inflection on the last, and the rising on the last but one.* These may be called the necessary inflections of the series, the rest are more a matter of taste; but those which are marked above, may be considered as in general the best adapted to the various kinds of series to which they apply. It will also be perceived that the rising inflection is less used in the compound than in the simple series. The following are examples of all the varieties of the series exhibited in the above table: / / What some men are prompted to by conscience, duty and religion, which are only different names for the same thing, others are prompted to by honour. • When from emphasis, or any other cause, it is necessary to terminate a commencing series with the falling inflection, or a concluding one with the rising, the above rule is reversed. Or, / Conscience, duty, and religion. Concluding, of three particulars Industry is the law of our being; it is the demand It is the demand of nature, of reason, and of God. Commencing and concluding, of four particu lars / He who resigns the world has no temptation to \ / envy, hatred, malice, or anger, but is in constant pos session of a serene mind; he who follows the pleasures of it, which are in their very nature disappointing, is \ / / in constant search of care, solicitude, remorse and en the constitution. Concluding, of two members Nothing tends more powerfully to strengthen the / \ constitution, than moderate exercise and habitual tem perance. Commencing, of three members \ To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, and comfort the afflicted, are duties which fall in our way almost every day of our lives. Concluding, of three members It was necessary for the world, that arts should be invented and improved, books written and transmitted \ to posterity, nations conquered and civilized. Commencing, of four members \ Labour or exercise ferments the humours, casts \ \ them into the proper channels, throws off redun 7 dancies, and helps nature in those secret distributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigour, nor the soul act with cheerfulness. Concluding, of four members Notwithstanding all the pains which Cicero took in the education of his son, history informs us, that young Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that nature (who it seems was even with the son for her prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of improving by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of philosophy, his own endeavours, and the most refined conversation of Athens. \ The table of inflections given above, comprises all the most common forms in which the series occurs. When it extends to more particulars, or more members than four, the following rules are to be observed : A simple series of more than four particulars, may be divided into portions of three from the last, or into portions, the particulars of which more immediately relate to each other; and these portions, considered together as entire related members, are to be inflected like the members of a compound series; considered singly, they are to be inflected as simple series, according to their number of particulars: thus, Commencing Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, are the fruits of the spirit, and against such there is no law. Concluding The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, \ \ long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, \ faith, meekness, temperance; against such there is no law. -Galatians v. 22, 23. A compound series of more than four members, must have the falling inflection on all of them, except the last, if it be a commencing, or the last but one if it be a concluding series: EXAMPLES. There is a romantic or picturesque sort of interest which belongs to well-described distress, that has no existence in the reality. In the one case a multitude of small well-told circumstances, by giving force and apparent truth of effect to the imaginary picture, render it pleasing; but the very same circumstances, when actually witnessed, produce a totally opposite emotion. The universal look of sorrow, for example, the total discomfort, the pitiable makeshifts, the absence of ease and cheerfulness, the unbroken silence,* the disordered aspect of every thing, the misplaced \ \ \ \ / furniture, the neglected dress, and innumerable other details, all produce, at the time, a painful degree of commiseration for the sufferer, widely different from that pleasing sort of pity, which description excites. Let the series contained in this passage only be read with rising instead of falling inflections, * This passage is taken from Captain Basil Hall's Voyage to Chili, Peru, and Mexico, Vol. I. p. 194; but the word unbroken is supplied before silence, not to improve this writer's style, but to render the sentence a perfect illustration of the rule. |