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in a case of supposed impossibility. For I am persuaded there will be some future and beautiful finishing of that system for the ordering of speech, which I plainly see is here but just begun. He who chooses to follow the path thus opened, may fortunately find himself among the first comers to an ungathered field a field which has been unvisited and unclaimed only because it was believed by the indolent, to be barren or inaccessible; or because the eye of irresolute inquiry has been turned from the leading star of observation, by the vain attractions of theory, and the delusive authority of names. For what does the term, genius for discovery mean, besides-the art of forgetting ourselves and others, and looking exclusively and perseveringly at our work? Too many, alas! imagine they are doing all these things, when they are only thinking of notoriety, and hunting after the favorable opinion of mankind.

By the Wave of the voice, I mean the junction of the upward and downward movement in continuous utterance. This function was known to the Greeks: and is noticed by modern writers, particularly by Mr. Steele and Mr. Walker, under the term, Circumflex accent.

As the wave is composed of the two opposite courses of pitch, each of which has its different intervals, and as the direction of the outset of the voice and the number of its flexures may vary, the reader must expect to find in the history of this symbol, numerous and somewhat complicated subdivisions.

The Wave is a very frequent element in expression, and performs high offices in speech. It therefore becomes him who would not be a pretender in elocution, and who is willing to turn from the falterings of spontaneous effort in art, to the fulness, the purpose, and the precision of scientific order and rule-it becomes him not to overlook the investigation of the

wave.

In order to represent this matter clearly, let the several upward and downward movements, which by their continuity make the wave, be called the Constituents. It is plain then that the constituents may be, octaves gr fifths or thirds or seconds or semitones.

Further, as the upward and downward concrete may be of various dimensions, it follows that the wave may be constituted of an upward and downward movement of the same interval; or these constituents may differ from each other in extent. Thus the wave may consist of a rising and a falling third conjoined, or of a rising second continued into a falling third. These varied modes of construction give occasion for a distinction of the wave into Equal and Unequal.

It will be found on experiment, that the wave with its first constituent ascending, and its second descending, has a different character of expression from one, which by first descending, has a reverse course of its constituents. Of the variations thus produced, let the former case be called the Direct wave, and the latter the Inverted.

I have thus represented the wave as consisting of two constituents only; but it may have three or even more; for the direct may have a subsequent rising interval, and the inverted, a subsequent falling one. If there are but two constituents it may be called the Single, and if three, the Double wave. When there are more than three, as may happen in some cases to be pointed out presently, it may be called the Continued

wave.

By reflection on these distinctions, we may discover their reciprocal relations. Thus the equal and the unequal wave may each be direct and inverted-single and double. The doubleunequal may have its three constituents dissimilar, or two of them-the first and second, or second and third, or first and

third may be alike. The direct and inverted, may each be equal or unequal-single or double. And the single and double may each be equal or unequal,--direct or inverted.

But perhaps these relationships will be better understood from the tabular view in the next page.

In the preceding table, I have marked only the first constituent of the unequal wave. I therefore subjoin a tabular scheme of the second and third constituents of this wave, in its single and its double forms. I beg the reader to take this delineation as the history of what is performed by the voice, in the multiplicity of its combinations; not as the record of a point of any practical utility.

In thus penetrating the recesses of nature, I must be allowed to describe her most minute phenomena, however presently useless it may be. I do assert then, that nearly all of the conditions here noticed, may be made designedly by a skilful use of intonation; and they are perpetually made in daily discourse, by the instinctive efforts of speech. But the expression of the unequal wave, as far as I can perceive, is limited to a few sentiments most of the varieties here given, being only permutations of constituents, answering the same purpose. Whether these symbols, which are not specially significant with us, have ever among nations been made the signs of ideas or feelings, is yet to be told. We have heard, but the account is altogether vague, that the Chinese vary the meaning of the same elemental or syllabic sound, eight or ten times, by the changes of intonation. Do they draw upon any of the forms of the following table of the unequal wave?