SECTION XIV.

Circumflex.

THE CIRCUMFLEX is the union of the falling and rising inflections on the same syllable or word, producing a slight undulation or wave of the voice.

Some elocutionists maintain that this inflection is formed in two ways;

1. They say that the wave may commence with the rising slide of the voice, and end with the falling; and

2. That it may commence with the falling slide, and end with the rising.

The former, they call the direct wave or undulation; the latter, the inverted.

EXAMPLES.

1. I said he was my friend.

2. Indeed! is he your friend?

If each of these examples is uttered somewhat slowly, with firm articulation and long quantity on my and your, and with such emphasis as strongly to mark the contrast, it is said, the utterance of my will be perceived to exemplify the direct wave, and of your, the inverted. But as it is very difficult for most readers to distinguish this difference, we doubt the expediency of making such distinctions in a work like this; and hence, we shall use but one character to mark this inflection; thus, (~).

This modification of the voice may vary in the upward and downward slides, prolongation of sound, key, and intensity of utterance; the slides being equal or unequal, according to the peculiar significance, and designed effect of what is to be uttered,

In some instances, as we have before remarked, it may be difficult to determine, whether the circumflex or rising inflection

QUESTIONS. What is the circumflex? How may it be formed according to the opinion of some elocutionists? What is the former called? What is the latter? Why is but one kind used in this work? Which is the kind used? How inay this modification of the veice vary? With what is the circumflex liable to be confounded:

should be employed. In such cases, however, the sentiment of See Note 2, page 76, and

the piece will be the best criterion. the remark under Rule 4, page 90.

RULE 14. The circumflex is used in language of irony, sarcasm, condition, contrast, and in all pecu liarly significant expressions.

The circumflex is rarely used as a distinctive inflection, unless the language involves contrast or comparison of an ironical, sarcastic, or conditional character. The following examples and exercises, therefore, will exemplify its use in each particular specified in the above rule,

EXAMPLES.

Irony.

1. You, forsooth, are very wise men, deeply learned in the truth; wě, weak, contemptible, mean persons; but you, strong, gållant.

2. Not Ĭ, stay you; and as you made him, hăil him; and shout, and wǎve your hand, and cry, "Long live Appius Claudius!" Rome owes you much, Icilius.b

Sarcasm.

1. You, a beardless youth, pretend, to teach a British general, 2. He saved others, himself he cannot save.

3. No doubt yě are the people, and wisdom shall die with you 4. But I have understanding as well as you; I am not inferior to you.

Condition.

If the world hate you, ye know it hated mě before it hated you. If they have persecuted mě, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.

Appius Clandius, a cruel, arrogant, and ambitious consul of Rome, 401. B. C. Icilius, a Roman tribune.

QUESTIONS. How may we determine which should be employed? What is the rule for the circumflox? What is said of the use of the circumflex?

Contrast.

They follow an adventurer whom they fear; wě serve a monarch whom we love. They boast they come to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error. Yes, they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice, and pride. They offer us their protection; —yes, such protection as vultures give to iămbs, covering and devouring them.

EXERCISE I.

Here, under leave of Brutus,a and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honorable man;

So are they all; all honorable men,)
Come I to speak at Cæsar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me;
But Brutus says he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke.

2. Really, Mr. President, I am delighted with the honorable gentleman's mode of speaking extempore. I like his speeches a good deal better without his notes, than with them. He has this day thrown all ăncient and modern orators into the shade. I cheerfully acknowledge my own inferiority to the honorable, learned, and surpăssingly eloquent gentleman. Had he, in the plenitude of his wisdom, compared me to the Ephraim actually named in the Scriptures, I could have borne it tolerably well; but when he compared me to ether, which, if I understand it rightly, is lighter than thin air, it was really unendurable, and I sink under it.

a Brutus, (Marcus Junius,) a governor of Macedonia, a country of ancient Greece, and head of the conspiracy against Cæsar. He was subsequently defeated in two battles, after which he killed himself, in the year 42.

3. By these methods, in a few weeks, there starts up many a writer, capable of managing the profoundest and most general subjects; for what though his head be empty, provided his common-place book be full? And if you will bate him but the circumstances of method, and style, and grammar, and invention; allow him but the common privilege of transcribing from others, and digressing from himself, as often as he shall see occasion, he will desire no more ingredients toward fitting up a treatise that shall make a věry comely figure on a bookseller's shelf, there to be preserved, neat and clean, for a long eternity, adorned with the heraldry of its title, fairly described on the label, and never thumbed or greased by students.

4. And it came to pass at noon that Elijah mocked them, and said, "Cry aloud; for he is a göd: either he is tålking, or he is pursuing, or he is on a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked."

5. Cruel and haughty nation! Every thing must be yours, and at your disposal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we shall have wăr, with whom, peace. You are to shut us up by the boundaries of mountains and rivers, which wě must not pass! But you- you are not to observe the limits, yourselves have appointed!

EXERCISE II.

WEALTH AND FASHION.-ANON.

1. "What a pity it is," said Caroline, throwing aside her book," that we are born under a republican government!"

2. "Upon my word," said her brother Horace," that is a patriotic observation for an American."

3. "O, I know," replied the sister, "that it is not a popular one; we must all join in the cry of liberty and equality, and bless our stars that we have neither kings nor emperors to rule over us, and that our very first audible squeak was republicanism. If we don't join in the shout, and hang our caps on liberty poles, we are considered monsters. For my part, I am tired of it, and am determined to say what I think. I hate republicanism; I hate liberty and equality; and I don't hesitate to declare, that I am for monarchy. You may laugh, but I would say it at the stake."

4. "Bravo!" exclaimed Horace; "why, you have almost run yourself out of breath, Caroline; you deserve to be prime minister to the king."

5. "You mistake," replied she, with dignity; "I have no wish to mingle in political broils, not even if I could be as renowned as Pitt, or Fox; but I must say, I think our equality is odious. What do you think? To-day, the new chambermaid put her head into the door, and said, 'Caroline! your marm wants you.'"

6. "Excellent," said Horace, clapping his hands, and laughing; “I suppose if ours were a monarchical government, she would have bent to the ground, or saluted your little foot, before she spoke."

7. "No, Horace, you know there are no such forms in this country."

8. "May I ask your highness what you would like to be?" 9. "I would like," said she, glancing at the glass, "I would like to be a countess."

10. "O, you are moderate in your ambition; a countess, now-a-days, is the fag-end of nobility."

11. "Q! but it sounds so delightfully:- The young Countess Caroline!'"