Or,

Inverted. Of all our senses our sight is the most perfect.

The most perfect of all our senses is our sight.

Here, by throwing the Emphasis of force upon the word sight, we mark it strongly on the hearer's mind; and supposing that to be the speaker's object, no transposition of the word will relieve it from that Emphasis. But if it be merely an indifferent and abstract remark, it would be subject to the above rule as to inversion, and be thus marked:

Our sight is the most perfect of all our senses.

Of all our senses, our sight is the most perfect,

The most perfect of all our senses is our sight.

CONDITIONAL SENTENCES.

The addition of a condition to an affirmative, requires the rising inflection; which marks the uncertainty raised by the condition attached, as

He said he would call if you would consent to see him.

He shall live, if I have power to save him.

Doctrines must be embodied, before they can excite strong public feeling.

Observe that the simple affirmative in this form of sentence retains the falling inflection; it is the condition that receives

the rise.

EXCLAMATION.

INTERJECTIONAL PHRASES

Of Exclamation-as:

Oh Rome! how art thou fallen!

Apostrophe-as:

Sweet sleep! how have I frighted thee!

Daughter of Jove! relentless power!

Pity and sorrow—as :

Alas! my friend! woe is me!

and the like—are marked with the rising inflection.
(Except always when under the Emphasis of force.)

But Entire

EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES

are closed with the falling inflection.

EXAMPLES.

Oh! Rome! how art thou fallen!

Thanks to the Gods! my boy has done his duty!

Woe is me! my heart is broken!

Alas,

my friend! how much I pity you!

How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

PARENTHESIS.-PARENTHETICAL MEMBERS.

Strictly speaking, a parenthesis is an interruption

E*

or suspension of the sense of the main sentence, (as is manifest from the derivation-raga-ev-Tinu); and therefore members which are added to the sentence after the sense is completed, are not parenthetical (although they may be marked in parenthesis), but rather cata-thetical-if such a word may be used—

The very sentence I have just written furnishes an illustration of the distinction I wish to make; in which, the first passage marked in parenthesis is not (strictly) a parenthesis, for it does not suspend or interrupt-though it confirms and explains the preceding part of the main sentence; but the second passage marked in parenthesis is correctly so marked, for it interrupts and suspends the sense of the main sentence. Again, the last phrase in the same sentencemarked between two dashes-occurring at the close of the main sense, is not parenthetical (though it might be marked ordinarily in parenthesis), but rather cata-thetical-that is, tacked to the main sentence.

But in common use and acceptation, all the above phrases would be called parenthetical,-without reference to their being an interruption of, or merely an addition to, the sense; and therefore I shall arrange the Elocutionary rules for reading parenthesis according to the common and popular definition of the term. Hence the following

RULES.

1. A parenthesis must have its commencement and continuauce indicated by a change to a somewhat lower tone of voice

and a quicker movement; and the close of the parenthesis is marked by a return to the same time, pitch and inflection of voice as the sense had at the point immediately preceding the parenthesis: so that,

2. If the sense of the main sentence be suspended and interrupted by parenthesis, its close shall be marked with the rising inflection: if the sense of the main sentence be complete, the parenthesis shall be closed with the falling inflection.

NOTE. The more logical form of these rules would be thusIf the parenthetical members suspend the sense, they shall be read with suspension: if they do not, they shall be read as independent members.

EXAMPLES.

1. Parenthesis suspending the sense.

Gentlemen, if I make out this case by evidence, (and if I do not, forget every thing you have heard, and reproach me for having abused your honest feelings,) I have established a claim for damages that has no parallel.—Erskine.

If there's a Power above, (and that there is
All nature cries aloud in all her works,)

He must delight in virtue.

2. Parenthesis-in addition without a suspension.

Now the works of the flesh are manifest,-which are these, &c.

I hope to be pardoned for yielding to this high authority, in preference to submitting my judgment to the opinion of those who now deny the power (however respectable that opinion may be.)

EXCEPTION.

This rule is (like all others) subject to be varied by the inflection of the Emphasis of force-which, occurring in the parenthesis, over-rules the inflection proper to suspension; as in the following passage from Mr. Burke's speech on the impeachment of Warren Hastings:

EXAMPLE.

Growing from crime to crime, ripened by cruelty for cruelty, these fiends, at length, outraging sex, decency, nature, applied lighted torches and slow fire-(I cannot proceed for shame and horror!)-these infernal furies planted death in the source of life, &c.

Here, though the sense is suddenly broken and suspended by the introduction of the parenthesis, yet, as the closing phrase of that parenthesis is marked with the emphasis of force, it is an exception to the general rule, which would otherwise require a rising inflection to mark the suspension of the sense.

PRONOUNS-PRONOMINAL PHRASE.

We are taught in Grammar that a pronoun is used to avoid the repetition of a noun.

In Elocution, when the noun is repeated, and the use of the pronoun rejected, we call the word so repeated pronominal; that is, of the nature, or in place of a pronoun; as,

He advanced the doctrine; he maintained the doctrine; he propagated the doctrine.

In this example, "the doctrine," in every instance