The Abbé Thibout for his system of notation in elocution adopts the ordinary notes of music, though he points out how in practice the music of speech must necessarily differ from the music of song. I show you here an illustration of the Abbé's system of notation.

In concluding this Lecture on the Theory of the Inflections of the Voice, I may remark as a preface to my next Lecture on the principles that govern their practical application in reading and speaking that three degrees are commonly assigned to each of the 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 easi'y 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 well-trained and cultivated voice.

As a rule, you will always remark that the more powerful the emotion or passion under which a man speaks, the wider is the range which the voice takes in the rising or falling inflection, according as the particular emotion or passion is one that nature always makes us convey either by one or the other, as, for instance, supplication by a rising, and stern denial by a falling inflection.

LECTURE VIII.

The Rising Inflection of the Voice-Principles that govern its application in regard to the Logical expression of Clauses and Sentences: (1) Where the meaning is as yet Incomplete; (2) Where Clauses or Sentences are Negative in Construction; (3) To connect Kindred Thoughts together; (4) Where Clauses or Sentences are contingent; (5) Interrogative Sentences that can be answered by a simple Affirmative or Negative Principles that govern the Rising Inflection in regard to Emotional Expression: (1) Where Sentences convey Appeal of any kind; (2) Where Sentences are in the nature of Supplication or Prayer; (3) Where Sentences express Love, Joy, Hope, &c.; (4) Where Sentences express Wonder, Amazement, or Surprise ; (5) Where Sentences are of an Exclamatory Character.

N this and the following Lectures, I hope to make you acquainted with the principal rules for the employment of the different classes of the inflections of the voice. It seems to me that each class has a twofold use, first as regards the expression of the logical meaning of a sentence, and next as regards the expression of the emotions. The same remark, too, may be made in regard to the modulation of the voice. Let us, then, take in succession the rising, the falling, and the circumflex inflections, and see what are the broad and general principles which govern each.

And first as regards the logical uses of the rising inflections I should give this direction, as :

RULE I. So long as the meaning of a clause or sentence is incomplete or kept suspended, the rising inflection is to be used.

Illustrations for Practice.

1. Whate'ér of life áll quickening éther keeps,

Or breathes through aír, or shoots béneath the déeps,
Or poúrs profúse on earth; one náture feéds
The vítal fláme, and swélls the génial seèds.
2. Who noble énds by nóble méans obtáins,
Or, fáiling, smiles in éxile or in cháins,
Like good Aurélius let him réign, or bléed
Like Sócrates, that mán is great indeed.

3. 'Twas said, by ancient ságes,

That love of life incréas'd with years

Só múch, that, in our láter stáges,
When páins grów shárp, and sickness-ráges,
The greatest love of life appears.

4. Of all the causes which conspire to blind
Mán's er'ring júdgment and misguide the mind,
What the weak head with strongest bías rúles,
Is Prìde.

5. Who builds his hópe in th' aír of men's fáir looks,
Líves like a drúnken sáilor on a màst.

Reády, with evéry nód, to túmble down
Into the fátal bówels of the deèp.
6. A sóul ímmortal spending áll her fires,
Wásting her strength in strénuous ídleness,
Thrown into túmult, ráptur'd or alarm'd
At aúght this scéne can thréaten or indulge,
Resembles ocean into témpest wrought
To wáft a féather or to drówn a flỳ.

7. Ló! when the faithful péncil has design'd
Some bright idea of the máster's mind,
Where a new world léaps out at his command,
And réady náture waits upon his hánd;
When the rípe cólours sóften and uníte,
And sweetly mélt into just sháde and light;
When méllowing years their full perféction gíve,
And each bold figure just begins to live:
The treacherous colours the fáir árt betrày,
And all the bright création fádes awày..

8. Of systems póssible, if 'tis conféss'd
That wisdom ínfinite must fórm the bést,
Where áll must fall, or not cohérent bé,
And all that ríses, ríse in due degrée ;

Then in the scale of life and sénse, 'tis pláin

There must be, sómewhere, súch a ránk as màn.

9. Though he who excels in the graces of writing might have been, with opportunities and applicátion, équally succéssful in those of conversátion; yet, as mány pléase by extémporary tálk, though útterly unacquainted with the more accurate méthod, and more láboured béauties, which composition requires, so it is very póssible that men whólly accustomed to works of study, may be without that réadiness of concéption, and áffluence of lánguage, always necessary to colloquial enter

tàinment.

