LECTURE V.

The Elements of good reading and speaking. The sound-wave and its uses.

Common faults in reading and speaking. How to remedy such faults. Inflections of the human voice. The three principal classes of Inflections-the rising, the falling, and the circumflex. Their explanation and uses. Rising inflections considered in detail, and general rules for their employment, and illustrations. Falling inflections considered in detail, and general rules for their employment, and illustrations. Varieties of circumflex inflections. Rules for their employment, and illustrations. Climax-Antithesis-Subdued inflections-their meaning and Errors to be avoided in the use of the various inflections. Summary.

uses.

HAVE to-night to bring before your notice some of the principal elements in the art of elocution, which when duly observed tend to form the effective reader and speaker. And first let me remark, assuming that you are well skilled in that all-important point the right management of the breath, it is necessary in order to render the pronunciation smooth, easy, and flowing, or what musicians would express by one word-"legato," quantity should be duly observed, by the vowels in words and syllables that are long being properly sustained and dwelt on, and the corresponding brevity of sound marked in those words and syllables which are short in quantity. The non-observance of this rule by making an undue prolongation of sound on words or syllables which are properly short, constitutes that disagreeable and wearisome fault, the drawl, while improperly shortening those that are long, is one of the most common causes of inaudibility. Then every sentence should have its words, while distinctly articulated, yet carried on smoothly and harmoniously, as it were upon a wave of sound, except when that sound-wave is interrupted by the proper grammatical or rhetorical pauses. Nothing is more painful to the cultivated ear than the not uncommon fault of reading staccato," that is, jerking out, if I may use the term, every word almost, whether important or unimportant, with equal energy and abruptness. It is only in quite exceptional passages where every word in the clause or sentence is of almost equal significance, that the introduction of the "staccato" is permissible in reading or speaking. Such a sentence as the following would not improperly admit of the "staccato" in its delivery:

“Heaven | and | earth | will | witness | if | Rome | must | fall | that | we are innocent."

But as a general rule the "legato" should be observed by properly grouping the words of every sentence into proper classes. This diagram

will make apparent to the eye that which the proper delivery of the sentence will convey to the ear:

"Reason guides-a-man | to-an-entire-conviction | of-the-historical-proofs of-the-Christian-religion | after-which | it-delivers and -abandons-him | to-another-light, which though-not-contrary | isentirely-different-from-it, | and-infinitely-superior-to-it."

But reading and speaking, however clear, distinct, smooth, and flowing, would yet be almost meaningless comparatively, and would become most wearisome to the ear, if delivered on one note, or with very little variation from that note. This then naturally brings me to the subject of inflection, on which I shall now have to occupy your attention for some little time, for nothing adds more to the grace, elegance, and full effect of reading or speaking, than the right use of the inflections of the voice.

Now if you listen to any good reader or speaker you will remark that his voice is not on a monotone, which I may represent thus but is constantly moving upward or downward, through a certain number of notes on the musical scale, and so we may say the voice is either rising, thus These

or falling, thus

ascents or descents of the voice are respectively termed the rising and falling inflections of the voice, and in most treatises on the art of elocution, this mark (/) is used to denote the rising, and this (/) the falling inflection. Three degrees are commonly assigned to each of these classes of inflection, and no doubt such a classification is very useful for practice, but while the principle of the application of each class of inflection is easily and clearly defined, and well understood, yet the degrees of each class must be left much to the individual taste and judgment of each reader and speaker, and many more than three degrees of each inflection are certainly to be heard in a welltrained and cultivated voice.

for

There is yet a third class of inflections called the circumflex, and these are subdivided into rising and falling circumflexes. In elocutionary exercises they are indicated thus for the rising, and thus the falling. The rising circumflex begins with the falling, and so as it were swells around the vowel of the accented syllable of the word on which the effect is to be produced, rising higher in point of musical scale, and then subsiding again. The falling circumflex is the exact reverse of the rising in the foregoing respects. Their use I shall more fully explain hereafter; suffice it for the present to say that they increase the pitch and power of ordinary inflections, and may be considered as their most emphatic form of expression. As their employment is wholly based on strong feeling or emotion, much must be left here again to each reader's or speaker's individual taste and judgment.

Now the primary uses of the inflections of the voice are to signify either that the meaning of the sentence is as yet undeveloped, or else that it is completed. The rising inflection suggests to the ear that the speaker or reader has not finished the sentence; while, on the other

hand, the falling inflection generally conveys the idea that he has. Even in ordinary calm conversation you will remark that the inflections may be perceived upon the accented syllables of the most important words. Still more will you notice them when anything like contradistinction or antithesis is expressed, and still more when it is not openly expressed but only implied, when the circumflex inflection will be generally found to be more or less brought into play.

But now I proceed to notice these several inflections in detail, and to give you the general rules for their employment. And first I take

THE RISING INFLECTION.

Rule I. Whenever the sense of a sentence, or clause of a sentence, is as yet incomplete or suspended, then the rising inflection is to be used, as in the following:

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"I am súre, were the noble Lords as well acquainted, as I am, with but hálf the difficulty and delays, occasioned in the courts of justice under the pretence of prívilege, they would not—nay, they could not— oppóse this bill.”

Rule II. So when words are in apposition they take the same inflection, as in the following:

"Sólomon, the son of Dávid, and the builder of the Temple at Jerúsalem, was the wisest man that the world ever sàw."

