but as this is only like reading the same sentence in a higher or lower, in a louder or fofter tone, (in all which modes of pronunciation the paufes and inflexions have an exact proportion, and are called the fame, though different in fome refpects;) fo the higher and lower tone with which the fame paufe and inflexion are pronounced in and out of a parenthesis, may be fo eafily conceived, that, perhaps, this obfervation may, by most readers, be thought fuperflous. To resume therefore the rule: A parenthesis must be pronounced in a lower tone of voice, and conclude with the fame pause and inflexion which terminate the member that immediately precedes it. EXAMPLES. Notwithstanding all this care of Cicero, hiftory informs us, that Marcus proved a mere blockhead; and that náture (who it feems was even with the fon for her prodigality to the father) rendered him incapable of improving, by all the rules of èloquence, the precepts of philofophy, his own endeavours, and the moft refined conversation in Athens. Spe&. No 307. Natural hiftorians obsérve (for whilst I am in the country I muft fetch my allufions from thénce) that only male birds have voices; that their fongs begin a little before breeding-time, and end a little after. Ibid. N° 128. Dr. Clarke has obferved, that Homer is more perfpicuous than any other author; but if he is fo (which yet may be quéf. tioned) the perfpicuity arifes from his fubject, and not from the language itself in which he writes. Ward's Grammar, p. 292. The many letters which come to me from perfons of the best fenfe in both fexes (for I may pronounce their characters from their way of writing) do not a little encourage me in the profecution of this my undertaking. Spectator, No 124. It is this fenfe which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; fo that by the pleasures of the imagination or fancy (which I fhall ufe promifcuoufly) I here mean fuch as arife from vifible objects. Ibid. No. 411. In these examples, we find the parenthesis break in upon the fenfe; but as the interruption is fhort, and is alfo diftinguished from the body. of the sentence by a different tone of voice, as well as by pauses, it does not in the least embarrass it. But when parentheses are long, which is fometimes the cafe in profe, and often in poetry, too much care cannot be taken to read them in fo different a tone of voice from the rest of the fentence, as may keep them perfectly separate and diftinct: this is not only to be done by lowering the voice, and pronouncing the parenthefis more rapidly, but by giving a degree of monotone or fameness to the voice, which will, perhaps, diftinguish the parenthesis, and keep it from mingling with what inclofes it better than any of the other peculiarities. Let us take a few examples by way of praxis. Since then every fort of good which is immediately of importance to happiness, must be perceived by fome immediate power or fenfe, antecedent to any opinions or réafoning, (for it is the bufinefs of reafon to compare the feveral forts of good perceived by the feveral fenfes, and to find out the proper means for obtaining them,) we must therefore carefully inquire into the feveral fublimer perceptive powers or fenfes; fince it is by them we best difcover what ftate or courfe of life beft anfwers the intention of God and nature, and wherein true happiness confifts. Hutchefon's Moral Philofophy, book i. chap, i. sect. 5. If fometimes on account of virtue we should be exposed to fuch evils, which is fometimes the cafe (though men are much more frequently involved by their vices in fuch evils, and that in a more shameful base way) virtue can teach us to bear fuch evils with resolution, or to conquer them. Ibid. chap. ii. fe&t. 11. And although the diligent and active fhould not, without weighty causes, be any way reftrained in their just acquisitions: (and, indeed, the beft forts of democracy may allow them to acquire as much as can be requifite for any elegance or pleasure of life that a wife man could desire :) yet we are never to put in the balance with the liberty or fafety of a people, the gratifying the vain ambition, luxury, or avarice of a few. Ibid. book iii. ch. vi. fec. 1. For these reasons, the fenate and people of A'thens, (with due veneration to the gods and heroes, and guardians of the Athenian city and territory, whofe aid they now implore; and with due attention to the virtue of their ancestors, to whom the general liberty of Greece was ever dearer than the particular intereft of their own ftate) have refolved that a fleet of two hundred veffels fhall be fent to fea, the admiral to cruife within the ftreights of Thermopyla. Leland's Demofthenes on the Crown. As to my own abilities in fpéaking (for I fhall admit this charge, although experience hath convinced me, that what is called the power of eloquence depends for the most part upon the hearers, and that the characters of public fpeakers are determined by that degree of favour which you vouchfafe to each); if long practice, I fay, hath given me any proficiency in speaking, you have ever found it devoted to my country. Ibidem. In these instances of the parenthefis, it will be found very difficult to keep the main thread of the fubject entire, unless we diftinguish the intervening member by a paufe, a lower tone of voice, and a fomewhat fwifter and lefs varied tone than what precedes and follows: and we muft never forget, that when the parenthefis is pronounced, the voice, after a thort pause, muft recover the higher tone it fell from, in order to preserve the connection in the thought. Without these precautions it will often be impoffible to pronounce Milton fo as to make him intelligible. That fublime and excurfive genius is, like Homer, frequently, by the beauty of an intervening thought, carried fo far out of the direct line of his fubject, as to make it impoffible for his reader to preserve the direct line, but by diftinguishing those thoughts that vary from it by a different pronunciation. Let us adduce a few examples for practice. But what if he our conqueror (whom I now Parad. Loft, b. i. v. 143. His fpéar (to equal which the tallest pine Ibid. v. 292. Know then, that after Lucifer from heav'n Ibid. book vii. v. 131. Round he furveys (and well might where he stood Of night's extended fháde) from eastern point. Of Libra, to the fleecy ftar that bears Andromeda far off Atlantic feas Beyond the horizon. They anon Ibid. book iii. v. 555. With hundreds and with thoufands trooping came To mortal combat, or career with lánce) Thick fwarm'd both on the ground, and in the air Ibid. book i. v. 752. Under this article, perhaps, may be arranged afide fpeeches in dramatic works, and all the intervening explanatory members in narrative writing for both these species of members, like the parenthefis, require both a lower tone of voice, and a more rapid pronunciation, than the rest of the compofition. It may not, perhaps, be improper to observe, that the small intervening members, fays I, fays be, continued they, &c. not only follow the inflexion, but the tone of the member which precedes them: that is, if the preceding member breaks off with the rifing inflexion, these intervening members are not pronounced in a lower tone, like other parentheses, but in a higher and feebler tone of voice than the reft. EXAMPLES. Thus then, faid he, fince you are fo urgent, it is thus that I conceive it. The fovereign good is that, the poffeffion of which render us happy. And how, faid I, do we poffefs it? Is it fenfual or intellectual? There you are entering, faid he, upon the detail. Harris. The first intervening member, faid he, is pronounced with the falling inflexion, fomewhat feebler than the words thus then, which have the fame inflexion: the next intervening member, faid I, has the falling inflexion, in a feebler tone than the word bow, which has the falling inflexion likewife; but faid he, in the next fentence, has the rifing inflexion like the preceding word entering, though in a feebler tone of voice. The fame may be observed of the intervening member, fays one of the frogs, in the following example: A company of waggish boys were watching of frogs at the fide of a pond, and ftill as any of them put up their heads, they would be pelting them down again with stones: "" Children," "(fays one of the frogs), "you never confider, that though "this may be play to you, it is death to us." L'Eftrange in Spec. No 23. |