But when the intervening member goes farther than these fimple phrafes, they must always be pronounced in a lower tone of voice, and terminate with the rifing inflexion.

EXAMPLES.

I had létters from him (here I felt in my pockets) that exactly spoke the Czar's character, which I knew perfectly well. Spectator, N° 136.

Young mafter was alive last Whitfuntide, faid the coachman. -Whitfuntide! alàs ! cried Trìm, (extending his right arm, and falling inftantly into the fame attitude in which he read the sèrmon)—what is Whitfuntide, Jónathan (for that was the coachman's name), or Shrovetide, or any tide or time past to this? Are we not here nów, continued the corporal, (ftriking the end of his ftick perpendicularly upon the floor, fo as to give an idea of health and stability,) and are we nót (dropping his hat upon the ground) gone in a moment? Sterne.

In these examples we perceive the parenthesis has a pronunciation much more different from the text than the fmall explanatory members, cried Trim, and continued the corporal, which, though pronounced in a different manner from the body of the fentence, have not fo marked a difference as the parenthesis.

Rule II. As the first general rule was, that the parenthesis ought to terminate with the fame pause and inflexion of voice as the member that preceded it; the next general rule is, that the parenthefis, like the member immediately preceding it, almoft always terminates with the pause of the comma and the rifing inflexion: this has been abundantly exemplified in the foregoing inftances; and it will now be neceffary to take notice of an exception to this rule, which is, when the parenthesis terminates with an emphatical word which requires the falling inflexion; for in this cafe, emphafis reN

quires, that the parenthefis fhould terminate with the falling instead of the rifing inflexion.

EXAMPLE.

Had I, when speaking in the affembly, been abfolute and independent master of affairs, then your other fpeakers might call me to account. But if ye were ever present, if ye were all in general invited to propose your sentiments, if ye were all agreed that the measures then fuggefted were really the best; if you, Æfchines, in particular, were thus perfuaded, (and it was no partial affection for me, that prompted you to give me up the hopes, the applaufe, the honours, which attended that courfe I then advised, but the fuperior force of truth, and your utter inability to point out any more èligible courfe;) if this was the cafe, I fay, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign those meafures now, when you could not then propose any better? Leland's Demoft. on the Crown.

Here the parenthefis finishing with two parts in oppofition to each other, and the firft of them being negative, and the laft pofitive, the fenfe neceffarily requires that advised fhould terminate with the rising, and eligible course with the falling inflexion; but as the member which immediately precedes the parenthesis is emphatical, and takes the falling inflexion, likewise in this cafe the general rule is not broken.

Cicero, fpeaking of the duty of magistrates, fays

Care must be taken that it bé not (as was often done by our ancestors through the smallness of the treasury and continuance of the wárs) neceffary to raise taxes; and in order to prevent this, provifion fhould be made against it long beforehand: but if the neceffity of this fervice fhould happen to any state (which I had rather fuppofe of another than our own; nor am I now 'difcourfing of our own but of every ftate in general) methods must be used to convince all perfons (if they would be secure) that they ought to fubmit to neceffity.

Cicero's Offices, book ii. c. 21. In this paffage are no less than three parenthefes; the first and laft, according to the ge

neral rule, end with the rifing inflexion; but the middle parenthetic member ending with two emphatic objects, the laft of which requires the falling inflexion, the general rule muft be difpenfed with. Why the negative part of a fentence requires the rifing, and pofitive part the falling inflexion, fee Theory of Emphatic Inflexion.

Before we conclude this article, it may not be improper to take notice of a very erroneous practice among printers, which is, fubftituting commas instead of the hooks which mark a parenthesis. Slight as this fault may appear at first fight, we fhall find upon reflexion, that it is productive of great inconveniences; for if the parenthefis ought to be read in a lower tone of voice, and thefe hooks which inclose it are a mark of this tone, how fhall a reader be able to understand this at fight, if the marks of the parenthesis are taken away, and commas inferted in their ftead? The difficulty of always deciding, what is a parenthesis, and what is not, may, perhaps, be fome excufe for confounding it with other intervening members; but the abfolute neceffity of reading a real parenthesis with its proper tone of voice, makes it of fome importance to diftinguish between this and the incidental member which is often confounded with it. The best rule, therefore, to diftinguish the member in queftion is, not merely to try if sense remains when it is left out of the fentence, but to fee if the member fo modifies the preceding member as to change it from a general to a particular meaning; for if this be the cafe, the member, though incidental, is abso

lutely neceffary to the fenfe of the whole fentence, and confequently cannot be a parenthefis. An example will affift us in understanding this distinction, which is nearly the fame as that which has been taken notice of in the definition of a sentence, p. 30.

EXAMPLE.

My friend the divine, having been used with words of complaifance, (which he thinks could be properly applied to no man living, and I think could be only spoken of him, and that in his abfence) was fo offended with the exceffive way of speaking civilities among us, that he made a discourse against it at the club.

The incidental member in this fentence, which, in every edition of the Spectator I have feen, is marked as a parenthefis, is certainly nothing more than an incidental member modifying that which precedes, and therefore ought to have no fall of the voice in pronouncing it as the parenthefis requires; for the words of complaifance are not merely these words in general, but fuch as he thought could be applied to no one living, &c.; and confequently this modifying member ought not to be fo detached from that which it modifies, as to be pronounced in a lower tone of voice, as this would in fome measure injure the fenfe.

Thus have we gone through the feveral paufes and diftinctions of punctuation, and to these pauses and diftinctions have added such a flide or inflexion of voice as is fuited to exprefs them with clearnefs, ftrength, and propriety. Our next attempt must be to fhow what pronunciation is required by accent, emphafis, variety, harmony, and paffion; and this must be the subject of the second part of this work.

ELEMENTS

OF

ELOCUTION.

A

PART II.

ACCENT.

S Accent relates to the pronunciation of words taken fingly, it can have little to do in an effay on the pronunciation of words in fucceffion, as Elocution, perhaps, may not improperly be called; for as words juftly pronounced are merely the materials for delivery, these must all be fuppofed to be in our own poffeffion before we can poffibly begin to arrange and difplay them to advantage. A perfon who pronounces every word fingly with the greatest purity, may not be able to read well; and another may convey the sense of an author' with great force and beauty, who does not always either pronounce the words justly, or place the accent on the proper fyllable. The only point, therefore, in which it will be neceffary to take notice of accent in reading, is that where the emphasis requires a tranfpofition of it: this happens when two words which have a fameness in part of their formation, are opposed to each other in fenfe. Thus, if I pro