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This is a fault in style into which immature writers are liable to fall; especially if accustomed much to the exclusive recitation of poetical compositions. While it implies a musical ear, it is yet a fault of excess; and in pure oratory is inadmissible. The fault more commonly appears in the more elevated parts of discourse, when the speaker, as it were, absorbs the audience into himself, and imagines himself no longer an orator, in address to others, but their mouth-piece, in the mere utterance or pouring out of their common thoughts and feelings. As words of foreign origin do not readily fall in with those of native stock in rhythmical harmony,* writers who are liable to this fault of excess in rhythm are generally characterized for their preference of Anglo-Saxon words.

The following passage, from a popular author in the lighter departments of literature, might be reduced to the form of regular blank verse:

"Then when the dusk of evening had come on, and not a sound disturbed the sacred stillness of the place when the bright moon poured in her light on tomb and monument, on pillar, wall, and arch, and most of all it seemed to them, upon her quiet grave in that calm time, when all outward things and inward thoughts teem with assurances of immortality, and worldly hopes and fears are humbled in the dust before them - then, with tranquil and submissive hearts they turned away and left the child with God. Oh! it is hard to take to heart the lesson that such deaths will teach, but let no man reject it, for it is one that all must learn, and is a mighty, universal truth. When Death strikes down the innocent and young, for every fragile form from which he lets the panting spirit free, a hundred virtues rise in shapes of mercy, charity, and love, to walk the world and bless it. Of every tear that sorrowing mortals shed on such green graves, some good is born, some gentler nature comes. In the destroyer's steps there spring up bright creations that defy his power, and his dark path becomes a way of light to heaven."

Twining, in his "Notes on Aristotle's Poetics," quotes the

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* In the last extract from Milton, it will be seen at once that "ambushments mars the rhythm. And in the next quotation, under this section, the phrase 66 assurances of immortality" is almost the only one that interrupts the poetical structure.

following from "Smith's System of Optics," as a striking instance of involuntary versification :

"When parallel rays || come contrary ways || and fall upon opposite sides."

§ 263. A correct or faulty rhythm appears most conspicuous at the termination of sentences or phrases, as the character of a strain of music is most affected by the cadence.

In the cadence of a sentence, or member of a sentence, is concentrated its entire musical effect. Hence, in the study of rhythm, the chief attention has been given to the construction of the cadence.

The style of Addison owes its easy flow in a great measure to the fact that, while trochaic cadences, or such as end with an unaccented syllable, predominate, the heavy effect of an invariable sameness is avoided by a due interspersion of iambic endings. A spondaic cadence rarely occurs in the compositions of this author. The style of Middleton, the author of the "Life of Cicero," is also excellent in this property.

CHAPTER VI.

OF MELODY.

§ 264. MELODY is founded on pitch; and requires that the phrases or members of a sentence be so constructed and disposed that, in a suitable pronunciation, the successions of pitch be pleasing to the ear.

The term melody, as applied both to style in composition and to elocution, has, for the most part, been used in a vague and indeterminate sense. Its use in music is, however, fixed; and there is obviously every, reason for preserving to it the same radical import in all its various applications. In song, it denotes pitch in succession, and is clearly distinguished from rhythm, which respects accent in succession. In elocution, we perceive the necessity of maintaining the same distinction, and need, for this purpose, the same precision in the distinct use of the terms. The same necessity, likewise, exists in style.

The exact relations of pitch to style are indicated in the fact that, in the oral delivery of discourse, the mutual dependence and connection of the particular constituents of the complex thought are expressed chiefly, although not exclusively, through the variations of pitch. While it belongs to elocution to define precisely what these variations are, it is the appropriate province of rhetoric to describe how the sentence shall be constructed so as to meet these qualities of an easy and agreeable elocution.

More particularly, every constituent part of a complex thought, or the expression of it in a particular phrase, has,

in a correct elocution, a pitch of its own by which it is distinguished from the other constituent parts. In passing from one phrase to another, the voice changes its pitch for the purpose often simply of making the transition, and with no reference to any emphatic distinction. These successive ranges of pitch, given respectively to the several phrases, may obviously be such as to be offensive to a musical ear. So far, therefore, as they are determined by the structure of the sentence, they need to be regarded in style.

But, further than this, the relations between the constituent thoughts are indicated, in delivery, chiefly by the pitch of the voice. If, accordingly, the sentence be so constructed that these relations cannot appropriately be expressed with ease and agreeable effect under the limitations of the laws of vocal sounds, it is so far faulty; and the prevention or correction of the fault comes within the proper purview of rhetorical style.

How far, and in what particular respects, the principles of melody in elocution may thus affect the style of discourse, will be exhibited in the sections which follow.

§ 265. Melody in style may be distinguished into two kinds the melody of proportion, and the melody of arrangement.

A fault in melody may be either in the time of the variations of pitch, the variations being too frequent or the contrary; or in the character of the variations themselves, being in their own nature unmusical.

That species of melody which is founded on the frequency or infrequency of the variations, or what amounts to the same thing, on the length of the phrases, is denominated the melody of proportion. The melody of arrangement respects the character of the variations themselves, as judged by a musical standard.

§ 266. The melody of proportion is founded on the

relative length of the phrases or clauses in a sentence; and requires that the discourse be neither fragmentary and abrupt, on the one hand; nor on the other be made up of members too extended for easy elocution.

The abrupt and fragmentary style is more tolerable in essays; and is more frequent in this department of writing. The following extract from Lord Bacon, however excellent in other respects, is deficient in melody:

"Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars one by one, but the general counsels, and the plots and marshaling of affairs come best from those that are learned. To spend too much time in studies is sloth; to use them too much for ornament is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules is the humor of a scholar: they perfect Nature, and are perfected by experience: for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire, and wise men use them; for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation."

The opening sentence in Hooker's "Ecclesiastical Polity," as well as the succeeding extract from Middleton, labor from being broken up by numerous qualifying clauses.

"Though for no other cause, yet for this, that posterity may know we have not loosely, through silence, permitted things to pass away as in a dream, there shall be for men's information extant thus much concerning the present state of the Church of God established among us, and their careful endeavor which would have upheld the same."

"And that it was not peculiar to the gift of language or tongues only, to be given at the moment of its exertion, but common likewise to all the rest, will be shown, probably, on some other occasion, more at large in a particular treatise, which is already prepared by me, on that subject.”. Middle

ton.

The style of Ossian and of Young in his " Night Thoughts is also deficient in this species of melody.

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"Leave, blue-eyed Clatho, leave thy hall. Behold that early beam of thine. The host is withered in its course. No further look it is dark. Light trembling from the harp, strike, virgins, strike the sound. No hunter,

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