, the inflections, to an unpractised ear, are imperceptible; and the best way of indicat- ing the proper pronunciation, will be to say, that the tone should be continuative. Thus the following sentence should be pronounced with a continuative tone from the commencement, till the arrival of a proper place for the more manifest preparation for the suspensive slide; 88 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. EXAMPLE VII. As we perceive the shadow to have moved along the diat, but did not perceive it moving; and it appears that the grass has grown though nobody ever saw it grow: so the ad- vances we make in knowledge, as they consist of such minute steps, are only perceivable by the distance. The preparation for the suspensive slide should be made at the words has grown, and all that precedes must be uttered in an apparent mono- tone, carefully guarded from any marked inflec- tion, either upward or downward, in making the pauses. After the suspensive slide at saw-it- grow, there should be an harmonic alternation of inflections gradually falling in key as the sen- tence draws to an end. This gradual fall may obscure the nature of some of the slides, particu- larly that on the word steps, which ends the penultimate, or last member but one, and which must be an upward inflection, because it is op- posed to the conclusive slide. Yet, though the reader may be unable to recognise its real cha- racter, the ear is perfectly sensible of the effect produced by it, and requires that it also should have its preparatory inflection — that is to say, a downward slide at the word knowledge, which ends the antepenultimate member. As a clearer proof that the ear desires an upward inflection at the end of the penultimate member, the foU lowing example may be given : SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 89 EXAMPLE VII! The persuasion of the truth of the Gospel, without the evidence which accompanies it, would not have been so firm and so durable; it would not have acquired new force with age ; it would not have resisted the torrent of time ; nor have passed from age to age to our own days. Here the disjunctive inflection is employed at the end of every independent member except the last but one, where, for the sake of the harmonic preparation for the cadence, it gives place to the conjunctive. A shorter example, to the same purport, may be exhi- bited on musical lines : EXAMPLE IX. In this example the word Jew takes an upward in- flection as an harmonic preparation for the conclusive on none: all might be pronounced either with a conjunctive or disjunctive slide; but the disjunctive, as being the opposite inflection to that onjezv, will best please the ear: and with regard to the other slides, they must necessarily be the reverse of the principal; therefore if the musical lines had not been used, the principal alone would have been noted; thus : " Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none." — The most common arrangement into which the har- 90 6ENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING, monic inflections fall, consists of pairs, each pair being the reverse of the other, thus : or thus \x/\ the former two pairs are first on the musical lines, and both varieties occur in forming the cadence of the following sentence: EXAMPLE X. The immortality of the soul is the basis of morality, and the source of all the pleasing hopes and secret joys that can arise in the heart of a reasonable creature*. Hence, if a sentence contains an enumeration of any four objects in single words, the most agreeable way in which the four words can be pronounced, will be in similar reversed pairst. * The breaks in this, and some of the following examples, are merely occasioned by placing the words with contrary accents un- derneath each other. f A series of single words extending to whatever length, may, however, always be grammatically pronounced with a succession of upward or downward inflections although the pronunciation will not be so agreeable as when the slides are varied harmonically. The suc- cession of upward inflections will take place in a cursory manner of reading; the succession of downward, when distinctness is aimed at. Thus in pronouncing the words one, tivo, three, four, &c. in count- ing a number of things, if our object is rather to arrive at the gross sum, than to dwell distinctly on the particulars, we utter each word with a conjunctive inflection : if the contrary be our object, we use the disjunctive. The upward inflection, when suspensive, as at mtleors, Ex. xi. and the downward when conclusive, as at meteors, Ex. xn. are, of course, not included in this remark. — When a series of single words occurs in verse, the harmonic accents should prepare for, and unite with, the constructive. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 91 EXAMPLE XI. Metals, minerals, p'dnts, and meteors contain a thousand curious properties to engage the attention. EXAMPLE XII. The attention is engaged by the curious properties of metals, minerals, plants, and meteors. But the construction of a sentence does not always admit of the arrangement in pairs, and the inflections will probably then run into trip- lets, which will be in some of the following forms: J V or thus: The last three inflections on the musical lines are a specimen of the last of these triplets. Some further examples will be necessary : EXAMPLE XI! I. We may compare human life to a tale told by an idiot. or, EXAMPLE XIV. We may compare human life to a tale told by an idiot. 92 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. An enumeration of any three objects in single words, will be read according to the same pat- terns: EXAMPLE XV. Manufactures, trade, and agriculture employ more than nineteen parts of the species in twenty. or, EXAMPLE XVI. Manufactures, trade, and agriculture, employ, &c. EXAMPLE XVII. More than nineteen parts of the species in twenty are em- ployed in manufactures, trade, and agriculture. or, EXAMPLE XVIII. More than nineteen parts of the species in twenty are em- ployed in manufactures, trade, and agriculture. The inflections of Example vi. page 86, consist of two pairs and a triplet : e.g. " exercise and temperance, strengthen the constitution, and sweeten the enjoyments of life." Were it to terminate at constitution, the inflections would be the two pairs reversed : EXAMPLE XIX. Exercise and temperance sUeugthen the constitution. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 93 When parts of sentences are opposed to each other, the opposite parts will have opposite in- flections, and these will fall into harmonic pairs or triplets. The following is an example of op- posite inflections in pairs : EXAMPLE XX. The pleasures of the imagination are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding*. The next is an example of opposite inflections in triplets : EXAMPLE XXI. He raised a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down. If a series of single words extend to any length, we best please the ear by dividing it into portions; thus the following will harmoniously fall into triplets, and the last triplet must be di- versified from the others by greater preparation for cadence. EXAMPLE XXII. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, pekce — long-suffering, gentleness, goodness — faith, meekness, temperance. Had a suspensive instead of a conclusive slide been required on the last word, the preparation 94 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. for it would have thrown the inflections of the last triplet into the form opposite to that of the - others. EXAMPLE XXIII. Love, joy, peace — long -suffering, gentleness, gooJness— • faith, meekness, temperance, are the fruits of the spirit. The following enumeration will fall into a tri- plet and a pair, or a pair and a triplet. EXAMPLE XXIV. Patience, meekness, temperance — justice, benevolence, should mark the conduct of a christian. or, EXAMPLE XXV. Patience, meekness — temperance, justice, benevolence, should mark, &c. In a longer series, if any of the portions were made to consist only of a pair, such portions would not be readily perceived by the ear, and the best divisions will be into four and three, or three and four, &c. EXAMPLE XXVI. Piety, cheerfulness, patience, meekness, — temperance, jus- tice, benevolence, should mark, &c. or, EXAMPLE XXVII. Piety, cheerfulness, patience, — meekness, temperance, jus- tice, beuevolence, should, &c. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 95 The commencing inflections of the sentence in Chap. I. Sec. 8. Ex. n. at page 56, corres- pond with those of the former of these two ex- amples. — Another example may be given of an enumeration, in portions of four and three. EXAMPLE XXVIII. Mr. Locke's definition of wit comprehends most of the species of it ; as, metaphors, enigmas, mottoes parables, — fables, di earns, visions, — dramatic writings, burlesque, and ail the methods of allusion. When a series of particulars occurs, each of which is expressed by several words, the same principles will not guide the ear as when each particular is expressed by a single word ; for, as each member will have more inflections than one, each will have its own harmony, and will be terminated by the inflection which the gram- matical construction requires, namely, by a con- junctive or a disjunctive inflection, — that is to say, by a conjunctive inflection in a cursory manner of reading, and by a disjunctive in a dis- tinctive manner. (See the note, page 90.) EXAMPLE XXIX. The descriptive p3rt of the allegory in the second book of the Paradise Lost, is very strong, and full of sublime ideas : the figure of death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace 5 96 SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are very noble circumstances, and extremely suitable to the great king of terrors. EXAMPLE XXX. The descriptive part of the allegory in the second book of the Paradise Lost, is very strong, and full of sublime ideas : the figure of death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Satan, his advancing to the combat, the outcry at his birth, are very noble circumstances, and extremely suitable to the great king of terrors. This sentence, from the colon, is completely periodic; but the dependence for sense is be- tween the great member terminating at birth, and the remainder of the sentence ; nor have the smaller members which make up the greater, any connexion, individually, with the remainder of the sentence ; so that the upward inflection, if used to terminate each, is conjunctive — not suspensive; except at birth, and there the up- ward inflection marks the common dependence of all that precedes on all that follows. But the disjunctive inflection will be found to exhibit the particulars with much more distinctness and force than the conjunctive. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 97 3. PAUSES. An attention to what is principal, and what is subordinate, in the construction of a sentence, is, in all cases, of the highest importance towards a distinctive pronunciation. For it will be found, that long sentences are seldom immediately divi- sible into single words, but into large members or parts, and these again into smaller members, and thus downwards; all of which, a good reader, without auy other guide than a comprehensive view of the sense of the whole, will clearly dis- criminate, and will signify the relative and the common dependence of the parts by the inflec- tions of his voice. A short sentence, like the following, suggests its parts at once : EXAMPLE I. Sin degrades. But let it take the following shape : EXAMPLE II. Sin — degrades the nature of .man. 