inflexion on the word book, we may, with the fame expectation of an answer, use the same inflexion on the fame word, and fay, You intend to read that book?-Both fentences will be equally interrogatory, though the laft feems diftinguished from the firft, by implying lefs doubt of what we afk; for when we fay, You intend to read that book? with the rifing inflexion on the word book, we have not fo much doubt about the reading of it as when we fay, Do you intend to read that book? with the fame inflexion on the fame word: and accordingly we find the voice more elevated at the end of the question where there is more doubt implied; and where the doubt is fmall, the voice is lefs elevated at the end; though, in both cafes, the fame kind of inflexion is inviolably preferved; for the queftion-You intend to read that book? with the rifing inflexion on the word book, is equivalent to the interrogative affirmation; I fuppofe you intend to read that book? both of which we find naturally terminate in a fufpenfion of voice, as if an ellipfis had been made, and part of the question omitted; for thefe queftions end in exactly the fame inflexion of voice which the fame words would have in the question at length-You intend to read that book, do you not ?—that is, in the fufpenfion of voice called the rifing inflexion, fimilar to that ufually marked by the comma. Not but this very phrafe, You intend to read that book, pronounced with the falling inflexion on the laft word like a declarative fentence, might have the import of a queftion, if attended with fuch circumftances as implied a doubt

in the fpeaker, and required an anfwer from the hearer: though this mode of speaking would, perhaps, imply the leaft degree of doubt poffible, yet as fome degree of doubt might be implied, it must neceffarily be claffed. with the interrogation.

Having premifed these observations, it may be neceffary to take notice, that with respect to pronunciation, all queftions may be divided into two claffes; namely, into fuch as are formed by the interrogative pronouns or adverbs, and into fuch as are formed only by an inverfion of the common arrangement of the words: the first with refpect to inflexion of voice, except in the cafes already mentioned, may be confidered as purely declarative; and like declarative fentences they require the falling inflexion at the end: and the laft, with fome few exceptions, require the rifing inflexion of voice on the last word; and it is this rifing inflexion at the end which distinguishes them from almost every other fpecies of fenOf both these in their order.

tence.

The Question with the Interrogative Words.

Rule I. When an interrogative sentence commences with any of the interrogative pronouns or adverbs, with respect to inflexion, elevation, or depreffion of voice, it is pronounced exactly like a declarative sentence.

EXAMPLES.

How can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great and noble, who only believes that after a fhort turn on the ftage of this

world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lofe his confcioufnefs for ever? Spectator, N° 210.

As an illuftration of the rule, we need only alter two or three of the words to reduce it to a declarative fentence; and we fhall find the inflexion, elevation, and depreffion of voice on every part of it the fame.

He cannot exalt his thoughts to any thing great or noble, because he only believes that after a short turn on the ftage of this world, he is to fink into oblivion, and to lose his confcioufnefs for èver.

Here we perceive, that the two fentences, though one is an interrogation, and the other a declaration, end both with the fame inflexion of voice, and that the falling inflexion; but if we convert these words into an interrogation, by leaving out the interrogative word, we fhall foon perceive the difference.

Can he exalt his thoughts to any thing great or noble, who only believes that after a fhort turn on the ftage of this world he is to fink into oblivion and to lose his confcioufnefs for éver?

In pronouncing this fentence with propriety, we find the voice flide upwards on the last words, contrary to the inflexion it takes in the two former examples.-If grammarians, therefore, by the elevation of voice, which they attribute to the queftion, mean the rifing inflexion, their rule, with fome few exceptions, is true only of queftions formed without the interrogative words; for the others, though they may have a force and loudnefs on the laft words, if they happen to be emphatical, have no more of that diftinctive inflexion which is peculiar to the former kind of interrogation, than if they were no questions at all. Let us

take another example:-Why should not a female character be as ridiculous in a man, as a male character in one of the female fex? Here the voice is no more elevated at the end than if I were to fay, A female character is just as ridiculous in a man as a male character in one of the fèmale fex: but if I say, Is not a female character as ridiculous in a man as a male character in one of the fémale fex?-here not only the emphafis, but the rifing inflexion, is on the last words; effentially different from the inflexion on these words in the first question, Why should not a female character be as ridiculous in a man, as a male character in one of the female fex? We may prefume, therefore, that it is the emphafis, with which these questions fometimes terminate, that has led the generality of grammarians to conclude, that all queftions terminate in an elevation of voice, and fo to confound that effential difference there is between a queftion formed with and without the interrogative words.

1

Rule II. Interrogative fentences commencing with interrogative words, and confifting of members in a feries depending neceffarily on each other for fenfe, are to be pronounced as a series of members, of the fame kind in a declarative fentence.

EXAMPLES.

From whence can he produce fuch cogent exhortations to the practice of every virtue, fuch ardent excitements to piety and devotion, and fuch affiftance to attain them, as those which are to be met with throughout every page of thefe inimitable writings? Jenyns's View of the Internal Evid. p. 41.

Where, amid the dark clouds of pagan philofophy, can he fhew us fuch a clear profpect of a future ftate, the immortality of the soul, the refurrection of the dead, and the general judgment, as in St. Paul's first Epiftle to the Corinthians?

Ibid. p. 40.

But to confider the Paradife Loft only as it regards our prefent fubject; what can be conceived greater than the battle of àngels, the majefty of Mefsiah, the ftature and behaviour of Satan and his peers? what more beautiful than Pandæmònium, Paradife, Heaven, A'ngels, A'dam, and Ewe? what more ftrange than the creation of the world, the feveral metamorphofes of the fallen angels, and the furprifing adventures their leader meets with in his search after paradife Spec. No 418.

In these sentences we find exactly the fame pauses and inflexions of voice take place as in the different feries of declarative fentences; that is, the firft example is to be pronounced as in Rule III. of the Compound Series, p. 119; the fecond as in Rule V. p. 121; and the last example, being a Series of Seriefes, must be pronounced according to the rules laid down under that article, p. 125.

But the question which in reading and fpeaking produces the greatest force and variety, is that which is formed without the interrogative words.

The Question without the Interrogative Words.

Rule I. When interrogative sentences are formed without the interrogative words, the laft word must have the rifing inflexion. If there be an emphatical word in the last member, followed by feveral words depending on it, which conclude the sentence, both the emphatical word and the concluding words are to