ABSOLUTE EMPHASIS. Where the emphasis is independent of any contrast or comparison with other words or ideas, it is called absolute emphasis. EXAMPLES. 1. Wẹ praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord. 2. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll. 3. Arm, warriors, arm! 4. You know that you are Brutus, that speak this, Or, by the gods, this speech were else your last. 5. Hamlet. Saw who? Follow upon your spirit, and upon this charge, Cry" God for Harry, England, and St. George." 7. She was the rainbow to thy sight, Thy sun, thy heaven of lost delight. 8. The old Lion of England grows youthful again : He rouses-he rises-he bristles his mane. 9. Strike-till the last armed foe expires, RELATIVE EMPHASIS. Where there is antithesis, either expressed or implied, the emphasis is called relative. EXAMPLES. 1. We can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. 4. Hunting men, and not beasts, shall be his game. 5. He is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. 6. It may moderate and restrain, but was not designed to banish gladness from the heart of man. In the following examples, there are two sets of antitheses in the same sentence. 7. John was punished; William, rewarded. 8. Without were fightings, within were fears. 9. Business sweetens pleasure, as labor sweetens rest. 10. Justice appropriates rewards to merit, and punishments to crime. 11. On the one side, all was alacrity and courage; on the other, all was timidity and indecision. 12. The wise man is happy when he gains his own approbation, the fool, when he gains the applause of others. 13. His care was to polish the country by art, as he had protected it by arms. In the following examples the relative emphasis is applied to three sets of antithetic words. 14. The difference between a madman and a fool is, that the former reasons justly from false data; and the latter, erroneously from just data. 15. He raised a mortal to the skies, She drew an angel down. Sometimes the antithesis is implied, as in the following instances. 16. The spirit of the white man's heaven, forbids not thee to weep. 17. What! while our arms can wield these blades, The front of heaven was full of fiery shapes, Of burning cressets; and at my birth, The fame and huge foundation of the earth EMPHASIS AND ACCENT. When words, which are the same in part of their formation, are contrasted, the emphasis is expressed by accenting the syllable in which they differ. See Accent, page 40. EXAMPLES. 1. What is the difference between probability and possibility? 2. Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss. 3. John attends regularly, William, irregularly. 4. There is a great difference between giving and forgiving. 5. The conduct of Antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; that of Nero, by injustice and inhumanity. 6. The conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of the latter merits the severest reprobation. EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION. † Emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, or from the falling to the rising. For instances of the former change, see Rule II. and exception to Rule IV. In the first three following examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the rising, by the influence of emphasis. EXAMPLES. 1. If we have no regard for religion in youth, we ought to have respect for it in age. 2. If we have no regard for our own character, we ought to regard the character of others. 3. If content can not remove the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, alleviate them. 4. The sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony, fall powerless upon the ear of one who is deaf". 5. It is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is blind". 6. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren; but rather let them do them service. EMPHATIC PHRASE. When it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized. EXAMPLES. 1. Cassius. Must I endure all this? Brutus. All this!-Ay,-more. Fret, till your proud-heart -break. 2. What! weep you, when you but behold Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look ye here! Here is him-self. 3. There was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the Lacedæmonians were sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one ship-no, NOT-ONE-WALL. 4. Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul; and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this HALF-YEAR-CAPTAIN ? 5. You call me misbeliever-cut-throat-dog. Hath a dog-money? Is it possible A cur can lend three-thousand-ducats? EMPHATIC PAUSE. A short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and after an emphatic word or phrase, thus very much increasing the emphatic expression of the thought. EXAMPLES. 1. May one be pardoned, and retain-the offense? More free from peril than the envious courts? 3. This is no flattery: These-are counselors 4. Heaven gave this Lyre, and thus decreed, Be thou a bruised—but not a broken-reed. QUESTIONS.-When is a syllable said to be accented? Give examples. How is the accent, when marked, denoted? By what authority is the accent determined? To whom does it belong to record usage in this respect? In what cases can we perceive the reason for the accent? Give examples of the first case. Give examples of the second. Explain the secondary accent. Give examples. What is EMPHASIS? What is its object? How is this object most frequently accomplished? In what other way is it also effected? How is emphasis denoted? What is absolute emphasis? Give examples. What is relative emphasis? Give examples. How is accent affected by emphasis? Give examples. How are inflections affected by it? Give an example in which the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling, by the force of emphasis. Give one, in which it is changed from the falling to the rising. What is an emphatic phrase? Give an example. What is meant by the emphatic pause? Give an example. IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING VERSE. INFLECTIONS. IN reading verse, the inflections should be nearly the same as in reading prose; the chief difference is, that in poetry, the monotone and rising inflection are more frequently used than in prose. The greatest difficulty in reading or declaiming this species of composition, consists in giving it that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a chanting pronunciation. If, at any time, the reader is in doubt as to the proper inflection, let him reduce the passage to earnest conversation, and pronounce it in the most familiar and prosaic manner, and thus he will generally use the proper inflection. EXERCISES IN INFLECTIONS. 1. Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove From under heaven: the hills to their supply, Vapor and exhalation dusk and moist Sent up amain: and now, the thickened sky |