'Theprincipal parts are .the. same as before, but :the latter .part consists of several words which are therefore only parts of a part. Hence, in order to keep them separate from the word sin, H 98 SENTENCES HAVING A PJLAIN MEANING. which is a part by itself, a slight pause may be made after sin may be made, for the sentence is not sufficiently complex to render such a pause of great necessity. On the same principle, a slight pause may be made in the following ex- ample, where each part consists of several words : EXAMPLE III. All sinful practices — degrade the nature of man. Let the sentence be somewhat longer, and the principal parts will probably be divisible into subordinate classes of words : EXAMPLE IV. A long continuance — in the paths of sin may degrade the soul — beyond the reach of redemption. The principal parts being now much longer, the reader might feel it necessary, for the sake of easy or impressive pronunciation, to make more than one pause; and on looking at the former principal part, it appears to consist of two clauses, one of which serves to modify or explain the latter: on looking at the latter principal part, it also seems equally divisible. The division into subordinate parts is still further pursued in the following example. SENTENCES HAVING A PLAIN MEANING. 99 EXAMPLE V. To employ the best years — of this fleeting existence — in the pursuits of folly — and the indulgences of sense degrades a man — from his rank in the creation — even below the brutes — placed under his command. It appears from these, and from examples in other places, that the written stops are by no means adequate to all the occasions for pausing, which the construction of sentences may suggest. The use of the written stops, to a good reader, is merely to prevent the construction from being mistaken ; for having, by their assistance, once perceived the construction, he pays no further regard to them, but pauses wherever he feels a propriety, whether a stop happens to be marked in writing or not. 4. PARENTHESIS. To the preceding review of the principles which guide a good reader (though probably unknown to himself) in his pronunciation of sentences having a plain meaning, it remains to be added, that when the construction of a sentence is in- terrupted by a member which is not an essential part of it, the manner of reading should exem- h 2 100 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE plify the nature of the member interposed, and should prevent the connexion between the broken parts from being lost sight of: for which pur- poses, at the moment of quitting the text, the voice sinks into an under tone, and the pronun- ciation becomes more rapid, as if hastening to regain it ; while the inflection of the voice be- tween the broken parts remains the same as if no interruption had taken place, and is echoed or repeated at the end of the intervening member. EXAMPLE. If envious people were to ask themselves whether they would exchange their entire situations With the persons envied, (I mean their minds, passions, notions, as well as their persons, fortunes, dignities,) 1 presume the self-love common to human nature would generally make them prefer their own condition. &mttnm pairing an <®Miqut jSUanins* 5. EXTRA-SUSPENSIVE, AND EXTRA- CONCLUSIVE IN- FLECTIONS, AND PRONOMINAL PRONUNCIATION. By the means which have been pointed out, the construction of any sentence may be made as clear as reading can make it, and, while the meaning does not go beyond the terms of the OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 101 sentence, the conditions of a significant pronun- ciation will be thus fulfilled. But nothing is more frequent than that a sentence really does not express what it is intended to express, if un- derstood plainly, according to the actual amount of the words composing it, the meaning, in such cases, having a reference to something said be- fore, or something generally pre-understood, or to something implied by the very form of the sentence, though not really expressed by the terms in it. On such occasions, the more than ordinary meaning will be signified by an unusual arrangement of the inflections of the voice ; or, in other words, the common manner of pro- nouncing will give place to an extra manner. If the following sentence — I could not treat a dog ill— is intended to convey, as a plain piece of in- formation, what the words actually express, and nothing more, the inflections of the voice will fall into the common arrangement of opposite pairs, harmonizing with the conclusive slide : But if, instead of a plain, we employ this sentence with a referential meaning, it will be necessary to * The musical lines are omitted, because they may easily be supposed. 102 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE disturb the harmonic arrangement of the slides ; and supposing our object requires that our mean- ing, with regard to what is referred to, should be left doubtful, the irregular inflection will be an upward slide, as in the following example, where the upward slide is evidently irregular, because it terminates the sentence : EXAMPLE I. The meaning of the sentence when so pro- nounced, will be to this purport : However 1 might deal with other animals, yet a dog is of that nature, that him in 'particular ; I could not treat ill. We suppose the reference is to other animals, because the irregular slide is on the word dog : had it been on some other word, on 2, for in- stance, the allusion would have been different. The object of the irregular pronunciation is at- tained, in cases like the present, by leaving the meaning doubtful with regard to what is referred to — (that is to say, in this instance, by leaving it undetermined whether we could or could not treat other animals ill). If the object of the ir- regular pronunciation should be to convey a po- sitive meaning with regard to what is referred to, the irregular inflection will be a downward slide : OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 101 EXAMPLE II. The reference is still to something opposed to dog, because the irregular slide is still on that word ; but the meaning implied by the allusion is now positive ; for the speaker intends to sig- nify thus much : I could not treat any creatures illy who have higher claims on my kindness, since I could not treat even a dog ill*. * It is common, in speaking of emphasis, to consider the word affected by it as designating the more important idea : in the spirit of which supposition I have somewhere read, that, V If, in/ every assemblage of objects, some appear more worthy of notice than others ; if, in every assemblage of ideas, which are pictures of those objects, the same difference prevail, — it consequently must follow, that in every assemblage of words, which are pictures of these ideas, &c. &c." All this would be very well if the mind were a camera oscura, and language the showman, proclaiming to those without what was represented within ; but till the act of conceiving and expressing a thought shall be proved to be a process of this kind, the argument here adopted is nothing to the purpose. Words formed into a sen- tence, are not significant of the meaning individually, but col- lectively, and the effect of any one of them taking an emphasis, is a peculiar force given to the meaning of the whole sentence. It is a similar case with the closer junction of two words, by using one accent instead of two. Thus we should say, the war minister, if there were no other ministers of state beside that one, but as there are others, we say the ivdr-mini&ter, with a 104 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE By not finishing a sentence with the usual con- clusive inflection, but breaking off with the sus- pensive slide, as in Ex. I. the effect will always be, that the speaker leaves some conclusion for his hearers to draw, or something for them men- tally to supply*. The end in doing this may reference to the others. , It cannot be said that minister, which drops the accent in the last expression, designates a less im- portant idea, for both words designate but one object, and that is a minister, — and all the difference is, that the last expression includes the relation in which he now stands, and in which he was not conceived to stand before. * In such cases, it must not be supposed that the speaker could, with equal force, express in words what he leaves unsaid. Words, after all, would be but feeble interpreters of thought, if the hearer did not, in all cases, collect from them much more than they actually express. In sentences of the plainest mean- ing, there is always something left unsaid, (for instance, some- thing to the purport of I perceive, I desire, must be meant in all sentences, though not expressed;) butthen,in these cases, what- ever is «?isaid, is so obvious from what is said, that there needs no other indication to point it out. It is otherwise with such cases as are contemplated in the text; for there the speaker's meaning is not obvious from what he says, independently of the manner in which he says it. The peculiarity of the man- ner excites imagination, and his meaning is conceived much more strongly than if he had depended on words alone for the purpose. Suppose, for instance, instead of the short sentence Ex. 1. with the significant inflection, he had said, with a plain pronunciation, However I might deal with other animals, I could not treat a dog ill. The sentence certainly approaches the meaning of the other, but by no means has the same force, and therefore it still admits of the significant inflection. OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 105 not always be the same ; but, in that instance, the intention evidently is, that what is stated as not being doubtful, may seem particular in being contrasted with what is purposely left doubtful. When, on the contrary, the regular slides of a sentence are interrupted by a conclusive slide out of its usual place, as in Ex. II. the effect will always be a more than common positiveness, so as to leave nothing doubtful, either of what is stated, or what is left unstated ; and the end will be, to demand attention to one subject in parti- cular, by requiring the entire exclusion of what- ever may be suggested as opposed to it ; or else the intention will be to signify, that as the speak- er's meaning is positive with regard to the sub- ject mentioned, it is also positive with regard to whatever is alluded to, or still more so, in pro- portion to the nature of the one as contrasted with the other. The former of these extra slides may be called the extra-suspensive inflection, or the suspensive emphasis: the other maybe called the extra-conclusive inflection, or the strong emphasis. And it is to be remarked, they are seldom simple slides, but are generally circumflected ; at least they are always liable to be so : that is to say, a little of the opposite slide is usually heard before they are carried upward or downward*. * Thus it appears, the inflex accent, in our language, has two varieties. 106 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE In both sentences, Ex. I. and Ex. II. the word ill loses its accent. By this proceding the speaker suggests that the subject to which it re- fers must be pre-understood, as a necessary step to the particular meaning he has in view. " I am speaking of treating ill; 99 (he virtually says,) — " that must be pre-understood as the subject of my assertion ; but the particular assertion I have to make, is, that I could not treat a dog ill. Any word, or class of words, which is thus deprived of its accent or accents, because the subjects are suggested to be pre-understood in the manner here explained, or because they have been really mentioned before, — any such word, or class of words, may be said to be pronounced pronomi- NALLY*. The several appellations which have been ap- plied to the peculiarities of pronunciation ob- servable in these instances, will be sufficient for all other cases \ as any deviation from the regu- lar manner of accenting a sentence, is resolvable into similar causes. Interrogative sentences frequently terminate with an upward inflection ; but this is the sus- pensive emphasis ; for questions, of jvhich the * Pronominally , because they refer to their subjects in the same manner as a pronoun refers to its noun, after the subject denoted by the noun has been regularly introduced, and be- come an implied topic of the discourse. OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 107 terms directly correspond with those expected in the answer, are pronounced conclusively, like other plain sentences. Thus we say, with a con- clusive inflection, When are you going to Lon- don ? for the reply is expected to contain a term, or terms, directly answering to when in the ques- tion. So also we say, with a conclusive inflec- tion, Are you going to London, or are you not going to London? for we presume the answer must