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an allusive or referential expressiveness, or add to it a meaning which the words do not literally convey. Thus, the Rising Wave is used for Suggestive Emphasis—it is the appropriate intonation of inuendo ;—and the Falling wave for Positive Emphasis —with an allusive or referential effect. This vocal progression is the intonation of derision and irony. The Rising Wave is used

suggestively, when Brutus says to Cassius

“For I can raise no money by vile means:

it insinuates and hints at, rather than openly expresses, an accusation. The Falling Wave positively and unmistakeably points an accusation, as when

"Nathan said unto David, Thou art the man!'”

As a general principle, it may be affirmed that words intended to be understood literally, should be inflected with simple turns— which are the invariable intonations of candour, sincerity, and artlessness :—while words to be accepted in some peculiar, figurative, or with some added-sense, require the compound turns, which are the natural intonation of artifice. Figurative language of every kind abounds with circumflexes.

In the following sentence, the Rising and Falling Waves are brought naturally in contrast:

"Oh! indeed! if you said so-then I meant so.

If we supply the words referentially implied by these circumflexes, we may bring into contrast the simple and compound inflexions of each class. Thus :

:

"Oh! indeed! if you said so, and not So,

not so."

then I meant so, and

The student should practise this waving formation of voice on vowels, on syllables, on words, and on sentences, until he is able to produce several varieties of each kind from the same cominencing note, with different degrees of force and expressiveness,plaintively and otherwise. In his practice, let him bear in mind that the circumflexes are merely combinations of the simple inflexions. The first or emphatic part of a Rising Wave is a falling turn this conveys a positive effect:-and the concluding part is a rise, which qualifies the positiveness of the first turn by its doubtful and querulous expressiveness. Thus :

"O! sir, your honesty is remarkable!"

The first or emphatic part of a Falling Wave is a rising turn, the effect of which is appellatory, or interrogative; and the subsequent fall which finishes the inflexion adds to this an expression of positiveness and conviction. Thus :

"So, then, you are the author of this conspiracy against me? It is to you I am indebted for all the mischief that has befallen me."

APPLICATION OF THE INFLEXIONS.

Governing the application of the vocal inflexions to sentences, we find principles equally simple with those which we have shown to regulate their mechanism, and their arrangements on syllables. As all inflexions may be resolved into two kinds,—upward and downward,—so all rules for their application may be resolved into two corresponding, general,

FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLES.

The rising progression connects what has been said with what is to be uttered, or with what the speaker wishes to be implied or supplied by the hearer; and this, with more or less closeness, querulousness, and passion, in proportion to the force and extent of the rise. The falling progression disconnects what has been said from whatever may follow; and this with more or less completeness, exclusiveness, and passion, in proportion to the force and extent of the fall.

The rising inflexion is, thus, The falling inflexion is, thus, invariably associated with what invariably associated with what is incomplete in sense; or, if ap- is complete and independent in parently complete, dependent on, sense, or intended to be received or modified by what follows; with as such; with whatever is positive whatever is relative to something and exclusive; and with what is expressed, or to be implied; and confidently assertive, dogmatical, with what is doubtful, interroga- or mandatory.

tive, or supplicatory.

The rising inflexion is thus, also, the natural intonation of all attractive sentiments—love, admiration, pity, &c.; and the falling, of all repulsive sentiments—anger, hatred, reproach, contempt, &c.

The degree in which any sentence either necessarily conveys these sentiments, or is intended to express or insinuate them, corresponds to the degree in which the inflexions move upwards or downwards; the intensity of the feeling to be expressed being denoted by the force and distance from the middle tone of the commencement, or emphatic part of the inflexion.

The shorter ranges of inflexion, or sometimes extensive degrees, -but feeble, and, consequently, unemphatic, are employed as preparatory to the principal inflexions of a sentence. The melody of speech requires that every emphatic inflexion should be preceded by an inflexion in the opposite mode-a rise before a fall, a fall before a rise. The mechanism of the inflexions explains the reason of this: the rise before the fall carries the voice up towards the elevated pitch from which the fall begins; and the fall before the rise takes the voice, without the gracelessness of a jerk, downwards towards the low point from which the rise is to be commenced.

The inflexions are thus always in contrast; the sense or feeling dictating the direction of the principal inflexions, and these regulating that of the subordinate ones : but not their extent; for this is under the sole guidance of the reader's taste and judgment. The extent of the inflexions remains the test of his refinement of ear, and cultivation of voice, as well as of his power of discriminating the nicer shades of sense and sentiment.

We shall now examine the various kinds of sentences and members of sentences which Elocutionists have ranged under rules multitudinous, and endeavour to show in all of them the working of the two general inflective principles which we have stated. If we can discover that these are the fundamental principles of all the rules-that every natural direction is but an application of one of them; then, the simplest and easiest way to learn to apply the sentential rules of Elocutionists, will be to study alone these our rulers of rules. We shall take first those sentences or clauses which terminate with a rising inflexion. These are, according to Mr Walker and his followers, the first part of a compact sentence; the penultimate member of a sentence; negative sentences; concessive sentences; the first part of an antithesis; questions commencing with a verb; words repeated or echoed.

