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2. Avarus has long been ardently endeavouring to fill his chest and lo! it is now full. Is he happy'? Does he use' it? Does he gratefully think of the Giver of all good things? Does he distribute to the poor? Alas! these interests have no place in his breast.

3. Yet say, should tyrants learn at last to feel, And the loud din of battle cease to bray;

Would death be foiled'? Would health, and strength, and youth'
Defy his power? Has he no arts in store,

No other shafts save those of war'? Alas!
Even in the smile of peace, that smile which sheds
A heavenly sunshine o'er the soul, there basks
That serpent Luxury.-

RULE III.-When interrogative sentences connected by the disjunctive or, expressed or understood, succeed each other, the first end with the rising and the rest with the falling inflection.*

EXAMPLES.

1. Does God, after having made his creatures, take no further' care of them? Has he left them to blind fate or undirected chance'? Has he forsaken the works of his own hands'? Or does he always graciously preserve, and keep, and guide' them?

2. Should these credulous infidels after all be in the right, and this pretended revelation be all a fable, from believing it what harm' could ensue? Would it render princes more tyrannical, or subjects more ungovernable'? the rich more insolent, or the poor more disorderly'? Would it make worse parents, or children'; husbands, or wives'; masters, or servants' s'; friends, or neighbours'? or would it not make men more virtuous, and, consequently, more happy' in every situation?

3. Ís the goodness', or wisdom', of the Divine Being, more manifested in this his proceeding?

4. Shall we in your person crown' the author of the public calamities, or shall we destroy' him?

Note 2.-An interrogative sentence, consisting of a variety of members depending on each other for sense, may have the inflection common to other sentences, provided the last member has that inflection which distinguishes the species of interrogation to which it belongs.

EXAMPLE.

Can we believe a thinking being, that is in a perpetual progress of improvement', and travelling on from perfection to perfection, after

* When or is used conjunctively the inflections are not regulated by it.

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having just looked abroad into the works of its Creator', and made a few discoveries of his infinite goodness, wisdom, and power, must perish at her first setting out', and in the very beginning' of her inquiries?

Note 3.-Interrogative sentences, consisting of members in a series, which form perfect sense as they proceed, must have every member ter. minate with that inflection which distinguishes the species of interrogation of which they consist.

EXAMPLES.

1. Hath death torn from your embrace the friend whom you tenderly loved' him to whom you were wont to unbosom the secrets of your soul' him who was your counsellor in perplexity, the sweetener of all your joys, and the assuager of all your sorrows'? You think you do well to mourn; and the tears with which you water his grave, seem to be a tribute due to his virtues. But waste not your affection in fruitless lamentation.

2. Who are the persons that are most apt to fall into peevishness and dejection that are continually complaining of the world, and see nothing but wretchedness' around them? Are they those whom want compels to toil for their daily bread' who have no treasure but the labour of their hands' who rise with the rising sun to expose themselves to all the rigours of the seasons, unsheltered from the winter's cold, and unshaded from the summer's heat'? No. The labours of such are the very blessings of their condition.

Note 4.-When questions, asked by verbs, are followed by answers, the rising inflection, in a high tone of voice, takes place at the end of the question, and, after a long pause, the answer must be pronounced in a lower tone.

EXAMPLES.

1. Are you desirous that your talents and abilities may procure you respect'? Display them not ostentatiously to public view. Would you escape the envy which your riches' might excite? Let them not minister to pride, but adorn them with humility.

2. There is not an evil incident to human nature for which the gospel doth not provide a remedy. Are you ignorant of many things which it highly concerns you to know? The gospel offers you instruction. Have you deviated from the path of duty'? The gospel offers you forgiveness. Do temptations' surround you? The gospel offers you the aid of Heaven. Are you exposed to misery? It consoles you. Are you subject to death'? It offers you immortality.

EXCLAMATION.

RULE IV. The inflections at the note of exclamation are the same as at any other point, in sentences similarly constructed.

EXAMPLES.

1. The Almighty sustains and conducts the universe. It was He who separated the jarring elements'! It was He who

hung up the worlds in empty space! It is He who preserves them in their circles, and impels them in their course'!

2. How pure, how dignified should they be, whose origin is celestial! How pure, how dignified should they be, who are taught to look higher than earth; to expect to enjoy the divinest pleasures for evermore, and to shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father'!'

3. Behold the reverential awe with which the words and the opinions of the upright and conscientious are heard and received! See the wise courting their friendship; the poor applying for their aid; the friendless and forlorn seeking their advice, and the widow and the fatherless craving their protection'!

