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With heads declined', ye cedars', ho`magé pay;
Be smooth, ye rocks'; ye rapid floods, givè way'.
The Savior comes by ancient bards foretold^:
Hear him', ye deaf', and, all ye blind^, behold.
We'll crowd thy gates' with thankful' songs',
High as the heavens' our voices raise,
And earth', with her ten thousand tongues',
Shall fill thy courts' with sounding praise.

Wide as the world' is thy command';
Vast as eternity' thy love;

Firm as a rock' thy truth' must stand
When rolling years' shall cease to move.

I will here repeat, what has been already suggested, that the different inflections, whether primary, secondary, or circumflex, are to be expressed with various degrees of fullness, according as the sentiment and propriety shall demand. In learning their use, it will necessarily happen that they must be marked with more strength and distinctness than correct and graceful reading would require-so much so, indeed, as to seem, for a while, stiff and clumsy; but when the proper use of them is once acquired, this difficulty will disappear. Something very similar occurs in acquiring the rudiments of singing; but when these rudiments are mastered, the advantage of learning them is made apparent.

MONOTONE.

Monotone is the same note, or elevation of the voice, continued through a whole sentence, or several words, in succession, in a sentence. Although the voice neither rises nor falls, as it respects the note on which it is pitched, it may nevertheless have the different inflections, but in a less degree than in other cases. The inflections never continue on the same level, nor in the same degree, and it is rare that the voice is kept on the same note for any considerable length of time, without some intervals of rising and falling.

The monotone is generally employed when the language is sublime, elevated, or grave, and in making comparisons. It is sometimes used to give emphasis. The monotone is usually marked by a short horizontal line drawn over the words or syllables on which it is employed.

EXAMPLES.

For thus saith the high and lofty Onē that inhābitēth ēternity, whōse name is Hōly, "I dwell in the high and hōly place."

Ana one cried unto another, and said, "Hōly, hōly, hōly, is the Lord of hōsts. The whōle earth is full of his glory."

He stood and measured the eārth; hē bēhēld, and drōve asūnder thē nātions; and the ēvērlasting mōuntains wēre scattered, the perpetual hills did bow. His ways are ēvērlāsting. Blessing, honor, and glory, and power, bē untō him that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb forever and evēr.

The sēas shāll waste, the skies in smōke decay,
Rocks fall to dūst, and mountains mēlt away;
Būt fixed his wōrd-hīs sāving pōwer remains.
Thy realm forever lāsts-thy ōwn Messiah reigns.

All heaven

Resounded, and, had earth been then', all earth'
Had to her center shōōk.

As sōme lōne miser, visiting his store',

Bends at his treasure, cōunts, rēcōunts it ō'er',
Hoards after hōards his rising rāpturēs fill',
Yet still he sighs, for hōards are wanting still';
Thus to my breast' alternate passions rise^,
Pleased with each good' that heaven to man^ supplies`.
As some tall cliff, that lifts īts āwful fōrm',

Swells from the vāle', and midway leaves the stōrm',
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

Sōft as the slumbers of a saint forgiven,
And mild as opening glēams of promised heaven

MOCK SUBLIME.

High on a gorgeous seat, that fār oūtshōne'
Henley's gilt tub', or Flecknō's Irish thrōne',
Or that where on her Curls the public pours',
All bounteous', fragrant grains and golden showers',
Great Cibber sāte.

EMPHATIC MONOTONE.

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy Gōd in vain. Thou shalt not kill.

Socrates died like a philosopher', but Jesus Christ like a Gōd. Man gīvēth up the ghost', and where is he'?

And man himself', whose works are so fragile', where is he'? The history of his works is the history of himself; he existed^-hē is gōne.

Pigmies are pigmies still', though perched on Alps',
And pyramids are pīrāmīds in vāles.

CHAPTER IV.

CADENCE.

We are commonly told in treatises on elocution that cadence is a falling of the voice at the close of a sentence. Sometimes we are left to infer that it is no more than the falling inflection. Sometimes it is represented as a dying away of the voice when a sentence closes, and, true enough, a sentence is often closed as though it died away, and the reader with it. All such instruction, to say the least, is useless, and it is probable that the reader, if left to his own sense of propriety, would make a better cadence than when so taught. To close a sentence properly is one of the highest attainments in reading or speaking. It is this which produces on the mind, through the medium of the voice, the final effect of every thought or sentiment. It is this which gives grace and dignity to expression, more than any other part of a sentence. It must, then, be very important that we form correct views of the manner in which a sentence should be closed, and that our practice should be correspondent.

