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EXAMPLES.

1. What is the difference between probability and possibility?

2. Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss.

3. John attends regularly, William, irregularly.

4. There is a great difference between giving and forgiving. 5. The conduct of Antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; that of Nero, by injustice and inhumanity.

6. The conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of the latter merits the severest reprobation.

EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION.

Emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, or from the falling to the rising. For instances of the former change, see Rule II. and exception to Rule IV. In the first three following examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the rising, by the influence of emphasis.

EXAMPLES.

1. If we have no regard for religion in youth`, we ought to have respect for it in age.

2. If we have no regard for our own` character, we ought to regard the character of others.

3. If content can not remove the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, alleviate them.

4. The sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony, fall powerless upon the ear of one who is deaf".

5. It is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is blind'.

6. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren ́; but rather let them do them service.

EMPHATIC PHRASE.

When it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized.

EXAMPLES.

1. Cassius. Must I endure all this?

Brutus. All this!-Ay,-more. Fret, till your proud—heart

-break.

2.

What! weep you, when you but behold

Our Cesar's vesture wounded? Look ye here!
Here is him-self.

3. There was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the Lacedæmonians were sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one ship-no, NOT-ONE-WALL.

4. Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul; and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this HALF-YEAR-CAPTAIN?

5. You call me misbeliever-cut-throat-dog. Hath a dog-money? Is it possible—

A cur can lend three-thousand-ducats?

EMPHATIC PAUSE.

A short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and after an emphatic word or phrase, thus very much increasing the emphatic expression of the thought.

EXAMPLES.

1. May one be pardon'd, and retain—the offense?
In the corrupted currents of this world
Offense's gilded hand may shove by-justice;
And oft 'tis seen, the wicked prize itself
Buys out the law: but 't is not so-above:
There is no shuffling: there-the action lies
In its true nature.

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More free from peril than the envious courts?
Here-feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The season's difference.

3. This is no flattery: These-are counselors
That feelingly persuade me what I am.

And this—our life exempt from public haunt,
Finds tongues-in trees; books-in the running brooks;
Sermons-in stones; and-good in every thing.

4. Heaven gave this Lyre, and thus decreed,

Be thou a bruis'd—but not a broken―reed.

QUESTIONS.-When is a syllable said to be accented? Give examples. How is the accent, when marked, denoted? By what authority is the accent determined? To whom does it belong to record usage in this respect? In what cases can we perceive the reason for the accent? Give examples of the first case. Give examples of the second. Explain the secondary accent. Give examples. What is EMPHASIS? What is its object? How is this object most frequently accomplished? In what other way is it also effected? How is emphasis denoted? What is absolute emphasis? Give examples. What is relative emphasis? Give examples. How is accent affected by emphasis? Give examples. How are inflections affected by it? Give an example in which the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling, by the force of emphasis. Give one, in which it is changed from the falling to the rising. What is an emphatic phrase? Give an example? meant by the emphatic pause? Give an example.

What is

IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING VERSE.

INFLECTIONS.

IN reading verse, the inflections should be nearly the same as in reading prose; the chief difference is, that in poetry, the monotone and rising inflection are more frequently used than in prose. The greatest difficulty in reading or declaiming this species of composition, consists in giving it that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a chanting pronunciation.

If, at any time, the reader is in doubt as to the proper inflection, let him reduce the passage to earnest conversation, and pronounce it in the most familiar and prosaic manner, and thus he will generally use the proper inflection.

EXERCISES IN INFLECTIONS.

1. Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove

From under heaven: the hills to their supply,

Vapor and exhalation dusk and moist

Sent up amain: and now, the thickened sky

Like a dark ceiling stood: down rushed the rain
Impetuous, and continued till the earth

No more was seen: the floating vessel swam
Uplifted, and secure with beaked prow ́,
Rode tilting o'er the waves.

2. My friend, adown life's valley, hand in hand,
With grateful change of grave and merry speech
Or song, our hearts unlocking each to each ́,
We'll journey onward to the silent land`;

And when stern death shall loose that loving band,
Taking in his cold hand, a hand of ours ́,
The one shall strew the other's grave with flowers ́,
Nor shall his heart a moment be unmann'd`.
My friend and brother! if thou goest first,
Wilt thou no more revisit me below"?

Yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly',

And swells, not dreaming why ́, my soul shall know
That thou, unseen, art bending o'er me`.

3. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth ́,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown`;
Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth ́,
And melancholy mark'd him for her own`;
4. Large was his bounty, and his soul sincere`;
Heaven did a recompense as largely send`.
He gave to misery all he had ́---a tear`;

He gain'd from Heaven', ('t was all he wish'd ́,) a friend.

5. No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their last abode,

(There, they, alike, in trembling hope repose,)
The bosom of his father and his God.

ACCENT AND EMPHASIS.

IN reading verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis as in prose; and whenever the melody or music of the verse would lead to an incorrect accent or emphasis, this must be disregarded.

If a poet has made his verse deficient in melody, this must not be remedied by the reader, at the expense of sense or the established rules of accent and quantity. Take the following

EXAMPLE.

O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode,
Of thrones, and mighty Seraphim prostrate.

According to the metrical accent, the last word must be pronounced "prostrate." But according to the authorized pronunciation it is "pros trate." Which shall yield, the poet, or established usage? Certainly not the latter.

Some writers advise a compromise of the matter, and that the word should be pronounced without accenting either syllable. Sometimes this may be done, but where it is not practicable, the prosaic reading should be preserved.

In the following examples, the words and syllables which are improperly accented or emphasized in the poetry, are marked in italics. According to the principle stated above, the reader should avoid giving them that pronunciation which the correct reading of the poetry would require, but should read them as prose, except where he can throw off all accent, and thus compromise the conflict between the poetic reading and the correct reading. That is, he must read the poetry wrong, in order to read the language right.

EXAMPLES.

1. Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made
Taller and stronger than the weeds they shade.
2. Their praise is still, "the style is excellent,"
The sense they humbly take upon content.
3. False eloquence, like the prismatic glass,
Its fairy colors spreads on every place.
4. To do aught good, never will be our task,
But ever to do ill our sole delight.

5. Of all the causes which combine to blind
Man's erring judgment, and mislead the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never-falling vice of fools.

6. Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies,
And catch the manners living as they rise.

7. To whom, then first incens'd, Adam replied,
"Is this thy love, is this the recompense
Of mine to thee, ungrateful Eve?"

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