tion seems less suitable than the rising: this will be better perceived by a few examples. EXAMPLE. Seeing then that the soul has many diffierent faculties, or in other words many different ways of acting; that it can be intensely pleased or made happy by all these different faculties or ways of acting; that it may be endowed with several latent faculties, which it is not at present in a condition to exért; that we cannot believe the soul is endowed with any faculty which is of no use to it; that whenever any one of these faculties is transcendently pleased, the soul is in a state of happiness; and in the last place, considering that the happiness of another world, is to be the happiness of the whole man; who can question but that there is an infinite variety in those pleasures we are speaking of; and that this fullness of joy will be made up of all those pleasures, which the nature of the soul is capable of receiving? Spectator, No. 600. As the fourth member of this sentence, from its very nature, requires the rising inflection, and as the whole series is constructed on the suppositive conjunction seeing; every particular member of it seems necessarily to require the rising inflection: for it may be observed as a pretty general rule, that where a conditional or a suppositive conjunction commences the series, if there is nothing particularly emphatical in it, the rising inflection on each particular of the series is preferable to the falling, especially if the language be plaintive and tender. EXAMPLE. When the gay and smiling aspect of things has begun to leave the passages to a man's heart thus thoughtlessly unguarded; when kind and caressing looks of every object without, that can flatter his senses, has conspired with the enemy within, to betray him and put him off his defénce; when music likewise hath lent her aid, and tried her power upon the pássions; when the voice of singing men, and the voice of singing women, with the sound of the viol and lute, have broke in upon his soul, and in some tender notes have touched the secret springs of rápture,—that moment let us dissect and look into his heart;-see how vàin, how weak, how empty a thing it is! Sterne's Sermon on the House of Mourning, &c. In this example, the plaintive tone which the whole sentence requires, gives it an air of poetry, and makes the falling inflection too harsh to terminate the several particulars; for it may be observed in passing, that a series of particulars are as seldom to be pronounced with the falling inflection in poetry, as they are for the most part to be so pronounced in prose. The reason of this, perhaps, may be, that, as poetry assumes so often the ornamental and the plaintive, where a distinct and emphatic enumeration is not so much the object as a noble or a tender one; that expression which gives the idea of force and familiarity is not so suitable to poetry as to prose: as a confirmation of this we may observe, that when poetry becomes either forceful or familiar, the falling inflection is then properly adopted in the pronunciation of the series. EXAMPLE. Love in these labyrinths his slaves detains, Rape of the Locke, Canto ii. ver. 23. Here the emphasis on each particular requires the first and second to be pronounced with the falling inflection, as in the general Rule of the Compound Series. But rhyming poetry so seldom admits of this inflection in the series, that the general rule is for a contrary pronunciation. EXAMPLE. So when the faithful pencil has design'd When the ripe colours soften and unite, And sweetly melt into just shade and light; When mellowing years their full perfection give, Pope's Essay on Crit. ver. 404. In this example we find every particular, except the last, adopt the rising inflection, as more agreeable to the pathetic tenor of the passage than the falling and it may be observed, that there are few passages of this sort in rhyming poetry, of the pathetic or ornamental kind, which do not necessarily require the same inflection.. INTERROGATION. The most obvious distinction between interrogative and other sentences is, that as, in other sentences, the substantive or pronoun precedes the verb it governs, in an interrogative sentence, the verb, either auxiliary or principal, ought always to precede either the substantive or pronoun. Thus, when I speak declaratively, I say, I am going to college; but when I speak interrogatively, I say, Are you going to college? where we observe, that in the declarative and interrogative sentences, the pronoun and the verb hold different places. This inversion of the common order of the words in composition, is accompanied by a similar inversion of the inflection of voice in pronunciation; for as the common order of inflections in a declarative sentence, is that of placing the rising inflection towards the middle, and the falling at the end, as in the first example; the interrogation inverts this order, and uses the falling inflection of voice in the midddle of the sentence, and the rising on the last word, as in the last example. This inflection of voice, however, which thus distinguishes the interrogation, seems entirely confined to those questions which are formed without the interrogative pronouns or adverbs. When a question commences with one of these, it has invariably the same inflection as the declarative sentence, unless we have either not heard, or mistaken an answer just given us for in that case, the emphasis is placed on the interrogative word; and the voice elevated by the rising inflection on the end of the sentence. Thus, if we say simply, When do you go to college? the word college has the falling inflection, and the voice is no more elevated than if, being acquainted with the time, we should say, At that time I find you go to college: but if we have mistaken the answer that has been given us concerning the time, we say, When do you go to college? we lay a considerble stress upon the word when, and suspend the voice with the rising inflection to the end of the sentence. Again; if we ask a question without previous conversation, or reference to any thing that has passed, if we do not use the interrogative words, we infallibly use the rising inflection, and elevate the voice on the end of the question; thus when we meet, and say-Are you going to college? if we have the least eagerness for information, the voice is elevated and suspended with the rising inflection on the last word: but if the person we speak to, either does not hear, or else mistakes what we say, so as to make it necessary to repeat the question, we then adopt the falling inflection on the last word, and, giving it some degree of emphasis, say, Are you going to college? with the same inflection of voice, and in nearly the same tone, with which we should say simply, You are now going to college; precisely reversing that upward turn of voice which distinguishes the first question. Thus we find the immediate repetition of the same question requires a different inflection of voice according to its form. When we ask a question commencing with an interrogative word, as-When do you go to college? and from a mistake of the answer about the time, repeat this question, we use the rising inflection of voice, and elevate it to the end, as-When do you go to college? On the contrary, when we first ask a question without the interrogative word, we use the rising inflection, and raise the voice on the last word, as-Are you going to college? and when we repeat the question, we use the falling inflection of voice on the last word; and though we may pronounce the last word louder than the rest, we do not use the rising inflection as in the former case, but the falling, as-I say, are you going to college? From these observations it appears, that with respect to pronunciation, all questions may be divided into two classes; namely, into such as are formed by the interrogative pronouns or adverbs, and into such as are formed only by an inversion of the common arrange ment of the words: that the first with respect to inflection of voice, except in the cases already mentioned, may be considered as purely declarative, and like declarative sentences require the falling inflection at the end that the last, with some few exceptions, require the rising inflection of voice on the last word; and that it is this rising inflection at the end which distinguishes them from almost every other species of sentence. both these in their order. THE QUESTION WITH THE INTERROGATIVE WORDS. Of RULE XXXIII. When an interrogative sentence commences with any of the interrogative pronouns or adverbs, with respect to inflection, elevation, or depression of voice, it is pronounced exactly like a declarative sen tence. EXAMPLES. How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great and noble, who only believes that after a short turn on the stage of this world, he is to sink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for èver? Spect. No. 210. As an illustration of the rule, we need only alter two or three of the words in this example to reduce it to a declarative sentence; and we shall find the inflection, elevation, and depression of voice on every part of it the same. He cannot exalt his thoughts to any thing great or noble, because he only believes that after a short turn on the stage of this world, he is to sink into oblivion, and to lose his consciousness for èver. Here we perceive, that the two sentences, though one is an interrogation, and the other a declaration, end both with the same inflection of voice, and that the falling inflection; but if we convert these words into an interrogation, by leaving out the interrogative word, we shall soon perceive the difference. |