same time, it is quite possible for the student to be able to distinguish them. By a careful study of their fluctuations, he will gain accuracy of ear, and learn by the power of observing errors in others to avoid them in himself. In his efforts he will be assisted by the following: First. A compound inflection may be equal or unequal. It is called equal, when all its constituents are made through the same interval; unequal, when they are made through intervals of different extent. Secondly. A compound inflection may be rising or falling. It is called rising, when its last constituent takes an upward course; falling, when its last constituent takes a downward course. Thirdly. A compound inflection may be single, double, or continued. It is called single, when it has two constituents (~· ); double, when it has three (Ʌ W); continued, when it has more than three (WM). The student in his practice of inflection should, in 1 Evidence of this power is incontrovertibly afforded by the various notations which Mr. Steele has perpetuated of different speakers in his day. Among the most interesting and instructive of these notations may be mentioned that of Hamlet's Soliloquy on death. Mr. Steele first gives the text in the style of a contemporaneous ranting actor, and then the differences he has observed in the manner of Garrick. Mr. Steele thinks it would require but little practice to be able to mark all the simple inflections of any speech or poem; for, in general, the distinction between the rising and falling inflection is so obvious that it can seldom be mistaken. He admits, however, the difficulty in the case of the compound inflections, for as they are sometimes confined within a small extent, and pronounced exceedingly rapidly, and as they have in themselves both the rise and fall united in one syllable (or ), they may pass for either, though they are simply neither. Therefore, he tells us, whenever the ear is much puzzled to know whether an inflection rises or falls, it will be a good rule to suspect it to be a circumflex of one or the other.' the absence of the governing ear of a master, be guided by a violoncello or pianoforte. Be it remembered, however, as has been already said, that in touching an interval on the pianoforte we hear only the first and last points; while an inflection passes through its interval, not at a leap, but through a series of infinitely minute divisions. The student, therefore, must study to blend these divisions in one unbroken, regular movement. On his success in this particular will depend the 'equability' of the inflection produced. THE APPLICATION OF INFLECTION. 64. The law of Suspense and Conclusion.-The fundamental law of inflection, under which indeed nearly all the rules written by elocutionists may be included, is as follows:— The rising inflection is indicative of doubt and incompleteness of expression; the falling of certainty and completeness of expression; the length of the slide varying in accordance with the speaker's intensity. With this principle in view, we shall consider sentences as Assertions, Imperatives, and 65. The Inflection of Assertions.-First, it may, in accordance with the fundamental law already laid down (§ 64), be broadly stated that where the attention of the hearer is to be kept up till the sense of the whole is unfolded, the accented syllable immediately before any pause in the course of the sentence takes a rising inflec tion, and the final accented syllable of the sentence a falling inflection. This rule is affected neither by the length, nor by the structure of the sentence. 66. The Inflection of Simple Assertions. When a simple sentence is so brief as not to need any pause between its parts, the rising and falling inflection, though not so manifest as before a pause, may yet be respectively heard at the opening and the close of the sentence. ""Tis morn.' 'Sin degrades.' 'Reward sweetens labour.' But at the pauses, or stopping-places, in longer simple sentences, the rising inflection becomes, of course, more obvious to the ear: ་ 'A long continuance in the paths of sin | degrades a man from his rank in the creation | even below the brutes | placed under his command.' 'Nothing valuable | can be gained | without labour.' 67. Inflection of Complex Assertions.-Especially in the complex sentence, throughout its several extensions of subordinate clauses, does the voice require to be suspended. In accordance with the rule already stated, it may be remembered: tion. (a) That transitive verbs receive the rising inflec 'I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday, Who told me, in the narrow seas that part The French and English, there miscarried A vessel of our country richly fraught.'-Merchant of Venice, ii. 8. 'Three times they breath'd, and three times did they drink, "After the Lord has called me she shall know."" 'So thick they died, the people cried TENNYSON, Enoch Arden. The gods are moved against the land.'-TENNYSON, Victim. ''Tis time we should decree What course to take.'-ADDISON, Cato. EXCEPTION.-When, however, the emphasis on the verb is greater than that on the clause it governs, the verb will take a falling inflection: 'Then it was truth,'-he said, 'I knew That the dark presage must be true.'-SCOTT, Marmion. (b) In English a phrase or word common to two sentences should be expressed in the first; but poetical licence not unfrequently places it in the second. Such sentences are perhaps wanting in elegance, but the reader must read them so as to elicit the author's meaning; and when the phrase in question is the common object of two verbs, the first verb must receive a rising inflection to keep the hearer in suspense. 'You are to know That prosperously I have attempted and 'With fruitless labour, Clara bound, And strove to stanch the gushing wound.' SCOTT, Marmion, vi. (c) A noun to which a restrictive clause is attached takes a rising inflection in order to prevent ambiguity. 'Get you hence instantly, and tell those friends, They have chose a consul that will from them take Than dogs that are as often beat for barking 'Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words That ever blotted paper.'-Merchant of Venice, iii. 2. 'I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm.'-CowPER, The Task. 'I knew a person, who possessed the faculty of distinguishing flavours in so great perfection, that, after he had tasted ten different kinds of tea, he would distinguish without seeing them the particular sort which was offered him.' (d) Who and which, it must be remembered, however, are sometimes used to introduce a co-ordinate, not subordinate, sentence, in which case the last syllable of the sentence preceding the 'who' will take a falling inflection, indicative of the formation of complete Why, yet he doth deny his prisoners, But with proviso and exception, That we at our own charge shall ransom straight His brother-in-law, the foolish Mortimer; Who, on my soul, hath wilfully betrayed The lives of those that he did lead to fight . . . .' 'You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown, 1 Henry IV. i. 3. Which he did thrice refuse.'-Julius Cæsar, iii. 2. (e) That all clauses introductory to the principal sentence take a rising inflection. 'When I did hear The motley fool thus moral on the time, |