falling inflexion on sentiments and ideas, to relieve the ear from that sameness, and form a cadence.

Nearly the same observations hold good in the following sentence:

As beauty of body, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in observing that all the parts have a certain elegance, and are proportioned to each other; so does beauty of behaviour, which appears in our lives, obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions. Spectator, N° 104.

Here the sense extends to other before it begins to form, and, consequently, the voice must be carried on with little variation till that word

is pronounced with the rising inflexion and long pause; after which the voice must adopt the rising inflexion on beauty, and the falling on behaviour; the falling both on approbation, and the word all; when the cadence must be formed by the falling inflexion on order and consistency, the rising on moderation; and the rising on words, and the falling on actions, the voice descending in a gradually lower tone.

On the Period, and the Method of forming a Cadence.

WHEN a sentence is so far perfectly finished, as not to be connected in construction with the following sentence, it is marked with a period. This point is in general so well understood, that few grammarians have thought it necessary to give an express example of it; though there are none who have inquired into punctuation who do not know that in loose sentences the period is frequently confounded with the colon. But

though the tone with which we conclude a sentence is generally well understood, we cannot be too careful, in pronunciation, to distinguish it as much as possible from that member of a sentence which contains perfect sense, and is usually pointed with a colon. Such members, which may not be improperly called sententiola, or little sentences, require the falling inflexion, but in a higher tone than the preceding words, as if we had only finished a part of what we had to say; while the period requires the falling inflexion in a lower tone, as if we had nothing more to add. But this final tone does not only lower the last word; it has the same influence on those which more immediately precede the last; so that the cadence is prepared by a gradual fall upon the concluding words, every word in the latter part of a sentence sliding gently lower till the voice drops upon the last. This will more evidently appear upon repeating the following sentence.

This 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 tòrrent of tíme, and have passed from age to age to our own dàys.

We find perfect sense formed at the word durable; but as this does not conclude the sentence, these words, though adopting the falling inflexion, are pronounced in a higher tone than the rest: the same may be observed of the word age, which ends the second member; while in the last member not only the word days is pronounced lower than the rest, but the whole member falls gradually into the cadence, and have passed from age to age to our own days.

Let us take another Example:

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

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

Nature seems to have designed the head as the cupola to the most glorious of her works: and when we load it with such a pile of supernumerary ornaments, we destroy the symmetry of the human figure, and foolishly contrive to call off the eye from great and real beauties, to chìldish gewgaws, ribbons, and bone-làce. Spectator, N° 98.

In pronouncing this finishing sentence of the essay, we ought to begin the cadence after the word figure; then to let the voice play up and down upon the words foolishly and contrive, call off, and the eye; that is, to give foolishly the rising and contrive the falling inflexion-the words call off the rising, and the eye the falling: then the last member after beauties, consisting of four accented words, should have the two inflexions arranged as they are in the example; that is, falling, rising, rising, falling, and these to be pronounced in a gradually descending tone till the close of the sentence.

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

EXAMPLES.

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

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

Thus, although the whole of life is allowed by every one to be short, the several divisions of it appear long and tedious. We are for lengthening our span in general, but would fain contract the parts of which it is composed. The usurer would be very well satisfied to have all the time annihilated that lies between the present moment and next quarter-day. The politician would be contented to lose three years in his life, could he place things in the posture which he fancies they will stand in after such a revolution of time. The minor would be glad to strike out of his existence all the mo

ments that are to pass away before he comes of age. Thus as fast as our time runs, we should be very glad, in mòst part of our lives, that it ran much faster than it does.

Spectator, N° 93.

Though here are no less than six periods in this passage, and every one of them requires the falling inflexion, yet the voice ought not to fall into a lower tone till the last sentence but one, where the words, before he comes of age, must fall gradually to the end. But in order to give variety, and form a cadence, the last sentence must be pronounced in a different manner from the rest; that is, the whole in a lower tone, with the last member falling gradually, and the different slides on the several words, as marked in the example. As the last of these sentences which forms the cadence does not fall into the same accentual portions as in the examples, page 132, 133, the inflexions are repeated in the same order upon the four last as on the four first words, and the last member adopts the same order of inflexions as in the series. See Elements of Elocu-tion, page 113. .

On Accented Force.

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

* See Elements of Elocution, p. 186.