of a protracted radical to a direct wave of the minor third, whose downward constituent terminates in a protracted vanish.

In the execution of this melody, there is not only the general effect of a monotonous song, but there are peculiar and striking contrasts, arising from the various effects of the changes among these different elements of intonation. The most extraordinary liberties are taken with quantity. The long, however, as necessary for the notes of song, predominates. There is here no distinction between immutable and indefinite syllables: the shortest are not only prolonged to any extent, as in write,' but they are divided as in 'voice,' which is apportioned to the two parts of its symbol, as if it were 'voy'iss'. I have introduced the equable concrete among the protracted notes, and have put the cadence into the diatonic form, to exemplify those abrupt and rousing changes of the whole nature of intonation, which are sometimes made at the pauses and close of this most fantastic melody. I have not exhibited all the varieties into which the above named elements, together with the tremor, and the wider intervals, are combined in it. But I have shown enough to furnish a plan for selfexamination and amendment.

If those who are accustomed to this melody should askwhy it may not be employed, if it is by habit agreeable, and reverenced by association with the occasions of its use? I answer, that-throwing aside taste, and regarding plain usefulness, it does not accomplish the attainable ends of speech. By speech we communicate our thoughts; and in the duties of religion, there are motives and zeal, to do it with the most. forcible means of persuasion or argument. So far as the voice is concerned in these duties, its means lie principally in the energy and expression of emphasis. But by the mode of intonation in the remarkable melody now in view, the varying designs of emphasis are counteracted by the almost continued impression of a plaintive song; or are crossed in purpose by the unmeaning obtrusion of unexpected changes. How can the sentiments which dictate the encouraging descriptions of blessedness and glory be represented by the trembling voice of distress? How can the sober positiveness of truth, and the wonder at almighty power, which require the downward concrete, be enforced by the shrillness of a perpetual cry? How can we particularize the strong feeling of supplication,

if we equally employ its symbols in the threats of vengeance? And with what force can we represent interrogation, if the sharp vanishes, which are instinctively allotted to it, are often so unmeaningly playing in the voice?

Whoever regards the words of ordinary song, knows into what confusion emphasis is there thrown. It is not more clear or correct in the kind of melody we are now considering.

I have thus made the strongest representation of this fault. It is sometimes heard in a more moderate degree, especially in the voices of women; consisting of a slight protraction of the top of the vanish on all the long quantities of discourse.

This singing melody, as delivered in the public meetinghouse, by men as well as women, is generally of a high or piercing pitch; this being the means of audibility usually employed by persons of uncultivated voice.

Of Faults in the Cadence. If I were to designate any parts of utterance as particularly liable to faults, they would be those of the radical succession of melody, and the cadence. Even the best readers do not seem to have fallen accidentally into all the attainable variety, in the execution of the current and close of discourse. But faults in the cadence are the most striking.

We can assign a cause for the frequent failures upon this point.

Whoever will attend to the course of the voice in the common dialogue of life, will perceive that the earnest interests of speech, the sharp replications and interruptions of argument, the inquisitiveness of idle curiosity, and the piercing pitch of mirth and anger exclude, in a great measure, the terminating repose of the cadence. This is particularly the case with children and the ignorant, who having no spring of action except interested curiosity and selfish passion, rarely exhibit any intonation besides that of the higher and more expressive intervals of the voice. When therefore a person first undertakes to read the discourse of others, the conversational habit is not at once laid aside and it is apt to cleave long afterwards to speech.

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Faults in the execution of the cadence are various and if its total absence might be called a fault, 1 could cite an instance of a clergyman, whom I heard go through an address

of fifteen minutes without once making a cadence; no, not even at his final period. The audience were notified to sit down, by his terminative Amen, not through the proper indication of the close by his voice.

But even those who have the ability to make a cadence, are infected by the next fault to be mentioned.

I described ten forms of the cadence. This was done as a philosophical analysis; to point out distinctions which may be made by an accurate ear, and in reality executed by those who have flexibility of intonation. For the purposes of instructive rule, we may particularize the Feeble, the Duad, the Triad, and the Prepared cadences. These are quite sufficient for the ordinary purposes of reading; and vocal skill can always effect an interchangeable variety of them, in the succession of periods. The next fault then consists in a repetition at every pause, of the same kind of cadence, and that generally a full one. This fault is increased by the common mode of punctuation, which often sets a period at places, where the voice should be only suspended by the phrase of the downward ditone.

