"Sudden the heart

Of this young, conquering, loving, god-like Roman-

"What a piece of work is man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a God!” HAMLET.

"For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit, also, upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High!"

VI. ANTI-CLIMAX.

This figure, the reverse of the Climax, frequently imparts force, beauty, and pathos to language. It should be read or spoken by commencing the subject in the middle tone of voice, then subduedly and progressively letting it fall until you come to the termination of the passage.

Examples.

"In helpless, hopeless, brokenness of heart."
"That fires not, wins not, weeps not now."

BYRON.

IBID.

"Were I an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms, never, never, never."

EARL OF CHATHAM IN DEFENCE OF AMERICA.

On the Inflections of the Voice.

Perhaps this may be a proper place to remark upon one of the most persuasive ornaments of reading and speaking, which is modulation. All the variations of the human voice spring from five inflections. The first of which, however paradoxical it may seem, is monotone, the second the rising, and the third the falling inflection, the fourth the falling, and the fifth the rising. High and low, loud and soft, quick and slow, may be considered comparative modifications, as what is high in one case may be low in another, and so of the rest.

Examples of Monotone, and of the rising and falling

Inflections.

"Or wet the thirsty earth with falling showers,

Rising or falling

Again,

MILTON'S MORNING HYMN.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought !"

ADDISON.

Examples of the falling and rising Inflections.

"The tear,

The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know, or dream, or fear-"

An excursion on the highway may as clearly as any other way, point out the five inflections of the voice. Monotone being the first, we will suppose the smooth, level way, and as we cannot always have smooth level ways, we will suppose our next change to be an acclivity, which we will call the rising inflection. When we shall have reached the summit, we will suppose that we shall have to descend, which we will call the falling inflection. At the foot of the hill, we meet a level spot, which as above, we will call monotone. After travelling some distance on this level, we arrive at a descent which we will term the falling inflection; at the foot of which we have a hill, which we will call the fifth or rising inflection, and these straight forward, and up and down, down and up, and continual equalities and inequalities, form our road through life, and afford a species of elucidation of the five inflections of the human voice.

VII. SUSPENSION.

Suspension, which may be considered of two kinds, the protracted and the slight, is when properly managed, one of the most effective things in eloquence; it impresses the auditor, elicits his attention, and calls forth his applause. A good orator may hold an audience almost breathless under its influence. But care should be taken not to use the protracted suspensive pause, but

when the subject is of sufficient magnitude to bear the speaker out in its adoption; for if it be recurred to frequently, and upon trivial occasions, censure will be the result. The effect is to be produced by stopping and suspending the voice immediately before the passage, or part of a sentence, by which you mean to make what is in oratory called your point. When you stop, let it be with an elevation of voice, which will leave the sense broken and incomplete, then your hearers, being in expectation of something superlative, will, when it comes, amply reward you for the excitement and gratification of their expectations. There are two ways of reading the protracted suspensive pause. The one is, when you suspend in a loud tone, you should terminate in a subdued tone; and the reverse. Independently of the particular power above attributed to suspension in the protracted sense, there is another and a slighter kind of suspension, which has a general power over eloquence, for by that keeping up of the voice, while the necessary breathing time is taking, a disjunction of the sense, and a stop to the harmony of the subject, which would otherwise continually occur, is prevented, some sentences being so long that a speaker could not have sufficient breath to go through them, even rapidly, much less to give them force and harmony, unless he were to have recourse to suspension, which carries him and the meaning evenly along until it set both down safely at the period. Its power is such, that the speaker may stop when and where he pleases, without injury to the sense, if he be a perfect master of its use.

Examples of the protracted Suspensive Pause.

"And Nathan said to David-thou art the man."

"It is an attribute-to God himself."

"Born for your use, I live but to obey you,

Know then-'twas I!!"

TRAGEDY OF THE REVENGE, Act 5.

VIII. PARENTHESIS.

Parenthesis, says Dr. Johnson, is a sentence so included in another sentence, as that it may be taken out without injuring the sense of that which encloses it. This figure, rather used to impart variety than elegance to composition, should be read or spoken in a quicker and a lower tone of voice than the general subject. The reader or speaker, should slightly suspend his voice immediately before the parenthesis, and take up the same tone at its close.

Examples.

"This moon, which rose last night, (round as my shield,)
Had not yet filled her horns, when, (by her light,)

A band of fierce barbarians," &c.

"Beneath a mountain's brow, (the most remote
And inaccessible by shepherds trod,)

In a deep cave, (dug by no mortal hand,)

An hermit liv'd," &c.

TRAGEDY OF DOUGLAS.

"If there's a power above us,

(And that there is all nature cries aloud

Through all her works,) he must delight in virtue."

TRAGEDY OF Cato.

Farewell, a long farewell to all my greatness!
This is the state of man; to-day he puts forth
The tender leaves of hope; to morrow blossoms,
And bears his blushing honours thick upon him;
The third day comes a frost, (a killing frost,)
And when he thinks, (good easy man,) full surely
His greatness is a ripening, nips his shoot,
And then he falls, as I do. I have ventured,
(Like little wanton boys, that swim on bladders,)
These many summers in a sea of glory:
But far beyond my depth: my high blown pride
At length broke under me; and now has left me,
(Weary and old with service,) to the mercy
Of a rude stream, that must forever hide me.

HENRY THE VIII.

IX. ANTITHESIS.

Antithesis arises in a sentence or line where words are opposed to each other. This figure gives force to meaning, and variety to utterance, and should be read or spoken with a particular stress on the words in opposition.

Examples.

"Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen ?"

TRAGEDY OF JULIUS CESAR.

"Is it credible that when he declined putting Clodius to death with the consent of all, that he would choose to do it with the disapprobation of many? Can you believe that the person whom he scrupled to slay, when he might have done so with full justice-in a convenient place-at a proper time-with secure impunity, he made no scruple to murder-against justice-in an unfavourable place at an unseasonable time—and at the risk of capital condemnation?"

CICERO FOR MILO.

"So, also, is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body."

1 COR. XV. CHAP. 42nd Verse.

X. MONOTONY, OR MONOTONE.

Monotone occurs in those parts of a subject where several words follow each other, without requiring any variation of voice, or particular stress upon one word more than another. This figure often imparts sublimity, and from its own want of variety, bestows variety upon that to which it is attached. It should be read or spoken with unvarying sameness.

Examples.

"For who would bear the whips and scorns o' the time,
The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despis'd love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office, and the spurns