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This proposition was, however, rejected,

and not merely rejected but rejected with insult.

The perfect understanding of the preceding rules of simple inflection-which are the basis of all that will follow-is essential before advancing a step further.

Their application tends much to correct that unmeaning sameness or monotony so common to readers in general, and so tiresome to the ear: and when, to the practice of these rules, is added that of the doctrine of rhetorical pause, the style is at once indued with meaning, life, and a pleasing variety. This is the first step towards the MUSIC OF ELOCUTION.

COMPOUND INFLECTIONS.

There are also compound or double inflections,— consisting of a concrete slide ascending or descending, and embracing five and even eight tones,-that is, a full octave-under the influence of strong feeling, expression, or energy. These inflections are fully treated of hereafter in Part III. of 2d Division.

Before we enter upon the intricacies and variations of inflection necessary to long, or particularly-constructed periods, let us for the present proceed to the third principle under our second division, viz.

3. EMPHASIS

is a word of Greek origin and form, adopted in its original spelling (uparis) into our language; its derivation is sv (on) and onu (to speak), or caris (speech): according to which, therefore, emphasis strictly signifies a speaking (strongly) upon; or, as it is popularly called, a stress of the voice upon a certain word (or words) to which a particular meaning or force is attached, and particular attention desired: and this is called the emphatic word; (I denote it by this line written under the word,) thus:

He spoke for religion, not against it.

This book is mine, that yours.

In the utterance of the above sentences, the words marked as emphatic receive an impulsive or explosive force of sound, which distinguishes their power and importance above the other words. Just in the same manner as what we call the accented syllable in any word is marked by stress, or stroke of sound, from the other syllables with which it is combined: as in the words

vir-tue, mer-ciful, pól-icy, resolu-tion, con-stancy,

in which the stress, or impulse of sound, is thrown on to one particular syllable, which is popularly called

the accented, but more properly, the heavy syllable, in contradistinction to the light or (as they are called) unaccented syllables, which have no weight of sound, or stress upon them: so, in a sentence, the stress or emphasis being thrown by an impulse of sound on any particular word, that word is called the emphatic word. And, in fact, this emphasis, when applied to a word, falls always on the accented or heavy syllable of the word, doubling the stress upon it. We shall presently see that emphasis requires, to be complete, not only stress, but inflection; and that that inflection is governed by the character of the emphasis.

But, first, it is proper to observe here the distinction between our language and that of the Greeks and Romans, who measured the march of their lanor shortguage by quantity, of long syllables: and all the words of their language had a certain and fixed prosodial quantity; according to which their verses are supposed to have been constructed and scanned or measured. Our language, on the contrary, acknowledges no fixed and certain quantity to its syllables; the distinction between which is of light and heavy, not of long and short: for the length or time of utterance to be given to a word or syllable in our language, is regulated not by any fixed prosodial rule (to which it is not amenable,) but by other circumstances of a varying nature, as, its force and value to the sense,-or the amount of feeling that is to be conveyed by or upon it; so that in our versi

* See "Inflection," and Note to page 75.

fication, it constantly happens that, in its relative proportion in a line, the same word is sometimes long, sometimes short; and indeed, it will be manifest to any ear, that monosyllables, such as care, there, loud, bold, &c. may be prolonged at will to any indefinite time, so as to give to them the quantity of a quaver, a crotchet, a minim, or even a semibreve. This clearly does away with the idea of a settled rule of quantity in our language; the rhythmus (or order) of which is governed by another principle, that of the regular arrangement of heavy and light sounds, or syllables; and this it is, not quantity, which makes the rhythm of English versification. This will be more fully treated of under the head of " Time," in the chapter devoted to the Reading of Verse.

Here it is necessary to remark, that there is a certain rhythmical, or measured, movement even in prose; not so regularly preserved as in verse, but still requiring to be noted and marked in reading.

In some elaborate compositions, indeed, where the cadences are very regular, the rhythm and time are preserved with great exactness; and it is a great beauty in elocution to mark them by the pulsation and remission of the voice, on the heavy and light syllables respectively, and by a due observance of time or measure.

Take, as an example, the following, by Dr. Johnson, in common time: The notation is only to show the time, and the barring marks the rhythmical accentuation:

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