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EXAMPLES.

1. Days ́, months ́, years ́, and ages`, shall circle away,

And still the vast waters above thee shall roll.

2. Property, character, reputation, every thing was sacrificed.

3. Toils, sufferings, wounds, and death, was the price of our liberty.

EXCEPTION 3.-When all the terms are strongly emphatic, they sometimes all receive the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. They saw not one man, not one woman, not one child`, not one four-footed beast`.

2. His hopes, his happiness`, his life, hung upon the words that fell from those lips.

3. They fought, they bled, they died, for freedom.

REMARKS ON SERIES.

REMARK 1.-The preceding rules are those given by most standard authors on this subject, both American and English, One or two authors, however, propose the following method for avoiding monotony.

EXAMPLES.

1. Desire, aversion ́, rage`, love, hope, and fear ́, are drawn in miniature upon the stage.

2. Joy`, grief, fear, anger, pity, scorn, hate`, jealousy`, and love, stamp assumed distinction upon the player.

3. Mr. Locke's definition of wit comprehends metaphors, enigmas, mottoes, parables, fables, dreams, visions, dramatic writings, burlesque, and all the methods of allusion.

REMARK 2.-Where a series consists of more than five members, one author proposes its division into two or more parts, as in the following

EXAMPLES.

1. Neither blindness, nor gout, nor age, nor penury`, nor domestic afflictions, nor political disappointments`, nor abuse ́, nor proscription, nor neglect ́, had power to disturb him.

2. Herodotus, Xenophon", Pericles, Phocion, Thales, Solon, Chilo, Pittacus, Bias, Cleobolus, Periander, Thucydides, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Isocrates', Lysias", Themis

tocles, Demosthenes, Pindar, Phidias, Euripides, Apelles`, and Aristides, were distinguished men.

REMARK 3.-The only correct rules upon this or any subject connected with language, are merely a record of good usage, that is, such as is authorized by a majority of the best speakers and writers of the day. It is becoming more common than formerly for speakers to deliver the whole of a concluding series with the falling inflection and the whole of a commencing series with the rising inflection, and it is not improbable that this may be ere long the prevailing custom.

PARENTHESIS.

RULE XII.—A clause included in a parenthesis, should be read more rapidly and in a lower tone than the rest of the sentence, and should terminate with the same inflection that next precedes it. If, however, it is complicated, or emphatic, or disconnected with the main subject, the inflections must be governed by the same rules as in other cases.

EXAMPLES.

1. God is my witness', (whom I serve with my spirit, in the gospel of his Son,) that, without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayers, making request, (if, by any means, now at length, I might have a prosperous journey by the will of God',) to come unto you.

2. When he had entered the room three paces, he stood still; and laying his left hand upon his breast, (a slender, white staff with which he journeyed being in his right ́,) he introduced himself with the little story of his convent.

3. If you, Æschines, in particular, were persuaded ́, (and it was no particular affection for me, that prompted you to give up the hopes, the appliances, the honors, which attended the course I then advised; but the superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point any course more eligible`,) if this was the case, I say, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign these measures now, when you could not then propose a better?

4. As the hour of conflict grew near be dreaded even by him), he began to of his boasting.

(and this was a conflict to waver and to abate much

CIRCUMFLEX.

RULE XIII. The circumflex is used to express irony, sarcasm, hypothesis, or contrast.

EXAMPLES.

1. But nobody can bear the death of Clodius.

2. Man never is, but always to bê, blest.

3. They follow an adventurer whom they fear; we serve a monarch whom we love. They boast, they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error. Yes, they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. They offer us their protection: yes, such protection as vultures give to lămbs, covering and devôuring them.

MONOTONE.

RULE XIV.-The use of the monotone is confined chiefly to grave and solemn subjects. When carefully and properly employed, it gives great dignity to delivery.

EXAMPLES.

1. The unbeliever! one who can gaze upon the sun, and mōōn, and stars, and upon the unfading and impērishable sky, spread out so magnificently above him, and say, "All this is the work of chance!"

2.

3.

4.

God walketh upon the ocean. Brilliantly

The glassy waters mirror back his smiles;
The surging billows, and the gamboling stōrms
Come crouching to his feet.

I hail thee, as in gōrgeous rōbes,

Blōōming, thou leav'st the chambers of the east,
Crowned with a gēmmed tiāra thick embossed
With studs of living light.

High on a thrōne of rōyal state, which fär
Outshōne the wealth of Ormus and the Ind;
Or where the gōrgeous east, with richest händ,
Shōwers on her kings, barbaric pēarls and gōld,
Satan exalted sat.

5. His broad expanded wings

Lay cālm and mōtionless upōn the āir,
As if he floated there withōut their aid,

By the sole act of his unlōrded will.

QUESTIONS.-Name the several principles which govern the use of the falling inflection. Give an example of each. In what cases is the rising inflection used? Give examples. In what cases are the two inflections united in the same sentence? What is antithesis? Give the rule for antithesis. How does the disjunctive or influence the inflection? Give an example. What is a series? A commencing series? A concluding series? Give an example of each. What is a simple series? A compound series? Give the rule for a commencing series. For a concluding series. Give examples. What are the remarks upon them? What is the rule for inflection in a clause contained in a parenthesis? When is the circumflex used? When is the monotone used?

III. ACCENT AND EMPHASIS.

ACCENT.

THAT syllable in a word which is uttered more forcibly than the others, is said to be accented; as the italicized syllables in the following words:

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Accent when marked, is denoted by the same characters as those used in inflection; the acute accent, by (^), and the grave, by (^). The latter is merely a nominal distinction, and means only, that the syllable thus marked is not accented at all.

Common usage alone determines upon which syllable the accent should be placed, and to the lexicographer it belongs, to ascertain and record its decision on this point.

In some few cases, we can trace the reasons for common usage in this respect. In words which are used as different parts of speech, or which have different meanings, the distinction is sometimes denoted by changing the accent.

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There is another case, in which we discover the reason for changing the accent, and that is, when it is required by emphasis, as in the following

EXAMPLES.

His ability or inʼability to perform the act, materially varies the case.

This corruption must put on in corruption.

In words of more than two syllables, there is often a second accent given, but more slightly than the principal one, and this is called the secondary accent; as, car ́ ́avan ́, repartee ́ ́, where the principal accent is marked () and the secondary, (); so, also, this accent is obvious, in navigation, comprehension, plau'si-bility, &c. This whole subject, however, properly belongs to dictionaries and spelling-books.

ON EMPHASIS.

EMPHASIS Consists in a certain manner of uttering a word or phrase, designed to give it force and energy, and to draw the attention of the hearer, particularly, to the idea thereby expressed.

This is most frequently accomplished by an increased stress of voice laid upon the word or phrase. Sometimes, though more rarely, the same object is effected by an unusual lowering of the voice, even down to a whisper.

The inflections, also, are made subsidiary to this object. To give emphasis to a word, the inflection is often changed or increased in force or extent. Where the rising inflection is ordinarily used, the word, when emphatic, frequently takes the falling inflection; and sometimes, also, the falling inflection is changed into the rising, for the same purpose.

Emphatic words are often denoted by being written in italics, or in SMALL, or in LARGE CAPITALS.

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