agree with one or the other of these alter- natives. But when a sentence does not prescribe the terms of the answer, by terms with which those in the answer are expected to correspond, the speaker signifies his meaning by the suspen- sive emphasis j thus — EXAMPLE III. You are going to London. This sentence is affirmative in form ; but it is uttered with a suspensive inflection, which inti- mates that the hearer is to confirm it, if right ; to deny it, if wrong. Expressing it in the form of a question will merely transpose the first two words ; — the speaker's intention that the hearer shall draw the conclusion, will be the same as before \ as, • EXAMPLE IV. Are you going to London ? * Suppose the hearer, who had not properly attended, were 108 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE In sentences resembling this, the transposition of the words renders the extra-meaning obvious, and the suspensive slide would be employed with- out hesitation, as the only one proper for the purpose. But almost every other kind of sen- tence, intended to bear an extra-meaning, is lia- ble to be defrauded of its full signification by being read with a common arrangement of the slides, particularly when long and complex. — Thus, for instance, the following sentence : EXAMPLE V. The spirit of true religion is far removed from that gloomy and illiberal superstition which teaches men to fit themselves for another world by neglecting the concerns of this. to say, "I beg your pardon — what did you ask me?" the speaker would answer, with a conclusive slide, as giving the plain information desired — "Are you going to London/' — On the other hand, a question of which the terms correspond with those expected in the answer, will be pronounced suspen- sively, if a reference is made to something that has preceded. Thus, if the interrogator were obliged to repeat one of the pre- ceding questions in the text, because he had not rightly un- derstood the answer, he would say, " When are you going to London }" — the words after when being pronounced pronotni- nalty, embraced by the suspensive accent on that word. The question above, What did you ask me, is pronounced suspen- sively, for a similar reason ; for were it to be uttered independ- ently, without reference to any thing immediately preceding, and without inferring that the speaker partly knew what had been asked, it would be a plain sentence, and pronounced con- clusively; as, * What did you ask me this morning ?" OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 109 This sentence is not meant for a piece of plain, independent information, but bears a reference throughout to a contrary opinion which is sup- posed to prevail ; and on account of this refer- ential signification, it is made to terminate with the extra-suspensive slide. Hannibal, inciting his soldiers to victory and plunder, says — EXAMPLE VI. You have been long enough employed in driving the cattle over the vast mountains of Lusitania and Celtiberia. The information amounts to nothing in itself, but as a suggestion of something further, it con- veys a great deal : accordingly the sentence ter- minates with the suspensive slide. The next ex- ample terminates in the same manner. EXAMPLE VII. If we have no regard for our own character, we ought to have some regard for the character of others. Neither is this sentence intended for informa- tion, of which the hearer is not supposed j to be in -previous possession \ but it is delivered in the manner of a hint, as being a proposition com- monly acknowledged, and the inference being ■left for the hearer to draw, is much more forcible than if the speaker had tried to express all Ibis meaning in words with a plain pronunciation. 110 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE EXAMPLE VIII. Satan was the tempter, ere the accuser, of mankind. The plain meaning would be an historical statement of the facts ; but a suggestion is in- tended, that Satan could not have been the ac- cuser, if he had not first been the tempter, and to make it convey this suggestion, the sentence receives the extra-suspensive slide. The Angel, prophesying to Adam the pur- suits of Nimrod, says that he will be a hunter, but adds that EXAMXLE IX. Men, not beasts, shall be his game. A speaker would never express by a negative what he had already said affirmatively, as in this instance, unless he intended a reference to some opposite notion. In the present instance, the opposite notion is the common idea of hunting, and to make the sentence bear a reference to that notion, it receives the extra-suspensive slide. The strong emphasis being a downward inflec- tion, like the conclusive slide, (though more for- cibly marked, and liable to be circumflected,) is less perceptible at the end, than when it inter- rupts the regular accents in the middle of a sen- tence : for instance, — OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 1 I 1 EXAMPLE X. A man of a polite imagination can converse with a picture, and find an agreeable companion in a statue. This sentence is intended to convey an extra- meaning, and, for this end, picture and statue are made strongly emphatic ; though, for the reason assigned, the emphasis is more perceptible on the first than on the other. The allusion is to every thing more capable of conversation than a pic- ture, or companionable than a statue, and the meaning is positive with regard to the objects named, that equal or greater positiveness may be inferred with regard to those not named. In such examples as these, it should be observed that the statement is an extreme, and the posi- tive meaning is felt to fall with the greater weight on the subjects alluded to, in proportion as they recede from the extreme. The instance, Ex. II. was of the same kind, and so also the following : EXAMPLE XI. Better to reign in H£ll, than serve in Heaven. This might be pronounced with the regular re- versed harmonic pairs,\//\ and it would then convey the plain meaning. But the speaker may intend to signify that excessive love of rule, and hatred of servitude, which would lead him in any 8 112 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE case, — since it makes him even in this extreme case, — to prefer the one to the other ; a pleni- tude of meaning which is conveyed by the strong emphasis on hell and heaven. In the following example, which is the com- mencement of a letter in the Spectator, the strong emphasis has not precisely the same intention : EXAMPLE XII. I have often lamented, and hinted my sorrow, in several spe- culations, that the art of Painting is so little made use of to the improvement of our manners. The intention of the strong emphasis on paint- ing, in this instance, is merely to demand the .attention of the hearer at the beginning of the essay to that subject in particular, by requiring the entire exclusion from his mind of all other arts, to which, by the emphasis, allusion is made. A further meaning might be given to the sen- tence, by pronouncing all the words after paint- ing pronominally ; for an intimation would thus be made to the hearer, that he is supposed to pre- understand that the arts alluded to are made use of to the improvement of our manners, though painting is not. But as there would be an un- pleasantness in breaking in so far on the regular harmonic pronunciation of a sentence, at the ye,ry beginning of the essay, as well as an appear- ance of requiring /too mucfi qf.the fearer before OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 113 he was sufficiently acquainted with the subject, a judicious reader would, in this place, deviate no further than to place the emphasis on paint- ing. But the pronominal pronunciation is absolutely necessary in such instances as the following : EXAMPLE XIII. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offended* Madam, you have my father much offended. Here the phrase in italic is pre-understood, be- cause it was used in the preceding sentence, and you is strongly emphatic, as marking, by refer- ence, the speaker's positive meaning with regard to himself; — It is not 7, but you who have, fyc. — The suspensive emphasis would equally mark his meaning with regard to his mother, but as it would leave his meaning, with regard to himself, in suspense, and would therefore imply that her charge against him might possibly be true, the expression of the passage would not be so strong. Yet in this case, as in the other, the phrase in italic would be pronominal, only that, in the lat- ter case, the previous slide would carry the tone upward. EXAMPLE XIV. A good man will love himself too well to lose an estate by gaming, and his neighbour too well to win one. I 3 1 4 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE EXAMPLE XV. A good man will love himself too well to lose, and his neighbour too well, to win an estate by gaming.. In these sentences, there are no extra inflec- tions, either suspensive or conclusive, the oppo- sition of parts being signified by the regular in- flections, as Ex. XX. Sec. 2. p. 93. But in both instances, the phrase in italic must be pronounced pronominally, so as to intimate that what is de- noted by it, is the pre-understood subject, con- cerning which the alternative is proposed. In the first example, this phrase will be embraced by the upward accent of the preceding word, in the last example, by the downward accent* A pronominal phrase that extends to a consi- derable length, will not admit of being embraced by a single accent. The whole of the words be- tween far and this, in Ex. V. p. 108, are prono- minal, inasmuch as they refer to the pre-under- stood conception of the subject, which the speak- er keeps in mind throughout the sentence. And though, from the length of the phrase, it must have several accents, yet the continuative tone to which they should be reduced, will render them nearly imperceptible. A similar remark applies to Ex. VI. p. 109. As a pronominal phrase (except under the circumstances just mentioned) has no accent of OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 115 its own, but is embraced by the accent of the preceding word, it frequently happens that a word will have a stronger (that is, a more per- ceptible) accent than other words, merely be- cause it chances to be the word immediately be- fore the pronominal phrase. Some of the sen- tences already quoted, illustrate this remark ; but it will be proper to add other examples, as well for this purpose, as to exemplify further the nature of a pronominal phrase. EXAMPLE XVI. Jonathan loved David as his own soul. And Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. The phrase in italic must be pronounced pro- nominally, the subject being pre-understood, as having been mentioned before; hence the word because, as its accent embraces this phrase, seems to have more force than it would otherwise claim. EXAMPLE XVII. When the wicked man turneth aw ky from his wickedness (hat he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive. If it be deemed that the subject of the phrase in italic is pre-understood, as having been vir- tually mentioned before, (namely, by the phrase i 2 116 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE a wicked man, which means a man that hath com- mitted wickedness ; ) and if it be judged proper, on this account, to pronounce it pronominally, then the word away will have a more remarkable accent than the principal words before it, be- cause it will seem to embrace that phrase, inas- much as the continuative tone in which the phrase will be uttered, will render the accents till the end of the phrase, nearly imperceptible. In some cases, perhaps, when the subjects are pre-understood, it may not be eligible to read a phrase pronominally, because the harmony of a sentence (where harmony is of consequence) might suffer too much. But these cases are but few \ for, generally speaking, one very great fea- ture of significant reading, probably the greatest, is the distinguishing of primary information from what is pre-understood, and therefore secondary. The subjects of discourse, when once introduced, go along with the mind continually ; and it be- trays inattention to the drift of thought, or inca- pacity to follow it, or, at best, a very bad habit which prevents the reader from shewing out- wardly that he follows it, when he makes no dis- tinction between the words and phrases that refer to those subjects, and such as bring the hearer acquainted with something new. This is a point of the utmost importance, and it is astonishing that writers on Elocution should never have no- ticed it OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. 