Negative, or less forcible, part of an antithesis:

See Table of Contrasted Inflections.

Condition, supposition, concession:

1. If the parts of time were not variously coloured, we should never discern their departure or succession. If one hour were like another; if the passage of the sun did not show that the day is wasting; if the change of seasons did not impress upon us the flight of the year, quantities of duration, equal to days and years, would glide unobserved.

2. Banish gentleness from the earth; suppose the world to be filled with none but harsh and conténtious spirits; and what sort of society would remain?the solitude of the desert were preferable to it.

3. This, though it may make the unskilful laugh, cannot but make the judicious grieve.

Exceptions by emphasis:

1. If there were no other effects of such appearances of nature upon our minds, they would teach us humility, and with it they would teach us charity.

2. If the sun himself which enlightens this part of creation were extinguished, and all the host of planetary worlds which move about him were annihilated; they would not be missed by an eye that could take in the whole compass of nature, any more than a grain of sand upon the sea-shore.

3. A young lady may excel in speaking French and Italian; may repeat a few passages from a volume of extracts; play like a professor, and sing like a siren; have her dressing-room decorated with her own drawing-table, stands, flower-pots, screens, and cabinets; nay, she may dance like Sempronia herself; and yet we shall insist that she may have been very badly educated.

Comparison:

1. As cold water to a thirsty sóul, so is good news from a far country.

2. As the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth the slothful upon his bed.

3. He that hath no rule over his own spirit, is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.

Exception by emphasis:

As a madman who casteth firebrands, árrows, and death, so is the man who deceiveth his neighbour, and saith, “Am I not in sport?"

Connexion:

1. I am found, said Virtue, in the vále, and illuminate the mountain: I cheer the cottager at his tóil, and inspire the sage at his meditation: I mingle in the crowd of cities, and bless the hermit in his cell.

2. I ranged mountains and deserts for images and resemblances, and pictured upon my mind every tree of the forest, and flower of the valley.

3. Though Homer lived, as is generally believed, only two or three centuries after the Trojan war, yet, through the want of written records, tradition must, by this time, have fallen into the degree of obscurity most proper for poetry; and have left him at full liberty to mix as much fable as he pleased with the remains of true history.

Exceptions by emphasis:

1. He called me a poacher and a villain; and collaring me, desired I would give an account of myself.

2. If the departing from that measure, should not remove the prejudice so maliciously raised, I am certain that no farther step you can take, will be able to remove it; and therefore I hope you will stop here.

Introductory phrase, or incomplete sense:

1. For some time after my retréat, I rejoiced, like a tempest-beaten sailor at his entrance into the harbour.

2. When the pleasure of novelty went away, I employed my hours in examining the plants which grew in the valley.

3. That the stars appear like so many diminutive and scarce distinguishable póints, is owing to their immense and inconceivable distance.

4. So little do we accustom ourselves to consider the effects of time, that things necessary and certain often surprise us like unexpected contingencies.

5. He that is carried forward, however swiftly, by a motion equable and easy, perceives not the change of place, but by the variation of objects.

6. I was looking very attentively on that sign in the heavens, which is called by the name of the balance, when, on a sudden, there appeared in it an extraordinary light, as if the sun should rise at midnight.

7. As I was humouring myself in the speculation of these two great principles of action, I could not forbear throwing my thoughts into a kind of allegory or fable.

8. Having with difficulty found his way to the street in which his decent mansion had formerly stood, his heart became more and more elated at every step he advanced.

Exceptions by emphasis:

1. That prejudice will sometimes overcast the clearest judgments, every day's observation furnishes abundant proof.

2. Addicted to duplicity, even in the earliest years of youth, he willingly devoted his maturer years to every form of baseness and intrigue.

3. He who had so nobly sustained himself in the darkest hours of adversity, was found unequal to this favourable turn of fortune.

Commencing series,-last member:

1. Dependence and obédience belong to youth. 2. The yoùng, the healthy, and the prósperous, should not presume on their advantages.

3. Humanity, justice, generosity and public spirit, are the qualities most useful to others.

4. Metaphors, enigmas, mottoes, parables, fables, dreams, visions, dramatic writing, burlesque, and all the methods of allusion, are comprehended under Mr. Locke's definition of wit.

5. Common calamities and common blessings, fall heavily upon the envious.

6. A generous openness of heart, a calm deliberate courage, a prompt zeal for the public service, are at once constituents of true greatness, and the best evidences of it.

7. The splendour of the firmament, the verdure of the earth, the varied colours of the flowers, which fill the air with their fragrance, and the music of those artless voices which mingle on every tree; all conspire to captivate our hearts, and to swell them with the most rapturous delight.

8. To acquire a thorough knowledge of our own hearts and characters,-to restrain every irregular inclination, to subdue every rebellious passion,-to purify the motives of our conduct,-to form ourselves to that temperance which no pleasure can seduce, to that meekness which no provocation can ruffle, to that patience which no affliction can overwhelm, and that integrity which no interest can shake; this is the task which is assigned to us,—a task which cannot be performed without the utmost diligence and care.

9. The beauty of a plain, the greatness of a mountain, the ornaments of a building, the expression of a picture, the composition of a discourse, the conduct of a third person, the proportions of different quantities and numbers, the various appearances which the great machine of the universe is perpetually exhibiting, the secret wheels and springs which produce them, all the general subjects of science and taste, are what we and our companions regard as having no peculiar relation to either of us.

EMPHASIS.

General Observations. Every sentence contains one or more words which are prominent, and peculiarly important, in the expression of meaning. These words are marked with a distinctive inflection; as may be observed by turning to some of the examples in the preceding lesson,-those, in particular, which illustrate the reading of strong emotion, or of antithesis. The learner will find, on repeating these examples, that the words which are pronounced with peculiar inflection, are uttered with more force than the other words in the same sentences. This special force is what is called emphasis. Its use is to impress more strikingly on the mind of the hearer the thought, or portion of thought, embodied in the particular word or phrase on which it is laid. It gives additional energy to important points in expression, by causing sounds which are peculiarly significant, to strike the ear with an appropriate and distinguishing force. It possesses, in regard to the sense of hearing, a similar advantage to that of relief,' or prominence to the eye, in a well executed picture; in which the figures seem to stand out from the canvass.

Emphasis, then, being the manner of pronouncing the most significant words, its office is of the utmost importance to an intelligible and impressive utterance. It is the manner of uttering emphatic words which decides the meaning of every sentence that is read or spoken. A true emphasis conveys a sentiment clearly and forcibly to the mind, and keeps the attention of an audience in active sympathy with the thoughts of the speaker: it gives full value and effect to all that he utters, and secures a lasting impression on the memory.

DEFINITION. Emphasis, when strictly defined, may be regarded as force of utterance, applied to a particular word or phrase, by unusual energy of articulation on accented syllables.