Moderate Inflection.* [Rising Inflection, or Upward Slide.] Unempassioned or Unemphatic Interrogation. Have ye understood all these things?" 66 Knów ye what I have done to you?" "Is it well with thee? Is it well with thy húsband? Is it well with the child?" Suspended, or Incomplete sense. "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive-tree, wert graffed in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olivetree; boast not against the branches." "Inconstant service we repay, And treacherous vóws renew, As false as morning's scattering cloud, [Falling Inflection, or Downward Slide.] "All things are lawful unto me; but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me; but I will not be brought under the domìnion of any." "Render therefore to all their dùes: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom cùstom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom hònor. "Having, then, gifts, differing according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith: or ministry, let us wait on our ministering; or he that teacheth, on teaching; or he that exhorteth, on exhortation; he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness." * Upward or Downward "Concrete," or slide, of a "Third." "Great God, thy penetrating eye With awe profound my wondering soul [Inflections exemplifying both Slides.] Correspondence and Contrast. "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools."* "Now if we be déad with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him." "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrèction." "To be carnally minded is déath; but to be spiritually minded is life and pèace." "We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honorable, but we are despised." 66 Now to him that worketh, is the reward not reckoned of gráce, but of debt. But to him that worketh nòt, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness." Slight Inflections.† Upward Slide. Interrupted Sense. Oh! bind this héart This ròving heart — to thee!" "Oh! may his lóve - immòrtal fláme! Tune every heart and tongue!" * The common error, ia contrasts, is that of a double slide, or circumflex, instead of the single upward or downward transit. †These extend no farther on the scale than the interval of a "Second," -il single tone, or the space occupied by the transit of the voice from one note to the next above or below. Pathetic expression reduces them to the "semitone." Poetic Effect.* "Nor áir, nor éarth, nor skíes, nor séas, Deny the tribute of their praise." "Eternal Wisdom, thee we praise, Thee all thy creatures sing; While with thy name, rocks, hills, and séas, "Thy glories blaze all nature round, And strike the gazing sight, Through skies, and séas, and solid ground, "Foolish féars, and fond desires, Vain regrets for things as váin, 66 'These, and every secret fault, Filled with grief and shame, we own.” "Monotone."+ Sublimity and Awe. Extract from Revelation XX. V. 11. "And I saw a great white throne, and him that sāt on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled * Verse, and even poetic prose, require the comparatively melodious effect of the "slight" inflection, in unemphatic "series' or sequences, of words and clauses which are comprehended under one and the same rule of syntax. † Rigorous analysis may enable an attentive ear to detect the "Second," in the "monotone," so called. But the characteristic effect on the ear, by the recurrence of the same note, is that of strict monotone or sameness of sound, - -as in the successive sounds of a bell, compared with those of any other instrument of music. away; and there was fōund nō place for them. 12. And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before Gōd; and the books were ōpened: and anōther book was ōpened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of thōse things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13. And the sea gāve up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them and they were judged every man according to their works." Stanzas. "His voice is heard the earth around, When through the heavens his thūnders rōll; And yields itself to his control. "When he upon the lightning rīdes, And earth to its deep centre shakes." "Double Slide," "Circumflex" or "Wave." Mockery. "And Elijah mocked the priests of Baal, and said, Cry alôud; for he is a god:† either he is tâlking, or he is pursûing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awâked."‡ "Falling Circumflex." or "Direct Wave," in which there is first an "Upward," then a Downward Siide." "Rising Circumflex," or "Indirect Wave," in which there is first a "Downward" then an "Upward" slide of voice. The exemplifications of inflection. in detail, may be found in either of the manuals before mentioned. Those which are presented in the present work, are such as are most frequently required in the reading of the Scriptures and of hymns, or of pulpit discourses. EXERCISES IN "MOVEMENT." 66 The word "movement" has properly the same application in elocution as in music. It designates the rate of utterance, as slow, fast, or moderate, and implies the recognition of " time," as an element of effect, in the modifications of the voice. Movement," in elocution, has not the strict gradations of music; and, in its applications to reading and speaking in the pulpit, is usually limited to the following degrees,-"slowest," "slow," "moderate," "lively." The first mentioned of these distinctions, is exemplified in the style of awe and deep solemnity, which prevails in the utterance of the profoundest emotions of the soul. It occurs in many passages of the Old Testament, in which the language is of a marked poetic character, as in the book of Job, the Psalms, and portions of the prophetic writings. It pervades, also, the peculiar style of the Book of Revelation, in the New Testament. The " slowest movement" characterizes likewise the poetry of Milton and of Young, and, sometimes, that of Cowper and of Thomson. It belongs appropriately to the reading of those hymns which describe the awful majesty of Jehovah, and to those which embody the ideas of death, retribution, and eternity. It is the peculiarly distinctive point of style in funeral discourses. The full command over the movement of the voice, is an indispensable requisite to the proper effect of the utterance of devotion, whether in the reading of psalms and hymns, or in the act of prayer. The following exercises should be frequently practised till the full solemnity of the slowest enunciation is attained, in that prolonged, though not drawling style, which gives ample scope and majestic effect to every sound of the voice, and causes every element of speech to succeed another in the most impressive and deliberate style. |