under the radical stress; but fulfill all the purposes of quantity: while the atonics, though heard in the emphatic vocule, never, in proper and unaffected speech, receive accentual distinction.

The impressive agency of accent on the ear, is fixed in the pronunciation of the English language, on one or two syllables of all words, with more than one. It is an abundant source of variety in speech; forms the measure of our versification; and when skillfully disposed, by the adjustment of a delicate ear, produces, with the assistance of quantity and pause, the varied rythmic measure of prose.

Some grammarians and rhetoricians, with whom the intelligent Mr. Sheridan is to be ranked, have set forth a rule, that when the accent falls on a consonant, the syllable is short and long when on a vowel. At school, I could not understand this great prosodial principle: now, I perceive it has no foundation. For if accent is variously produced by radical stress, the loud concrete, and by quantity, a distinction of literal place cannot make the supposed difference. The abrupt stress will always be made on a tonic, (or vowel,) notwithstanding the syllable may be opened on a preceding subtonic or abrupt element. The loud concrete must be applied on all the elements without distinction: while an accentual impression by quantity must consist of the united time of tonics and subtonics, when the syllable is constructed with these different elements. But all this is only a denial of the truth of the rule, on the ground of our own history of accent. Let us hear how the rule agrees with the fact of pronunciation. In the word ac-tion, the abrupt stress is on the vowel (tonic) a,—for c, in this case, having no body of sound, is but the occluded termination of a,-yet the syllable is short: and in re-venge, the accent or the greatest impression on the ear, is from the quantity of the subtonics (consonants) n, and zh, and yet the syllable is long. Language is full of like examples; and from the illustration they furnish, we may learn that the time of syllables bears no certain relation to stress, nor to other means of accentual agency. The prevalent error on this subject must be ascribed to the general cause of all errors, a want of observation at first, and the assumption of notions to prevent observation ever after.

Mr. Walker has given a theory of accent; making it dependent on the rising and falling inflection, as indefinitely described by him. If the preceding history of intonation is true, and if it has been clearly comprehended, the reader must at once conclude that accent can have no fixed relationship to a rise of the voice, or to its fall: for it is made with every essential characteristic, under either of these opposite movements; their junction into the wave; and under all the changeable phrases of melody.

Much has been said by authors on the subject of the conventional application of accent. But with the sole means of the Tongue and the Ear, yet with scholastic authority all around me, I began this history of the voice, with a resolution to speak from Nature; and not after men, too blind or too proud to consult, Her ever-open, and Revealing Book of Speech.

EMPHASIS, is defined to be a stress of voice on one or more words of a sentence, distinguishing them by intensity, or peculiarity of meaning. Most writers, without seeming to consider the subject of much importance, indefinitely attribute to emphasis, a characteristic 'tone;' and Mr. Walker imagined he specified this idea, throughout all its conditions, in his general, and vague account of the upward and downward inflection.

But authority aside; let us try to do something to the purpose by observing and recording.

It was stated, that Accent is the fixed but inexpressive distinction of syllables, by quantity and stress: alike both in place and

nature, whether the words are pronounced singly from the columns of a vocabulary, or connectedly in the series of discourse.

Emphasis is the expressive, but occasional distinction of a syllable, and thereby the whole word, or of several successive words, by one or more of the various forms and degrees of Time, Quality, Force, Abruptness, and Pitch.

This notable function belongs essentially to the current of discourse; but it may be employed on solitary interjections, and on single words, when they form elliptical sentences. It will appear hereafter, that emphasis is no more than a generic term, including specifications of the use of every mode of the voice, for the purpose of enforcing sentiment and thought.

The stated means of quantity and stress which constitute accent, being included among the enumerated causes of emphatic distinction, it might be inferred, that in these particulars, accent and emphasis cannot differ from each other. Quantity, radical stress, and the loud concrete, are indeed by their nature, the same in both cases; but their purpose and power in the latter, invest them with the attractive influence of expression.

For a detailed account of the particular occasions for applying emphasis, the reader is referred to libraries. They contain rhetorical works, setting forth this part of the subject, with comprehensiveness, perspicuity and taste. It is our aim, to point out and to measure the vocal material of emphasis.

Emphasis produces its effect upon the ear, by means of the quality, force, time, and abruptness of sounds and the varied intervals of intonation. The particular enumeration of these means will be given under the following heads.

Of the Emphasis of Quality.

THE different forms of the mode of Quality, were enumerated in the ninth section. They are variously expressive, and some of them strongly affect the ear. Besides their use in the general current of speech, they may be occasionally applied as

emphasis on single words. I do not say, we are to include under this head, cases in which sound is said to be an echo to the sense.' The reader may, on this point, consult Mr. Sheridan, and other writers; and judge for himself, how far any individual sound of the alphabetic elements, may be considered as Quality, and applied as emphasis. The following line from Milton's Lycidas, is said to be an example of this kind of expression. Their lean and flashy songs

Grate on their scrannel pipes of wretched straw.

If the r, here repeated, be roughened by vibration of the tongue, it may be thought to represent vocally the harshness of the Shepherd's pipe: but to me the expression, if expression, would be lost in its affectation.

The guttural vibration as a quality, is expressive of scorn and execration. The falsette may be emphatic, in the scream

of terror.

Of the Emphasis of Force.

UNDER the Time-honored, we cannot call it the NaturalSystem of Elocution, Force or Stress seems to have been regarded,—if we except the vague pretensions of ancient accent, and of modern inflection, as the principal, if not only means of emphatic distinction. Our system gives it an influential but not an overbearing agency among the Modes of the voice; In the first section I classed Abruptness, as a peculiar function, and although apparently a form of Force, gave it a place as a separate Mode. The scope however, of its character and occasion is limited; for it has no varied forms, and but slight difference in degree. It might indeed be arranged under the term Abrupt-radical stress; since it is at the opening alone of the concrete, that its effect as a peculiar function, and an independent Mode of speech is recognized. But as the Radical stress has a congenial relationship to the

use of force

on other parts of the concrete, I have thought, with this pre

fatory remark, the term abrupt stress, even with its claims to separate arrangement, might here be merged in the subject of Radical Emphasis, and thus included under its name.

Of the Radical Emphasis.

WHEN an immutable syllable bears the accent of a word, remarkable by sense, sentiment, or antithesis, the audible distinction can be made only in three ways: by quality of voice; a wide radical change in the phrase of melody: and an abrupt enforcement of the radical stress. The two former will be noticed in their proper places. The last is here illustrated.

And with perpetual inroads to alarm,
Though inacessible, his fatal throne;
Which, if not victory, is yet revenge.

If the strongly contrasted meaning of the word victory, is not represented by guttural vibration; by aspiration, or some other available quality; or by a change of radical pitch upward or downward through the skip of a third, fifth or octave, the syllable vic must be raised into importance by means of the abrupt radical stress: at least no other form can be effective while the syllable is limited to its natural quantity.

It is true, even an immutable syllable, may be carried rapidly through any interval of the scale; still this rapid movement when not joined with the radical change, is of no emphatic importance.

Although the radical distinction is here applied to immutable syllables, it is plain from its nature, that it may be also laid on those of indefinite time. But since these admit of more agreeable forms, derived from quantity and intonation, they less frequently require the strong explosion of the radical.

This emphasis is the sign of anger, positive affirmation, command, and of energetic sentiments of all kinds. It is also the common means of enforcement, whatever is the time of the syllable, when the spirit of discourse directs a rapid utterance.