10. Mán's stúdy of himself, and the knowledge of his own station in the ranks of béing, and his várious relátions to the innúmerable múltitudes which surround him, and with which his Máker has ordained him to be únited for the recéption and communication of happiness, should begin with the first glimpse of reason, and only énd with life itsèlf.

RULE II.-All clauses or sentences that are negative in structure take the rising inflection.

Illustrations for Practice.

1. Let not my cóld words here accúse my zéal,
'Tis not the trial of a woman's wár,

The bitter clámour of twó éager tongues,
Can árbitráte this cáuse betwixt us twáin:
And can I nót of such táme pátience boast,
As to be húsht and náught at all to say.
2. Not áll the water in the rough, rúde séa
Can wash the bálm from an anointed kíng:
The breath of worldly men cannot depóse
The députy elécted by the Lórd.

3. 'Tis not enough—Nó !

Véngeance cannot take away the gráce of life:
The cómeliness of look that virtue gives,
Its port eréct with consciousness of trúth,
Its rích attíre of hónourable déeds,

Its faír repórt that's rífe on good mén's tongues
It cannot láy its hands on thése, no móre
Than it can plúck his brightness from the sún,
Or with polluted fínger tárnish it..

4. I dóubt not thát.

We carry nót a héart with us from hence,
That grows not in a fáir consént with ours:
Nor leáve one behind, that doth not wish
Succéss and conquest to attend on ús.
5. Néver was mónarch bétter feáred and lóved
Than is your májesty: there's not a subject
That sits in heart-grief or uneásíness
Under the sweet shade of your government.
6. 'Tis not the bálm, the scéptre, and the báll,
The sword, the máce, the crówn impérial,
The inter-tissued róbe of góld and pearl,
The farced title rúnning 'fore the king,
The thróne he sits on, nor the tide of pómp,
That beats upon the high shore of the world;
No, not all these thríce górgeous ceremonies,
Not all these laid in bed majestical
Can sleep so soundly as that wrétched sláve
Who, with a body filled, and vácant mínd,
Gets him to rést, crammed with distréssful bread.
7. I know not, gentlemen, what you inténd,
Who else must be let blood, who else is ránk :
If I myself, there is no hóur so fít

As Caesar's déath-hour; nor nó ínstrument

Of hálf that worth as those your swórds, máde rích
With the most nóble blood of áll this world.

Live a thousand years,

I shall not find myself so ápt to díe:

No pláce will pléase me só, no means of death
As here by Cæsar, and by you cut off.

8. "No, no," said Enid, vext, "I will nót éat,
Till yónder man upon the bier aríse

And eat with mé. . . . I will not drink
Till my dear lord aríse and bíd me do it,
And drink with mé; and if he ríse no móre
I will not look at wíne until I die."

9. Greát and acknowledged fórce is not impaired, either in efféct or in opínion, by an unwillingness to exért itself. . Do not entertain so

weak an imagination as that your régisters and your bónds, your affidávits and your súfferances, your dockets and your cléarances, form the gréat securities of your cómmerce. Do not dream that your letters of office, and your instructions, and your suspending clauses, are the things that hold together the great contéxture of this mysterious whóle. These things do not make your government.

10. The peace we seek is nót péace through the médium of war; nót péace to be húnted through the labyrinth of intricate and endless negotiations; not péace to aríse out of universal discórd, foménted from prínciple in all parts of the émpíre; nót péace to depend on the jurídical determination of perplexing questions, nor the précise marking of the shadowy boundaries of a cómplex government.

RULE III.—It not unfrequently happens that a clause or sentence containing a complete logical proposition, which, if it stood alone, would properly end with the falling inflection, is yet followed by another clause or sentence carrying on a similar or approximating train of thought. Ending the first clause or sentence with a rising inflection will have the requisite conjunctive effect of linking the two thoughts together. Illustrations for Practice.

1. To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Créep, in this pétty páce, from dáy tó day,
To the last syllable of recorded tíme ;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusky death.

2. Oh'! who can hold a fíre in his hand,
By thinking on the frosty Cáucasus ;
Or clóy the hungry édge of appetite,
By báre imagination of a féast;

Or wallow naked in Decémber's snów,
By thinking on fantástic súmmer's heat?

3. Now fádes the glímmering landscape on the sight,
And áll the áir a sólemn stíllness hólds;
Sáve where the béetle whéels his dróny flight,
And drowsy tínklings lúll the distant fólds;