WHEN THE VOICE RISES OR FALLS.

171

The exception to this rule is—When a question is asked by a pronoun or adverb, it requires the falling inflection.

Who can count the dust of Jacob?

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with a spàn?

Where have ye làid hìm?

Whence come yè?

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress', or persecútion, or fámine, or nakedness, or péril, or swórd?

5. A parenthesis has the same inflection as that which immediately precedes it in the sentence.

"And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and sáid, (the number of the names together were about an hundred and twenty,) Men and brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled."

66

The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all)."

"Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto the gospel of Gòd, (which he had promised afore by his prophets in the holy scriptures,) concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord."

Lét us (since life can little more supply
Than just to look about us and to díe)
Expatiate free o'er all this scene of man;
A mighty maze, but not without a plan.

172

WHEN THE VOICE RISES OR FALLS.

6. The variation of the inflections adds greatly to the melody of reading; for which reason, when questions and answers occur in succession, the first receives the rising inflection, but the others the falling inflection.

Would you do a handsome thing without retúrn ? Do it for an infant that is not sensible of the obligation. Would you do it for the public good? Do it for one who will be an honest artificer. Would you do it for the sake of heaven? Do it for one who shall be instructed in the worship of Him for whose sake you gave it.

The questions here should be read in a higher tone than the answers, and a suitable pause precede each answer.

7. The last clause of a sentence, and that immediately preceding it, are read with different inflections, except a particularly marked emphasis should require them to be pronounced in the same

way.

God was manifest in the flèsh, justified in the spirit, seen of àngels, preached unto the Gèntiles, believed on in the world, received up into glòry.

The fruit of the Spirit is lóve, joy', péace, longsúffering, géntleness, goódness, faith, méekness, tèmperance.

Neither death, nor life, nor ángels, nor principálities, nor powers, nor things présent, nor things to còme, nor héight, nor dèpth, nor any other créature.

FOR FURTHER PRACTICE.

173

SKATING

AND in the frosty séason, when the sun
Was set, and, visible for many a mile,

The cottage-windows through the twilight blázed
I heeded not the sùmmons. Happy tíme

It was indeed for all of us, to mè

It was a time of rápture: clèar and loùd
The village clock toll'd six ;-I wheel'd about,
Proud and exúlting, like an untired horse
That cared not for its home.-All shod with steel,
We hiss'd along the polish'd ice, in games
Confederate, imitative of the chase

And woodland pléasures, the resounding horn,
The pack loud béllowing, and the hunted hàre.
So through the darkness and the cold we flew,
And not a voice was ìdle: with the din
Meanwhile the precipices rang aloud.
The leafless trees and every icy crág
Tinkled like iron, while the distant hills
Into the tumult sent an alien sound

Of mélancholy-not unnoticed, while the stárs,
Eastward, were sparkling cleàr, and in the west
The orange sky of evening died away.
Not seldom from the uproar I retired
Into a silent bày, or sportively

Glanced sideway, leaving the tumultuous thróng,
To cut across the image of a stár

That gleam'd upon the ice: and oftentimes,

When we had given our bodies to the wind,

And all the shadowy banks on either side

Came sweeping through the dárkness, spinning still
The rapid line of mótion, then at once

Have I, reclined back upon my heels,

Stopp'd shòrt; yet still the solitary cliffs

Wheel'd by mè, even as if the earth had roll'd

With visible mótion her diurnal roùnd.-Wordsworth.

174

ON EMPHASIS.

IF in conversation you wish to draw attention to any particular point, or to express with precision any peculiar form of thought or feeling, you will naturally lay emphasis on the word or words which most distinctly embody the fact, or thought, or feeling you may desire to convey. I mean by this, that you will pronounce such words more slowly and distinctly than other words,-sometimes with a greater stress of voice, and sometimes with a slight, though almost imperceptible pause. You will do this in order to call attention to the particular word or words which more than any other express your precise meaning. To take a well-known example. It is supposed that you wish to be informed as to the movements of your friend on some particular day. In that case you would say to him,

"Do you ride to town to-day?"

laying the emphasis on the word do, because what you really wish to know is, whether he intends going or not. But if your object be to ascertain, not whether he goes to town, but whether he rides or walks, you will then as naturally lay the emphasis on the word ride; and your question will be,

"Do you ride to town to-day?'

So again, if your wish is merely to find out whether he goes to town or into the country, you will lay the emphasis on the words to town; and your question will be,

"Do you ride to town to-day ?"

WHERE AND HOW TO LAY EMPHASIS.

175

Or once more, if your only desire is to know whether he intends to go to-day or to-morrow, the emphasis will of course be on the two last words, and your question will stand thus:

"Do you ride to town to-day?"

This old and familiar example will serve to shew how it is that in many cases a right emphasis is essential to a right understanding of that which may be spoken.

Now, all this is equally true in relation to reading; for as you may very well know, reading is but the expression in speech of the thoughts or feelings of a writer. Hence, good reading, that is to say, clear, distinct, and impressive reading, depends very much on emphasis being laid on the right word in a sentence.

Sometimes words intended to be emphatic are printed in italic letter, as it is called; and in such a sentence as that which you have been analyzing they ought to be so, for it is not otherwise possible to know the precise nature of the question. But in general no such distinction marks the emphatic words; it is supposed that they will be sufficiently pointed out by the general tenor of the sentence. Hence, as was stated in a preceding lesson, it is impossible to read well, unless the eye travels before the voice; unless the mind of the reader perceives the meaning of a sentence before he reads it aloud. In no other way is it possible to know on what particular words emphasis should be placed.