it, it is possible, notwithstanding, to read" (speak) "it as if he did not."

"as

Now, there can be very little doubt that the person whom Dr. Whately cites as having pronounced the passage (Mark iv. 21.), “Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel or under a bed," if there were no other alternative," there can be scarcely a doubt that this false-reader perfectly understood the passage himself, though, in reading it, he so perverted its meaning to his hearers: "and yet," says Dr. Whately, "the emphasis was laid on the right words."

What emphasis? Why, of course a false emphasis, if any; and, consequently, the stronger that emphasis, being false, the more emphatic and decided the perversion of the meaning!

Dr. Whately's direction, then, for a good Elocution, -viz., “read as if you understood what you are reading," —is clearly insufficient: it is of no more value towards perspicuity in Elocution, than such a direction as "understand what you are about to write yourself, and then write so that readers your may understand you," would be available towards producing perspicuity in composition: it only amounts to saying, in other words, "be perspicuous." But how?

Some principles and rules for perspicuity are necessary in both cases.

INFLECTION of voice is the great indicator of meaning-Emphasis, as I have before defined it, is inflection and stress of voice; that is, force is added to the inflection to make the meaning emphatic. And there can be no more important auxiliary to

the orator in attaining the great desideratum of perspicuity mentioned by Dr. Whately,― viz., that of making any sentence "understood clause by clause as it proceeds,"-than a just use of inflection, so that the inflection of voice shall be perpetually aiding and working out the meaning. There are, consequently, special rules of inflection proper to various conditions and inflections of meaning, and to the mutual relations of the different clauses of a period or sentence, the classification of similar ideas and members, and the separation of opposite or dissimilar ones, and, in fact, to all the accidents of the grammar of Elocution, as bearing on and forming part of Rhetoric: for it must be always remembered that the highest aim of the principles of Rhetoric is the formation of a ready, skilful, and persuasive speaker.

To proceed, then, to some

SPECIAL RULES OF INFLECTION,

marking particular conditions or variations of meaning, or the relative bearing, or disconnection of ideas or clauses.

1. APPOSITION-2. ANTITHESIS.

1. APPOSITION of meaning and construction requires to be marked by apposition or similarity of inflection; that is,

RULE.

Words or clauses of sentences in apposition with each other take the same respective inflections; unless any of them be made emphatic for force.

EXAMPLES.

Cleopatra, queen of Egypt, chose an asp as the means of death.

I reside in London-a magnificent city.

And now abideth, faith, hope, and charity-these three.

Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a

each Here the "bushel" and the "bed" are in apposition; being only an individualisation of the general idea of concealment which would be conveyed by a question in the following form:

Is a candle brought to be hidden under anything?

In reading, therefore, each individualisation of the same general idea receives the same inflection of voice; and would do so whatever were the form of the sentence, whether interrogative, negative, or declaratory; that is, the sense would govern the inflection on the first word conveying the individual idea, and the rest would follow in apposition; and though the general idea were repeated through several individualisations, the rule would hold good in all; as thus :

Is a candle brought to be hid under a bushel, or under a bed (or a table, or a chair, or in a box).

No; it is brought to shine, to give light, to be displayed.
The answer shows the force of the rule in another form.

I trust that the above rule and examples have made this subject of apposition with relation to inflection so clear, that it

would be impossible for any one who may read it to be guilty of such a perversion of meaning as Dr. Whately's blunderer, who read the original question "as if there were no other alternative." He read it falsely, thus, antithetically :·

Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed?

As in Matthew v. 15. Neither do men light a candle and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick.

2. ANTITHESIS,

or opposition of meaning, requires antithesis of inflection; that is,

RULE.

Words or clauses in antithesis, or opposition to each other take opposite inflections.

EXAMPLES.

He spoke for, not against peace.

To be, or not to be.

As fire is opposed to water, so is vice to virtue.

A wit among lords, a lord among wits.

We seek not peace, but war; and we shall fight, not pray;

for we had rather die than live.

Shall we prefer disease to health? death to life? slavery

to liberty?

The above are examples of single antithesis,

DOUBLE ANTITHESIS.

In the following, the antithesis is double, that is, of several opposite ideas, and consequently opposite inflections.

EXAMPLE.

Rational liberty is directly opposed to the wildness of anarchy.

(Here rational is in antithesis to wildness, and liberty to anarchy: the inflections on each respectively are therefore also opposed.)

FURTHER EXAMPLES.

If you seek to make one rich, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires.-Seneca.

The peasant complains aloud; the courtier in secret repines. In want, what distress! in affluence, what satiety! The ignorant, through ill-grounded hope, are disappointed; the knowing, through knowledge, despond.-Young.

Or, for force," the knowing, through knowledge, despond."

All flesh is not the same flesh; but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds.