tioned) the perspicuity arises from his subject, and not from the language itself in which he writes.

Ward's Grammar, p. 292.

The many letters which come to me from persons of the best sense in both sexes (for I may pronounce their characters from their way of writing) do not a little encourage me in the prosecution of this my undertaking. Spectator, No. 124.

It is this sense which furnishes the imagination with its ideas; so that by the pleasures of the imagination or fáncy (which I shall use promíscuously) I here mean such as arise from visible objects. Ibid. No. 411,

In these examples, we find the parenthesis break in upon the sense; but as the interruption is short, and is also distinguished from the body of the sentence by a different tone of voice, as well as by pauses, it does not in the least embarrass it.

But when parentheses are long, which is sometimes the case in prose, and often in poetry, too much care cannot be taken to read them in so different a tone of voice from the rest of the sentence, as may keep them perfectly separate and distinct: this is not only to be done by lowering the voice, and pronouncing the parenthesis more rapidly, but by giving a degree of monotone or sameness to the voice, which will, perhaps, distinguish the parenthesis, and keep it from mingling with what incloses it better than any of the other peculiarities. Let us take a few examples by way of praxis.

Since then every sort of good which is immediately of importance to happiness, must be perceived by some immediate power or sense, antecedent to any opinions or reasoning, (for it is the business of reason to compare the several sorts of good perceived by the several senses, and to find out the proper means for obtaining them,) we must therefore carefully inquire into the several sublimer perceptive powers or senses; since it is by them we best discover what state or course of

life best answers the intention of God and nature, and wherein true happiness consists.

Hutcheson's Moral Philosophy, book i. chap. i. sect. 5.

If sometimes on account of virtue we should be exposed to such evils, which is sometimes the case (though men are much more frequently involved by their vices in such evils, and that in a more shameful base way) virtue can teach us to bear such evils with resolution, or to conquer them.

Ibid. chap. ii. sect. 11.

And although the diligent and active should not, without weighty causes, be any way restrained in their just acquisitions: (and, indeed, the best sorts of democracy may allow them to acquire as much as can be requisite for any elegance or pleasure of life that a wise man could desire :) yet we are never to put in the balance with the liberty or safety of a people, the gratifying the vain ambition, luxury, or avarice of a few. Ibid. book iii. ch. vi. sect. 1.

For these reasons, the senate and people of A'thens, (with due veneration to the gods and heroes, and guardians of the Athenian city and territory, whose aid they now implore; and with due attention to the virtue of their ancestors, to whom the general liberty of Greece was ever dearer than the particular interest of their own státe) have resolved that a feet of two hundred vessels shall be sent to sea, the admiral to cruise within the streights of Thermopylæ.

Leland's Demosthenes on the Crown

As to my own abilities in speaking (for I shall admit this charge, although experience hath convinced me, that what is called the power of eloquence depends for the most part upon the hearers, and that the characters of publick speakers are determined by that degree of favour which you vouchsafe to éach ;) if long practice, I say, hath given me any proficiency in speaking, you have ever found it devoted to my country.

Ibidem.

In these instances of the parenthesis, it will be found very difficult to keep the main thread of the subject entire, unless we distinguish the intervening member by a pause, a lower tone of voice, and a somewhat swifter and less varied tone than what pre

cedes and follows: and we must never forget, that
when the parenthesis is pronounced, the voice, after
a short pause, must recover the higher tone it fell
from, in order to preserve the connection in the
thought. Without these precautions it will often be
impossible to pronounce Milton so as to make him
intelligible. That sublime and excursive genius is,
like Homer, frequently, by the beauty of an inter-
vening thought, carried so far out of the direct line
of his subject, as to make it impossible for his read-
er to preserve the direct line, but by distinguishing
those thoughts that vary from it by a different pro-
nunciation. Let us adduce a few examples for
tice.