I have heard a player of high character use what we formerly called a false cadence: that is, a descent of the third by radical change, the second constituent of the Triad being altogether omitted. This false cadence is sometimes made on a wider discrete interval; the voice suddenly falling a fifth or even an octave, if the pitch has been high enough to allow these descents.

Some persons are in the habit of making the cadence in a low and almost inaudible pitch. I have said this arises from a want of that prospective reach of perception in the ear, which enables a reader to hit the precise place for his cadence. One who has not this skill, may indeed know that the periodpause is coming, and that therefore the voice should descend : but being ignorant at what point he ought to begin, in the fear of falling precipitately upon the close, he prepares for it too soon. A downward ditone is first made, and some instinct preventing him from adding the next tone below, by which the cadence would be completed before its time, he adds a monotone, and again tries a downward ditone. In this manner he descends, till with an enfeebled voice, the cadence is

made on the three final syllables. The process here described is not indeed continued through many words; most readers would in that case soon exhaust their pitch. Yet this does sometimes happen: for the voice by this shelving course is at last brought down to a whisper.

Of Faults in the Third. The third is properly employed in the moderate forms of interrogation and in conditional phrases. Some readers however execute the whole current melody in the rise of this interval: the emphatic words in this case being marked by some of the modes of stress on the third, or by a higher run to the fifth. There is a disagreeable sharpness in this melody. It wants force; for it abates by comparison the impressive character of the higher intervals when emphasis requires their introduction. I have heard persons

with this fault try to read Milton and Shakspeare, and always without success. The current of dignified utterance must always consist of the wave of the second on the long quantities of discourse. No simple upward concrete can effect it: though the rise of a wide interval may be occasionally employed for emphasis in the gravest drift of the diatonic melody. A speaker who uses the third as his current concrete, feels the necessity of avoiding a simple rise; and therefore sometimes returns it downward into the form of the wave. This does not mend the effect, as we shall learn presently.

Another fault in the third, even when the whole current is not made by that interval, lies in forming all the emphases with it. This likewise gives a sharpness to speech, together with a monotony; for one of the causes of beauty in utterance consists in the variation of the kinds of emphasis: and we pointed out, in its proper place, the abundant means in the voice, for this variety.

The substitution of the third for the second in melody is principally offensive from its monotony. And the reader may recollect it was said in the section on Drift, that these higher intervals will not bear continued repetition.

Of Faults in the Fifth. The interval of the fifth is sometimes made the current concrete of melody: the peculiar effect of the intonation being most conspicuous in the emphatic places. It is a less frequent fault than the last, and is more commonly heard in women. It has a palpable monotony,

and a still greater sharpness than that of the third: the whole melody having the construction and effect of an interrogative

sentence.

A less remarkable degree of this fault is that of a diatonic melody in which all the emphases are made by the fifth. This too has its sharpness and monotony; and I am sure the reader will be sufficiently guarded against this fault, by keeping in mind the ample resources of the voice for the production of varied emphasis.

Those who thus misplace the third and fifth, are apt to carry them into the cadence: such readers end many of their plain declarative sentences with the characteristic intonation of a question.

I might point out a similar error of place in the Octave: but it is of rare occurrence, and to be observed only in the piercing treble of female voices. Some persons can not ask a question in the subdued and dignified form of the third or fifth, but do it always in the keen or facetious intonation of the octave.

Of Faults in the Downward Movement. The faults mentioned throughout this section are found more or less among those who are called good readers. When instruction shall grow out of the philosophy of speech, instead of imitation, the defects of utterance, now so common as to require notice, will be confined, like the faults of grammar, to the uneducated part of the world. As far as I have observed, there are no very conspicuous errors from the abuse of the downward intervals. If the falling second should disproportionally predominate in the current melody, it will give a graveness to the utterance which may happen to be misplaced. The wider intervals do not often occur as faults: since it requires some skill to use them in their emphatic positiveness, and he who can thus execute them correctly, will not be likely to misapply them.

Of Faults in the Discrete Movement. Of defects in the management of the radical change of the second which forms the diatonic melody, we have already spoken. Precipitate falls of the third, fifth, and octave sometimes occur in the cadence of very bad readers. Others again are unable to effect those upward and downward radical transitions, by which accomplished readers produce some of the most striking features of emphasis.