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'Through the thick glóom of the présent, I see the brìghtness of the fùture, as the sùn in heàven. We shall make this a glòrious, an immòrtal day. When we are in our gráves, out children will honor it. They will cèlebrate it with thanksgiving. with festivity, with bònfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, còpious, gùshing tears, not of subjection and slávery, not of agony and distréss, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy."

QUESTIONS.

Questions, like other ideas, are negative, or positive, or compound, having one negative and one positive idea.

DIRECT QUESTIONS.

The direct question for information affirms nothing. Hence it is read with the rising slide, not because it may be answered by yes or no, but because it is in its nature negative.

The answer is positive, and, for that reason, is read with the falling slide.

"Do you see that beautiful stár?" "Is n't it splèndid?"

Yès;"

The speaker is positive, in the last question, that his friend will agree with him.

This, and all such, must be read, there

fore, with the falling slide.

"I said an èlder soldier, not a bétter.

Did I say better?"

"He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose ransoms did the gèneral coffers fill;
Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?"

"You all did seè, that on the Lúpercal,
I thrice presented him a kingly crown;
Which he did thrice refùse.

Was this ambition?'

"Tell me, ye who tread the sods of yon sacred height, is Warren dead? Can you not still see him, not pále and pros

trate, the blood of his gallant heárt pouring out of his ghastly wound, but moving resplèndent over the field of hònor, with the rose of heaven upon his cheèk, and the fire of liberty in his eyè?

"But whèn shall we be strònger? Will it be the next week, or the next year?”

This reading, with the falling slide on "year," changes the sense, as it makes one idea positive, and the answer must be "next week," or "next year." But both ideas are negative in Henry's speech; both must have the rising slide, then, according to the principle.

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'Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disármed, and when a British guárd shall be stationed in every house?"

"Is this a time to be gloomy and sád,

When our mother Náture laúghs around;

When even the deep blue heavens look glád,

And gládness breathes from the blossoming ground?"

"Will you ríde, in the cárriage, or on horseback?' 'I prefer to walk.'"

"Will you read to us, a piece of próse, or poetry?' Allow me to sing instead.'"

"Will you study músic, or Frénch?”

All the ideas are negative in the last questions. Change the sense, and make one idea positive in each question, and we have one falling slide in each.

"Will you ride in the cárriage, or on horseback?”

Will you read to us a piece of próse, or poetry?"

"Will you study músic, or French ?”

INDIRECT QUESTIONS.

"When are you going to Europe?"

The prominent idea in this, is not the real interrogative, the idea of time in "when," but the positive idea, “You are going to Europe." Hence this, and all such questions must be read with the falling slide.

But if the interrogative is made the prominent and emphatic idea, (as when, the answer not being heard, the question is repeated,) the rising slide must be given.

The address also is positive or negative. It is negative, and read with the rising slide or suspension of the voice, when it is only formal and unemphatic, as "Friends, I come not here to talk."

When emphatic it is positive and demands the falling slide, as in the respectful opening address to any deliberative body or public assembly. "Mr. President," "Ladies and Gentle

men."

POSITIVE ADDRESS AND QUESTIONS.

"Tell me, man of military science, in now many months were the Pilgrims all swept òff by the thirty savage tribes, enumerated within the early limits of New England? Tell me, politician, how lòng did this shadow of a colony, on which your conventions and treaties had not smiled, lànguish on the distant coast? Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the abandoned adventures of other times, and find a parallel of this."

"Was it the winter's stòrm beating upon the houseless heads of women and children; was it hard làbor and spare meals; was it disease, was it the tòmahawk, was it the deep malady of a blighted hòpe, a ruined ènterprise, and a broken

d

heart, aching in its last moments at the recollection of the loved, and left beyond the sea; was it some or all of these united that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate?"

·

These questions must be read with the falling' slide, to give the idea positively that each one of the enumerated causes was sufficient to produce the supposed result. The surprise is thus made all the greater in the next sentence, which must be read as an earnest negative with the long 'rising' slide.

"And is it possible that néither of these causes, that not áll combined, were able to blást this bud of hópe? Is it possible that from the beginning so feeble, so fràil, so worthy not so much of admirátion as of pìty, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so àmple, a reality so important, a pròmise yet to be fulfilled, so glòrious!"

When surprise thus deepens into astonishment, as it frequently does in its climax, the interrogative form should be changed to the exclamatory, which demands the falling slide.

"Partakers in every peril, in the glory shall we not be permitted to participate? And shall we be told as a requital that we are estranged from the noble country for whose salvation our life-blood was poured out!"

CONTRASTED SLIDES.

When ideas are contrasted in couples, the rising and falling slides must be contrasted in reading them. Contrasted slides may also sometimes be used for greater variety or melody.

1.

EXAMPLE.

"Sínk or swim, líve or dìc, survíve or pèrish, I give my hand and heàrt to this vote."

"But, whatever may be óur fate, be assured, be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for bòth."

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Suppose that you see, at once, all the hours of the day

and all the seasons of the year, a morning of spring, and a morning of autumn, a night brilliant with stars, and a night obscure with clouds ; - you will then have a more just notion of the spectacle of the universe. Is it not wondrous, that while you are admiring the sun plunging beneath the vault of the west, another observer is beholding him as he quits the region of the east, in the same instant reposing, weary, from the dust of the evening, and awaking fresh and youthful, in the dews of morn!"

CIRCUMFLEX SLIDES.

Straight means right, crooked means wrong: hence right ideas demand the right or straight slides, while wrong or crooked ideas demand the crooked or circumflex slides.'

PRINCIPLE.

All sincere and earnest, or, in other words, all upright and downright ideas demand the straight, or upright and downright slides.

All ideas which are not sincere or earnest, but are used in jest, or irony, in ridicule, sarcasm, or mockery, in insinuation or double-meaning, demand the crooked or circumflex slides.'

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The last part of the circumflex is usually the longer, and always the more characteristic part. Hence when the last part of this double slide rises it is called the rising circumflex;' when the last part falls, it is called the 'falling circumflex.'

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The rising circumflex' should be given to the negative, the falling circumflex' to the positive ideas of jest, irony, &c. When these ideas are coupled in contrast, the circumflex slides must be in contrast also to express them.

Example of jest.

MARULLUS. You, sir; what trade are you?

2D CITIZEN. Truly, sir, in respect of a fine workman, I am but, as you would say, a côbbler.