117 The student must never suppose, that any em- phasis on a particular word detaches the meaning of that word from the meaning of the whole sen- tence. None of the preceding examples or ex- planations, if they have been properly under- stood, lead to such a conclusion : the suspensive emphasis, or the strong emphasis, on a particular word, gives a particular meaning to the whole sentence ; — by changing the seat of emphasis, the meaning is altered, but still it is the sentence, so pronounced, that expresses the meaning. — The suspensive slide at the end of a sentence gives to the whole a particular meaning, as se- veral examples have shewn ; and sometimes the particular or extra-meaning requires the regular or harmonic slides in several parts of the sen- tence, to give place to the extra-suspensive or extra-conclusive slides. In proof of which, com* pare the following sentences ; EXAMPLE XVIII. He cannot exalt bis thoughts to any thing great or noble, who only believes that, after a short turn on the stage of this world, he is to sink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for ever. EXAMPLE XIX. Can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great or noble, who only believes that, after a short turn on the stage of this world, he is to sink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for ever ? 118 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE EXAMPLE XX. How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing- great or noble, who only believes that, after a short turn on the stage of this world, he is to sink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for ever ? The first of these, Ex. XVIII. receives the suspensive slide at the end precisely for the same reason as Ex. V. p. 108. The next sentence, Ex. XIX. is a question of the same form as Ex. IV. p. 107, and it not only receives the sus- pensive slide at the end, but if pronounced so as to convey the fullest meaning, takes the sus- pensive emphasis on most of the principal words: for, in proportion as it is believed that the hearer cannot but answer in the negative, he is urged to answer (mentally) one way or the other. The last sentence, Ex. XX. is a question of that form which requires a conclusive inflection at the end ; nor can the conclusive slide, proper for that form, be changed in this instance for the suspensive slide, so as to make Ex. XX. coincide in pronun- ciation with Ex. XVIII. ; since the suspensive slide would intimate that it had been explained how, &c. and the interrogator not having entirely understood the explanation, wished to hear it again. The sentence ought, on the contrary, to be so pronounced, as to intimate the impossibi- lity of an answer ; and to give it this extra force OR REFERENTIAL MEANING. Ill) of signification, the regular harmonic accentua- tion should yield to the strong emphasis on many of the principal words of the sentence, the ear- nestness of the reader determining which. Thus also the senator Lucius, in the play of Cato, at the conclusion of his speech, urges, with a strong emphasis on several successive words, the argu- ment for peace, which he thinks unanswerable : EXAMPLE XXI. What men could do, Is done already. Heaven and earth will witness If Rome must fall, that we are innocent. It cannot fail to be remarked from these, and some of the preceding examples, that, in propor- tion as Reading is required to step beyond the regular harmonic pronunciation which merely exhibits the construction of a sentence, it ad- vances on the precincts of Speaking : for the extra or emphatic inflections not only exhibit the meaning of a passage, as we suppose it to have been intended by the author, but they sig- nify, in general, some of that earnestness or energy of mind which led him to employ it with so full an intention. Thus it happens in this, as in all other cases where we attempt to draw dis- tinctions for the sake of scientific arrangement, that, however obvious the distinction may appear 120 SENTENCES HAVING AN OBLIQUE MEANING. on a general view of the subjects, the precise line which bounds them can no where be found. The transition from Reading to Speaking, which forms the subject of the next chapter, will there - fore be made without difficulty. CHAPTER III, IMPASSIONED READING, OR SPEAKING. Oinnis enim motus animi suum quendam a natura habet vul- tum, ct sonum, et gestum ; toturaque corpus hominis, et tjus oinnis vultus, omnesque voces, ut nervi in fklibus, ita sonant, ut a motu animi quoque sunt pulsac. CICERO. 1. THE STATE OR TEMPER OF THE MIND IN SPEAKING. In recurring to the principles exhibited in the introductory essay, we find, that if' language, in its progress toward perfection, could have pro- ceded on the pattern of nature, it must have in- vented a word for every sentiment that was to be expressed, which word would have been pro- per for that sentiment, and for none other. The impossibility of such a proceeding forced an ar- tificial plan into use : when a new expression was wanted, two or more words were put together, each of which had served a particular purpose, but which, by modifying one another, were 122 THE STATE OR TEMPER OF made to serve, collectively, another particular purpose : and thus by degrees losing all refer- ence, individually, to particular subjects, words became signs of general value, that might be put together so as to form a factitious word for any occasion, to serve instead of the one proper for the sentiment that would have been employed, if language could have been perfected on the pattern of nature. An apparatus that requires and implies so much art in the management, little accords, however, on many occasions, with the fervour and rapidity of our thoughts. When several circumstances press upon the mind at the same time*, all of which concur in producing the state or temper in which it finds itself, we would fain give utterance to them at once ; — we try the language of nature, — it is not ade- quate to our purpose, and we are driven back to artificial language by the same necessity which gave it birth. If the passion is violent, we give it vent in short abrupt sentences, which, from frequent use, suggest themselves as readily as the language of nature : still they are far from being adequate to our purpose, because they exhibit the circumstances by which we are influenced * A long train of circumstances, cannot, philosophically speaking, be present to the mind at once, but, practically speaking, it may : for the circumstances pass and repass with a rapidity of succession which time cannot measure. THE MIND IN SPEAKING. 123 only by starts and fits; — we want the one word that shall lay bare the mind in a moment ; but it cannot be found, and we have only to avail ourselves of the best means in our power to sup- ply its place. In proportion as our feelings al- low of the employment of art, we seize upon those circumstances that are most prominent, and express them in sentences as closely con- nected or dependent as the forms of speech per- mit. Yet, however well cemented they may be, this consequence cannot but happen from the slow process of the communication, compared with the rapidity of thought, — that as the speaker is obliged to dwell on the circumstances that affect him one at a time, each may affect him somewhat differently from the rest, and there- fore, though in a single sentence, or a series of connected sentences, there will be one predomi- nant state of mind throughout the whole, and one general effect resulting from the circum- stances detailed, yet, in proceeding with the de- tail, that general effect will resolve itself into many subordinate varieties of temper and feeling, which may be very numerous both in kind and degree*. To take, for an example, the opening sentence of Cicero's oration for Milo : * It does not follow, because we feel the means of commu- nication to be immediately unequal to our thoughts, that there- fore our thoughts may not be benefited by the art which falsi 124 THE STATE OR TEMPER OF Although I fear it may be a shame to be dismayed at the entrance of my discourse in defence of a most valiant man, and that it no ways becomes me, while Milo is more concern- ed for the safety of the state than for himself, not to shew the same greatness of mind in behalf of him ; yet this new form of prosecution terrifies my eyes, which, whatever way they turn, want the ancient custom of the forum, and the former . manner of trials. In projecting this sentence, the speaker must at once have felt the full weight of all the cir- cumstances mentioned in it, and probably of many more ; but in proceeding with it, the ge- neral feeling must have resolved itself into se- veral subordinate varieties, as each circumstance, in passing before the mind, became prominent before the rest, — a feeling of shame ; of respect and approbation ^ of self-dignity; of purer alarm; and of regret. The general feeling, which was a mixture of all these in their due proportions, be employed to make them known. Even when the sensibility is chiefly concerned, we increase the force of right impres- sions and remove wrong, by dwelling severally on the circum- stances that affect us. In matters of reasoning, there can be still less doubt of the tendency of language to improve our thoughts; for those which led to one conclusion in the rapid glance with which they were at first comprehended, frequently lead to another in the slow process of putting them into words. Hence it is that literary composition is the surest guide to the art of accurate thinking. 5 THE MIND IN SPEAKING. 125 and of alarm far beyond the rest, would indeed be still predominant, and, throughout the whole, would modify the others ; but would not prevent them from taking their turn in their influence, separately, on the speaker's state of mind. 2. CORRESPONDENCE OF NATURAL EXPRESSION WITH THE TEMPER OF THE MIND. Having thus adverted to the effects produced on the mind within by the intervention of artifi- cial language, we may now consider the signs of natural expression without, modified, as they will be, by the same causes. For however we may be driven by necessity to the use of artificial language, it is pretty certain that we scarcely ever make a complete exchange between that and the language of nature : some of the signs of natural expression will still remain, and will indicate the state or temper of the mind, though they cannot explicitly make known the circum- stances that produce it. These natural signs of inward feeling are the looks, the tones* of the * This word is not used here in the same sense as in the first and second chapters, where it was occasionally employed instead of accents or inflections. Here it means the qualities of the voice, in the same manner as when we speak of the tones of different instruments, as to sweetness, harshness, smoothness, &c. 126 THE STATE OR TEMPER OF VOICE, the RATE OF UTTERANCE, and the GESTURE. Of these, the looks are least modified by the re- straints which language imposes: they signify at once (as far as they possess expression to make themselves intelligible) all that the speaker in- tends to say ; — they mark the state of his mind before he speaks, as well as indicate the subor- dinate feelings which arise as he proceeds. The tones of the voice are equally ready to obey the impulses of nature, but they must yield to the necessities of art: when emotion bursts out in short abrupt sentences which take the place of natural ejaculations, they are, perhaps, precisely such as would have accompanied those ejacula- tions : but in sentences of more contrivance, the tones will receive some modification, because they must accompany the sentence through all its parts to the end, and must bend to the slides which mark the construction. Still will they be eminently expressive of the speaker's state of mind, and in their several varieties of smooth, harsh, gentle, low, soft, loud, high, shrill, strong, firm, tremulous, will indicate the predominant and the subordinate feelings by which he is ac- tuated. The rate of utterance is a sign of tem- per which arises from the use of artificial lan- guage : yet it is perfectly natural, when we are obliged to express our thoughts by a succession of articulate sounds, that we should utter them THE MIND IN SPEAKING. 