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3. Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience.
4. If men were wise, they would avoid intemperance.
5. If all men were strictly honest, lawyers would starve.
6. If you would gain knowledge, study with attention.

2. Successive Conditions.

1. If the season of youth is misspent, if wholesome instructions are disregarded, and good advice rejected, there can be little hope of respectable manhood.

2. If I have walked with vanity, or if my foot hath hasted to deceit; if my step hath turned out of the way, and mine heart walked after mine eyes; and if ány blot hath cleaved to mine hands, then let me sow, and let another eat.

3. INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES.

An interrogative sentence is one which is employed in asking a question.

NOTE. The interrogatory may be direct or indirect, and the indirect may involve a condition.

1.

1. Are you unwell?

EXAMPLES.

Direct Interrogatives.

Have you been sick?

2. Do you love to gaze on the sun, moon, and stars?

3. Ought any principles to be adopted without examination? 4. Can we intentionally offend one whom we love?

5. Do you wish to become a good reader and speaker?

6. Is there any difference between thoughts and feelings?

7. Do you rejoice in truth and resolve to maintain it?

8. Were we not made right, and have we not unmade our elves?

2. Indirect Interrogatives.

1. What man is free from sin ?

2. How many inhabitants are there on the globe?

QUESTIONS. Give examples of successive conditions. What is an interrogative sentence? What is the note? Give examples of direct interrogatives. Give ex

amples of indirect interrogatives.

3 Who first invented the magnetic telegraph?
4. What grace is more valuable than humility?
5. How came the Indians on this continent?

6. Where can a man go to avoid pain and sickness?
7. Who first taught the art of navigation?

8. When will the next eclipse of the sun occur?

4. EXCLAMATORY SENTENCES.

Exclamatory sentences are such as are employed to express the passions or emotions of the mind.

NOTE. Exclamatory sentences, in grammatical construction, may be affirmative or negative, interrogative, conditional, or imperative. An exclamation may be confined to one word or more, but it commonly extends o a clause, a series, or a sentence.

EXAMPLES.

1. Amazing! Alas! that he dies! O wretched man that

I am!

2. O unexpected stroke! worse than of death!

3. O happiness! our being's end and aim!

4. Alas! I am stripped of all my honor!

5. O, for a single week! I ask not for years!

6. Why should I suffer so much pain! how can I endure it! 7. What could thus have roused his anger!

8. Oh if my soul were formed for woe!

9. Leave me! O leave me to repose! Depart!

10. On! ye brave, who rush to glory or the grave!

11. Avaunt, monster! Leave my sight! Begone!

QUESTIONS. What are exclamatory sentences ? What is said of them in the note? Give examples.

CHAPTER IV.

EMPHASIS.

EMPHASIS is a forcible stress of voice on some word or words in a sentence, to distinguish them from others, on account of their relative importance.

The emphatic words in a sentence hold very much the same relation to the unemphatic ones, as the accented syllables in a word do to the unaccented ones. As the beauty and harmony of pronunciation depend very much upon correct accent, so the meaning of a sentence, and its effective delivery, may be said to depend very much upon the correct application of emphasis.

"Emphasis and emphatic inflection," says a certain author, “are governed mainly by sentiment, and associated more or less with passion or emotion. The language of passion is energetic and bold, and requires the reader or speaker to enter with feeling into the sentiments which he utters." Hence, in the application of the rules for emphasis and inflection, this important idea should constantly be borne in mind.

Emphasis, therefore, is one of the most important principles of elocution; and, consequently, it should be most carefully observed. In many instances, it directs and governs other principles of correct speaking, giving animation, strength, and power to delivery. Like accent, it is expressed in two ways, by stress and quantity; but in utterance, it may have as many varieties as there are pitches, qualities, and modifications of the voice.

The degree of emphasis, however, which the sense requires, is not always best expressed by a forcible utterance, or loudness of voice; but sometimes by pronouncing the emphatic word or clause in a subdued undertone, or even a whisper. There are three degrees which are usually denoted by type; the first by italics, the second by small CAPITALS, and the third by large CAPITALS.

QUESTIONS. What is emphasis? What depend very much on its correct application? What then may be said of its importance? How is it usually expressed? Is it always best expressed by a forcible utterance? In what other way may a word sometimes be rendered most emphatic? How are the three degrees of em phasis usually denoted by type?

NOTE 1.

Emphasis changes the accented syllable, when two words, which are alike in part of their formation, are opposed to each other in

sense.

EXAMPLES.

1. He is the superior, and you, the inferior.

2. We first inhale air, then exhale it.

3. Offensive is not the same as defensive.

4. Obedience is the opposite of disobedience.

5. The king was dethroned, and his son enthroned.

6. Sensibility is opposed to insensibility.

NOTE 2. Emphasis sometimes requires an increasing force of utterance on succeeding syllables in the same word.

EXAMPLES.

1. I am not ashAMED to own my Lord.

2. I will never conDESCEND to such meanness.

3. There is an impossiBILity in doing it.

NOTE 3. Emphasis frequently changes the meaning of a sentence.

EXAMPLES.

1. Do you go to Europe this year?
2. Do you go to Europe this year?
3. Do you go to Europe this year?
4. Do you go to Europe this year?

No, James goes.
No, I send.

No, to Cuba.
No, next year.

It will be observed, that four different answers to the above questions are elicited, corresponding with the emphatic words.

NOTE 4. The particles of a sentence are not usually emphatic, but are made so, when they become peculiarly significant or important in sense; and, when thus emphasized, the meaning of tho sentence is frequently changed.

QUESTIONS. What is the effect of emphasis, when two words, which are alike in part of their formation, are opposed to each other in sense? Give examples. Does the emphasis sometimes increase on succeeding syllables in the same word? Give examples. Does emphasis frequently change the meaning of a sentence? Give an example. Are the particles of a sentence usually emphatic ? When do they become emphatic?

EXAMPLE.

It was La Fayette's* design, in going from Whitehall to Albany, to pass by Stillwater.

If this example be read with slight emphasis on Stillwater, every hearer would get the impression that La Fayette intended to stop there; but when read with strong emphasis on by, the meaning is entirely changed, and implies that he did not intend to stop there, whatever he might do at other places.

NOTE 5. Emphasis may have a diminishing stress on a phrase or sentence; that is, the utterance may become less and less forcible, although the key-note of the voice may be elevated.

EXAMPLES.

1. You my superior? I an itching palm ?

2. IS YOUR opinion to be a guide for me?

NOTE 6. Emphasis may be equable on several successive words in a

sentence.

EXAMPLE.

Swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,

That nightly changes in her circled orb.

The subject of emphasis has been treated by different anthors, under various divisions; but, as an undue multiplication of particulars rather tends to perplex than benefit the learner, we shall omit all, except what may be considered the more essential. These are comprised under the following heads:

1. SUPERIOR AND INFERIOR EMPHASIS.

2. ABSOLUTE EMPHASIS.

3. ANTITHETIC EMPHASIS.

4. EMPHATIC CLAUSE.

Does the em

QUESTIONS. Give an example illustrating emphatic particles. phasis sometimes diminish on a phrase or sentence? Give an example. Is the emphasis sometimes equable on several words in a sentence? Give an example. Under what general heads is emphasis treated in this work?

La Fay-ette', a distinguished French general, of vast fortune, high rank, and powerful connections. He came to this country, raised and equipped a body of men at his own expense, and did important service for the Americans in the war of the Revolution. He died in 1834.

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