to that of the accented word,-high before a low accent, low before a high

68. The following antithetic sentences should be practised, with alternate rising and falling tones,-Simple and Compound. Thus:

First Modes: Not Sunday, but Monday. Not Tuesday, but Wednesday.

Second Modes: Not Thursday, but Friday. Not Saturday, but Sunday.

APPLICATION OF THE INFLEXIONS TO SENTENCES.

69. All sentences belong to one of Three Classes :-(1) Assertive. (2) Interrogative. (3) Imperative.

70. Assertive sentences, when they affirm the Speaker's will or knowledge, take a falling termination; but when they do not imply absoluteness, or do not communicate information, they take a rising termination, as in appeal to the Hearer's consciousness.

71. Interrogative sentences when they appeal for the Hearer's assent to or dissent from the proposition they contain, take a rising termination; but when they do not imply doubt or desire of assurance, they take a falling termination, as in assertion of what the Hearer's consciousness must affirm. (Interrogative sentences that cannot be answered by "yes" or "no" are of the nature of Imperative sentences, and follow the same law.)

72. Imperative sentences convey the Speaker's will or desire, with or without reference to the will of the Hearer. They take a falling termination when they are absolute and exclude appeal, as in command; and a rising termination where they imply appeal, and solicit rather than enjoin, -as in supplication.

73. The Reader must not be guided by the rhetorical forms of sentences; for Interrogative construction may be strongly assertive in meaning, and Declarative construction may be emphatically interrogative.

CONTINUATIVE TONE-MONOTONE.

74. The Continuative Tone is formed by avoiding any marked inflexion. It is used in the unemphatic pronunciation of the minor words in a sentence; in pronouncing those passages that are of little importance, or those with which the auditor may be supposed to be pre-acquainted. The Continuative Tone, however, does not proceed without inflexion; the vocal turns are merely subdued in subordination to the accent.

75. Monotone, in its exact definition, is a term which cannot be employed in Elocution; as there is, strictly speaking, no unvaried repe tition of the same tone. What is called Monotone is an emphatic prolongation of the Continuative Tone-generally in the Orotund voice-in which the Inflexions are subdued as much as possible. These subdued Inflexions, judiciously introduced, serve as the lights or shades with which a skilful artist invests his principal objects.

76. Subdued inflexions may be used on any tone of voice. The Guttural Monotone is principally employed to express fear, terror, horror, or disgust. The Natural Monotone gives awe to descriptive passages. The Orotund Monotone should be used in solemn or sublime passages. The Falsetto Monotone gives expression to violent despair, affliction, or anguish : it is also employed to express distant voices or sounds.

VII.-MODULATION.

77. MODULATION consists in changing the pitch-note of the voice to a higher or lower degree of elevation.

78. As a general rule, high modulation makes prominent the speaker or the subject spoken, and is expressive of egotism, boldness, or importance; low modulation is retiring, solemn, or expletive in effect.

79. The principal clauses of sentences should be read either in a higher or louder tone, or in a lower and stronger tone, than those which are in any way subordinate. Modulation has also an imitative or analogical expressiveness, making "the sound an echo to the sense.

80. All varieties of Emphasis, Inflexion, Force, Time, &c., may be given in any modulative pitch.

81. The following Five Degrees comprise the principal changes :

5

4

321

2

high-passionate.
important.
conversational.

subordinate.

low-solemu.

VIII.-FORCE.

82. Force considers sounds with respect to their degrees of loudness or softness: those sounds are called loud, which are made with greater respiratory and vocal effort than the ordinary tones of conversation; and those are called soft, which are made with less.

83. The following Table includes the five principal degrees of Force :

84. No direction can be given for the regular employment of these various degrees: their use is dependent on the meaning of the words spoken -the situation of the supposed speaker-the relative positions and distances of the speaker and auditor—and, principally, on taste and judgement.

