But when or is used conjunctively, it has the same inflection after as before it; as,

Would a belief of divine revelation contribute to make rulers less tyrannical, or subjects less governable ?-He is a man of wisdom; or, at least, of great learning.

When affirmation and negation are opposed to cach other, that which affirms has generally the falling, and that which denies the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

I spoke of his intègrity, not of his talent.

I am going to Rochester, not to Buffalo.

He was not esteemed for his wealth, but for his wisdom.

I have not been reading Milton, but Homer.

Think not that the influence of devotion is confined to the retirement of the closet, and the assembly of the saints: Imagine not, that, unconnected with the duties of life, it is suited only to those enraptured souls, whose feelings perhaps you deride as romantic and visionary :-It is the guardian of innocence-it is the instrument of virtue-it is a mean by which every good affection may be formed and improved.

The Circumflex.

The circumflex is used to express ideas ironically, hypothetically, or comparatively; or when something is rather insinuated than strongly expressed.

EXAMPLES.

They tell us to be moderate; but they, they are to revel in profusion. If men see our faults they will talk among themselves, though we refuse to let them talk to us.

He has more art than science.

You were paid to fight against Alexander, not to rǎil at him.

It may teach us prudence, if we derive from it no other benefit.

Were we to ask a physician concerning a sick person, and receive in reply "He is better"--we might suppose him to be yet dangerously sick, the circumflex giving us an idea only of a sight, or comparative amendment,--but were he to say--He is better-our anxiety for his safety would be at once removed.

The following example will more clearly show the controlling influence which the inflection has upon the sense, without changing the seat of the emphasis :

:

In church I am unable to suppress evil thoughts.

The idea, which this sentence is intended to convey, is, that the person making the assertion is subject to evil thoughts, which, not only most places of resort, but even the sacredness of a church does not enable him to suppress. Hence it should be read with the strong emphasis and the falling inflection upon church; thus-"In church I am unable to suppress evil thoughts."-But if the circumflex be used with the emphasis, a different idea will be conveyed-it will be, that the person, although in most places not subject to evil thoughts, is in church pecularly afflicted by, and unable to suppress them; thus--In church I am unable to suppress evil thoughts.-We will take another example. Horatio in the Fair Penitent says.

"I will not turn aside from my loose pleasure, though all thy force be armed to bar my way."

The circumflex upon thy implies that Horatio looked upon the opposing force with contempt; and is equivalent to saying, “I might turn aside for a respectable opposition, but thy force is not worth regarding." "But place the falling inflection upon thy, and it makes it a matter of great moment :-while it compliments the opposing force, it declares a determination to resist it, great as it is.

In examining the principles of vocal inflection, the ingenious scholar will find both amusement and instruction. Without being understood, they are practiced by all, intuitively, when the stronger emotions are excited; and if persons could strictly pursue the dictates of nature in these respects, they would never err. But the force of habit is almost irresistible; and when this is formed on the side of error, nothing but the strongly excited emotions can disengage its bonds. It will be in vain, therefore, to depend upon the dictation of these emotions; for they will be found unerring only in the expressions of original thought, --and then only under circumstances as above described. It becomes necessary, then, that the doctrine of inflections be studied, that they may be applied in unimpassioned discourse, and to the composition of others-studied, not under the impression that the principles of nature are to be subverted, but discovered, and strictly followed.

Porter, in speaking of the importance of a knowledge of the principles of inflection, says: "Analysis of vocal inflections bears the same relation to oratory, that the tuning of an instrument does to music. The rudest performer in this latter art knows, that his first business is to regulate the instrument he uses, when it is so deranged as to produce no perfect notes, or to produce others than those which he intends. The voice is the speaker's instrument, which, by neglect or mismanagement, is often so out of tune as not to obey the will of him who uses it. To cure bad habits is the first and hardest task in elocution. Among instructors of children, scarcely one in fifty thinks of carrying his precepts beyond correctness in uttering words, and a mechanical attention to pauses; so that the child who speaks the words of a sentence distinctly and fluently, and "minds the stops," as it is called, is without scruple pronounced a good reader. Hence, among the multitude who consider themselves good readers, there are so few that give by their voice that just expression of sentiment, which constitutes the spirit and soul of delivery."

V. Monotonc.

MONOTONE is a sameness of sound upon a succession of syllables, like the repeated strokes upon a bell. It has the peculiar property of rendering composition either sublime or ridiculous, according as it may be judiciously or injudiciously used. Nothing is more disgusting than a dull repetition of sounds upon the same pitch of the voice, resulting from a dullness in the reader or speaker, and applied in common discourse. It is notwithstanding used with the most happy effect, in grave delivery, in the expression of sublime and reverential emotions, and in elevated description. The following examples will illustrate it as used with propriety:

If a man should discover his own house on fire, he would not, like a dia tant and disinterested observer, cry fire"! fire'! fire'!-but we should hear his more expressive exclamation of fire! fire! fire!

"Shall an inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind scourge, torture with red hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of the cross, a Koman citizen!"

"High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus and of Inde;
Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat."

In the foregoing, the monotone adds much to the dignity of the composition. The examples which follow present a striking contrast :-to read them with the monotone would make them insipid and disgusting:

"What the weak head with strongest bias rules,
Is pride, the never failing vice of fools."

"With passions unruffled, untainted by pride,
By reason, my life let me square;

The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied;
And the rest are but folly and care."

