INFLECTING SENTENCES.

RULE 1. The completion of a period requires the Falling Inflection.

EXAMPLES.

My friend, Sir Roger, being a good churchman, has beautified the inside of his church with several texts of his own choosing; he has likewise given a handsome pulpit-cloth, and railed in the communion-table, at his own expense.

It is hard to personate and act a part long; for where truth is not at the bottom, nature will always be endeavouring to return, and will peep out and betray herself one time or other'.

Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves-I deny the right, I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature, rise in rebellion against it.

To sit on rocks, to muse o'er flood and fell

To slowly trace the forest's shady scene,

Where things that own not man's dominion dwell,
And mortal foot hath ne'er or rarely been ;
To climb the trackless mountain all unseen,
With the wild flock that never needs a fold;
Alone, o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean;
This is not solitude; 'tis but to hold

Converse with nature's charms, and view her stores unroll'd'.

RULE 2. Negative sentences, or members of sentences, must end with the Rising Inflection.

EXAMPLES.

In death, the poor man lays down at last the burthen of his wearisome life. No more shall he hear the insolent calls of the master, from whom he received his scanty wages'. No more shall he be raised from needful slumber on his bed of straw, nor be hurried away from his homely meal, to undergo the repeated labours of the day'.

Virtue is of intrinsic value, and good desert; not the creature of the will', but necessary and immutable', not local or temporary', but of equal extent and antiquity with the divine mind'; not a mode of sensation', but everlasting truth'; not dependent on power', but the guide of all power'.

RULE 3. Antithetic questions and sentences require Opposite Inflections.*

* Antithesis is an opposition of words to words, thoughts to thoughts, and sen sences to sentences.

EXAMPLES.

Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves; than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen'?

Europe was one great field of battle, where the weak struggled for freedom', and the strong for dominion. The king was without power', and the nobles without principle'. They were tyrants at home', and robbers abroad'.

The style of Dryden is capricious and varied'; that of Pope is cautious and uniform'. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind'; Pope constrains his mind to his rules of composition'. Dryden is sometimes vehement and rapid'; Pope is always smooth, uniform, and gentle. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation'; Pope's is a velvet lawn, shaven by the scythe, and levelled by the roller'.

RULE 4. The First, or introductory part of a sentence, or direct period, should have the Rising Inflection.

EXAMPLES.

Whenever you see a people making progress in vice; whenever you see them discovering a growing disregard to the divine law'; there you see proportional advances made to ruin and misery.

As, while hope remains, there can be no full and positive misery'; so, while fear is yet alive, happiness is yet incomplete.

Formed to excel in peace, as well as in war', Cæsar was endowed with every great and noble quality, that could give a man the ascendant in society.

No man can rise above the infirmities of nature', unless assisted by God.

RULE 5. The Penultimate, or last member but one of a sentence requires the Rising Inflection.

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EXAMPLES.

If we consider cheerfulness in three lights, with regard to ourselves, to those we converse with, and to the great Author of our being', it will not a little recommend itself on each of these accounts'.

I am always very well pleased with a country Sunday, and think, if keeping holy the seventh day were only a human institution', it would be the best method that could have been thought of for the polishing and civilizing of mankind'.

What some men are prompted to do by conscience, duty, or religion, which are only different names for the same thing', others are prompted to do by honour'.

The very first

Of human life must spring from woman's breast,
Your first small words are taught you from her lips,
Your first tears quenched by her, and your last sighs
Too often breathed out in a woman's hearing,
When men have shrunk from the ignoble care',
Of watching the last hour of him who led them,"

RULE 6. At the end of a Concession use the Rising Inflection.

EXAMPLES.

Were there no bad men in the world to vex and distress the good, the good might appear in the light of harmless innocence'; But they could have no opportunity of displaying fidelity, magnanimity, patience, and fortitude."

One may be a speaker, both of much reputation and much influence, in the calm argumentative' manner; but to attain the pathetic and sublime in oratory, requires those strong sensibilities of mind, and that high power of expression, which are given to few.

This, however, I say concerning the Greeks-I grant them learning, the knowledge of many sciences; I do not deny that they have wit, fine genius, and eloquence; nay, if they lay claim to many other excellencies, I shall not contest their title'; but this I must say, that nation never paid a proper regard to the religious sanctity of public evidence, and are total strangers to the obligation, authority, and importance of truth.

