inflexions easily and freely, connecting them directly with increase of your earnestness.

Not mighty deeds make up the sum

Of happiness below;

But little acts of kindness,

Which anyone may show.

A man's ledger does not tell what he is worth. Count what is in a man, not what is on him, if you would know whether he is rich or poor.

SOMEWHERE

Henry Ward Beecher

Somewhere the spirit will come to its own,
Through tear-mist or star-dust, from circle to zone;
In the scent of dead roses, in winds, or in waves,
From the gold of the sunset to flower-kissed graves.
Sing on and trust ever! be steadfast! for, see!
The true and the lovely are allies with thee.
Stretch up to the heights the brave toilers have trod;
Somewhere there is recompense everywhere God!

Helen Hinsdale Rich

You may also observe other modulations of inflexion. Inflexions vary, for example, in abruptness. You may call George who is at a distance, and there will be in your tone not only volume but also inflexion. If George is inclined not to come you may give his name a very abrupt fall. Degrees of abruptness of inflexion denote the different degrees of excitement, also the element of control. In strong command the inflexions are apt to be more abrupt, while in quiet deliberation and gentleness the inflexions are inclined to be more gradual.

We find also another modification. Inflexions may be straight or crooked. If you speak a sentence sarcastically, or as a joke, or patronizingly, or very familiarly, your inflexions will be apt to be crooked. If you give anything with great dignity, earnestness, importance or frankness your inflexions, on the contrary, will be straight.

As a rule, in reading we must have inflexions as definite as possible, as long as possible, as abrupt and straight as possible. Each of these elements adds an important contribution to the weight of what you say. Length expresses

your earnestness; abruptness, your decision and control; straightness, your dignity and frankness.

Illustrate the various modulations of inflexion by some short passage. Read, for example, these four lines in many ways, as in trivial conversation, then as trying to make people think with you, very emphatically, with an endeavor to dominate your hearers' attention. Give it with sarcasm, with colloquialism, or as a joke, mischievously; then give it with great dignity. If you read this without inflexion, it will be without thought, for with every change in the attitude of mind there must come a change in the inflexion. How many of these modulations of inflexion can you note? What modulation of inflexion is the language of clear thinking, of indifference, of sarcasm, mischief or joke, of great dignity, of great earnestness?

Whoever you are, be noble;

Whatever you do, do well;
Whenever you speak, speak kindly,

Give joy wherever you dwell.

Ruskin

The student should not only read one passage in many ways to discover the language of the inflexional modulations, but should also contrast a variety of passages and note the difference of their spirit.

There is nothing so kingly as kindness,

And nothing so royal as truth.

The habit of looking on the bright side of things is worth more than a thousand pounds a year.

Be strong!

Samuel Johnson

We are not here to shirk, to dream, to drift,
We have hard work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle; face it. 'T is God's gift

Be strong.

It is the far sight, the calm and confident patience, that more than anything else, separate man from man and near him to his Creator, and there is no action or art that we may not measure by this test. Therefore when we build, let us think that we build forever.

Ruskin

3

If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages, princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions. I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise laws for the blood; but a hot temper leaps over a cold decree. Shakespeare

XXIII. THINKING, INFLEXION, AND CHANGE OF PITCH

"The Little Elf."

I met a little Elf-man, once,
Down where the lilies blow.
I asked him why he was so small
And why he didn't grow.

He slightly frowned, and with his eye
He looked me through and through.
"I'm quite as big for me," said he,
"As you are big for you."

John Kendrick Bangs

There is still something more to discover in relation to inflexion which is of great importance. You may have discovered it already, though most students overlook it.

It concerns the relation of change of pitch to inflexion. If you speak a sentence without changes of pitch you will observe its unnaturalness at once. It will sound stiff and monotonous.

Inflexion and change of pitch are not antagonistic but necessary to each other. They can hardly be separated in speech. Change of pitch is an interval between words. It implies the cessation of speech. Inflexion, on the contrary, is a change of pitch during the emission of an emphatic vowel. It implies the continuance of speech.

Deeper than this, if you will mark on the blackboard or on a piece of paper the direction in which the voice bends while speaking the first line of "The Little Elf" and will indicate not only the inflexions but the changes of pitch, you will discover that the two go together. They are the chief elements of naturalness and constitute conversational form, and they are always in unity. Together they reveal the relative value of our words and ideas. They indicate the genuineness and freedom of our thinking. By their union we give form and meaning to phrases and sentences.

In speaking a simple clause such as "I met your father yesterday morning" you find a short rising inflexion on the first three words and a long fall on the fourth, a short fall on the last two. But you find also that the first word begins on a low pitch, and that there is a change of pitch between each word in the direction of the inflexions until you come to a long fall on " father." You begin this word very much higher, according to the degree of emphasis and the length of your inflexion and the last two words have short falling inflexions on a much lower pitch. You find that these changes of pitch are not only necessary elements of naturalness but are also elements of which you can so gain command that you will be able to make a simple sentence emphatic without losing its dignity or its conversational force.

Pick out, for example, simple elemental clauses and observe how sympathetically and harmoniously and naturally change of pitch blends with inflexion.

There is no crown in the world

So good as patience; neither is any peace

More worthy love's own praise,

Than that sweet-souled endurance which makes clean

The iron hands of anger.

"The Queen Mother."

Swinburne

Take some short sentence, and give it with volume, or loudness alone, with direction of inflexion alone, then give it accentuating direction and length. Especially give it with a great many long inflexions and very wide changes of pitch. Observe the effect.

What we must do let us love to do.

Coleridge

If you read again "The Little Elf " you will find something else which is also of great importance. Each successive clause is given on a different pitch.

What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in form and moving, how express and admirable! in action, how like an angel! in apprehension, how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals!

Hamlet.

Shakespeare

How can you suggest the dignified and princely character of Hamlet? How suggest the deep thoughtfulness of his mind? By giving long and straight inflexions and wide changes of pitch. Try to give this speech first with volume and then with circumflex inflexions. You will at once see the necessity of straight inflexions, wide intervals and range in enabling you to express dignity and weight.

Close observation enables us to discern the necessity not only of changes of pitch or intervals between words, but inflexions during the utterance of the central vowel of words. The changes of pitch between successive phrases express divergence of ideas or the discriminative action of the mind in thinking. The inflexions express the relation or connection of ideas. These seem to be antithetic but they unite and constitute conversational form, the basis of all natural melodies.

Between phrases and clauses and sentences, we have still wider changes, showing still greater contrasts or discrimination between the larger divisions of thought, and constituting with length of inflexion the language of earnestness. This gives rise to wide range of voice or what has been called melody.

Observe also that the whole clause may be given lower