sulated meaning, which nevertheless do not admit of the downward closing phrase.

The rising tritone indicates the most immediate connexion of parts separated by the time of the pause. The ditone carries on the sense in the next degree. The phrase of the monotone denotes a diminished relationship between divided members the falling ditone still less: and the downward tritone produces the fullest suspension of sense, without obstructing its further continuation. The triad of the cadence being the maximum of distinction among the parts of discourse, the comparison of its downward intonation with the courses of the other phrases, may serve to explain the causes of the varying indication of each, by showing the gradations of departure from the form and direction of the disuniting cadence. The degrees of connexion between the members of sentences are so various, and the acceptation of them by readers may be so different, that it would not be safe to propose a scheme for appropriating definitely the kind of phrase to every instance of pause. From present knowledge on this subject, I would say generally that the intonation of some pauses may be varied without exceptionably affecting either sense or elocution: but I am confident in asserting that there are cases in which the species of phrase is absolutely unalterable.

The foregoing remarks on the use of the phrases of melody, have not been made in allusion to common grammatical punctuation. Writers on elocution have long since ascribed the faults of readers, in part, to the vague nature of these points, and to the distracting effect of the caprice of editors in using them. In the notation of the following passage I shall apply the phrases of melody, with reference both to my own acceptation of the sense of the author, and to the distinct and vivid picture, producible by utterance, without regard to the directions of its punctuation. It is thus pointed by the editor :

So spake the seraph Abdiel, faithful found
Among the faithless, faithful only he;
Among innumerable false, unmoved,
Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love, his zeal;

Nor number, nor example, with him wrought

To swerve from truth, or change his constant mind,
Though single.

When the reader looks upon the changes I have made in the punctuation of these lines, I must beg him to bear in mind, that whether his decision is favorable to it or otherwise, it may still illustrate my idea of the power and place of the phrases. If this be accomplished, I shall not dispute about the free will of taste, in the particular use of these phrases. My object in this essay, is to explain the functions of the voice: not to contend with expositors and critics.

When I speak of the employment of a phrase of melody, at a pause of discourse, it must be understood that the phrase is to be applied to the last syllables preceding the pause. Nevertheless, for particular purposes of expression, the monotone may be continued on the succeeding syllable.

So spake the se- -raph Abdiel, faith-ful found

A-mong the faith-less. Faith-ful on- -ly

he.

A-mong in-nu- -me-ra

-ble false, un-moved,

Un--sha--ken, un- -se—duced, un- terrified,

His loyalty he kept, his love,

his

zeal.

Nor number, nor ex-am--ple, with him

wrought

from truth, or change his con-stant mind,

The first pause at 'Abdiel' is marked with a falling ditone, because the included member does not necessarily produce the expectation of additional meaning or qualification: and because this phrase does not absolutely dissolve the grammatical concord between the members which it separates. I have set the triad of the cadence at 'faithless,' not exclusively upon the right to assume the sense as here completed; but with a view to prepare for the eminent display of the sentiment contained in the remainder of the line. The editor has marked the pause with a comma, and thus made the three succeeding words a dependent clause. I have regarded this clause as an elliptical sentence; not only because I might be justified in so doing by a grammatical resolution of it, but more especially in order to promote the expressive effect of utterance. These words reiterate the previous attribution of faithfulness to Abdiel, with the further affirmation of his singleness in virtue. This definite and emphatic restriction of the individuality of the subject, is made with mingled sentiments of regret over the rebellious rejection of truth, and of exultation that Abdiel alone has the undivided merit of defending it. There is a touch of feeling in these sentiments, which even with all other due means for an appropriate utterance, can not be answerably displayed, except the phraseology of those sentiments is separated from that of preceding and succeeding thoughts, by the marked distinctions of the cadence. If the word faithless be read with what is called, in the schools, a suspension of the voice, which in their indefinite language means avoiding a fallthe spirit of the clause which follows will be perverted or lost. Milton's fine ear and his high passions qualified him to be a good reader; and though he may not have been one by practice, I would with difficulty believe that he thought the pas

sage we have been here considering, with the close sequence which is implied by the editor's comma and semicolon.