85. The reader is referred to previous directions for the management of the voice. He is again reminded that he can never speak naturally on an unnatural key. In public addresses, even in the largest edifice, he ought not to depart from that tone of voice which is usual to him, but simply add to it any necessary degree of force to make it audible. It is extremely difficult to change the pitch of a discourse from high to low, although the reverse may be done with facility. Every sentence should be commenced and concluded on the NATURAL TONE of voice, strengthened to any audibility that circumstances may require.

IX.-TIME.

86. Time treats of sounds with respect to their various degrees of rapidity or slowness. The following Five Degrees include the leading varieties:

87. Solemn discourse requires a very slow movement. Simple narrative a medium rate of utterance. Animated description, as well as all language expressive of quick or sudden passion, a rapid rate of utterance, varying with the intensity of the emotion. Clauses or sentences which are very

emphatic, should be pronounced in small and distinct emphatic portions (staccato-sec. 49). Passages introductory to those which are slow or rapid, should be gradually introduced with the proper degrees of Time.

88. No reader should endeavour to read or speak more rapidly than an intelligent person, well informed on the subject, and prepared to communicate his thoughts, could extemporize the subject of discourse.

Note. That division of Time which treats of Rhetorical Punctuation will be considered in a subsequent page-Sections 99–103.

RHYTHMUS-TIME OF POETRY.

89. In addition to the above varieties of Time, there is, in Poetry, and in Harmonious Prose, another variety, dependent on rhythmical structure. It is caused by an alternation of strong and weak impulses of voice, occurring at regular intervals, and distinguishing this species of composition from Ordinary Prose.

90. The following are the principal Dissyllabic and Trisyllabic Measures of Verse; each measure forming what in Prosody is called a foot.

91. The leading kinds of verse are Iambic, Trochaic, Anapœstic, and Dactylic: the other measures being occasionally introduced to give variety. 92. Verses consist of different numbers of feet, namely:

Heptameter, a verse of seven feet.

93. Not only do the prosodial names for the various measures of Verse convey no just idea of its structure, but the accentuation of the English language does not permit the division of its metres into long and short syllables. All English verse is constructed, and must be pronounced, with a regular succession and alternation of HEAVY and LIGHT syllables, in dissyllabic or trisyllabic measures. The sense always determines the accented syllable, and no light syllable should be made heavy merely for the sake of euphony. The principle of this rhythmical admeasurement may be thus explained.

94. No heavy sounds can successively follow each other without a slight intervening pause, the time of which might serve for the utterance of another syllable; thus

*

An unaccented syllable might be inserted without adding to the time of the measure, and without requiring, in consecutive utterance, any intervening pause; thus

Or two unaccented syllables may be inserted, so that they occupy only the time of one, thus—

95. The natural order of verse, and of its harmonious pronunciation, is from pulsation to remission—that is, from heavy to light. Every bar must be commenced with a heavy syllable; and two heavy syllables cannot be contained in one measure.

96. The number of measures in a line, either caused by sound or pause, is immaterial, so that the TIME of each is regularly preserved. The prosodial mode of scanning reduces all poetry to the same hum-drum canter; whereas, the accentual mode constantly varies with, and accommodates itself to, the sense in every structure of verse, and is certain mode of attaining a musical and expressive pronunciation. Based on the natural principle of pulsation and remission, which regulates all physical motion and action, it is applicable to all speech; "and although it stops the finger of the foot-counting pedant, it satisfies the ear of the intelligent philosopher."

97. By attention too to this accentual structure of verse, the monstrosities of prosody are removed, and language restored to its natural order and proper proportions. False accents, elisions, and contractions of words, may thus be avoided, and each syllable have its distinct proportionate musical

*The heavy syllable is marked thus (A); the light (..), or when two light syllables occur (...). The bar-measurer is denoted by a vertical line, thus (), and is used to separate the various bars. An omitted heavy syllable is marked thus (●); an omitted light syllable thus (0).