But what if he our conqueror (whom I now
Of force believe almighty, since no less than such
Could have o'er-power'd such force as ours)
Have left us this our spirit and strength entire
Strongly to suffer, and support our pains?

prac

Parad. Lost, b. i. v. 143.

His spéar (to equal which the tallest pine
Hewn on Norwegian hills to be the mast
Of some great admiral were but a wánd)
He walk'd with to support uneasy steps
Over the burning marle.

Know then, that after Lucifer from heav'n
(So call him brighter once amidst the host
Of angels than that star the stárs among)
Fell with his flaming legions through the deep
Into his place, and the great Son return'd
Victorious with his saints, th' omnipotent
Eternal Father from his throne beheld
Their multitude, and to his Son thus spake.

Ibid. v. 292.

Ibid. book vii. v. 131

Round he surveys (and well might where he stood

So high above the circling canopy

Of night's extended sháde) from eastern point
Of Libra, to the fleecy star that bears

Andromeda far off Atlantick seas

Beyond the horizon.

Ibid. book iii. v. 555%

They anon

With hundreds and with thousands trooping came
Attended all access was throng'd; the gates
And porches wide, but chief the spacious háll
(Though like a cover'd field, where champions bold
Wont ride in arm'd, and at the soldan's chair
Defy'd the best of Panim chivalry

To mortal combat, or career with lánce)

Thick swarm'd both on the ground, and in the air
Brush'd with the hiss of rustling wings.

Ibid. book i. v. 752.

Under this article, perhaps, may be arranged aside speeches in dramatick works, and all the intervening explanatory members in narrative writing for both these species of members, like the parenthesis, require both a lower tone of voice, and a more rapid pronunciation, than the rest of the composition.

It may not, perhaps, be improper to observe, that the small intervening members, says I, says he, continued they, &c. not only follow the inflection, but the tone of the member which precedes them: that is, if the preceding member breaks off with the rising inflection, these intervening members are not pronounced in a lower tone, like other parentheses, but in a higher and feebler tone of voice than the

rest.

EXAMPLES.

Thus then, said he, since you are so urgent, it is thus that I conceive it. The sovereign good is that, the possession of which renders us happy. And how, said I, do we possess it? Is it sensual or intellectual? There you are entering, said he upon the detail. Harris.

The first intervening member, said he, is pronounced with the falling inflection somewhat feebler than the words thus then, which have the same inflection: the next intervening member, said I, has the falling inflection, in a feebler tone than the word how, which

has the falling inflection likewise; but said he, in the next sentence, has the rising inflection like the preceding word entering, though in a feebler tone of voice. The same may be observed of the intervening member, says one of the frogs, in the following example :

A company of waggish boys were watching of frogs at the side of a pond, and still as any of them put up their heads, they would be pelting them down again with stones : "Children," (says one of the frogs,)" you never consider, that though this may be play to you, it is death to us."

L'Estrange in Spect. No. 23.

But when the intervening member goes farther than these simple phrases, they must always be pronounced in a lower tone of voice, and terminate with the rising inflection.

EXAMPLES.

I had létters from him (here I felt in my pockets) that exactly spoke the Czar's character, which I knew perfectly well. Spectator, No. 136.

Young master was alive last Whitsuntide, said the coachman-Whitsuntide! alàs! cried Trìm, (extending his right arm, and falling instantly into the same attitude in which he read the sèrmon)-What is Whitsuntide, Jónathan, (for that was the coachman's náme,) or Shrovetide, or any tide or time past to this? Are we not here nów, continued the corporal, (striking the end of his stick perpendicularly upon the floor, so as to give an idea of health and stability,) and are we nót (drop. ping his hat upon the ground) gone in a móment ? Sterne.

In these examples we perceive the parenthesis has a pronunciation much more different from the text than the small explanatory members, cried Trim, and continued the Corporal, which, though pronounced in a different manner from the body of the sentence, have not so marked a difference as the parenthesis.