RULE V. When the exclamation, in form of a question, is the echo of another question of the same kind, or when it proceeds from wonder or admiration, it always requires the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

1. Will you for ever, Athenians, do nothing but walk up and down the city, asking one another, What news'? What news'! Is there any thing more new than to see a man of Macedonia become master of the Athenians, and give laws to all Greece'?

2. What'! might Rome then have been taken, if those men who were at your gates had not wanted courage' for the attempt? Rome taken when I' was consul!-Of honours I had sufficient of life enough-more than enough.

3. Whither shall I turn'? Wretch that I am'! to what place shall I betake myself? Shall I go to the capitol'? alas! it is overflowed with my brother's blood! or shall I retire to my house? yet there I behold my mother plunged in misery, weeping and despairing.

4. Plant of celestial seed, if dropped below,
Say in what mortal soil thou deignest to grow:
Fair opening to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twined with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reaped in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows'! where grows it not? if vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the soil.

PARENTHESIS.

RULE VI-A parenthesis must be pronounced in a lower tone of voice than the rest of the sentence, and conclude with the same pause and inflection which terminate the member that immediately precedes it.*

EXAMPLES.

1. Though Fame, who is always the herald of the great, has seldom deigned to transmit the exploits of the lower ranks to posterity', (for it is commonly the fate of those whom fortune has placed in the vale of obscurity to have their noble actions buried in oblivion';) yet, in their verses, the minstrels have preserved many instances of domestic wo and felicity.

2. Uprightness is a habit, and, like all other habits, gains strength by time and exercise. If, then, we exercise' upright principles, (and we cannot have them unless we exercise' them,) they must be perpetually on the increase.

3. Sir Andrew Freeport's notions of trade are noble and generous', and (as every rich man has usually some sly way of jesting, which would make no great figure were he not' a great man,) he calls the sea the British Common.

Note 1.-The end of a parenthesis must have the falling inflection, when it terminates with an emphatical word.

EXAMPLE.

Had I, when speaking in the assembly, been absolute and independent master of affairs, then your other speakers might call me to account. But if ye were ever present, if ye were all in general invited to propose your sentiments, if ye were all agreed that the measures then suggested were really the best; if you, Eschines, in particular, were thus persuaded, (and it was no partial affection for me, that prompted you to give me up the hopes, the applause, the honours, which attended that course I then advised, but the superior force of truth, and your utter inability to point out any more eligible' course ;) if this was the case, 1 say, is it not highly cruel and unjust to arraign those measures now, when you could not then propose any better?

Note 2.-When the parenthesis is long it may be pronounced with a degree of monotone or sameness of voice, in order to distinguish it from the rest of the sentence.

A parenthesis must also be pronounced a degree quicker than the rest of the sentence; a pause too must be made both before and after it, proportioned in length to the more intimate or remote connexion which it has with the rest of the sentence.

EXAMPLE,

Since then every sort of good which is immediately of importance to happiness, must be perceived by some immediate power or sense, antecedent to any opinions or reasoning (for it is the business of reason to compare the several sorts of good perceived by the several senses, and to find out the proper means for obtaining them), we must therefore carefully inquire into the several sublimer perceptive powers or senses; since it is by them we best discover what state or course of life best answers the intention of God and nature, and wherein true happiness consists.

Note 3.-The small intervening members, said I, says he, continued they, &c. follow the inflection and tone of the member which precedes them, in a higher and feebler tone of voice.

EXAMPLE.

Thus, then, said he, since you are so urgent, it is thus that I conceive it. The sovereign good is that, the possession of which renders us happy. And how, said I, do we possess it? Is it sensual or intellectual? There, you are entering, said he, upon the detail,

EXERCISES on the INTERROGATION, EXCLAMATION, and PARENTHESIS.

1. Would you do your homage the most agreeable way? Would you render the most acceptable of services? offer unto God thanksgiving.

2. What shadow can be more vain than the life of a great part of mankind? Of all that eager and bustling crowd we behold on earth, how few discover the path of true happiness? How few can we find, whose activity has not been misemployed, and whose course terminates not in confessions of disappointments?

3. What are the scenes of nature that elevate the mind in the highest degree, and produce the sublime sensation? Not the gay landscape, the flowery field, or the flourishing city; but the hoary mountain, and the solitary lake; the aged forest, and the torrent falling over the rock.

4. Is there any one who will seriously maintain, that the taste of a Hottentot or a Laplander is as delicate and as correct as that of a Longinus or an Addison? or, that he can be charged with no defect or incapacity, who thinks a common news-writer as excellent an historian as Tacitus?

5. That strong hyperbolical manner which we have long been accustomed to call the Oriental manner of poetry (because some of the earliest poetical productions came to us from the East) is in truth no more Oriental than Occidental; it is characteristical of an age rather than of a country; and belongs, in some measure, to all nations at that period which first gives rise to music and to song.

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