of the fentence, the word praife is understood, and the modifying words, univerfal and unlimited, are neceffarily referred to it.

If it be demanded, why, in the former fentence, A violent and ungovernable passion for praise produces, &c. we cannot pause both at paffion and praife? it may be answered, that as the words for praise modify passion, they have the nature of an adjective, and therefore fhould coalefce with the word paffion, which they modify; unless another word, more united to them than they are to paffion, could be added, to make them form a distinct clafs; for, in this cafe, they would be as eafily feparable as two adjectives after a fubftantive. Thus in the phrafe, A violent and ungovernable paffion, for praife and adulation, &c.: here we find praife and adulation form a clafs of words fufficiently united to be pronounced separately from paffion, if either the neceffity of taking breath, or a diftinctness of pronunciation, require it; for as paufing ought to answer one of thefe purposes, where neither of them are answered, the pause must be improper. Thus in the following fentence: Aviolent and ungovernable paffion for praife produces, &c. if we pause at paffion, and then at praife, we fhall paufe without any neceffity; for as we must pause at praise, and the words for praife being neither affociated with, nor diftinguished from, any fucceeding words, they ought to be united with thofe that precede, as both of them form a member fufficiently fhort to be pronounced with eafe; but if diftinctness had made it neceffary to paufe at praife, then, notwithstanding the fhortnefs of the phrase, it would have formed a diftinct member, and have

readily admitted a paufe. Thus in the fentence, A violent and ungovernable paffion, for praife, rather than improvement in virtue, produces often the most ridiculous circumstances, &c.: here the word praife, being emphatically diftinguished from improvement in virtue, demands a paufe after it; and as this word, and its oppofite, form a clafs more united together than both are with the word paffion, a paufe is neceffary, to fhew they belong to diftinct claffes; the paufe between the oppofing words fhewing their diftinction, and the paufe before and after them fhewing their union.

But it may be asked, how can we suppose words opposed to each other, and requiring a paufe to fhew that oppofition, can be more united with each other than they are with the preceding words they modify? It may be anfwered, that the modifying word, when unaccompanied by adjuncts, and the word modified, form but one class, and do not admit of a pause, either when the modifying word precedes or fucceeds the word modified. Thus in the phrases, It was from a prepenfe malice that he committed the action; and, It was from a malice prepenfe that he committed the action: In these phrafes, I fay, the fubftantive malice, and the adjective prepenfe, are equally inseparable by a paufe; but in the following phrafes:

It was from a preconceived and prepenfe malice that be committed the action; and It was from a malice, preconceived and prepenfe, that he committed the action. In the former of these phrases the modifying words do not form a diftinct clafs from the word modified; and in the latter they do, and, therefore, admit of a pause after

the word malice, which can arife from nothing. elfe but this in one cafe, the modifying words, preceding the word modified, can fignify nothing without being joined to it; and in the other, the modified word, preceding thofe that modify, does fignify fomething independent on them; and this independent fignification admits those words that equally depend on it, to form a distinct, though not an independent, class, by permitting a paufe. Hence arifes this general rule-The word modified, and the words modifying, form but one clafs with relation to the rest of the words of the fentence; but if the modifying words precede the word modified, the modifying words are diftinguished from each other by a paufe, but not from the word modified; and if the modifying words fucceed the word modified, they are not only diftinguished from each other, but from the word which they modify, that is, they form diftinct claffes reSpecting each other, and one whole clafs refpecting the rest of the words in the fentence.

Thus have we endeavoured to trace out the reafon for paufing differently in phrafes differently conftructed, though perfectly fimilar in meaning. In this inquiry, the ingenious refearches of Lord Kaims upon this fubject have been of great ufe. His idea of the connection between the adjective and the fubftantive in their natural order, and the feparation they admit of when inverted, is the principal clue to the difficulties that have been propofed: his affertion, however, that the adjective and fubftantive in an inverted order admit of a paufe, is true only when the adjective is fingle; for thousands of inftances might be produced, where a pause is no more admiffible between a

fubftantive and an adjective in their inverted than in their natural order. For example, in the following lines from the Rape of the Lock:

Of these the chief the care of nations own,

And guard with arms divine the British throne.

Though the melody of the verfe inclines us ftrongly to pause at arms, yet the adjective divine, immediately fucceeding, forbids it. Nay, if the line Lord Kaims produces to prove we may paufe between the adjective and the subftantive in an inverted order

For thee the fates, feverely kind, ordain

If this line, I say, had been constructed in this

manner,

For thee the fates fevere, have this ordained,

it is evident no paufe could be admitted between the substantive fates and the adjective severe, though they are here in their inverted order; it is not then merely the adjective being placed after the substantive which makes it feparable from it, but the adjective being joined by other words, which, when the fubftantive is understood, are more immediately connected with each other than with the fubftantive itself.

If thefe obfervations have any folidity, we may perceive how few are the grammatical connections which abfolutely refufe a fufpenfion of pronunciation, for the fake of breathing, where precifion or energy require it: it is certainly to be prefumed, that the breath of every perfon is nearly proportioned to the forcible pronunciation of fo many words together as are neceffary to preserve the fenfe unbroken; the contrary, however, would often be the cafe, if the

integrity of the fenfe depended on the common rules for placing the comma. Let thofe, however, who can pronounce a long fentence eafily and forcibly, provided they preserve the pauses neceffary to the fenfe, take breath as feldom as they please. I have rather confulted the infirmities than the perfections of my fellow-creatures; by endeavouring to point out those refources which are neceffary to the weak, without imposing them as rules upon the strong; Claufulas enim, says Cicero, atque interpuncta verborum anime interclufio atque anguftia fpiritûs adtulerunt. De Orat. Lib. iii.

But from ftudying the human voice, and not relying implicitly on the affertions of the ancients, we perceive the weakness of that common obfervation, that long fentences require a greater quantity of breath, and a much more forcible exertion of the lungs, than fuch fentences as are short. The folly of this opinion must evidently appear to those who have taken notice how often we may paufe in a long fentence; and it will be shown hereafter, that the fense of a sentence depends much lefs on the pause than on the inflexion of voice we adopt ; and that, provided we paufe in the proper place, and preferve the proper tone and inflexion of the voice, the fenfe runs no rifk on account of the multiplicity or duration of the pauses.

To reduce what has been faid into fomething like a system, we fhall endeavour to bring together fentences in every variety of conftruction, and mark, as carefully as poffible, fuch paufes as are neceffary to pronounce them with clearness, force, and variety.