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REMARK 1.- Words and members connected by or used disjunctively, generally express contrast or antithesis, and always receive opposite inflections.

EXAMPLES.

1. Shall we advance, or retreat?

2. Do you seek wealth, or power`?

3. Is the great chain upheld by God, or thee? 4. Does he speak rationally, or irrationally? 5. Is the book yours, or mine`?

6. Shall we return to our allegiance while we may do so with safety and honor, or shall we wait until the ax of the executioner is at our throats`?

7. Shall we crown the author of these public calamities with garlands, or shall we wrest from him his ill-deserved authority.

REMARK 2.-When the antithesis is between affirmation. and negation, the latter usually has the rising inflection, according to Rule V.

EXAMPLES.

1. You were paid to fight against Philip, not to rail at him. 2. I said rationally, not irrationally.

3. I did not say rationally, but irrationally`.

4. I said an elder soldier, not a better.

5. I did not say a better soldier, but an elder`.

6. Let us retract while we can, not when we must ́.

REMARK 3.—The more emphatic member generally receives the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. A countenance more in sorrow, than anger.

2. A countenance less in anger, than sorrow`.

3. He deserved punishment, rather than pity.

4. You should show your courage by deeds, rather than by words.

5. If we can not remove pain, we may alleviate it.

OF SERIES.

A SERIES is a number of particulars consisting of words or clauses, immediately following one another in the same grammatical construction.

A series is simple, when it consists of words.
EXAMPLE.-Faith, hope, love, joy, are the fruits of the spirit.
A series is compound, when it consists of clauses.

EXAMPLE.

So many human frailties, so many secret sins, so many offenses of ignorance, so many unguarded words, are connected with man's best estate, &c.

A commencing series is one which commences a sentence or clause.

EXAMPLE.-Faith, hope, love, joy, are the fruits of the spirit.

A concluding series is one which concludes a sentence or a clause.

EXAMPLE. The fruits of the spirit are faith, hope, love, and joy.

RULE X.-All the members of a commencing series, usually require the falling inflection, except the last, which receives the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. War, famine`, pestilence`, storm`, and fire, besiege mankind.

2. Harsh, oppressive, unjust, and uncalled for measures, will always be resisted by a free people.

3. The knowledge, the power, the wisdom, the goodness of God, must all be unbounded.

4. The poor, the aged, the sick`, and the wounded, were left to perish.

5. To advise the ignorant`, to relieve the needy`, and to comfort the afflicted, are duties that fall in our way, almost every day of our lives.

6. No state chicanery`, no narrow system of vicious politics, no idle contest for ministerial victories, sank him to the vulgar level of the great.

7. For solidity of reasoning, force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, no nation or body of men can compare with the congress at Philadelphia.

8. The wise and the foolish, the virtuous and the evil, the learned and the ignorant, the temperate and the profligate, must often be blended together.

9. Absalom's beauty`, Jonathan's love, David's valor, Solomon's wisdom, the patience of Job, the prudence of Augustus, and the eloquence of Cicero, are found in perfection in the Creator.

RULE XI.-All the members of a concluding series, usually require the falling inflection, except the last but one, which has the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. It is our duty to pity, to support, to defend, and to relieve the oppressed.

2. At the sacred call of country, they sacrifice property, ease`, health`, applause ́, and even life`.

3. I protest against this measure, as cruel, oppressive`, tyrannous, and vindictive.

4. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.

5. Charity is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth in the truth`, beareth` all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

6. Nature has laid out all her art in beautifying the face; she has touched it with vermillion, planted it with a double row of ivory`, made it the seat of smiles and blushes, lighted it up and relieved it with the brightness of the eyes`, hung it on each side with curious organs of sense, given it airs and graces which can not be described, and surrounded it with such a flowing shade of hair as sets all its beauties in the most agreeable light.

EXCEPTION 1.-When the particulars enumerated in a commencing or concluding series are not at all emphatic, they receive the usual inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. New York, Boston', Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, are large cities.

2. He was esteemed for his kindness, his intelligence, his selfdenial, and his active benevolence`.

EXCEPTION 2.-In a series forming a climax, it is not unusual to reserve the falling inflection for the last term alone.

EXAMPLES.

1. Days, months, years, and ages`, shall circle away, And still the vast waters above thee shall roll.

2. Property, character, reputation, every` thing was sacrificed.

3. Toils, sufferings, wounds ́, and death`, was the price of our liberty.

EXCEPTION 3.-When all the terms are strongly emphatic, they sometimes all receive the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. They saw not one man, not one woman, not one child`, not one four-footed beast.

2. His hopes, his happiness`, his life`, hung upon the words that fell from those lips.

3. They fought, they bled, they died, for freedom.

REMARKS ON SERIES.

REMARK 1.—The preceding rules are those given by most standard authors on this subject, both American and English. One or two authors, however, propose the following method for avoiding monotony.

EXAMPLES.

1. Desire, aversion, rage`, love, hope, and fear, are drawn in miniature upon the stage.

2. Joy`, grief`, fear, anger, pity', scorn, hate`, jealousy, and love, stamp assumed distinction upon the player.

3. Mr. Locke's definition of wit comprehends metaphors, enigmas, mottoes, parables, fables, dreams, visions, dramatic writings, burlesque, and all the methods of allusion.

REMARK 2.-Where a series consists of more than five members, one author proposes its division into two or more parts, as in the following

EXAMPLES.

1. Neither blindness, nor gout, nor age', nor penury`, nor domestic afflictions, nor political disappointments`, nor abuse ́, nor proscription, nor neglect, had power to disturb him.

2. Herodotus, Xenophon", Pericles, Phocion, Thales, Solon, Chilo, Pittacus', Bias, Cleobolus, Periander, Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle', Isocrates', Lysias, Themis

tocles, Demosthenes, Pindar, Phidias, Euripides, Apelles`, and Aristides, were distinguished men.

REMARK 3.-The only correct rules upon this or any subject connected with language, are merely a record of good usage, that is, such as is authorized by a majority of the best speakers and writers of the day. It is becoming more common than formerly for speakers to deliver the whole of a concluding series with the falling inflection and the whole of a commencing series with the rising inflection, and it is not improbable that this may be ere long the prevailing custom.

PARENTHESIS.

RULE XII.—A clause included in a parenthesis, should be read more rapidly and in a lower tone than the rest of the sentence, and should terminate with the same inflection that next precedes it. If, however, it is complicated, or emphatic, or disconnected with the main subject, the inflections must be governed by the same rules as in other cases.

EXAMPLES.

1. God is my witness', (whom I serve with my spirit, in the gospel of his Son,) that, without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request, (if, by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God',) to come unto you.

2. When he had entered the room three paces, he stood still; and laying his left hand upon his breast, (a slender, white staff with which he journeyed being in his right,) he introduced himself with the little story of his convent.

3. If you, Æschines, in particular, were persuaded ́, (and it was no particular affection for me, that prompted you to give up the hopes, the appliances, the honors, which attended the course I then advised; but the superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point any course more eligible,) if this was the case, I say, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign these measures now, when you could not then propose a better?

4. As the hour of conflict grew near be dreaded even by him), he began to of his boasting.

(and this was a conflict to waver and to abate much

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