I. LEVEL NEGATIVE STATEMENT.

THE tone adopted in reading these negative statements is pretty much the same as that in reading affirmative statements; but the words containing the negation-no, not, never, and others—will generally have a strong emphasis. This emphasis must be given by putting a stress-not sudden, nor violent-upon the emphatic word, and by making a pause after it, and sometimes also before it. In some cases, however, it would be a very great mistake to place an emphasis on the not. In No. 12, for example, not one not can be emphasised without spoiling the feeling of the passage; and the weight of emphasis must be reserved for the no more and the none at the end of each stanza.

1.

2.

Hearken what the rill doth say,
As it journeys every day;

Sweet as skylark on the wing,
Ripple, dipple, it doth sing;
Never idle, never still,

What a worker is the rill!

Tell me not of joy, there's none,
Now my little sparrow's gone!

3. This grass is tender grass; these flowers they have no peers 3; And that green corn, all day, is rustling in thy ears.

4.

5.

Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous,
God hath written in the stars above;

But not less in the bright flowrets under us
Stands the revelation of His love.

Do not thy servant's simple prayer refuse.

NEGATIVE STATEMENTS.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

He were nō lion were not Romans

A leader seemed

hinds.

Each warrior single as in chief, expert
When to advance, to stand, or turn the sway
Of battle; open 2 when, and when to close
The vigour of grim war: no thought of flight,
None of retreat; no unbecoming deed
That argued fear; each on himself relied,
As only in his arm the moment lay

Of victory.

He would not with a peremptory 3 tone,
Assert the nose upon his face his own;
With hesitation admirably slow,

He humbly hopes, presumes, it may be so.

4

He that works me good with unmoved face,
Does it but half: he chills me while he aids,-
My benefactor, not my brother man.

Britannia 5 needs no bulwarks,

No towers along the steep;

Her march is o'er the mountain waves,
Her home is on the deep.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone with his glory.

I weigh not fortune's frown or smile;
I joy not much in earthly joys;
I seek not state, I reck not style;
I am not fond of fancy's toys:
I rest
so pleased with what I have,
I wish no more, no more I crave.

I quake not at the thunder's crack;
I tremble not at noise of war;
I swound not at the news of wrack;8
I shrink not at a blazing star;
I fear not loss, I hope not gain,
I envy none, I none disdain.

6

13. Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel and lower the proud;
Turn thy wild wheel thro' sunshine storm and cloud
Thy wheel and thee we neither love nor hate.
Turn, Fortune, turn thy wheel with smile or frown;
With that wild wheel we go not up or down;
but our hearts are great.

Our hoard is little

45

Smile and we smile the lords of many lands;
smile the lords of our own hands;
For man is man

Frown and we

and master of his fate.

II. IMPASSIONED NEGATIVE STATEMENT.

These are, for the most part, of two kinds :

A. Pathetic, and

B. Indignant.

The pathetic sentences will generally need to be read very slowly the indignant passages may be read less slowly, but always with the most intense clearness and distinctness.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

A. PATHETIC NEGATIVE.

For them1 no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
No busy housewife ply her evening care,

No children run to lisp their sire's return,

Or climb his knees the envied kiss to share.

It was not in the battle:

No tempest gave the shock;
She sprang
no fatal leak;

She ran upon no rock,3

Seasons return, but not to mé returns 4
Day, or the sweet approach of ev'n or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom or summer's rose,
Or flocks or herds, or human face divine.5

Think not, the good,

The gentle deeds of mercy thou hast done,
Shall die forgotten all: the poor, the prisoner,
The fatherless, the friendless, and the widow,

Who daily own the bounty of thy hand,
Shall cry to heaven, and pull a blessing on thee.

Oh, not a minute, king, thy power can give :
Shorten my days thou canst with sullen sorrow,
And pluck nights from me, but not lend a morrow:
Thou canst help Time to furrow me with age,
But stop no wrinkle in his pilgrimage:
Thy word is current with him, for my death;

But, dead, thy kingdom cannot buy my breath.

1.

NEGATIVE STATEMENTS.

B. INDIGNANT NEGATIVE.

Blow, blow, thou wintry wind,
Thou art not so unkind

As man's ingratitude;

Thy tooth is not so keen,-
Because thou art not 2 seen,
Although thy breath be rude.
Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
Thou 3 dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot: *

Though thou the waters warp
Thy sting is not so sharp
As friend remembered not.t

4

SHAKSPEARE.

47

2. Tell me not of rights-talk not of the property of the planter in his slaves:-I deny the right, I acknowledge not the property. The principles, the feelings of our common nature rise in rebellion against it. LORD BROUGHAM.

3. It is not often, in the wide world's history, that you see a man so lavishly gifted by nature, and called-in the concurrence of eventsto a position like that which he occupied on the seventh of March, surrender his great power, and quench the high hopes of his race. No man, since the age of Luther, has ever held in his hand so palpably the destinies and character of a mighty people. He stood like the Hebrew prophet betwixt the living and the dead. He had but to have upheld the cross of common truth and honesty, and the black dishonour of two hundred years would have been effaced for ever. Wendell Phillips on Daniel Webster.

4.

Speak not to me of truce, and pledge, and wine!
Remember all thy valour; try thy feints

And cunning! all the pity I had is gone;

Because thou hast shamed me before both the hosts.

1. In general there should be a pause after no, not, never, and other negatives. The reason of this is that they are almost always emphatic; and the best way of calling attention to them is by making a pause after them. 2. Though a pause is made after this not, there should not be a strong emphasis or stress upon it. Tellme-not is said in a sort of weary way. The weight of the emphasis falls upon the none; and that, too, is soft and mild rather than strong. 3. The emphasis is on no; and the verse-accent which falls upon have is to be carefully avoided. 4. But, not less to be said with great clearness and slowness. 5. Emphasis on Do; slight pause after not. (To p. 44.)

1. This line means: He would not be considered so brave, if Romans were not such cowards-as cowardly as deer. 2. Open out the ranks. 3. The emphasis

The forgetting of benefits.

+ The fact that a friend has been forgotten by his friend.

is on peremptory. 4. Does good to me. 5. The emphasis is on Britannia. 6. There are no pauses after the negatives in this poem. 7. A slight emphasis on this not-to escape from the verse-accent upon am. 8. Wreck. (To p. 45.)

1. Emphasis on them. 2. Ply her evening care, means ply her spinning wheel in the evening. 3. The pause after each no in this verse is slight; but the emphasis upon them is strong. 4. The emphasis is on me. (The lines are from a lament on blindness, and are by Milton.) 5. The last line must be read very slowly, as if counting off the list of beautiful things which his blindness has deprived him off. 6. A slow and weighty emphasis upon all. 7. Strong emphasis on kingdom. (To p. 46.)

1. Weighty and reproachful emphasis on Thou and Thy. 2. Slight emphasis on not; and great care must be taken not to let the verse-accent strike art. 3. Emphasis on Thou, and the line must be read thus: Thou dost-not-bite so nigh. 4. Strong emphasis on right and property. (To p. 47.)