The next pause at 'false,' is preceded by the rising ditone. The structure of this member evidently creates expectancy, and the species of intonation indicates the continuation of the

sense.

Of the four succeeding pauses, each rests on a single word. The three first are noted with the monotone, to foretel the continued progression of the sense: the fourth, at 'terrified,' has the falling ditone, to denote a change, but not a close of thought. In ordering these four pauses, variety might be shown, without affecting the sense, by giving to the two last syllables of 'unshaken,' a rising phrase. The phrase at 'kept' is the rising ditone; for since 'love' and 'zeal' are equally, with 'loyalty,' the objectives of 'kept,' and these objects being disjoined by construction, no other phrase at 'kept,' would so closely cooperate with the full pause which I have set at 'zeal,' and thereby tend to impress on an auditor the true syntax of the sentence.

At zeal,' which is marked by the editor with a semicolon, I have applied a period, and a form of the cadence; for this close, by throwing back 'love' and 'zeal,' as objectives, prevents their bearing forward as nominatives to some expected verb; which might not be obviated by employing, at this place, one of the continuative phrases of melody with a semicolon. The use of a cadence in this place puts the true grammatical construction of the sentence altogether out of doubt with the auditor. One can account for the employment of a semicolon at 'zeal,' by presuming that the editor considered the following word 'nor' as a connective. It certainly begins a new sense; and in regard both to its place and its immediate repetition, may be looked upon as a poetical inversion and a redundancy of negative. The remaining part of the notation contains examples of the principles just elucidated, and therefore needs no explanation.

I have thus endeavoured to begin an effort towards supplying a blank in elocution, by giving a definite description of the modes of intonation, to be joined with the rests of the voice; and by illustrating the manner in which we may frame principles, to direct the use of the several phrases. Those who desire

U

knowledge of the structure of sentences, for the purpose of applying these principles, may consult books of rhetoric. Mr. Sheridan writes, with his usual ability, on the nature of pause, and gives numerous exemplifications of its proper use. But he makes no analysis of that intonation which he must have judiciously joined with it, in the accomplished practice of his voice. Mr. Walker has also given a masterly treatise on this subject, in his Rhetorical Grammar. He wisely saw the practical utility of uniting with the doctrine of the temporal purpose of pause, an enquiry into the applicable modes of intonation. In a philosophical view of the subject, his treatise contains no description of the functions of pitch, beyond the general distinctions into rise and fall, and turn, which had been made long before his time. Mr. Walker undertook the investigation of the nature of speech, without possessing a discriminating ear; without sufficient familiarity with the known distinctions of sound, and without seeming to keep in mind the means of philosophical inquiry. The example of the highest masters of science, had taught that all he could aim to accomplish by his research, would be, to observe the phenomena of the voice, and to class them with known facts in the history of sound. But the most precise nomenclature of the properties of sound, if not the most comprehensive history of them, is contained in the science of music and Mr. Walker appears to have had too feeble or too limited a perception of its clear and abundant discriminations, to produce a recognition of identity or analogy between the modes of the speaking voice and the familiar phenomena of musical sounds.

Even though we might despair that future inquiry will teach us the structural cause of the vanishing movement, and of the orotund and falsette voices: still it is certainly now within the ability of a disciplined and attentive ear, to discover whether sounds, supposed to be peculiar to the human voice, are similar to others that have been accurately measured and definitely named, in the classifications of music; and consequently whether they might be designated by the same nomenclature, as far as the terms of music are applicable to the phenomena of speech. Such a mode of investigation, with its satisfactory results, being the whole means and gains of a true and useful philosophy, we might as well believe that the Newtonian discoveries in