prayers, or penance [here the amplification by repetition. seems to be done for us] the horrible blot, the dastardly mark, can efface Murder's dark spot, revealing your foul soul in its hideous uncleanness, wash treason's ay, treason, blackest crime, beyond murder; most impious! most reckless! most defiant! stain away! how can I bring For the foul ravisher myself, how can you expect me? intercede for such! Oh, why should any man be called to how shall I pray? NOTES ON CHAPTER VIII. NOTE 1. A Final Word on the Study of Volition. It is vital to observe two things, and in their proper order: First, Try to measure the kind and degree of volition note carefully the attitude of the speaker's will at the moment of utterance, as bearing upon the will of the addressed. Do not be content with simply saying, "There is volition demanded here;" see what kind of volition. Second, Learn carefully and practically each kind of stress; train the voice to these different apportionments of power, until the vocal symbol instantly and instinctively adapts itself to your mind's conception of the variety of volition required. Practice verifying the significance of these different types of volition by listening critically to voices in conversation and in public discourse. Do not confuse stress with inflection; practically they may unite scientifically we are to separate them; and in the drill stage they must be thought of as distinct. Practice vowels and numerals in all forms of stress, always associating the rhetorical significance, and mentally adapting sentences requiring different kinds of stress; then take actual sentences, speak them with different kinds of stress, and note the differences in significance. Do not overdo the matter of stress. Like all vital elements in expression, it must be used moderately in order to be effective. Never allow mere impulse to decide the form or degree of stress. Effective utterance is always dominated by the intelligence and the will. Whatever particular form of volition is studied, the utterance must be justified to the reader or, speaker by such mental expansion, comment, and restatement as could be expressed in writing. This will, indeed, fall short of complete expression, and is intended to be only an aid to such expression; but such aid is needed. The things to be kept constantly in mind are these: First, that volitional attitudes and actions must be justified by their relations to the intellectual and emotional conditions which introduce them; and, Second, that they may be mentally intensified by such repetitions and additional expressions as, if fully written, would quite overload the verbal expression. In addition to those already given, find or make typical examples of abruptness, insistence, uplift, establishment, and violence. Write in between the lines and between the words such amplifying matter as you think will legitimately express the accompanying thoughts and impulses of the speaker's mind, and thus give force and point to these different types of volition. NOTE 2. In the following passages decide on the form of volition implied. Translate declarative, interrogative, or exclamatory forms into imperative. See pp. 100-102. Gen. xl. 1; Ex. xiv. 15, xv. 1-8, xx. 1-2; Josh. x. 12; 1 Sam. xvii. 44, xx. 30-31; 2 Sam. xii. 5-17, xix. 5-7; 1 Kings xii. 16; Ezra i. 2-4, iv. 3, vi, 6-12; Esther iv. 13-14, vii. 9; Ps. xxxvii. 3, xlvii. 1, lxviii. 7-8, lxxxi. 1-3, lxxxix. 6-8, xc. 1-5, xcvi. 1-6, xcvii. 1-4, cxxi., cxxv. 1-2, cxl. 9-10; Isa. xxv. 1-4, xxx. 1-5, xl. 12-18, li. 9-11, lii. 1-2, lv. 1, lx. 1-5, 17-22, lxii. 1-3; Ezek. xxxvi. 22-24; Matt. ii. 13; Mal. iii. 10; Matt. xix. 28-29; Luke xxiii. 21, xv. 6; John iii. 16-18, vii. 37, xii. 13; Acts ii. 36, iv. 19-20, vii. 49-50, 51, 53, xiii. 41, xxiii. 3, xxv. 11, xxvii. 22-25; 1 Cor. xv. 58, xvi. 13; Eph. vi. 10-17; Heb. i. 10-12, xi. 3, 32-34, xiii. 6; Rev. iii. 11. CHAPTER IX. MUSICAL PROPERTIES OF SPEECH. Analysis. More general application; Movement or tempo; Slow gives gravity; Fast gives lightness or intensity. Movement in its relation to different types of utterance. Rhythm of speech: Significance of different types of poetic rhythm; Corresponding types of prose-rhythm; abrupt, insistent, gliding, weighty; Analogous to different forms of stress; Prose-rhythm is more dependent upon the reader's interpretation; Examples of different kinds of prose-rhythm. Hamlet's advice to the players analyzed rhythmically; Key defined; Effects of high keys, of medium, of low. Keys in different voices. Melody defined. Effects of smaller diatonic intervals, of larger, of chromatic, of minor, of unusual. Emphatic elements in the sentence set the trend of melody. Melodies discriminative and emotional. Illustration from musical recitatives, arias, and songs. Melodic analysis of the Erl-King. Special qualities of tone due to the overtones; Effects of different types of vowels; Mr. Swartz's analysis of different vowel qualities. Rhythm and melody as subtler means of expressing thought. THUS far we have considered the more minute and particular applications of the properties of tone to special purposes in the utterance. These general properties of utterance are approached from the physical side rather than from the mental; and for this reason they should be studied only after formal and thorough analysis of thought properties. The particular applications of tone-properties, as quantity, inflection, stress, serve to single out some word or phrase as the center of the expression, and as that which gives character to the utterance. All the general applications, as movement, key, melody, general force, and general quality, give character to the thought as a whole, and not with special reference to any one central word or phrase. The general both affects the particular and is affected by it. The general should always lead, and subordinate to itself the particular. Thus, e. g., "general force " is determined by the consideration of the kind of energy implied in the passage as a whole; when thus determined, "particular force," or "stress," will naturally follow, applying itself to the central words in each assertion or appeal. The emphasis thus secured will not have the undue pointedness or jerky effect sometimes heard in young speakers. It was necessary at first to study force in the form of stress, to reach a specific idea of the different kinds of volition. So, inflection is more easily understood than melody; and pause and quantity, than movement. These different elements, once apprehended in connection with the smaller divisions of speech, become a guide and illustration to the larger divisions, which in turn react upon the particular elements. We study, as "musical properties," Movement, Rhythm, Melody, Quality, and Force. These are called musical properties because they impart to speech in a marked degree the characteristics of sensuous beauty and poetic ideality, which inhere typically in music itself. I. MOVEMENT, OR TEMPO. Movement, as an element of expression, is distinguished from pause and quantity mainly by this feature of general application; that is, while pause or quantity is heard upon a single element of a sentence, and for the uses of that element, except in case of the oratorical pause, general movement, or rate, is heard as affecting the whole passage, division, or discourse. Movement in speech corresponds to tempo in music; pauses correspond to rests, and quantity to the relative length of tones. The movement, or tempo, gives the general effect of the thought as a whole. Movement either measures the rapidity of the mind's action in the thought which is uttered, or suggests the amount and nature of unuttered but implied thought. Slow Movement is a part of the expression of thoughtfulness, seriousness, solemnity, tenderness, doubt or misgiving, in the mind of the speaker; and adapts itself to the description of scenes, incidents, etc., that are slowmoving or grave. In short, slow movement means gravity. Examples. CESAR. Would he were fatter! but I fear him not: I do not know the man I should avoid So soon as that spare Cassius. He reads much; He is a great observer, and he looks Quite through the deeds of men: he loves no plays, Julius Cæsar, I. ii. BRUTUS. . . . What you have said, I will consider; what you have to say, I will with patience hear; and find a time |