RULE 7. Inverted periods* require the Rising Inflection, with a considerable pause between their two principal constructive parts.

EXAMPLES.

Though I would have you consider the present life as a state of probation, and the future as a certain rectifier and recorder of all the good and evil committed here'; yet live innocently, live honestly, and, if possible, apart of that interesting consideration.

By a multiplicity of words, the sentiments are not set off and accommodated'; but, like David equipped in Saul's armour, they' are encumbered and oppressed.

I can desire to perceive those things that God has prepared for those that love him'; though they be such as eye hath not seen, ear heard nor hath it entered into the heart of man to conceive.

When the first part of a sentence forms perfect sense, and yet is modified or determined in the latter, it is said to be inverted.

RULE 8. Questions commencing with verbs adopt the Rising Inflection,

EXAMPLES.

Do you think that Themistocles, and the heroes who were killed in the battle of Marathon and Platea; do you think the very tombs of your ancestors will not send forth groans, if you crown a man, who, by his own confession, has been for ever conspiring with barbarians to ruin Gre'ece?

Does the law which thou hast broken denounce vengeance against thee? Behold that law fulfilled in the meritorious life of the Redeemer.

Know

ye the land where the cypress and myrtle

Are emblems of deeds that are done in their clime;
Where the rage of the vulture, the love of the turtle,
Now melt into sorrow, now madden to cri'me?

RULE 9. Questions asked by pronouns, or adverbs, adopt the Falling Inflection.

EXAMPLES.

How is it possible to forget the solicitude, which should accompany the consciousness that such a Being is continually darting upon us the beams of observant thought?

Who ever left the precincts of mortality, without casting a trembling eye on the scene that is before him?

O, who can hold a fire in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite,
By bare imagination of a feast?

Or wallow naked in December's snow,
By thinking of fantastic summer's heat?

RULE 10. When questions are followed by answers, the question should be pronounced in a high tone of voice, and, after a suitable pause, the answer returned in a low and firm tone.

EXAMPLES.

Searching every kingdom for the man who has the least comfort in life, where is he to be found?In the royal palace. Wha't! his Ma'jesty?-Ye's; especially if he be despotic.

Art thou po'or? Show thyself a'ctive and industrious, peaceable; and contented: Art thou we'althy? Show thyself bene'ficent and charitable, condesce'nding and huma`ne.

RULE 11. A parenthesis must always be pronounced differently from its relative sentence, (generally quicker and lower,) and conclude with the same pause and inflection which terminate the member that precedes it.

EXAMPLES.

Ye know how we exhorted, and comforted, and charged every one of you (as a father does his children) that you would walk worthy of God, who hath called you into his kingdom and glory.

Uprightness is a habit, and, like all other habits, gains strength by time and exercise. If, then, we exercise' upright principles, (and we cannot have them unles'a we exercise them,) they must be perpetually on the increase.

Then tell your king, that all the Greeks may hear,
And learn to scorn the man they ba'sely ear;
(For, arm'd in impudence, mankind he braves,
And meditates new cheats on all his slaves;
Though, shameless as he is, to meet these eyes
Is what he dares not; if he dare', he dies' :)
Tell him, all terms, all commerce I decline,
Nor share his councils, nor his battles join.

SERIES.

Series denotes an enumeration of particulars; a commencing series begins, but does not end a sentence (2); a concluding series is that which ends a sentence whether it begins it or not (1). The series whose members consist of single words (1), is called a simple series. When the members of a series consist of several words (2), it is called a compound series.

EXAMPLES.

(1) Proofs of the immortality of the soul may justly be drawn from the nature of the Supreme Being, whose justice, goodness, wi'sdom, and vera'city, are all concerned in this great point. The fruit of the spirit is lov'e, jo'y, peace, long-suffering, gen'tleness, good'ness, fa'ith, meek'ness, temperance.

(2) The verdant lawn, the shady gro've, the variegated la'nd scape, the boundless o'cean, and the starry fi'rmament, are contemplated with pleasure by every beholder.

Sweet is old wine in bo`ttles, ale in baʼrrels,
Dear is the helpless creature we defend

Against the world, and dear the schoolboy spo't,
Which, though we ne'er forget, yet there we are for got.