127 sometimes in one' manner and sometimes in another, according to the state of mind we are in, — that is, with greater or less degrees of ra- pidity or slowness, or with more or less of even- ness and continuity. With regard to gesture, it is more liable than any of the signs of natural expression to yield to the modifications of art : nay, it is possible to render it entirely conven- tional, and make it signify the meaning of a sen- tence by denoting the words, or even the letters, of which it is composed : or, it may be panto- mimic, and infer a meaning by some action which makes it easily guessed at. Those alone are na- tural gestures which are involuntary ; though even of such gestures, it will often be difficult to say how far they depend upon nature, and how far upon habit. But the gestures employed in discourse are, in general, such as the speaker chooses to employ, and they serve to discrimi- nate, enforce, and illustrate his meaning, by marking the divisions of sentences, and assisting the emphatic slides. Gesture of this description is evidently artificial, inasmuch as we employ it to suit the exigencies of artificial language. Yet it is so far regulated by nature, that, according to the temper of the mind, it will be executed with more or less of force or languor, slowness or rapidity, restraint or boldness, frequency and in- termission. 128 DISAGREEMENT OF THE NATURAL 3. CASES IN WHICH THE NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL SIGNS DO NOT AGREE. When we make use of words to convey our own thoughts, and form our sentences at the moment we want them, the natural signs agree with the artificial with a readiness it would be difficult to prevent, But when sentences already prepared are set before us, and we feel that all our business is to read them, the natural expres- sion is that which arises from the consciousness of the office we are fulfilling: and it is not till we get rid of this consciousness, that the natural and the artificial signs are likely to agree. In silent reading, it is scarcely possible to enter warmly into an author's sentiments without sup- plying his language, mentally, with some of the signs of natural expression; because, in this case, the tendency of the imagination is, to make the reader think he is listening to another, not that he is fulfilling the office of a repeater : but the moment he hears the sounds of his own voice, the deception is at an end ; he cannot mistake himself for the author ; and while he still feels what the natural expression should be, he equally feels it would be out of his character to adopt it. If, however, he is really the author, and the dis- course has been prepared for the very occasion THE MIND IN SPEAKING. 129 on which he pronounces it, nothing can prevent the natural signs from according completely with the artificial, but an unnecessary recollection of the preparation which has been made — a recollec- tion which will the less intrude itself, the less he has occasion to recur to the book that contains his discourse. Or if the reader, though not the au- thor of the language he uses, should nevertheless entertain the sentiments with as much warmth as if he were, (as in the sincere repetition of prayers from a written formulary,) the adaptation of the natural signs to the artificial would be equally in- evitable, except when prevented by the same circumstances as before. On such occasions, audible Reading ought, and may easily be made to lose its distinctive feature, and become impas- sioned ; and the same effect may take place on other occasions, if the reader, ceasing to regard himself as a mere repeater, will, for the time, make the sentiments his own, and deliver the lan- guage under that impression. For this purpose an effort of imagination will undoubtedly be ne- cessary ; but it needs not be so strong as actually to produce the state of mind which the circum- stances of the discourse suppose. A repetition, for instance, of Cicero's oration for Milo, from which a sentence was lately quoted, would not require that the reader should bring the situation of the original speaker so completely home to 130 NARRATIVE MANNER. himself, as to be penetrated with the same feel- ings in their full force : no imagination can ac- complish so much ; nor would the expression be pleasing, which, when the occasion is not real, is as forcible as if it were. The imagination acts in different degrees ; and the reader who can sometimes warm his mind with a momentary im- pression that he is not reading, but speaking, may improve the capability by frequent exercise. In this, as in other cases, much may be done by system. There are some styles of speaking less difficult than others, and which, therefore, ought to be attempted earlier; and there are certain general characteristics of natural expression, which, being acquired before the more particu- lar, easily lead the way to them. The remainder of the present chapter will be occupied with di- rections to the student on these subjects. 4. NARRATIVE MANNER. The first and simplest manner of speaking is that which is used in communicating ordinary information, when the subjects are not of a na- ture to affect the feelings — a manner which must frequently be proper in all kinds of discourse, whether narrative, descriptive, didactic, or argu- mentative j but which, for distinction's sake, Zandtn Fulffy At Pfprittvr SeptT2^M». NARRATIVE MANNER. 131 may be called the narrative manner. It scarcely differs from Reading merely significant, except that, as the information which the speaker con- veys is supposed to come immediately from him- self, his deportment and address must correspond with his assumed situation. The eyes must not be continually fixed on the page, but if the book be consulted at all, it should be only as a note- book, to assist the memory. If a sitting posture be adopted, it should be one that leaves the speaker at liberty to look at the person or persons addressed, allows the body to move a little with the impulse of speech, and permits an occasional' gesture with the hand. (See the plate. J If a standing posture be chosen, it should not only give room for the same freedom of address, but be a good foundation for every variety of gesture which the other styles of speaking will require. In addressing a number of persons, the speaker should place himself di- rectly before them, and, having carried his eye modestly around, should fix his looks in front, and advance his right hand and arm in the same direction ; which advance being made horizon- tally from the body, will produce a correspond- ent advance of the opposite foot, in order to give the appearance of a proper balance*. The full * Prolato dextro stare, et eandem manum ac pedem pro- ferre, deforme est. This is a maxim of Quinctilian's, and the K 2 132 NARRATIVE MANNER. weight of the body must be planted on one foot only, and rest lightly on the other ; and as it is natural, in beginning to speak, to incline forward toward the persons addressed, the full weight may at first be given to the advanced foot, which inclined position will raise the heel of the retired foot a little from the ground. The speaker may afterwards feel it proper to bring the body into an erect position, for which purpose its weight must be thrown back upon the retired foot, and the one in advance must be drawn in a little*. But increasing earnestness will continually bring him forward to his first position, and this will be found desirable on another account, — namely, that it better allows of a swing or sway of the body, in order to address the sides as well as the front. (See the plate. J For the looks, though at first directed in front, must afterward be car- ried to all parts of the auditory in succession, and the body must act in unison with them, by turn- ing itself with an easy flexible motion, so as direction given above, coincides with it. Our gait in walking teaches that an advance of one of the feet is naturally accom- panied with the advance of the opposite arm. However, when the advance of the foot is not directly in front, graceful ges- ture by no means forbids the arm on the same side to be Taised. * In the sentence immediately following the one just quoted Quinctilian says, — In dextrum incumbere interim datur, sed aquo pectore. Book XI. c. 3. NARRATIVE MANNER, 133 always to bring the breast square to the persons addressed. As to the hand, it must not only vary its direction in the same manner, and fol- low the motion of the eyes continually, but must mark the progress of the discourse by its action. Where meaning is incomplete, the hand being raised, and thus signifying preparation for some other gesture, will accord with the suspension of the voice. Where an emphatic slide is employed to introduce some novel or remarkable circum- stance, or an harmonic slide, to indicate that the sentence approaches its end, the hand may add the force of action to the force of inflection. Where meaning, after being long in suspense, is at length completely formed, the dropping of the hand will properly coincide with the cadence of the voice. Where parts of sentences are opposed to, or balanced against each other, the hand, by being carried from side to side, or performing alternate action with the other hand, will aptly illustrate the nature of the construction. Where something that requires particular attention is in- dicated by a slower and weightier pronunciation than ordinary, the index or fore-finger extended before its fellows, and continually lifted up and down, so as to mark every accent with a gentle stroke, will greatly assist in securing the required attention. Where an enumeration of distinct particulars occurs, the same index applied in 134 NARRATIVE MANNER. turn to the several fingers of the other hand, will properly mark the nature and the extent of the series. Where a description is to be made which comprehends any reference to relative situation, length, breadth, depth, distance, space, motion, or manner of action, the hands will move in a variety of different directions, as the picture of the objects in the speaker's mind may prompt. And, lastly, where a sentence does not seem to call for any gesture, the hands, for a while, may hang easily at the side, ready to commence action afresh when an occasion occurs for bringing them again effectually into use. Thus, where the composition is so unimpassioned as not to sug- gest any particular kind of gesture, a sufficient variety may nevertheless be found to prevent the sensation or the appearance of that awkwardness, which an assumed situation is likely to produce. — To these hints, it will, however, be proper to add, that, as the same position should not be con- tinued for a long time together, the position with the left foot advanced, though perhaps on the whole more convenient than any other, must oc- casionally be changed. The right foot may step forward, but rather in a side direction ; and the address, for a time, may be to that side, compre- hending the half of the audience, reaching from the right extremity to the middle. From this, a change may be made to a correspondent position ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER. 135 on the left side, the left foot being advanced in a side direction, and the address may include the other half of the audience, reaching from the left extremity to the middle. The speaker will find himself getting nearer to his audience by these advances, when occasion should be taken to retreat a step or two, and the last step being made with the right foot, leaves him in the ori- ginal position, with the body erect on the right leg. In this address from side to side, the hands may gesticulate alternately, each on its own side, — but the left hand should seldom gesticulate alone : it may occasionally perform the principal gesture, but the other should be ready to sup- port it with auxiliary action ; and, in the same way, when the right is performing the principal gesture, the left may occasionally assist it. 5. ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER. After the narrative manner of speaking may be described the argumentative, which is that we employ when our business is not merely to inform, but to convince. While we suppose the mind of our hearers to be passive, we have no- thing to do but with self-possession to present our subject in its proper shape and colour; but 136 ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER. argument implies opinions or contrary feelings to be combated ; — the voice becomes louder, and generally higher; — the inflections are heigh- tened; that is, they move within greater inter- vals, going deeper into the grave, and higher into the acute ; — the motion of the eye is quick- er; — the rate of pronunciation is slow, mode- rate, and rapid by turns — slow, when a particu- lar point requires steady attention — rapid, when premises carefully collected present a sudden, irresistible conclusion. The hand and arm must accompany the strong inflections with frequent and decisive strokes, and some care must be em- ployed to perform these actions with variety, as well as to raise the arm with grace, and extend it with force and precision. In lifting the arm, the elbow should be raised before the hand, and be kept outwards from the body; the hand should not bend at the wrist, but keep in a line with the arm ; and the thumb should preserve its natural distance from the other fingers. This prepara- tion for an emphatic stroke should always begin in good time, the elbow gradually ascending with the current of pronunciation, till at the moment the action is wanted, the hand is brought down with a sudden spring. The di- rection of the stroke may be various. When the hand is extended toward the front, the prepara- tion may bring the tips of the fingers near the ARGUMENTATIVE MANNER. 137 mouth, and the action will be completed by pro- pelling the hand again to the front, with the palm outwards, and the fingers pointing down. This may sometimes be performed with both hands. When the address is to the side, the preparation may lift the hand as high as the head, and the completion of the action extend the arm to its original position, with the hand either prone or outwards as before. Sometimes the hand may be merely brought nearer the body, and then thrust forward to its original position: or it may be thrown with a jerk toward the persons ad- dressed. When a member which terminates with the upward inflection, requires an emphatic stroke, the hand, instead of being arrested by the action, may recoil from it, and, springing up- wards, agree with the suspension of the tone ; for instance: EXAMPLE. I demand justice of you, fathers, upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppressor of Asia Minor and Pamphylia, the invader of the rights and privileges of Romans, the scourge and curse of Sicily. CICERO AGAINST VERRES. A forcible action should accompany each of the inflections here marked; but it should recoil and mark suspension at the end of the penul- timate member. — On some occasions, the hand 138 MEDITATIVE MANNER. may at once spring upwards, and make its em- phatic stroke in an elevated instead of a down- ward position, particularly when the speaker expresses triumph or encouragement. 6. MEDITATIVE MANNER. Next in order to the Narrative and Argumen- tative, may be described a manner of speaking which we may call meditative. It takes place when the speaker seems to follow, not to guide, the train of thought; — that is to say, when he does not seek to convey information of which he is previously possessed, or to establish a truth of which he is previously convinced, but reflects for his own information or pleasure, and pursues his reflections aloud. In this mode of speaking, the tone of voice is generally low, the rate of utterance tardy, while the thought is undeter- mined, but brisk when any point js suddenly evolved. The eyes are frequently upward or cast upon the ground, and only directed to the spectators when something in the way of infor- mation occurs. The gesture describes small spaces; — the hand, after wandering for a mo- ment or two, suddenly stops and keeps for awhile in a suspended position; the looks at the same time being fixed ; till at length the development STYLES OF SPEAKING QUALIFIED. 139 of thought again gives freedom to the action. The hand is sometimes held under or near the chin, or applied to the forehead: at other times the tips of the fingers of both hands are applied together, while the arms touch the sides of the body. If the train of thought flows with com- parative ease, the hand may repose itself on some neighbouring object, or be placed in the bosom, or the arms may be folded across the breast. The motions of the feet must accord with the other gestures — the steps being sometimes quick and uncertain — sometimes suddenly arrested — then again acquiring freedom and ease. 7. CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH QUALIFY ANY OF THE STYLES OF SPEAKING. All discourse which does not acquire a cha- racter of expression from passion and emotion, will fall under one of the three styles of speaking described above. But it must not be expected that, in the same piece, the style of speaking will continue unchanged throughout. A narra- tive will frequently demand some of the eager- ness of argument; argument is often accompa- nied by a statement of premises which must be made in the plainest and simplest manner ; and meditation, if the train of thought flows with 140 STYLES OF SPEAKING QUALIFIED. freedom, will have the ease of narration; if the points are dubious, will require that they should be balanced one against another with the ear- nestness of disputation. Nor must those mo- mentary changes of manner be forgotten, which subordinate circumstances produce while the slow progress of speech gives each in turn a pro- minence before the rest. And if a circumstance of superior importance occurs, calculated to pro- duce decided passion or emotion in the speaker's mind, the plain style of narration, or argument, or meditation, must give place for a time to the peculiar expression which that passion or emotion requires. A modification of manner will also arise from the nature of the composition, and from the character or the situation of the speak- er : First, from the nature of the composition : — what is written in an easy colloquial style, must be pronounced with a rate of utterance more fluent, tones more familiar, rhythmus less pal- pable*, looks less sedate, and gesture less exten- sive, than what is rhetorical, poetical, or other- wise raised above the level of common discourse. In colloquial gesture the play of the hand is mostly from the elbow or the wrist, while the upper arm touches the side ; and a shrug, a nod, or a slight twisting of the body, takes place of the * See Chap. I. Sect. 9. page 58. VEHEMENT MANNER. 141 regulated gestures which the higher kinds of composition demand. — Secondly, from the cha- racter or situation of the speaker: — a preacher in- structing his flock; a general haranguing his army; a senator addressing the president of the assembly; ought each to have a different manner, arising from a sense of the relation in which he stands to his audience ; and this difference should appear, though each may happen to pronounce the same sentences. The same remark may be applied to other situations, whether real or as- sumed. 8. VEHEMENT MANNER. When discourse turns upon subjects of strong and immediate interest, which fasten on the speaker's feelings, and excite any of the active or violent passions, as confidence, determination, courage, fierceness, triumph, pride, indignation, anger, rage, hatred, fear, remorse, despair, envy, malice; — a manner of speaking arises which may take the comprehensive name of vehement. Of the three plain styles of speaking already named, the argumentative is that which is chiefly liable to rise into vehemence. It may be said to be plain, while the subject is of an abstract or general nature, or while the speaker is only ad- 142 Vehement manner* vancing to the more important parts of his dis-* course. But when he employs exhortation, en- couragement, warning, remonstrance, menaces, or is carried by his subject into any of the pas- sions mentioned above, the manner of expression becomes very distinguishable from that which is merely argumentative- In expressing confi- dence, courage, determination, pride, the voice is strong and loud, but with respect to pitch, is in a firm middle tone. In remorse, hatred, envy, malice, it is generally low and harsh. Anger, rage, scorn, have the same harshness, but usually the tone is higher. Remonstrance is generally in a low and more gentle tone. In despair the voice is frequently loud and shrill. Fear, when it leads to action, resembles other vehement passions in many of its effects; but when it entirely relaxes the frame, and takes away the power of action, or when it is excited by the contemplation, rather than the presence of danger, it comes, in either case, under a different description. Ex- traordinary vehemence in any of the passions, generally accelerates the rate of utterance ; though in hatred and malice it may be retarded, and become slow and drawling. With regard to gesture — it will be performed with a tension of the muscles proportioned to the strength of the passion, and what was artificial will frequently give place to that which is forced by nature. PLAINTIVE MANNER. 143 In confidence, pride, triumph, the body is erect, and sometimes thrown back -, the hand places itself on the breast or the hip, or is thrown up- wards with a correspondent motion of the head. In exhortation, the hands are raised — in remon- strance, they are gently but repeatedly pushed forward with the palms out, and the fingers pointing upwards. In fierceness, anger, rage, the brows are contracted, the foot stamps, the body inclines forward, and the hand is instinc- tively clinched. In hatred, the hand is violently pushed with the palm outwards toward the ob- ject, and the head at the same time averted. In fear, the hands raise themselves as a defence, and the body draws back to avoid the dreaded object 9. PLAINTIVE MANNER. Opposite to vehemence of manner is that style of speaking which we call plaintive. When the subjects of narration or meditation excite grief in a moderate degree, pity, regret, a soft and tender melancholy, or any kindred feeling, the tone of voice is smooth, tender, and melo- dious ; the rate of utterance even and moderate ; the head is frequently shaken mournfully; the eyes are alternately raised, and then cast down, and the hands accompany them with a corres- 5 144 GLOOMT OR SOLEMN MANNER. pondent and somewhat languid motion, being lifted slowly, and then suffered to fall lifeless to their place. 10. GAY OR LIVELY MANNER. The expression proper for gay and lively subjects is distinguished from the last by requir- ing a more varied tone of voice, a brisker rate of utterance, and more quickness in the looks and action. It is not always, however, that delight \ joy, enthusiasm, rapture, as they are embodied in poetry, demand a style of expression altogether opposite to the plaintive ; something of tender- ness may still discover itself in the tones of the voice, and the manner may be said to be lively rather than gay.. But in expressing mirth and raillery, the manner is quite opposite to the plaintive, and it is very often colloquial. 11. GLOOMY OR SOLEMN MANNER. In this classification of the general varieties of manner that take place in speaking, the last which may be mentioned as acquiring its cha- racter from the nature of the emotions to be ex- pressed by it — is that we call the gloomy or 7 GLOOMY OR SOLEMN MANNER. 145 solemn. It embraces such passions and affec- tions as, axve, deep melancholy, dread, sublime con- templation, and devotion to a Being infinitely su- perior. The eyes are frequently cast upward, and then fixed on the ground with an inclina- tion of the body ; the tone of voice is low, and occasionally tremulous ; the rate of utterance is slow and weighty ; the hands are raised, and then suffered to drop in correspondence with the looks ; and the whole frame frequently ap- pears to sink backward, as if overcome by the feelings which press upon it. CHAPTER IV. DRAMATIC READING, OR ACTING. In comoediis servi, lenones, parasiti, nistici, milites, ve- tnlae, meretriculae, ancillae, senes austeri ac mites, juvenes se- ven ac luxuriosi, matron®, puellae, inter se discernnntur. Aliud oratio sapit actione enim constat, non imita- tione. QUINCTILIAN. