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LECTURE XIII

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES,
HARMONY.

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ITHERTO we have confidered fentences, with respect to their meaning, under the heads of perfpicuity, unity, and ftrength. We are now to confider them, with refpect to their found, their harmony, or agreeableness to the ear; which was the last quality belonging to them that I proposed to treat of.

Sound is a quality much inferior to sense; yet fuch as must not be difregarded. For, as long as founds are the vehicle of conveyance for our ideas, there will be always a very confiderable connexion between the idea which is conveyed, and the nature of the found which conveys it. Pleafing ideas can hardly be tranfmitted to the mind, by means of harsh and difagreeable founds. The imagination revolts as foon as it hears them uttered. "Ni"hil," fays Quintilian, "poteft intrare in affec"tum, quod in aure, velut quodam veftibulo, sta"tim offendit*." Mufic has naturally a great

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Nothing can enter into the affections, which stumbles at the threshold, by offending the ear."

power over all men, to prompt and facilitate cera tain emotions: infomuch, that there are hardly any difpofitions which we wish to raife in others, but certain founds may be found concordant to thofe difpofitions, and tending to promote them: Now, language may, in fome degree, be render ed capable of this power of mufic; a circumstance which muft needs heighten our idea of language, as a wonderful invention. Not content with fim ply interpreting our ideas to others, it can givẽ them thole ideas enforced by correfponding founds; and to the pleafnre of communicated thought, can add the new and feparate pleafure of melody,

In the harmony of periods, two things may bé confidered. First, agreeable found, or modulation in general, without any particular expreffion: next, the found fo ordered, as to become expreffive of the fenfe. The firft is the more common; the fe cond, the higher beauty.

Firft, let us confider agreeable found, in gen eral, as the property of well-conftructed fentence: and, as it was of profe fentences we have hither to treated, we fhall confine ourfelves to them under this head. This beauty of mufical conftruction in profe, it is plain, will depend upon two things; the choice of words, and the arrange ment of them.

I begin with the choice of words; on which head, there is not much to be faid, unless I were to defcend into a tedious and frivolous detail, concerning the powers of the feveral letters, or fimple founds, of which fpeech is compofed. It is evident, that words are most agreeable to the ear, which are compofed of finooth and liquid founds, where there is a proper intermixture of vowels and confonants; without too many harfh confonants rubbing against each other; or too many open vowels in fucceffion, to cause a hiatus, or difagreeVol. I, 2 G

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able aperture of the mouth. It may always be af
fumed as a principle, that, whatever founds are
di ficult in pronunciation, are, in the fame pro-
portion, harsh and painful to the ear. Vowels give
foftnefs; confonants, ftrength to the found of
words. The mufic of language requires a just
proportion of both; and will be hurt, will be ren-
dered either grating or effeminate, by an excess
of either. Long words are commonly more agree he
able to the ear than monofyllables. They please
it by the compofition, or fucceffion of founds which
they prefent to it; and, accordingly, the most mu-
fical languages abound moft in them. Among
words of any length, thofe are the most mufical,
which do not run wholly either upon long or short
fyllables, but are compofed of an intermixture of
them; fuch as, repent, produce, velocity, celerity,
independent, impetuofity.

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The next head, refpecting the harmony which refults from a proper arrangement of the words and members of a period, is more complex, and of greater nicety. For, let the words themfelves be ever fo well chofen, and well founding, yet, they be ill difpofed, the music of the fentence is utterly lot. In the harmonious ftructure and difpofition of periods, no writer whatever, ancient or modern, equals Cicero. He had ftudied this with care; and was fond, perhaps to excefs, of what he calls, the "Plena ac numerofa oratio." We need only open his writings, to find inftances that will render the effect of mufical language fenfible to every ear. What, for example, can be more full, roud, and fwelling, than the following fentence of the 4th oration against Catiline? "Cogitate, "quantis laboribus fundatum imperium, quanta "virtute ftabilitam libertatem, quanta decorum "benignitate auctas exaggeratafque fortunas, una "nox pene delerit." In English, we may take,

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for an instance of a mufical fentence, the following from Milton, in his treatise on education: "Ve "fhall conduct you to a hill-fide, laborious, in"deed, at the first afcent; but elfe, fo fmooth, fo

green, fo full of goodly profpects, and melodi' ous founds on every fide, that the harp of Or66 pheus was not more charming." Every thing in this fentence confpires to promote the harmony The words are happily chofen; full of liquids and foft founds; laborious, Smooth, green, goodly, melodious, charming: and these words fo artfully arranged, that, were we to alter the collocation of any one of them, we fhould, prefently, be fenfible of the melody fuffering. For, let us obferve, low finely the members of the period fwell one above another. "So fmooth, fo green,-fo full of good"ly profpects,-and melodious founds on every "fide;"-till the ear, prepared by this gradual rife, is conducted to that full clofe on which it refts with pleasure ;-" that the harp of Orpheus was "not more charming.”

The structure of periods, then, being fufceptible of a very fenfible melody, our next enquiry fhould be, how this melodious ftructure is formed, what are the principles of it, and by what lows it is regulated? And, upon this fubject, were I to follow the ancient rhetoricians, it would be easy to give a great variety of rules. For here they have ertered into a very minute and particular detail, moie particular, indeed, than on any other head that regards language. They hold, that to profe, as well as to verse, there belong certain numbers, less strict indeed, yet fuch as can be afcertained by rule. They go fo far as to specify the feet, as they are called, that is, the fucceffion of long and fort fyllables, which fhould enter into the different members of a sentence, and to fhow what the effect of each of these will be. Wherever they treat of the firuc

ture of fentences, it is always the mufic of them that makes the principal object. Cicero and Quintilian are full of this. The other qualities of precifion, unity, and ftrength, which we consider as of chief importance, they handle flightly; but when they come to the "junctura et numerus," the mo dulation and harmony, there they are copious<< Dionyfius of Halicarnaffus, one of the most judicious critics of antiquity, has written a treatise on the compofition of words in a fentence, which is al ar together confined to their myfical effect. He makes the excellency of a fentence to confift in four things: first, in the fweetness of fingle founds ; fecondly, in the compofition of founds, that is, the numbers or fect; thirdly, in change or variety of found; and, fourthly, in found fuited to the fenfe. On all these points he writes with great accuracy and refinement; and is very worthy of being confulted; though, were one now to write a book on the ftructure of fentences, we fhould expect to find the fubject treated of in a treated of in a more extensive

manner.

In modern times, this whole fubject of the mufical structure of difcourfe, it is plain, has been much lefs ftudied; and, indeed, for feveral reafons, can be much lefs fubjected to rule. The rea fons, it will be neceffary to give, both to justify my not following the track of the ancient rhetoricians on this fubject, and to fhow how it has come to pals, that a part of compofition, which once made fo confpicuous a figure, now draws much lefs attention.

In the first place, the ancient languages, I mean the Greek and the Roman, were much more fuf ceptible than ours, of the graces and the powers of melody. The quantities of their fyllables were more fixed and determined; their words were longer, and more fonorous; their method of va

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