What then is a cadence?

Cadence is a fall of the voice on the last syllable in a

sentence.

Although this is a correct general definition, sundry particulars are to be noticed in order to gain a clear understanding of cadence in its various applications.

A cadence is formed on a single syllable only, and that is the last one of a sentence. If the voice begins to drop sooner, the close will be feeble in proportion to the number of syllables on which it falls. If it falls on no more than two, the close will be too weak; weaker still if on three; and so on. It is a rule, to which I know no exceptions, that the last syllable in a sentence but one should be pronounced on as high a note, at least, as the key note of that sentence, that is, the medium note, or that on which the voice is, or should be, pitched. When the last syllable but one is on the key note, the last will, of course, be on a note lower than the average. But frequently a single note merely below the key note would render the close feebler than the vigor of the thought or a due expression demands. In this case, the last syllable but one is raised a note, or a semitone, in order to enable the voice to descend with ease and fulness.

It is seldom that a cadence is more than one note or tone of the voice-very frequently not more than a semitone, especially in passages where semitones abound. There may be cases, however, in which a lower fall of the voice may be required; but these are so unfrequent that they need not be particularly noticed.

When a due force and energy of expression demand that the last syllable but one in a sentence should be raised a note higher than the preceding syllable, the cadence may then be on the key note, or the note of the last syllable but two. This is required, not because the voice had been previously raised to make way for a full and easy cadence, as before mentioned, but because, having been raised for another purpose, it is now simply required to fall. From a comparison, therefore, of these observations, it will appear that a cadence is always a fall of the voice below the last syllable but one in a sentence, whatever may be the note on which that syllable is pronounced, so that this syllable determines the point whether the cadence shall be higher than the key note of the sentence, shall be on the key note, or shall be below it. This syllable, therefore, entirely governs the cadence, and its place in the scale of the voice is to be primarily regarded in order to form a cadence with harmony and propriety.

A regular cadence naturally requires the falling inflection, either primary or secondary. If the close is designed to be quite bold, forcible, or abrupt, the primary is used—at least, the secondary turn is faintly perceptible. When the close is gentle, or the sound is protracted for any cause, the secondary is employed.

It can now be seen that they greatly mistake who seem to consider a cadence the same thing as the falling slide. This slide is indeed used when a cadence is made, and so it is when one is not made; but a proper cadence is the fall of a note or a semitone and not a mere turn of the voice, such as is denoted by an inflection, although the latter may accompany it.

I wish to be very particular in guarding against the too prevalent error of ending sentences with a faint and feeble utterance. It universally produces a monotonous manner of speaking or reading, with a faint, languid, indifferent air, and, of course, it is inconsistent with natural vivacity and force. If one begins a sentence with some proper life and vigor, but loses them as he proceeds, and finally dies away in feeble accents, the effect is the same as though the beginning had been faulty as well as the close.

In explanation of the following examples, the relative position

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of the two last syllables, in order to form a cadence, is denoted by the place which they respectively occupy in the printing.

EXAMPLES.

1. All men are mortal.-2. Life is short.-3. No man is always wise.-4. Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time.—5. Be wise to-day'-'tis madness to defer.

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The first three examples exhibit a common cadence, where a sentence is closed without any thing to require particular energy of expression, and the last syllable but one is supposed to be on the key note. In the fourth example, "Fly swifter round, ye wheels of time," the expression is more energetic, and 1 have therefore placed the penult✶ syllable or note higher than the one which precedes it, in order to strengthen the cadence. The same is done in the fifth example, the word "defer" requiring a full expression.

Take, now, the third example, and lay a slight stress on the word always so as to express the general sentiment, merely, that men sometimes are not wise: the cadence would then be denoted thus, No man is always wise, the penult being raised a note, and the last syllable being placed on the key note, or that of the antepenult. Again, let the meaning be, that though a man is not always wise, yet he is sometimes: this meaning might be thus denoted, No man is âlways wise, the antepenult being circumflexed, the penult being raised a note, and the last syllable being on the key note, as before, for the cadence. Once more, let the meaning be conveyed, that a man is not always wise, with the question implied, is he? or, do you think he is? and the meaning might be denoted in this manner-No wise^. man is always Or suppose that one should simply wish to express himself with much gravity, the reading of the sentence might be thus marked-No man is àl wise'. In 'ways'

both of these cases there would be no cadence at all, but the sentence would be closed without one, that is, without any depression of voice on the last syllable.

* Penult-last but one.

† Antepenult-last but two, er the one before the penult.

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