My lungs began to crow like chanticleer, 'Then, if you fight against God's enemy, If you do sweat to put a tyrant down, You sleep in peace, the tyrant being slain; If you do fight against your country's foes, If you do fight in safeguard of your wives, If you do free your children from the sword, (f) Even the principal sentence itself must be suspended if modified by succeeding members : 'O, pardon me, my liege! but for my tears, I had forestall'd this dear and deep rebuke, 'I will remain, wherever you desire.' 'Nothing will ever be attempted, if all possible objections must first be overcome.' A man never detects a pleasing error, till reflection operates.' 'Every man that speaks and reasons is a grammarian and a logician, though he may be utterly unacquainted with the rules of grammar or logic as they are delivered in books and systems.' In such sentences as the above, nothing is more common than for a reader, especially if he is reading at sight, to drop his voice where a sense, but not the sense, is formed. Such a reader should be told to keep his eye well in advance of his voice. 68. The Inflection of Co-ordinate Assertions.—Here the rising inflection serves not only to connect statements closely related to each other— Here can I sit alone, unseen of any, And to the nightingale's complaining notes Tune my distresses and record my woes.' Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4. But also to contrast statements in antitheses: 'He not only forgave the man his fault; but he sent him away loaded with benefits.' 'The king was without power; and the nobles were without principle.' 'Homer was the greater genius; Virgil the better artist: in the one we more admire the man; in the other the work. Homer hurries us on with a commanding impetuosity; Virgil leads us with an attractive majesty. Homer scatters with a generous profusion; Virgil bestows with a careful magnificence. Homer, like the Nile, pours out his riches with a sudden overflow; Virgil, like a river in its banks, with a constant stream.' 69. Exceptions to the Law of Suspense and Conclusion.—But general as the rule of suspense and conclusion is, we nevertheless find it affected in several ways. And the following exceptions to this general rule are of such importance, and of such frequent occurrence, that they need to be remembered as carefully as the general rule itself. 70. Parenthetical interruptions, if impassioned, or expressed with any degree of emphasis, will take the inflection due to the nature of their own sentence. Assertive: 'You common cry of curs! (whose breath I hate As reek o' the rotten fens, whose loves I prize As the dead carcasses of unburied men That do corrupt my air), I banish you.'-Coriolanus, iii. 3. 'Till I find more than will or words to do it, I mean your malice, know, officious lords, I dare and must deny it.'-Henry VIII. iii. 2 Imperative: 'I then, all smarting with my wounds being cold, Out of my grief and my impatience, Answer'd neglectingly I know not what, He should, or he should not; for he made me mad To see him shine so brisk and smell so sweet And talk so like a waiting-gentlewoman Of guns and drums and wounds,-God save the mark!— Was parmaceti for an inward bruise.'-1 Henry IV. i. 3. Exclamatory: 'But that see thee here, Thou noble thing! more dances my rapt heart, 71. Unemphatic Concluding Series. A series, or enumeration of equivalent particulars, will, as in the mere act of counting, be delivered with a rising inflection on each particular except the last, which will take a falling inflection to denote that the series is brought to a close, thus: one, two; one, two, three; one, two, three, four, and so on. And this will be its unemphatic mode of delivery, whenever the particulars stand, as above, by themselves, or conclude a sentence : 'O'er many a frozen, many a fiery alp, Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens, and shades-of-death.' By a series of misconduct, he lost his fortune, ruined his health, alienated his friends, and abridged the term of his natural life.' 72. Unemphatic Commencing Series.-If the series. begin a sentence, the last particular will, in accordance with the rule of suspense, assume a rising inflection, for which the ear may be prepared by a falling inflection on the previous particular. His disinterestedness, his candour, his kindness, and forbearance are remarkable.' Whether Stella's eyes are found Fix'd on earth or glancing round; If she sigh at other's wo; Conscious worth or soft distress; Pendent gems and rich brocade; If she strikes the vocal strings; If she sit, or if she move- This is the rule for the unemphatic delivery of a series. 73. Emphatic Commencing Series. But it may sometimes happen that the speaker wishes to dwell upon, or enforce, each particular as he enunciates it—as if he would say, 'Stop! just observe this,' or 'Weigh well this fact before I proceed further.' In the suspensive part of a sentence, it will be found that this impression on the mind of the hearer can be best produced by the speaker's placing a falling inflection on each particular, except, perhaps, the last, which for the sake of uniting the suspensive part with the conclusion may be allowed to take a rising inflection. His disinterestedness, his candour, his kindness, and forbearance are remarkable.' 74. Emphatic Concluding Series. In the concludng part of a sentence, each member may on the same principle take a falling inflection, except, perhaps, the last but one, which, as an indication to the ear that the enumeration is about to be brought to a close, may be allowed to take a rise. 'Sweet are the uses of adversity, Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head; Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, ་ Sermons in stones, and good in every thing.' As You Like It, ii. 1. Then he told her of his voyage, His wreck, his lonely life, his coming back, His gazing in on Annie, his resolve, And how he kept it.'--TENNYSON, Enoch Arden. Particular attention should be given to these two methods of inflection. They have been distinguished as |