With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.1

peace

The following sentences contain phrases which may be treated as complete in themselves :

There is the constitution, there are the laws, there is the gov

ernment.

We would speak first of the Puritans, the most remarkable body of men perhaps which the world has ever produced.

2. Incompleteness of thought. When the thought is but partially stated in any phrase, and, in consequence, depends for its completion on others to follow, this dependence is shown by the rising inflection and the general upward trend of the voice. Attention is thus directed to .what follows.

I find where I thought myself poor there I was most rich.

The plateau being somewhat tilted toward the west, this spot on which we had paused commanded a wide prospect on either hand.

a. In expressions of doubt, entreaty, contradiction or opposition, the trend of the voice is often upward, for the reason that in such states of mind the thought is virtually

1 The inflections indicated in this sentence are not to be understood as representing the only ones that may be used in reading the lines. They are intended merely to illustrate one way of expressing the thought. The first portion of the quotation has not been marked. There is good ground for the use of either rising or falling inflection in rendering the opening phrases.

incomplete. Further information is desired or expected.

I thought I left my hat here. (Possibly I did n't. But where

I do not understand this.

Don't leave me here alone.

I did not say that.

is it?)
(Will you explain?)

(Will you?)

(Explain or retract.)

b. Direct questions frequently take the rising inflection of incomplete thought. Attention is directed to the answer.1

Is this your book?

Are you going to-morrow?

13. Subordination.

Change of pitch is an important factor in showing the relation of phrases to each other. In complex sentences in which central ideas are limited, qualified, or explained by subordinate phrases or clauses, these modifying word-groups are often spoken on a lower key and are passed over more quickly than are the clauses they support, but whether their pitch is lower or higher, their time of utterance faster or slower, depend on their importance and the judgment and purpose of the speaker. Sometimes a qualifying phrase may be given more prominence than any other in the sen

1 Students are often led into error by assuming that an interrogation point always demands the rising inflection. In many instances it does not. For example, when the question is uttered as a command, as an exclamation, or as an assertion of an assumed fact, the falling inflection is natural.

tence, as, for example, in the last of the following quota

tions:

"Shakespeare, V ought not to have made Othello black."

says Rhymer,

"It was V legitimate political warfare."

as the world goes

however strong they may be

"Monopolies and corporations cannot enslave such a people." It often happens that the principal idea or clause is interrupted by a modifying subordinate phrase. In such cases the relation of the parts of the broken phrase may be made clear by speaking them with the same inflections and changes of pitch as would obtain were there no interruption of the thought. To illustrate: Read the following sentence, omitting the phrase "in his saint-like beauty," and note the inflections used in speaking "fell" and "asleep." Then read the line entire, preserving the same inflections as in the former reading. Observe that "He" did not ‘fall,' but that "He fell asleep."

He fell, in his saint-like beauty,

Asleep by the gates of light.

Alice Cary: Pictures of Memory.

Here are some other illustrations:

Well, we, in our poetical application of this, say, that money does n't mean money.

Ruskin: Use and Abuse of Wealth.

Most noble lord, Sir Lancelot of the Lake,
Í, sometimes call'd the Maid of Astolat,

Come, for you left me taking no farewell,
Híther, to take my last farewell of you.

Tennyson: Lancelot and Elaine.

Cromwell was evidently laying, though in an irregular manner, the foundation of an admirable system.

That art itself is nature, Shakespeare, who

Macaulay.

Derived his sovereign art from nature, knew.

14. Contrast and Comparison

When two or more ideas are compared or contrasted, the inflections and changes of pitch are determined by the principle governing completeness or incompleteness of thought. (See section 12, pages 55-56.) Antithetic phrases may be roughly divided into two classes, namely:

1. Those in which any member of the antithesis is conditional and dependent upon another for completeness and clearness of meaning. In these the trend of the voice is naturally upward.

"What he hath lost noble Macbeth hath won."

“Look here, upon this picture, and on this.”

2. Those in which any member of the antithesis is complete in itself, or is of sufficient importance to justify the falling inflection.

It is a matter of measures, not men.

The prodigal robs his heir; the miser robs himself.

Antithetic ideas are often centered in one word. In| such instances a little scrutiny will show that the word implies two ideas which may be expanded into antithetic

phrases. For example, the statement "He did it somehow," may be stated in full thus: "He did the thing; but does he know how he did it?" If the latter sentence is read with due emphasis on the thought of both its parts, it will be ob* served that the voice has a tendency downward on the first phrase and upward on the last. So, also, the complex thought carried in "somehow" is expressed vocally by the falling and rising inflection in speaking the word, thus:—

The turn of the voice, or circumflex inflection, by which antithetic ideas are expressed, indicates a turn in the thought. It is especially marked in equivocal speech, or when the mind wavers between two opinions.1

Rules have been given for the management of the voice in rendering antitheses, but, here again, the secret of natural speech is found, not in rules, but in thinking. When the mind is uncertain, the voice will make it evident; when thought is definite and certain, speech will also be certain. "I know" implies no doubt.

1 Circumflexes are common in everyday life, but usually indicate abnormal mental attitudes, lack of dignity in character, or are merely colloquial without earnestness. Inflection should be as straight and direct as possible. Crooked inflections imply undignified conditions, lack of sincerity, playful, sarcastic, or negative attitudes of mind towards truth or towards persons. They are sometimes necessary, but should be rare in dignified discourse. (S. S. Curry: Foundations of Expression, p. 56.)