EXAMPLES. 1. What is the difference between probability and possibility? 2. Learn to unlearn what you have learned amiss. 3. John attends regularly, William, irregularly. 4. There is a great difference between giving and forgiving. 5. The conduct of Antoninus was characterized by justice and humanity; that of Nero, by injustice and inhumanity. 6. The conduct of the former is deserving of approbation, while that of the latter merits the severest reprobation. EMPHASIS AND INFLECTION. Emphasis sometimes changes the inflection from the rising to the falling, or from the falling to the rising. For instances of the former change, see Rule II. and exception to Rule IV. In the first three following examples, the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling inflection; in the last three, it is changed from the falling to the rising, by the influence of emphasis. EXAMPLES. 1. If we have no regard for religion in youth`, we ought to have respect for it in age. 2. If we have no regard for our own` character, we ought to regard the character of others. 3. If content can not remove the disquietudes of life, it will, at least, alleviate them. 4. The sweetest melody and the most perfect harmony, fall powerless upon the ear of one who is deaf". 5. It is useless to expatiate upon the beauties of nature to one who is blind'. 6. And they that have believing masters, let them not despise them, because they are brethren ́; but rather let them do them service. EMPHATIC PHRASE. When it is desired to give to a phrase great force of expression, each word, and even the parts of a compound word, are independently emphasized. EXAMPLES. 1. Cassius. Must I endure all this? Brutus. All this!-Ay,-more. Fret, till your proud—heart -break. 2. What! weep you, when you but behold Our Cesar's vesture wounded? Look ye here! 3. There was a time, my fellow-citizens, when the Lacedæmonians were sovereign masters, both by sea and by land; while this state had not one ship-no, NOT-ONE-WALL. 4. Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul; and not only of the Alpine nations, but of the Alps themselves; shall I compare myself with this HALF-YEAR-CAPTAIN? 5. You call me misbeliever-cut-throat-dog. Hath a dog-money? Is it possible— A cur can lend three-thousand-ducats? EMPHATIC PAUSE. A short pause is often made before or after, and sometimes both before and after an emphatic word or phrase, thus very much increasing the emphatic expression of the thought. EXAMPLES. 1. May one be pardon'd, and retain—the offense? More free from peril than the envious courts? 3. This is no flattery: These-are counselors And this—our life exempt from public haunt, 4. Heaven gave this Lyre, and thus decreed, Be thou a bruis'd—but not a broken―reed. QUESTIONS.-When is a syllable said to be accented? Give examples. How is the accent, when marked, denoted? By what authority is the accent determined? To whom does it belong to record usage in this respect? In what cases can we perceive the reason for the accent? Give examples of the first case. Give examples of the second. Explain the secondary accent. Give examples. What is EMPHASIS? What is its object? How is this object most frequently accomplished? In what other way is it also effected? How is emphasis denoted? What is absolute emphasis? Give examples. What is relative emphasis? Give examples. How is accent affected by emphasis? Give examples. How are inflections affected by it? Give an example in which the inflection is changed from the rising to the falling, by the force of emphasis. Give one, in which it is changed from the falling to the rising. What is an emphatic phrase? Give an example? meant by the emphatic pause? Give an example. What is IV. INSTRUCTIONS FOR READING VERSE. INFLECTIONS. IN reading verse, the inflections should be nearly the same as in reading prose; the chief difference is, that in poetry, the monotone and rising inflection are more frequently used than in prose. The greatest difficulty in reading or declaiming this species of composition, consists in giving it that measured flow which distinguishes it from prose, without falling into a chanting pronunciation. If, at any time, the reader is in doubt as to the proper inflection, let him reduce the passage to earnest conversation, and pronounce it in the most familiar and prosaic manner, and thus he will generally use the proper inflection. EXERCISES IN INFLECTIONS. 1. Meanwhile the south wind rose, and with black wings Wide hovering, all the clouds together drove From under heaven: the hills to their supply, Vapor and exhalation dusk and moist Sent up amain: and now, the thickened sky Like a dark ceiling stood: down rushed the rain No more was seen: the floating vessel swam 2. My friend, adown life's valley, hand in hand, And when stern death shall loose that loving band, Yea, when my heart seems happy causelessly', And swells, not dreaming why ́, my soul shall know 3. Here rests his head upon the lap of earth ́, He gain'd from Heaven', ('t was all he wish'd ́,) a friend. 5. No further seek his merits to disclose, Or draw his frailties from their last abode, (There, they, alike, in trembling hope repose,) ACCENT AND EMPHASIS. IN reading verse, every syllable must have the same accent, and every word the same emphasis as in prose; and whenever the melody or music of the verse would lead to an incorrect accent or emphasis, this must be disregarded. If a poet has made his verse deficient in melody, this must not be remedied by the reader, at the expense of sense or the established rules of accent and quantity. Take the following EXAMPLE. O'er shields, and helms, and helmed heads he rode, According to the metrical accent, the last word must be pronounced "prostrate." But according to the authorized pronunciation it is "pros trate." Which shall yield, the poet, or established usage? Certainly not the latter. Some writers advise a compromise of the matter, and that the word should be pronounced without accenting either syllable. Sometimes this may be done, but where it is not practicable, the prosaic reading should be preserved. In the following examples, the words and syllables which are improperly accented or emphasized in the poetry, are marked in italics. According to the principle stated above, the reader should avoid giving them that pronunciation which the correct reading of the poetry would require, but should read them as prose, except where he can throw off all accent, and thus compromise the conflict between the poetic reading and the correct reading. That is, he must read the poetry wrong, in order to read the language right. EXAMPLES. 1. Ask of thy mother earth why oaks are made 5. Of all the causes which combine to blind 6. Eye nature's walks, shoot folly as it flies, 7. To whom, then first incens'd, Adam replied, |