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING AND ACTING. Up to a certain point, the preparation for every branch of public speaking is the same. The preacher, the senator, the barrister, the actor, should all be competent to pronounce individual words with propriety, to inflect the voice with significance and harmony in the utterance of sentences, and to adapt the manner of expression to the ever-changing subjects of discourse. When thus far qualified, the pupil may be dismissed from the hands of his teacher, leaving the appli- cation of the general principles of the art to the particular purposes of his profession, to be made by himself. Yet, as ornamental Reading some- times requires a species of mimickry that borders upon acting, it may not be amiss to mention briefly, in this concluding chapter, what it is that properly confers upon Reading the appel- lation of Dramatic. DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING, &C. 147 In assuming a character which requires no other peculiarity of manner than what arises from the expression of passions common to mankind at large, a person needs not deviate from his own style of speaking — that is to say, from the style which he would himself adopt, if the passion were excited in him to the same degree. But there are some passions and modes of behaviour, (chiefly of the ridiculous kind,) which affect a few, but are by no means general ; as, foppery, prudery, coquetry, pedantry, drunkenness, do- tage, clownishness, vulgarity, bashfulness ; and modes of address and elocution which adhere to persons of a particular age, sex, or country, or of a particular profession ; as a bold roughness to a soldier or sailor; acuteness of tone to a boy or a woman; brogue to an Irishman; and a totter- ing gait, with feeble piping voice, to an old man. A reader who should attempt any of these pecu- liarities, would probably be obliged to give up entirely the manner of speaking natural to him- self, and assume one to which no impulse of general passion could ever be supposed to lead him. Or if, in reading a dialogue in which seve- ral persons took part, he should choose to dis- tinguish one from another by something more than a difference of passion, it is evident he would still be obliged to deviate in some respect from his own manner in all the characters but l 2 148 DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SPEAKING, &C. one, although none of the peculiarities above enumerated were necessary to be exhibited*. Dramatic Reading, then, differs from Reading merely impassioned, by the imitation of another person's elocution and deportment — an imitation which can seldom take place but in reading works of the dramatic kind. Yet, even in pro- nouncing this kind of composition, it is not in- dispensable that a dramatic style of reading should be adopted ; and tragedies in particular may almost always be impressively read without it ; because, in them, the passions are usually such alone as are common to mankind at large, and changes of voice and manner are not neces- sary to make sentiment affecting, though they may be of advantage for the sake of clearer dis- tinction and variety. Comic tales, however, in which humourous dialogue occurs, can seldom be read effectively without a little dramatic discri- mination, though it needs not be so strong as when the composition is entirely in dialogue. Some touches of dramatic colouring will also be necessary in reading the "Seven Ages of Life," the Description of Queen Mab, and other pieces of a similar kind. * I beg leave to mention the entertainment I call " Shaks- pearian Readings/' as a specimen of what I mean by Drama- tic Reading. APPENDIX. CONTAINING PRACTICAL AIDS FOR READING THE LITURGY. THE KIND OF READING PROPER FOR THE LITURGY. From the Theory of Elocution unfolded in the foregoing pages, it is now proposed to deduce some assistance for properly reading the chief parts of the service of the Church. And first, from the divisions at pages 1, 2, 3, it will at once be evident what kind of Reading the minister should adopt. If it were Mechani- cal Reading, he would appear to be no further occupied than in sounding the words and join- ing them together: — if it were merely Significant Reading, he would seem to be in the situation of one, who correctly narrates the expression of sentiments, which he does not assume as his own : — and if it were Dramatic Readings how- ever he might appear to others, he must, within himself, be conscious of hypocrisy. The kind of Reading, therefore, which he is bound to adopt, is that which identifies itself with speak- ing : — using the term strictly, he must not be a Reader, but must declare, and exhort, and con- 150 APPENDIX. fess, and pray, and praise, as from himself; while a higher principle than the teacher of elocution is called upon to advocate, should make the feel- ings real, and prevent the hypocrisy of artificial display. But though, to do justice to the liturgy, the delivery must entirely agree with speaking, in- struction can scarcely reach beyond the requi- sites which constitute good reading, namely a completely articulate and just pronunciation of the words, — a varied, significant, and well adapted modulation of the sentences. The ex- pression which should be superadded to these — the outward signs of actual feeling, may be indi- cated by the teacher, but can be found only in a proper sense of the different duties which are to be performed, and in cultivating the frame of mind suitable to each. PRONUNCIATION OF WORDS OCCURRING IN THE LITURGY. With respect to this subject, it is hoped the first chapter furnished all that was needed in theory; and the reader is advised to improve his practice by a regular course of exercises, such as will be found in the first chapter of " The Practice of Elocution". In addition to, or in lieu of those exercises, he should acquire the complete utterance of the following words : APPENDIX. 151 Silent letters are printed in italic ; the accent of the polysyl- lables will be known by their classification. Wa/k a/ms psalms wrath 1 earth cleanse strayed done* wou/dest 3 shew 4 sinned s called erred pleased shewed blessed wicked 6 settled buried 7 tookest lighten 8 holpen heaven 1 This word ought to rhyme with path, bath, &c. ; but usage, the great norma loquendi, requires it to be pronounced as rhyming with Goth. 2 This word rhymes with sun. The compound undone is commonly accented on the last syllable, but being in antithe- sis with done, is pronounced undone. 3 This word and its relations couldest and shouldest have so awkward an effect when pronounced with two syllables, that the reader of the Liturgy is advised to comply with the cus- tom which on all other occasions makes them monosyllables. 4 This is pronounced sho. 5 It is a general rule, in reading the Scriptures and the Li- turgy, to sound ed distinctly in those words which, in other cases, would have the e silent. But if a vowel precedes, the e should be silent even in the Liturgy. Thus strayed is pro- nounced in one syllable, buried in two, justified in three, &c. In settled, assembled, &c. the e should also be silent, because it is silent before the d is added. On the other hand, the words shewed, followed, hallowed, &c. should have the ed dis- tinct, because the w which is silent before those letters are added, is then pronounced as a consonant. 6 To sound the ed of this word id may be justified by ana- logy as well as usage ; but the corruption of shut e, into shut w,is vulgar or provincial: — sinnud, wickud, sittuth, providnnce, forgivenuss, are examples of faulty utterance in this respect, which the Reader must correct or avoid. 7 This is pronounced berrid. 8 Usage is extremely capricious in determining when c should 152 APPENDIX. strengthen bounden graven burthen brethren women 9 pardon deacons Aumble evil 10 devzl Scripture " knowledge ia righteous *■ either ,4 neither contrite rather I5 spirit covet l6 unto I7 Sa- tan Pontius I8 arise again I9 against forget obeyed betrayed upon 2 ° infinite requisite thanksgiving forefathers num- and should not be sounded in the unaccented termination en. It should be heard in sudden, and should also be heard when a liquid precedes, but to sound it in other cases generally gives an impression of childish nicety, though it must be confessed the syllables tn,pn 3 vn, Sec. are very cacophonous. 9 Pronounced wimmin. 10 It is not a general rule to sink the sound of i in unac- cented il, though usage requires it in this and the next word. 11 See page 37- v. ll See page 43. ii. 11 Pronounced ri-chus : see page 44. v. 14 See page 45. * 5 The a in this word is sounded as in father. 16 Pronounced cuvvit. Concerning the last syllable, com- pare Note 6 . 17 When this word is uttered singly, it is pronounced with an accent on the first- syllable, but forming part of a sentence, it is always pronounced as two unaccented syllables of some other word " a blessing-unto-the righteous" u a lantern-unto- my feet," " a bird-unto-the hill". " Pronounced Pont-yus. 19 The diphthong in this word is decidedly shortened into the shut e, making the last syllable a rhyme to men. So also of at in the next word. *° Uttered singly, this word has an accent on the last sylla- ble, but in a sentence, it is joined, as other dissyllabic particles, to some other word, and has either no accent at all, or only a secondary accent. In the following passage of the Confession, " have mercy-upon-us-miserable-offenders", it has a secondary accent, because there is no word immediately after, which. APPENDIX. 153 bered ai gathered scattered ordered worshipped followed hal- lowed justified magnified penitent " pestilence parliament sac-rament cherubin seraphin Sab-a-oth Is-ra-el visible" Tri- nity su&tilty rebelled 24 beloved received declared pre- pared redeemed conceived oppressed distressed assembled obedient desireth * 5 absolveth dissemble * 6 transgressions apostles begotten 27 testimony necessary spiritual sa- crifices 28 necessity felicity iniquities forgivenesses benediction universal inspiration* 9 apostolic. claims an accent, and the interval between mercy and misera- ble is long. But in the same passage as it occurs several times in the opening of the Litany, the word us should be accented, and upon is then without any accent : "have mercy — upon us, miserable sinners." The reason of this difference is, that in the Confession, all the words after mercy, do but repeat what from the tenor of the foregoing sentences, is already implied : We confess ourselves miserable offenders : "but thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us miserable offenders ; spare thou", &c. In the Litany, the passage is independent of such implied connexion, and us has the same kind of emphasis that we na- turally give to me in a correspondent passage, Luke xviii. 13, " God, be merciful to me, a sinner." 21 Respecting this and the following nine words, see note s . 22 Beware of saying penitunt pestilunce, &c. See note 6 . 23 Not viz-ub-ble, Trinnutty, but viz-e-ble, Trin-e-ty. The compound invisible when in antithesis with visible, is accented on the first syllable. Compare note 2 . 24 See note 5 . Assembled may drop the e. 25 Deziretk (not deziruth) abzolveth. 26 The ss should not be sounded z in this word. 27 See note 8 . 23 Pronounced sac-rc-fl-ziz. 29 Letter i not at the beginning of a word, and unaccented, is always sounded e. To say inspl-ration. is irregular, and quite unnecessary. 154 APPENDIX. Being prepared for properly pronouncing the Liturgy as far as regards Articulation, the reader should next apply himself to acquire that mo- dulation of all its parts, which will exhibit the construction, meaning, and connexion of the sentences to the best advantage. To offer as- sistance for this purpose without the opportunity of oral illustration, is an undertaking of some little hazard 5 in the first place, because the marks made use of, may be misunderstood or misap- plied a nd, i n the second place, because the mode of reading adopted may not, in every instance, be entitled to exclusive preference. These un- favourable circumstances cannot be escaped, and the reader is only requested to weigh them with candour. EXPLANATION OF THE MARKS ADOPTED FROM PAGE 165, TO THE END OF THE VOLUME. The acute accent, as heretofore, signifies the upward inflection or slide of the voice ; the grave accent, the downward. A horizontal line after an accent, and running over a word or succession of words, implies that the previous accent is the principal accent of the clause, and that all the other accents (if any) as far as the line extends, are secondary to it. Emphasis is sometimes, though rarely, signified by italics : APPENDIX. 