VI. Modulation.

By Modulation is understood that pleasing variety in the management of the voice, which constitutes a graceful delivery. It is one of the most important acquisitions of a good speaker, and at the same time the most difficult to define.--In an extended sense, it may be understood as including every modification of which the voice is capable. It is easier to point out the defects in modulation than to define the constituents of its excellence:-Of those we shall notice a few. But in order to be fully understood, we will caution the learner against confounding high with loud, and low with soft sounds. A person may pronounce a word in a voice hardly audible, and again very loud, upon the same key, or equally low. He may do the same upon a key equally high. This distinction between pitch and volume of sound, must be clearly understood. Let the following line,

"Shall Rome be taken while I am Consul?"

be read on a low key note, and with a small voice. Let it be repeated several times in succession, a little louder each time, without varying the pitch or key note, and the difference will be very apparent.

This distinction being understood, the first prominent defect in modulation that we shall notice, consists in inflating the lungs at the beginning of each sentence, and pouring out a volume of sound, which in every stage of progression is graduated by the stock of breath on hand. The first part of the sentence, therefore, is uttered with a loud voice, and generally upon a high key; but terminates in a low and feeble close. This manner of reading, which is common, is illustrated by the following example.-The capital letters represent the greatest strength of sound, which gradually falls away to the italic:

"GENTLENESS IS THE GREAT AVENUE TO MUTUAL enjoyment, AMIDST THE STRIFE OF INTERFERING INTERESTS, IT TEMPERS THE VIOLENCE OF CONTENTION, AND KEEPS ALIVE the seeds of harmony. IT SOFTENS ANIMOSITIES, RENEWS ENDEARMENTS, AND RENDERS THE COUNTENANCE OF MAN a refreshment to man."

Another great defect in modulation arises from an unskillful effort to avoid the monotone. It consists in a periodical elevation of the voice, both in pitch and volume, on one or more words in every sentence; while it gently undulates upon the rest, varying but little from the monotone. Let the words in small capitals in the following example, be pronounced with a fuller voice, and on a higher key than the rest, and this manner of reading will be exhibited.

"Our sight is the MOST perfect, the MOST delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest VARIETY of ideas, converses with its objects at GREATEST distance, and continues the longest in action without being TIRED or satiated with its proper enjoyments.

There is one other manner of reading deserving of notice. It is sometimes adopted in the pulpit, from the mistaken notion that it adds solemnity to the subject matter. It consists in adopting two tones voice, generally two or four notes distant from each other, and pronouncing every word upon these notes changing alternately from one to the other. The difference between this manner, and that exhibited in the last example, is, that in this, several words are often sounded upon the higher note in succession, and on the remaining words there is no variation from the monotone. This manner may be exhibited by reading the words in Roman letters, in the example following, in a strictly monotonous manner, and the words in Italic a minor third, or tone and semitone above them :

"I tell you though you, though all the world, though an angel from heaven, should declare the truth of it, I would not believe it."

The learner will find much benefit in practicing upon examples like the foregoing: by doing it understandingly, he will be led to the discovery of his own peculiarity of manner, if he have any, and be able to apply the corrective.

VII. The reading of Verse.

The same rules may in general be observed in the reading of verse that apply to prose. There is, however, a peculiar charm in poetry, which entitles it to a few additional remarks.

First--Although the beauty of poetry consists in the smoothness and harmony of its numbers, the poetic measure should not be permitted to destroy the sense by usurping the proper emphasis or accent. We sometimes hear sentences like the following, read thus :

"False elo-quence, like the prismatic glass,

Its gaudy colors spreads on every place."
"And felt, from lov'd ones far away

An exile from Ameri-ca."

In some cases, when the metrical and the customary accent do not anite upon one syllable, they can both be indulged, as in the followmg:

"Our su-preme foe in time may much relent."

It is a general rule, however, that neither the rights of the customary accent, nor the emphasis, should be infringed.

There are two kinds of pauses which belong to poetry: the casu ral pause, which falls about the middle of the line, and the pause at the end of it. In poetry in which the cæsural pause unites with a divis ion made by the sense, the line is harmonious, as in the following

But when the cæsural pause requires a place which the sense denies to it, a difficulty occurs. The only alternative in such cases is to regard the sense, and let the poet be answerable for the consequences. The following presents a case of this kind :

"I sit, with sad civility I read."

Here the sense requires the pause after sit, and it would do it violence. not to observe it, although the melody would require it after sad, where the sense denies the least suspension of the voice.

In reading blank verse, the sense often requires no pause at the end of the line; but the best writers on this subject agree, that however intimately connected one line may be with the next following, in sense, there should be a sufficient suspension of the voice at the end to enable a hearer to distinguish one line from another. The following wil illustrate it :

"O! blest of Heaven, whom not the languid songs ..

Of luxury, the syren! not the bribes

Of sordid wealth, nor all the gaudy spoils.

Of pageant honor, can seduce to leave

Those ever blooming sweets, which, from the store..
Of Nature, fair Imagination culls,

To charm the enlivened soul."

WALKER, in speaking of this pause, says," The affectation which most writers of blank verse have of extending the sense beyond the line, is followed by a similar affectation in the printer, who will often omit a pause at the end of a line in verse, when he would have inserted one in prose; and this affectation is carried still farther by the reader, who will run the sense of one line into another where there is the least opportunity for doing it, in order to show that he is too sagacious to suppose that there is any conclusion in the sense, because the line concludes."

When the vowels e and o in poetry are apostrophized, their sounds should not be entirely omitted; but should be spoken in a manner so light, as easily to unite with the following syllable. The following is an example :-

"But of the two less dang'rous is th' offense,
Who durst defy th' omnipotent to arms."