Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

intelligence, of short"-lived reasonable crea'tures? Would He give us talents that are not to be exerted? capacities that are not to be grat"ified?

Can the soldier, when he girdeth on his armour, boast like him that putteth it off"? Can the merchant predict that the speculation on which he has entered will be infallibly crowned with success"? Can even the husbandman, who has the promise of God that seed-time and harvest shall not fail, look forward with assured confidence to the expected increase of his fields"? In these, and in all similar cases, our resolution to act can be founded on probability alone.

Are the men who can be charged with fewest failings, either with respect to abilities or to virtue, generally the most ready to make allow"ances for them'?

Can storied urn, or animated bust,

Back to its mansion call the fleeting breath"?
Can Honour's voice provoke the silent dust",

Or Flattery soothe the dull, cold ear of death"?

The miser has long been ardently endeavouring to fill his chest: and, lo! it is now full. Is he hap"py? Does he use" it? Does he gratefully think of the Giver of all good things'? Alas! these interests have no place in his heart.

197. Questions, indefinite in structure, become definite by reiteration, and then require a Falling Inflexion. In this form, they generally express a threat, or a command.

Are you prepared? Do you hear"? Will you go?

198. Questions, definite in structure, become indefinite by reiteration, and should then be read with a Rising Inflexion.

What" do you say? How" shall we accomplish it'? What" o'clock was' it? Where" did you say you were going?

199. A question quoted in a sentence should be read as part of it. The true consideration is, Has he abused" his power?

I have generally observed, when a man is talking of his country-house, that the first question usually asked is, Are you in a good neighbourhood?

200. RULE VII.-Questions that are determinate in their signification require a Falling Inflexion. (Such questions are usually introduced by means of pronouns, adverbs, or prepositions, and are not answerable by yes or no.)

On whom does time hang so heavily as on the slothful and in"dolent? To whom are the hours so lingering? Who are

so often devoured with spleen, and obliged to fly to every expedient, which can help them to get rid of themselves"?

Who continually supports and governs this stupendous system? Who preserves ten thousand times ten thousand worlds in perpetual harmony? Who enables them always to observe such time, and obey such laws, as are most exquisitely adapted for the perfection of the wondrous whole"? How could they preserve and direct themselves"? Who feels not that they were created, and must therefore be dependent? How, then, can they be so actuated and directed, but by the unceasing energy of the Great Supreme"?

Whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing, after Immortality?

Or, whence this secret dread and inward horror
Of falling into nought"? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction?

201. RULE VIII.-Questions in apposition require the same inflexions. Section 189. Questions that are antithetic require opposite inflexions.-Section 192.

Is a candle brought to be put under a bush"el, or under a bed"?

Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribula"tion, or distress", or persecu"tion, or fam"ine, or na"kedness, or per'il, or sword"?

Can the world defend us from disasters, or protect us from diseases? Can it preserve our hearts from grief, our eyes from tears, or our feet from fall"ing? Can it prolong our comforts, or multiply our days"? Can it redeem ourselves, or our friends, from death"? Can it soothe the king of terrors, or mitigate the agonies of the dying?

Thou fool! will thy discovery of the cause
Suspend" the effect, or heal" it?

Is the good"ness, or wisdom, of the Divine Being more manifested in this his proceeding?

Should infidelity be in the right, and revelation be but a fable, from believing it what harm could ensue? Would it render princes more tyran"nical, or subjects more ungovernable? the rich more in"solent, or the poor more disorderly? Would it make worse parents or children; husbands or wives"; masters or servants; friends" or neigh""bours?—r—would it not make men more virtuous, and consequently more happy, in êvery situation?

What beings fill these bright abodes? Bear they
The stamp of hu"man nature? Or has God
Peopled those purer realms with lovelier forms,
And more celestial minds? Does Innocence
Still wear her native and untainted bloom"?
Or has Sin breathed his deadly blight abroad,
And sowed corruption in these fairy bowers?

202. The interrogative words are sometimes omitted, or an interrogative sentence assumes a declarative form. In these cases the

reader will always attend to the import, rather than to the grammatical structure.

The tyrant has not battered at their peace"?

Open your lips, ye wonderful and fair!

Speak! speak!-the mysteries of those starry worlds
Unfold! No lan"guage? Everlasting light",

And everlasting silence? Yet the eye

May read and understand.

