3rdly. When the sentence appears to be declarative. In this case, however, the rising inflection may be used. As, Did you not do it? which is as much as to say, I am persuaded that you did do it. It is a new thing in theatrical economy, we believe, to grant a début, on a formal bond of indemnification against loss, by a new aspirant's performance. Is this liberal? We think not.-Examiner. 4thly. When the question is formed of two opposite parts, separated by the disjunctive particle or. As, Have you prepared your task, or trifled away your time? Is the goodness or wisdom of the Divine Being more manifest in this his proceeding? 5thly. When a series of questions and answers occurs in this case, though the first interrogation receives the rising inflection, the rest assume the declarative tone, which is expressed by the falling inflection. Thus, Is intemperate passion your brother's present infírmity? It would be a great pity if the heat of his spirit should put yours also into a flame. Does he allow himself in foolish or vain discourse? Answer him not according to his folly. Is he indulging in a censorious spirit? Do not you, by joining with him, confirm the slander; but by every mild and prudent method, convince him that he is wrong, and that you dislike the subject. Is he peevish and irritable towards yourself? Mildness and patience will much more effectually vindicate your conduct, and make him sensible of the superior excellence of your character, than warm resentment or bitter reviling.—Turner. In this example there is an opposition in the interrogations which is equivalent to the disjunctive or, so that this exception might, in fact, be resolved into the preceding one. RULE X. The Parenthesis must terminate with the same inflection as the clause immediately preceding it. It may here also be remarked, that in reading a parenthesis, the voice ought to be lowered, the inflections but slightly marked, and the words pronounced in somewhat quicker time than the rest of the sentence. EXAMPLES. Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence, (for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned,) and when they had brought them, they set them before the council.-Acts v. 26, 27. Natural historians observe (for whilst I am in the country I must fetch my allusions from thence) that only male birds have voices.-Spectator. His spear (to equal which the tallest pine, CHAPTER III. MELODIOUS INFLECTION. IT will have been seen by what was said in the last chapter, that in every sentence, according to its import and structure, there are certain inflections which are necessary in order to express the sense. These, therefore, must be considered as fixed and unalterable; but there are also, in every sentence, many words, the inflections of which, as they cannot affect the sense, may be considered as a matter of taste, and as such they are of considerable importance, since it depends on the choice which is made of them, whether the ear be pleased or offended. Let us take an example. As this word arises very often in conversation, I shall endeavour to give some account of it, and to lay down rules how we may know whether we are possessed of it, and how we may acquire that fine taste of writing, which is so much talked of among the polite world. In the latter part of this passage, beginning with and how, provided we do not drop* the * See the difference between the falling and the terminating inflection, p. 34. voice before the end, the sense is not at all concerned in any of the inflections, except that on writing, and on talked of, which must necessarily be the rising, and that on world, at the end, which must necessarily be the falling, inflection. If these inflections be preserved on these words, the rest may take their chance, and the sense will not be affected; but the dullest ear must perceive the advantage in point of melody, in placing the falling inflection on the words acquire, taste, and much, and the rising on how, fine, and which, and so natural is this pronunciation, that there are few readers so bad as * By Rules III. and VII., Chap. II. + By Rule I. Chap. II. The substance of this passage is taken from Walker, (Elements, p. 219,) but I have substituted the word melody for harmony, which he and most of his followers have used incorrectly. On this mistake Mr. Chapman has well observed, that, "Correctly speaking, no accents or inflections can be said to be harmonic, because one human voice, in speaking as well as in singing, can produce only a succession of sounds; hence we speak of the melody of a solo, never of its harmony, and of the harmony of two or more voices or instruments.”—Rhythmical Grammar, p. 231. As Dr. Watts has observed, "Harmony is a compound idea, made up of different sounds united." It is in this, its proper sense, that it occurs in the following passage in Milton: "The sounds Symphonious of ten thousand harps, that tuned |