155 when not so indicated, the accents are deemed sufficient. The mark of short quantity ( u ) is occasionally put over a word as a caution that it should not be accented ; and the mark of long quantity (") to signify that the syllable should be distinct without being emphatic. This mark [ placed at the commencement of a clause or sentence, means that the voice is to drop into a lower key. The pauses are marked by lines, by dotted lines, and by the usual stops. The dotted line implies a continuing meaning, and that the pause should have no tone before it but just such as would occur if no pause were made. The plain line implies a greater or less degree of suspension in the previous tone. The comma marks off clauses or words in grammatical series, sometimes preceded by an upward or conjunc- tive, sometimes by a downward or disjunctive inflection, as greater or less distinctness is aimed at, or the ear requires variety ; and the reader is at liberty to change many of the inflections which are marked in such places, if his taste so incline. The semicolon and colon are used where perfect grammatical construction is formed, but where some meaning to follow is kept in view. The previous inflection, in such case, is sometimes upwards, sometimes down- ward : — if little doubt appear as to which inflec- tion is proper, the semi-colon is employed ; but 156 APPENDIX. if the inflection marked admits of being changed according to the taste of the reader, the colon is used. The full stop, as usual, signifies the construction and meaning to be complete. For the better applying of these directions, it is proposed to add REMARKS ON SOME OF THE READINGS HEREAFTER POINTED OUT. In the sentences, the first of the three which have been selected from the rest, When the wicked, &c. is a periodic sentence, that is, the construction is entirely dependent to the end, and it divides, as all periodic sentences, into a suspensive and a conclusive member. The sus- pensive member terminates at right, with an up- ward inflection, which in that place is properly called Suspensive, and the downward at alive is called Conclusive. To these all the other ac- cents in the sentence are subservient or prepa- ratory, and are not marked, but left to the ear and taste of the reader ; with the exception of the upward accent on the word away, which is marked on account of its comprehensive effect in reducing all the other accents of the clause, as far as the horizontal line reaches, to be se- condary to it. For the reason of this, consult APPENDIX. 157 page 115, Example xvii. and the remarks follow- ing it. The second sentence, Enter not into judg- ment*, &c. is not periodic, inasmuch as the for- mer member terminating at Lord, is not gram- matically dependent on what follows. Yet there seems little question that an upward inflection should be used in this place to connect the two members, rather than the downward to enforce their grammatical independence. The upward accent, in this case, should be called Conjunc- tive, as the other, when used under such cir- cumstances, should be called Disjunctive. This conjunctive accent is thrown back in this parti- cular place from the last word Lord to the word judgment; the reason of which is, that servant and Lord — the one the speaker (me, thy ser- vant), the other the person addressed — would be implied even without being expressed, and like personal pronouns in similar cases, are without primary accent. Yet the words, O Lord, need not therefore be deprived of a full solemn pro- nunciation : all that is meant is, that the tone from judgment to Lord is continuative. In the * This sentence is not to be here read as a prayer (though it has the form of one), but to be declared or given out as a text of Scripture, according to the spirit of which, the peo- ple are to frame their minds, in the duties they are about to perform. 158 APPENDIX. same sentence the phrase thy sighthas an allusive meaning to the sight of others: it is therefore em- phatic, and the emphasis is made by depriving sight of its accent, and giving the force to its associate thy, the whole phrase being pronounced with one slide of the voice. In the same sentence, the word no is marked with a downward accent, which is merely one of the harmonic or prepa- ratory slides, generally omitted to be marked : — this leads to another slight suspensive accent at living, and this again prepares for the conclu- sive at justified. The next sentence, If we say, &c, is likewise a sentence consisting of two independent mem- bers, with this difference between it and the sentence just considered, that, in the one now in view, the downward or disjunctive accent should be used between the two members, which disjunctive accent is on the word truth, the four following words being such as are always without accent, if without allusive meaning. In the Exhortation, the address Dearly be- loved Brethren is marked to be read disjunc- tively •, but as it might be read suspensively (though the writer of these remarks thinks with far less effect), it is pointed with a colon, inti- mating that the Reader may use the other in- flection without doing wrong to the construction. With respect to the frequent momentary pauses APPENDIX. 159 indicated by the dotted lines in these and other parts of the Service, the Reader needs not re- gard them too scrupulously : all the pauses marked may be made, provided they keep a due proportion to the principal pauses, and are ac- companied by suitable continuing tones : but if the principal pauses are shortened, many of these subordinate pauses must be neglected. — The clause after the word cloke marked by the hori- zontal line, is a pronominal clause, its meaning having been anticipated by a foregoing passage ; for in saying that the Scripture moveth us to ac- knowledge and con/ess our manifold sins, we can mean no other than an acknowledgement and confession " before the face of Almighty God, our heavenly Father". Still, though this latter clause must be uttered in the continuative tone suitable to its foreknown meaning, it must not be deprived of distinctness and solemnity. In what immediately follows, the words humble, lowly, penitent and obedient, as denoting a series of particulars, are pointed with commas, and are marked with those inflections which, it is pre- sumed, a good ear accustomed to a vernacular manner of accentuation, would instinctively adopt; but as there may be a difference of taste on this point, it is proper to observe, that only the last accent, that on obedient, is prescribed by the sense, and that the sense will permit the 160 APPENDIX. others to be either upward or downward : — See Example X. page 90, and the second note in the same page. So likewise the clauses which refer seriatim to the different parts of the service, — to render thanks, &c. to set forth, &c. to hear, &c. and to ask, &c. are marked to be pronounced disjunctively, except the last but one, which takes the upward or conjunctive as a prepara- tion for the cadence of the whole. Here again the reader is at liberty to deviate by using con- junctive instead of disjunctive accents; though it is presumed with inferior effect : — See Exam- ples XXIX. and XXX. pages 95, 96, and there- marks introducing and following them. Previous to this last passage, the mark before the sen- tence, \And although tee ought at all times, &c. signifies that the tone takes a low pitch in begin- ning that sentence ; and the horizontal line fol- lowing the accent at all, points out the clause as being pronominal, that is, merely repeating what has been already signified. In the Confession, the members forming per- fect construction are sometimes marked to ter- minate conjunctively, sometimes disjunctively ; but the colon is intended as an indication that the opposite accent may, in every instance, be used, if the conception or ear of the reader should so incline ; and the same may be said of the modulative accents which precede the com- APPENDIX. 161 mas. Respecting the clause, But thou, O Lord have mercy, &c. — See note 20 , page 152. The Absolution commences with a long pe- riodic sentence, of which the suspensive mem- ber terminates at remission of our sins, and the word he, which begins the conclusive member, is grammatically redundant. The second us in the next sentence is emphatic, bringing the pre- vious general declaration home to the congre- gation in particular. The Lord's Prayer has already been the subject of some observations in a note at page 84 ? and these, with attention to the new marks at page 167, will suffice. In the Gloria Patri, &c, disjunctive accents are, in several places, modulatively used, where perhaps many readers would employ conjunctive accents. These accents, as in other places of similar construction, are not prescribed, but only recommended as agreeable to the ear, while, if they properly prepare for each other, they exhi- bit the construction much more clearly than any succession of similar accents. In the Venite, and all the following hymns, the verses, generally, are made to terminate con- junctively ; for in almost each verse, there is a view to the next : but here, as before, the colon must be deemed an indication that the reader M 162 APPENDIX. who uses the opposite accent will not deviate from grammatical propriety. In the Apostles' Creed, there is the same liberty of choice. The articles of faith are in some places marked to be conjunctively read — in others, disjunctively. Should the reader choose to use a greater proportion of the con- junctive, or of the disjunctive accents, there is nothing in the construction to forbid ; and the same observation applies to the Nicene Creed at page 188. In the latter, the first clause of each paragraph is marked to terminate disjunctively — / believe in one God : And in one Lord Jesus Christ : And I believe in the Holy Ghost. There seems a propriety in the distinctive effect of this accent when making the first mention of each person of the Trinity ; but the mention of the subordinate points of belief does not appear to demand, throughout, the same degree of dis- tinctive force, and the conjunctive accent may therefore, in many places, be used for the other. In the Litany, the response of the congre- gation, Good Lord deliver us, is, in every in- stance, the conclusive member of a periodic sen- tence, of which the suspensive member is always made up of independent clauses — independent of each other, though all have a common de- pend ance on the conclusive member. These APPENDIX. 1GS clauses might, with perfect grammatical pro- priety, be pronounced conjunctively, but the mode suggested is recommended as far more emphatic and impressive. Consult on this point, the remarks preceding and following Examples XXIX. and XXX., pages 95, 96. The Response, We beseech thee to hear us> Good Lord, is not, like Good Lord deliver us, essential to complete what precedes, but is con- nected as a redundancy, not as a constituent clause. For this part of the Litany sets forward with the words " We sinners do beseech thee", &c. ; and every subsequent petition commencing with the conjunction that, includes the meaning of those words before they are actually expressed. The reader should therefore pronounce every intercession as if it were complete before the response is added, and then suppose it to be joined in continuation, as a pronominal clause, taking its tone from the previous accent, and having all its own accents secondary to it. It will be needless to pursue these observations further. If understood, they will afford a suffi- cient insight into the intention of the marks elsewhere ; if they have perplexed the reader, the perplexity will be increased by prolonging them. Ai