state of the antithesis more narrowly, we shall find that the opposite parts will be sufficiently contrasted without a stress on them, since the sense would be perfect without this word; but as there is a relative understood before the word they, we find the propriety of a stress on the antecedent them, in order to correspond to the elliptical relative.

Hannah More, whose language is so pointed and perspicuous, so rich and at the same time so correct, had less need, perhaps, than most writers to mark emphatical words in Italics; yet her knowledge of just pronunciation has induced her to mark an antecedent pronoun, that its correspondence with its relative might be sufficiently intimated. This occurs in a passage which contains perhaps,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd. Pope,

Thus the weakest reasoners are always the most positive in debate; and the cause is obvious; for they are unavoidably driven to maintain their pretensions by violence, who want arguments and reasons to prove that they are in the right.

Strictures on Modern Female Education, vol. ii. p. 15.

Variation.

THE causes of variety in reading and speaking are felt in their effects, but are very difficult to describe. The play of a melodious voice, from high to low, from loud to soft, or from quick to slow, charms us with the pleasing transition from one to the other; but affords so little ground for investigating the principles on which it depends, that the generality of writers on this subject content themselves with advising their readers to observe the best pronouncers, and to follow them as closely as possible. This advice is certainly very rational, though not very satis

factory. Rules are the soul of art and science; and he who can trace one in an art which was supposed to be incapable of rules, has added something, however small, to the mass of general knowledge. A conviction of this has encouraged me to offer a few rules for varying the voice in reading, by an attention to the inflexion of voice on certain parts of a sentence where at first sight there appears to be no necessity for any alteration of voice; or if there were, that any such alteration is perfectly arbitrary; both these mistakes, however, will be rectified by attending to the pronunciation of the following

sentence:

When I am in a serious humour, I very often walk by myself in Westminster Abbey; where the gloominess of the plàce, and the use to which it is applied, with the solemnity of the building, and the condition of the people who lie in it, are apt to fill the mind with a kind of melancholy, or rather thoughtfulness, that is not disagreeable. Spectator, No 169.

If the latter members of this sentence, which are very properly marked with commas, were all to have the same inflexion (or suspension of voice, as it is commonly called), the monotony would strike every one: but let the falling inflexion be placed on place, building, and mind, and an agreeable variety will succeed the monotone, which will convince us that this variety arises from the regular variation of inflexion upon successive members of the sentence.

Under the article series it has been seen how much force and variety arise from pronouncing the several successive members with an appropriate inflexion of voice. It may in the same manner be observed, that wherever similar members occur, though no more than three, a variation of inflexion may be adopted with advantage. Thus, in the following example:

Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance, which is more amiable than beauty. It shows virtue in the fairest light, takes off in some measure from the deformity of více, and makes even folly and impertinence suppòrtable. Spectator, No 169,

In the last sentence of this example, by placing the falling inflexion on light at the end of the first member, we shall diversify it from the next member, which must have the rising, and so form an agreeable cadence.

In the same manner, where there are three members in the former part of a sentence before the sense begins to form, the falling inflexion upon the antepenultimate member, as it may be called, will give an agreeable variety to the whole.

The philosopher, the saint, or the hèro; the wise, the good, or the great man! very often lie hid and concealed in a plebéian, which a proper education might have disinterred and have brought to light. Spectator, No 215.

Here, by placing the falling inflexion on hero, we shall diversify it from the rising on plebeian, and add considerably to the harmony of the cadence.

It may be observed, when the principal constructive member of a sentence extends to a considerable length before the sense begins to form, that, as soon as the sense begins to form, the voice ought to take every occasion of relieving the ear from the sameness which was necessary to connect the sense in the first member; and for that purpose the falling inflexion should be adopted as soon as possible at the beginning of the second member, both in order to produce a variety and to form a cadence.

As the noblest mien, or most graceful action, would be degraded and obscured by a garb appropriated to the gross employments of rustics or mechanics, so the most heroic sèntiments will lose their efficacy, and the most splendid idèas drop

their magnificence, if they are conveyed by words used commonly upon low and trivial occasions. Johnson.

In this sentence, as the voice must preserve a sameness on the subordinate pauses till it comes to mechanics, where it adopts the rising inflexion and long pause, so it must adopt the falling inflexion on sentiments and ideas, to relieve the ear from that sameness, and form a cadence.

Nearly the same observations hold good in the following sentence:

A's beauty of body, with an agreeable carriage, pleases the eye, and that pleasure consists in observing that all the parts have a certain elegance, and are proportioned to each other; so does beauty of behaviour, which appears in our lives, obtain the approbation of all with whom we converse, from the order, consistency, and moderation of our words and actions. Spectator, No 101.

Here the sense extends to other before it begins to form, and consequently, the voice must be carried on with little variation till that word is pronounced with the rising inflexion and long pause; after which the voice must adopt the rising inflexion on beauty, and the falling on behaviour; the falling both on approbation, and the word all; when the cadence must be formed by the falling inflexion on order and consistency, the rising on moderation; and the rising on words, and the falling on actions, the voice descending in a gradually lower tone.

On the Period, and the Method of forming a Cadence.

WHEN a sentence is so far perfectly finished, as not to be connected in construction with the following sentence, it is marked with a period. This point is in general so well understood, that

few grammarians have thought it necessary to give an express example of it; though there are none who have inquired into punctuation who do not know, that in loose sentences the period is frequently confounded with the colon. But though the tone with which we conclude a sentence is generally well understood, we cannot be too careful, in pronunciation, to distinguish it as much as possible from that member of a sentence which contains perfect sense, and is usually pointed with a colon. Such members, which may not be improperly called sententiolæ, or little sentences, require the falling inflexion, but in a higher tone than the preceding words, as if we had only finished a part of what we had to say; while the period requires the falling inflexion in a lower tone, as if we had nothing more to add. But this final tone does not only lower the last word; it has the same influence on those which more immediately precede the last; so that the cadence is prepared by a gradual fall upon the concluding words, every word in the latter part of a sentence sliding gently lower till the voice drops upon the last. This will more evidently appear upon repeating the following sentence.

This persuasion of the truth of the Gospel, without the evidence which accompanies it, would not have been so firm and so durable: it would not have acquired new force with age; it would not have resisted the tòrrent of time, and have passed from àge to áge to our own days.

We find perfect sense formed at the word durable; but as this does not conclude the sentence, these words, though adopting the falling inflexion, are pronounced in a higher tone than the rest: the same may be observed of the word age, which ends the second member; while in the last member not only the word days is pronounced lower than the rest, but the whole mem