Rule III. It happens sometimes that a sentence, or clause of a sentence, complete in meaning in itself is followed by another which has no necessary or direct dependence on it, and yet the reader or speaker may desire to suggest as it were a connexion to the mind, which has no existence in grammatical structure. The rising inflection at the end of such clause or sentence will best convey such an impression

"To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to dáy,

To the last syllable of recorded tíme:

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death!"

Rule IV. When a sentence is in the nature of an appeal, it takes the rising inflection

"You are not left alone to climb the arduous ascent to Heaven! God helps áll who place their trúst in Him!"

Rule V.-A sentence negative in structure also takes this inflection. "It is not to small portions of tíme, not to a few years, not to a few generátions, not to a few áges that our speculations are here límited: they embrace eternity."

Rule VI. Sentences that are in the nature of supplication or prayer take the rising inflection—

"Hide thy face from my síns, and blot out all my iniquities."

Rule VII.-Sentences that are interrogative in character, and to which a simple affirmative or negative may be returned as an answer, also end with the rising inflection

"Can the soldier when he girdeth on his armour boast like him that putteth it off? Can the merchant predict that the speculation on which

he has entered will infallibly be crowned with succéss? Can even the husbandman who has the promise of God, that seed time and harvest shall not fail, look forward with assured confidence to the expected increase of his fields ?"

Rule VIII.-Sentences that express amazement or surprise take a general rising inflection throughout their delivery—

"What Michael Cássio that came a wooing with you,

And many a time when I have spoke of you
Dispráisingly hath ta'en your párt-

To have só múch to do to bring hím ín !”

Rule IX. A sentence that implies doubt or contingency requires this inflection

"He said he would accept your terms if you would insúre his sáfety.” Rule X.-All passages that are of the nature of exclamation require the rising inflection—

"Ye crágs and peaks, I'm with you once again!

I hold to you the hands you first beheld,

To show they still are frée! Methinks I hear

A spirit in your echoes ánswer me,

And bid your tenant welcome to his home
Agáin! O sacred forms, how proud you look!
How high you lift your heads into the sky!

How húge you are! how míghty! and how frée !"

I think I have in the foregoing ten rules condensed the general principles which govern the use of the rising inflections of the voice. In the same way I propose now directing your attention to the principles which regulate the use of—

THE FALLING INFLECTION.

Rule XI.-As soon as the meaning of a sentence or clause of a sentence is logically complete, then the falling inflection must be employed—

66 The opinions of every man must be learned from himself; concerning his practice it is safest to trust to the evidence of others."

Rule XII. Where a sentence consists of several clauses, conveying imperfect sense and independent of each other's meaning, although dependent in construction, the distinctness of each clause should be marked by a falling inflection, provided there is nothing in the nature of climax in the sentence

"To acquire a thorough knowledge of our own hearts and characters; to restrain every irregular inclination; to subdue every rebellious pàssion; to purify the motives of our cònduct; to form ourselves to that temperance which no pleasure can sedùce; to that mèekness which no provocation can rùffle; to that patience which no affliction can overwhèlm; and to that intègrity which no interest can shake; this is the task which is assigned to us—a task which cannot be perfòrmed without the utmost diligence and càre."

Rule XIII. When a sentence consists of a series of clauses forming perfect sense, such clauses should be read with a falling inflection pro

gressively increasing in loudness of tone.

N.B. To give greater grace

a modulative rising inflection may be given to the penultimate clause. "Charity suffereth long and is kind; charity ènvieth not; charity vaunteth not itsèlf; is not pùffed up; doth not behave itself unseemly; seeketh not her own; is not easily provoked; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in inìquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beàreth all things; belièveth all things; hòpeth all things; endureth all things."

Rule XIV. Where sentences, though negative in construction, are yet expressive of strong conviction or affirmation, they should be read or spoken with an emphatic falling inflection.

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Though I should die with thee, yet will I nòt deny theè."

Rule XV.-Where a sentence is interrogative in its character, but to which a simple affirmative or negative cannot be returned as an answer, but something definite in expression must be given instead, such sentence requires at its close the falling inflection.

"Who is it that causes this river to rise in the high mountains, and to empty itself in the ocean? Who is it that causes to blow the loud winds of winter, and that calms them again in the summer? Who is it that rears up the shade of these lofty forests, and blasts them with the quick lightning at his pleasure? The same Great Spirit who gave to you a country on the other side of the watèrs and gave ours to ùs."

Rule XVI.-All sentences that express authority or command take the falling inflection.

"God is not a man, that he should liè; neither the son of man that he should repènt."

Rule XVII.—All sentences that convey hatred, denunciation, reprehension, and similar emotions of the mind, should have the emphatic falling inflection.

"Look to your hearths, my lords

For there henceforth shall sit as household Gods,
Shapes hot from Tartarus-all shames and crimes-
Wan Treachery, with his thirsty dagger dràwn—
Suspicion poisoning his brother's cùp-
Naked Rebellion with the torch and àxe,
Making his wild sport of your blazing thrònes;
Till Anarchy come down on you like night,
And massacre seal Rome's etèrnal gràve."

Having thus considered the leading principles for the employment of the two great classes of rising and falling inflections, I have next to call your attention to a very important inflection of the voice which may be either rising or falling, and the judicious introduction of which gives so much point and significance to a sentence. I mean the class called

CIRCUMFLEX INFLECTIONS.

Rule XVIII.-When any word is introduced which suggests an antithesis, without openly expressing it, such word should have emphatic force, and be pronounced with a circumflex inflection.