RISING INFLEXIONS.

THE FIRST PART OF A COMPACT SENTENCE.-Compact sentences are those which do not admit of division into portions in themselves complete, and expressive of perfect sense. Mr Walker divides compact sentences into direct and inverted periods; and while he dictates the same inflexion at the end of the first part of each, manages to make for them four Rules, and one Exceptive Rule. The first class of direct periods consists of those whose two principal constructive parts begin with correspondent conjunctions.

Example:-" As we cannot discern the shadow moving along the dial-plate, so the advances we make in knowledge are only perceived by the distance gone over.

Here, at the end of the first part, the sense is obviously incomplete, and our fundamental principle is itself the rule. The second class are those periods whose first part only commences with a conjunction; but in all the examples given, —“ As in my speculations," &c.; "If impudence prevailed as much,” &c. ; "If I have any genius," &c.; “If after surveying the whole earth at once," &c. the correspondent conjunctions, "so," or "therefore," " then," &c. are plainly to be understood; and this rule, founded merely on a common ellipsis, is but a repetition of the first.

The third class includes those sentences which commence with a participle— of the present or past tense; to which Mr Ewing adds, under a separate Rule, sentences depending on adjectives; but in these also our fundamental principle furnishes the rule, as the sense must be incomplete at the end of the participial or adjective clause.

Examples:-"Having existed from all eternity-God, through all eternity must continue to exist."

"Destitute of the favour of God,-you are in no better situation, with all your supposed abilities, than orphans left to wander in a trackless desert." To his third rule Mr Walker states the following exception :-" When the last word of the first part of these sentences requires the strong emphasis, the falling inflexion must be used instead of the rising." The very modified fall which we have denominated continuative,* is the only falling inflexion that would not be altogether inadmissible here. Notwithstanding the numerous book-followers of the theory, we have no hesitation in saying that this rule is a mistake. It would have been correct, had it stated that the clause required the falling as well as, but not instead of, the rising inflexion; that is, a rising circumflex: but it is then no exception to the general rule. The connexion in sense demands a rising, connective inflexion; and by means of the wave, the strong emphasis may also be expressed without interfering with the final progression. Example :-" Hannibal, being frequently destitute of money and provisions,

with no recruits of strength in case of ill-fortune, and no encouragement even when successful; it is not to be wondered at that his affairs began at length to decline."

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The next and last kind of compact sentence is what Mr Walker calls the "Inverted period;" that is, a sentence," the first part of which forms perfect sense by itself, but is modified or determined in its signification by the latter part.” The following, among other sentences of similar construction, are the Examples::-" Gratian very often recommends the fine taste-as the utmost perfection of an accomplished man."-"Persons of good taste expect to be pleased at the same time they are informed."

In these examples, the first parts might certainly be used as independent sentences; but since they do not, in this connexion, form independent sense, the rising inflexion is required by the fundamental principle, and the rule is unnecessary. In the second instance, the word pleased being emphatic, from its antithesis with informed, is in the same predicament as the word successful in the second sentence preceding; and to give it emphasis without loss of connection, it must be pronounced either with a continuative fall, or with a rising wave. THE PENULTIMATE MEMBER.—A rising inflexion is directed by Mr Walker to be always given to "the member of a sentence immediately preceding the last." This principle is the subject of two Rules and several Exceptions. Of what value can the rules be when such a sentence as the following has to be noted as an exception?

"I must therefore desire the reader to remember, that by the pleasures of the imagination, I meant only such pleasures as arise originally from sight; and that I divide these pleasures into two kinds."

This sentence can be no exception to any natural rule. The penultimate member can only take the rising inflexion when its connexion with the ultimate member requires the vocal link. Mr Walker's rule seems but an awkward way of stating the principle of preparatory inflexions. The close of a sentence is generally marked by an extensive preparatory inflexion,-a rise before a fall, a fall before a rise,—to apprise the ear of the coming conclusion, and to give extent and energy to the final tone; but this penultimate inflexion does not require to be thrown back to the penultimate member of the sentence; that must be inflected according to the sense, and the reader of taste will be at no loss to find means of giving preparatory variety to his conclusion, though he have but a syllable on which to effect it.

The rising inflexion is productive of anticipation; it leads the hearer to expect what follows, and his ear would feel cheated if the expectation were not realized. But it is often of importance to the effective reader to make a sentence seem finished before it really is so; of course the sense must be complete, or the semblance of a conclusion would not pass on the thinking hearer. Thus, in the exclamation," Why am I subject to his cruelty and scorn?" in the following lines:

"If I'm designed your lordling's slave, If not, why am I subject to

By Nature's law designed;

Why was an independent wish

E'er planted in my mind?

His cruelty and scorn?

Or, why has man the will and power

To make his fellow mourn?"

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