variety produced; it must be remembered, that in forming a system, and pushing its principles to their remotest consequences,—for the fake of shewing the extent of these governing principles, and giving an air of completeness and univerfality to the fyftem adopted, it is often neceffary to attend to particulars more curious than useful; if, however, we confider, that pronouncing these paffages in a perfect monotone would be extremely difgufting, and that fome general idea of the variety they are capable of, may at least give the ear a hint of a better pronunciation, it will not be thought useless that fo much pains has been bestowed on this fpecies of fentence. This confideration may encourage us to push our inquiries ftill farther into this laborious part of the fubject; as those readers who are difgufted at it, may easily omit the perufal, and pafs on to fomething more eafy and agreeable.

Compound Series.

Preliminary Obfervation.

When the members of a series confift of several words, or comprehend feveral diftinct members of fentences, they are under fomewhat different laws from thofe confifting of fingle words. In a fingle feries the ear is chiefly confulted, and the inflexions of voice are fo arranged as to produce the greatest variety; but in a compound feries the understanding takes the lead: For as a number of fimilar members of fentences in fucceffion form a fort of climax in the sense, this climax can be no way pronounced fo forcibly as by adopting the fame inflexion which

is used for the ftrong emphafis; for, by this means, the fenfe is not only placed in a more distinct point of view, but the voice enabled to rife gradually upon every particular, and thus add to force an agreeable variety.

In pronouncing the compound feries, the fame rule may be given as in the fimple feries: Where the compound feries commences, the falling inflexion takes place on every member but the laft; and when the feries concludes, it may take place on every member except the last but one. It must be carefully noted, likewife, that the fecond member ought to be pronounced a little higher, and more forcibly than the firft, the third than the fecond, and fo on; for which purpose, if the members are numerous, it is evidently neceffary to pronounce the first member in fo low a tone as to admit of rifing gradually on the fame inflexion to the last.

Rule I. When two commencing members of a sentence, each of which confifts of more than a fingle word, are in fucceffion, the first member must terminate with the falling, and the laft with the rifing inflexion.

EXAMPLE.

Moderate exercife, and habitual témperance, ftrengthen the conftitution.

In this example, we find the first member, ending at exercife, pronounced with the falling, and the fecond, at temperance, pronounced with the rifing inflexion.

Rule II. When two fucceffive members, each of which confifts of more than a fingle word, conclude a fentence, the first member is to be pronounced with the rifing, and the last with

the falling inflexion, or rather with the falling inflexion in a lower tone of voice, called the concluding inflexion. See Plate I. N° III.

and IV. p. 75.

EXAMPLE.

Nothing tends more powerfully to ftrengthen the conftitution than moderate éxercise and habitual tèmperance.

In this example, the first member, at exercife, is pronounced with the rifing inflexion, and the laft, at temperance, with the concluding or falling inflexion, without force, and in a lower tone of voice than the preceding words.

Rule III. When three members of a sentence, each of which confifts of more than a fingle word, are in a commencing feries, the first member must be pronounced with the falling inflexion, the fecond with the fame inflexion, fomewhat higher and more forcible, and the third with the rifing inflexion, as in the last member, Rule I.

EXAMPLES.

To advise the ignorant, relieve the needy, comfort the afflícted, are duties that fall in our way almost every day of our lives. Spec. No 93.

In our country, a man feldom fets up for a poet, without attacking the reputation of all his brothers in the art. The ignorance of the mòderns, the fcribblers of the age, the decay of poetry, are the topics of detraction, with which he makes his entrance into the world

Ibid. N° 253.

As the genius of Milton was wonderfully turned to the fublime, his fubject is the nobleft that could have entered into the thoughts of man; every thing that is truly great and astonishing has a place in it; the whole fyftem of the intellectual world, the chaos and the creation, heaven, earth, and héll, enter into the conftitution of his poem. Ibid. N° 315.

Rule IV. When three members of a sentence, each of which confifts of more than a single

word, are in a concluding feries, the falling inflexion can only fall on the first member, and the two last are pronounced exactly like the two concluding members, Rule II.

EXAMPLES.

It was neceffary for the world, that arts should be invented and improved, books written and tranfmitted to poftérity, nations conquered and civilized. Spectator, N° 255.

All other arts of perpetuating our ideas, except writing or printing, continue but a fhort time: Statues can laft but a few thousands of years, edifices féwer, and colours still fewer than èdifices, Ibid. N° 166.

Our lives, fays Seneca, are spent either in doing nothing at all, or in doing nothing to the púrpofe, or in doing nothing that we ought to do. Ibid. N° 93.

If a man would know whether he is poffeffed of a taste for fine writing, I would have him read over the celebrated works of antiquity, and be very careful to obferve whether he tastes the diftinguishing perfections, or, if I may be allowed to call them fo, the fpecific qualities of the author he perufes; whether he is particularly pleafed with Livy for his manner of telling a ftory; with Salluft, for his entering into those internal principles of action which arife from the characters and manners of the perfons he defcribes; or with Tacitus, for his difplaying those outward motives of fafety and intereft, which give birth to the whole feries of tranfactions which he relàtes. Ibid. No 409.

It may here be neceffary to obferve, that if we doubt of the inflexions that are to be given to a very compound feries, the best way to dif cover them will be to reduce the feries to a few words, and then the proper inflexions will be very perceptible. Suppofe, for inftance, we contract the feries in the laft example to its radical words, which, for example fake, let us fuppofe to be these whether he is pleafed with Livy for his fòry, Salluft for his characters, or Tacitus for his motives; we fhall find, by this trial, the fame radical pronunciation proper both for the original and the abridgment,

Rule V. When four members of a fentence, each of which confifts of more than a fingle word, are in a commencing feries, the three firft are to be pronounced with the falling inflexion.

EXAMPLE.

Labour or exercise ferments the humours, cafts them into their proper channels, throws off redundancies, and helps nature in thofe fecret liftributions, without which the body cannot subsist in its vigour, nor the foul act with cheerfulness.

Spectator, No 115.

Rule VI. When four members of a sentence, each of which confifts of more than a fingle word, follow in a concluding feries, the two first members only can have the falling inflexion, and the two laft are to be pronounced like the two concluding members, Rule II.

EXAMPLE.

Notwithstanding all the pains which Cicero took in the education of his fon, hiftory informs us, that young Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that Nature (who, it feems, was even with the fon for her prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of improving by all the rules of eloquence, the precepts of philofophy, his own endeavours, and the moit refined converfation in Athens. Spectator, No 307.

Rule VII. When five members of a sentence, each of which contains more than a fingle word, follow in a commencing feries, the four firft may be pronounced with the falling inflexion; each member rifing above the preceding one, and the last as in Rule I.

EXAMPLES.

The defcriptive part of this allegory is likewife very strong and full of fublime ideas. The figure of death, the regal crown upon his head, his menace of Sàtan, his advancing to the còmbat, the outcry at his birth, are circumftances too noble to be paffed over in filence, and extremely fuitable to this king of tèrrors, Spectator, No 310,