To exhibit the engrafting of the tremor on a syllable, let the reader pronounce the word name, in a tremulous movement through the simple rise, or fall, or wave of the semitone. He will perceive that the tremor is made equally on the tonic, and on each of the two subtonic elements, which constitute the syllable.

The tremor on the semitone may be applied to mark emphatically, the plaintive sentiment of a single word: or it may be used in continuation upon occasional, yet limited portions of discourse. If the tremor, with this restricted application, deserves a name, it may be called the Tremulous chromatic melody. The following stanza, in which the tremor of age is supposed to be joined with that of supplicating distress, may, when read with the coloring of dramatic action, afford a proper example of this melody.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
O give relief and heaven will bless your store.

Here the tremor of the semitone may be applied to every syllable capable of prolongation, which is the case with all except those of pity and shortest: but even these may with pardonable extension, receive it. For it must be understood, that some particular purposes of expression allow an extension of quantity on those immutable syllables, and unemphatic and unaccented words, which in dispassionate utterance would bear but the shortest time.

The occasional use of the tremor of the semitone upon individual words, will be noticed in the future section on Emphasis.

When the tremulous function is made through the second, third, fifth, or octave, or through the wave of these intervals, it joins the sentiment of derision, mirth, joy, or exultation to that of interrogation, surprise, command, or scorn, conveyed by the smooth concrete of those intervals. In short, it is applying to speech what is transferable in the function of

laughter; and it adds thereto all the meaning and force of its satisfaction.

The tremor on these wider intervals is used principally for emphasis, as will be illustrated hereafter: though in playful discourse, it is sometimes heard in continuation on more than one syllable, and occasionally even on short sentences.

There is a use of this laughing tremor, as we may call its inarticulate execution on the second, third, fifth, and octave, which deserves notice. I mean its employment in that hysterical exclamation which is heard in the exaggerated scenes of the drama. In this case, the laughing tremor seems to be strangely subservient to all species of expression: for there is scarcely an excessive degree of passion, whether of joy or suffering, in which it may not be effectively used. One can understand readily why this vehement expression should denote the excess of those feelings which are naturally connected with laughter; but it is not at once manifest why nature should so reverse the ordination of her signs, as to give the concrete tremor of the second or of wider intervals, to those sentiments which in cases of less excitement instinctively receive that of the semitone or of the minor third. Let us try to explain this matter.

The occasions on which this hysteric laugh is employed, are those of the highest possible intensity of distress. Now by the natural rule of moderate expression, the tremulous semitone should be used: and with this indeed the expression does generally begin. But as the feeling increases in vehemence, the mind becomes so far overruled by its excess as to dissever the natural association: and the voice, giving way to the mere habit of employing the wider intervals for keen expression, leaves the concrete tremor of the semitone or minor third, for the more free expansion and piercing energy of the third or fifth or octave. This is the reason why in hysteria, which is usually brought on by distress, or other strong emotions, the ordinary course of plaintive expression is averted; and whilst the more moderate forms of this nervous excitement are signified by the semitonic intonation, its

higher gusts are characterized by an idiotic laugh. Now, although this hysteric expression may, when judiciously applied, be both proper and effective, in an extraordinary scene of the drama; yet as it is generally accompanied with considerable grimace, is a positive thing, and can be well heard in the remote corners of the gallery, it is apt to be employed as a vocal trick, by the Actor, and especially the Actress, who without feeling its appropriate occasion, have yet, by study or nervous habit, a skilful command over its mechanical execution.

It requires more than common facility of voice to perform the tremor with precision and elegance. Its full efficacy and most graceful finish is accomplished, by giving it the greatest number of breaks or iterations of which the assumed interval is susceptible; by making the constituent tittles in fluent succession, with a distinct accent, with equal time and force, and with a ready power of ascent and descent through the scale.

As the tremor may be applied to all the intervals both ascending and descending, and to their combination in the wave; and as these intervals bear different kinds or various degrees of expression, it follows, that the character of the tremor may appear under other modifications than those of joy and sorrow. For if it be set upon a downward interval, say of the fifth, the expression will be of a graver cast than when heard on a rise of the same extent: and on the rising second it will have less gaiety than on the rising fifth or

octave.

After the preceding view of the simple intervals, and of the tremor, the reader must be able to foresee and to recognize the effect of any other detailed combinations. If with all I have said, he will not do this for himself, it would be to no purpose to do it for him. It is an agreeable office to stand prompter to a pausing, yet a ready comprehension: but it is an irksome duty, to be obliged to push an unwilling intellect on to the last syllable of its part.

SECTION XXXIII.

Of Force of Voice.

THE words loud and soft, strong and weak, are used in common language, to signify the variations of sound comprehended under the generic term at the head of this section.

This subject may be set in two aspects. Force of voice may be applied to phrases, or to one or more sentences, in order to distinguish them from adjacent phrases or sentences in discourse. It may likewise be limited to single words, to syllables, and to certain parts of the concrete movement, to distinguish them from other words and syllables, and from other parts of the concrete. The detailed history of this limited application of force, will be given in the six following sections. Under the present head I speak transiently of its use on phrases and sentences.

Writers on elocution, and school books on the art of reading, give general rules for enforcing and reducing the voice, on continued passages. It is not necessary to swell the bulk of this volume, by transcribing them. It may not however be useless to run over the process, by which a philosophical inquiry might be conducted, for reaching the principles that direct the association of various degrees of force, with the circumstances of the speaker, or with affections of the mind.

From the wide reach of an intense exertion of the voice, there is an obvious propriety in its employment, when distance is pictured in discourse. The indication of nearness, on the contrary, is well expressed by an abatement of that force.

Secrecy muffles the voice against discovery: and doubt, whilst it leans towards a positive declaration, cunningly pre

pares the subterfuge of an undertone, that the impression of its possible error may be least exciting and durable.

Certainty, on the other hand, in the full desire to be heard, distinctly assumes all the impressiveness of strength.

Anger in like manner uses force of voice, because its charges and denials are made with a wide appeal, and in the sincerity of passion: and if I may make distinctions on this point, the same mode is employed in uttering those feelings which are blended with anger, such as hate, ferocity and revenge.

All those sentiments which are unbecoming or disgraceful, smother the voice to its softer degrees, in the desire to conceal even the voluntary utterance of them.

Joy is loud in calling for companionship, through the overflowing charity of its satisfaction.

Bodily pain, fear and terror, are also strong in their expression with the double intention, of summoning relief, and repelling the offending cause when it is a sentient being. For the sharpness and vehemence of the full strained cry are universally painful or appalling to the animal ear.

In thus amusing the reader with fancies, for so they should be called, I have perhaps ventured too far into the vain and presumptuous doctrine of Final Causes. But though we have therein temporarily strayed, let us not forget the duties of philosophy: It is her office to inquire how things exist; the knowledge of why they so exist, must be the last act of favor which time and toil will bestow. Our steps over the works of man may go hand in hand with the comprehension of their final causes: for the author can tell us the narrow purposes of their parts. But the final causes of nature will be unfolded, only in the last recapitulating chapter of her infinite revelation.

From this cursory view of force, when employed on aggregates of words, I pass to consider in the following sections, the circumstances under which force or stress may be laid on single words or syllables, and on different parts of the radical and vanishing concrete. It will be shown, that an