203. The answer to a question is generally read in a different tone from that in which the question is asked.-See Exercises on Modulation.

204. RULE IX.-Sentences or clauses that convey doubt, appeal, admiration, suspense, surprise, &c., in general take a Rising Inflexion throughout their delivery.

You have no' just' cause' to be displeased" with' me'.

It is his family in"fluence, not his mer'it, which has helped' him on'.

He said he would call, if' you would consent' to see" him'. 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 Macedon become master of the Athenians, and give law to all Greece"? What! Michael Căssio, that came a wooing with you, And, many a time, when I have spoke of you Disprăisingly, hath tǎ'en your părt―to have

So much to do to bring him in?

205. RULE X.-Sentences or clauses that are expressive of conviction, dislike, hatred, &c., take a Falling Inflexion throughout.

You have no just" cause' to be displeased with` me`.

It is his family influence, not his merit, which has helped him on.

He said he would call, if you would consent to see" him'.
How like a fawn"ing publican he looks'!

I hate him! for, in low" simplicity,
Hê lends" out money grâtis.

206. Words expressive of any tender emotion or affection, and the reverential language of prayer, incline to the Rising Inflexion: words which convey any violent passion-the language of authority, reprehension, and denunciation should be read with an emphatic Falling Inflexion.

Hide thy face from my sins', and blot out all mine iniquities'.
Lord, let me know mine end', and the number of my days'.
Ah! whither now are fled

Those dreams of great'ness? those unsolid hopes
Of happiness? those longings after fame'?
Those restless cares'? those busy, bustling days'?
Those gay-spent, festive nights'? those veering thoughts,
Lost between good and ill, that shared thy life'?

God is not a man, that He should lie"; neither the son` of man, that He should repent". Hath He said it? and shall He not do it? Hath He spoken" it? and shall He not make it good"?

Judge' me, ye gods'! wrong I mine enemies?
And if not so, how should I wrong my broth"er?

Poison be their drink!

Gall,-worse than gall,-the dainties that they taste!
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees!
Their chiefest prospects, murdering basilisks!
Their music, frightful as the serpent's hiss!
And boding screech-owls make the concert full!

He hath

If it will feed nothing else, it will feed my revenge. disgraced me, and hindered me of half a million; laughed at my losses, mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies: and what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions? Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is? If you stab us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And, if you wrong us, shall we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me, I will execute; and it shall go hard, but I will better the instruction!

207. Exclamation (especially when it is interrogative in its nature), and Echo, require a Rising Inflexion.

How", you say, are we to accomplish it? How accomplish it? Certainly not by fearing to attempt it.

You lament the loss of the Roman armies; Mark Antony destroyed them: you resent the death of so many noble citizens; Mark Antony was their death: the authority of the Senate is invaded; Mark An"tony invades it.

Newton was a Christian!-Newton! whose mind burst forth from the fetters cast by nature on our finite conceptions;Newton! whose science was truth, and the foundation of whose knowledge of it was philosophy;-not those visionary and arrogant presumptions which too often usurp its name, but philosophy, resting on the basis of mathematics; which, like figures, cannot lie:-New""ton! who carried the line and rule to the utmost barrier of creation, and explored the principles, by which, no doubt, all created matter is held together,

and exists.

SENTENCES OF OBLIQUE OR REFERENTIAL MEANING

208. (Sections 172-174.)-In many forms of Oblique Sentences it is impossible to give accurate directions for their forcible utterance, as this frequently depends not only on the tone, but also on the general expression of the speaker. With regard to the inflexion of such passages, the ordinary rules suffice; but a greater and a distinctive degree (usually by circumflexes) is employed, to give better vocal expression to the implied meaning.

Our solicitude cânnot alter the course, or unravel the intricacy, of human events. Our curiosity cannot pierce through the cloud which the Supreme Being has made împenetrable to mortal eye.

If you are wise, you must not appear to know what you

know.

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To such a sudden flood of muŭtiny.

They that have done this deed are hônourable.
What private griefs they have, alas! I know not,
That made them do it; they are wise and honourable,
And will, no doubt, with reasons answer you.

It wêll becomes a person, truly, who has spent his life in the indulgence of every vicious propensity, to set up for a iûdge and a reprôver of others!

« ForrigeFortsæt »