CADENCE. Cadence is the closing tone of a sentence. When three syllables successively descend in their radical pitch, at the close of a sentence, (being a falling tritone,) the phrase may be called the Cadence, or Triad of the Cadence. "The completion of a thought is expressed, not only by the long pause which takes place at the end of a sentence, but usually by a falling of the voice, on the closing words to a lower pitch than that which prevailed in the body of the sentence. This closing descent in the tone is used to prevent the abruptness and irregularity of sound which would be produced by continuing the prevailing pitch to the close of the sentence, which, from exciting expectation of further expression, would be at variance both with harmony and meaning." Partial Cadence takes place when a distinct portion of the sense is completed, although the whole sentence is not finished; thus, after "are," in the sentence, "Clear writers, like clear fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid look the most profound." Distinct Cadence should be given when both the sentence and the sentiment are fully completed; as, after “profound," in the preceding example. "Whoever closely observes the character of speech, in the common dialogue of life, must perceive that the earnest interests which govern it, the sharp replications and interruptions of argument, and the piercing pitch of mirth and anger exclude, in a great measure, the terminating repose of the cadence. This is particularly the case with children and with the ignorant, who rarely employ any other than the wider and more expressive intervals of intonation. When, therefore, attempting to read with the serious purpose of a dignified elocution, the impassioned habit is too inveterate to be at once laid aside; and a disposition to keep up the colloquial characteristic of speech, extending itself to the place of the cadence, defers, for a long time, the ability to give, with propriety and taste, the more composed and the graver intonation of the terminative phrase.”Rush. "The unmeaning and mechanical style of reading, which is too generally exemplified at schools and in professional performances, is chiefly characterized by a continually returning fall of voice at the end of every sentence, so uniform that it might be used as a guide by which to count the exact number of sentences read. A whole paragraph is read as so many detached and independent sentences, forming distinct and unconnected propositions or maxims. Animated, natural, and appropriate reading, on the contrary, avoids this frequent fall, and keeps up that perpetual variety which the change in sense requires; this effect being produced by modifying the close of every sentence according to its meaning in connec tion with the rest; each sentence being read as a dependent part of a connected whole, and unity and harmony thus given to a train of thought. This effect the reader attains by disregarding the arbitrary rule for a fall of the voice at every period, and seeking his guidance from the sense of what he utters, as he does in his habits of common conversation, making no difference in the two cases save that which arises of necessity from the more regular form of written sentences." — Russell. The note to which the cadence falls, and the space through which it descends, are dependent on the emotion with which the sentiment should be uttered, or on the length and complication of the sentence. In strong emotion, the cadence is often both abrupt and low; thus, as "Let us do, or die." "Redeem my pennon - charge again! CryMarmion to the rescue!' — Vain! Scott. In gentle emotion, the cadence is gradual and moderate; "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank." Shakespeare. In short sentences, in which emotion is not so strongly expressed, the fall is slight; as, "Night brings out stars, as sorrow shows us truth." Gerald Massey. In long sentences, the fall is more obvious, and commences farther from the close; as, "Where sorrow 's held intrusive, and turned out, There wisdom will not enter, nor true power, Nor aught that dignifies humanity." - Henry Taylor. The usual errors in cadence are, First: Delaying the fall of the voice till the last words of the sentence, and dropping at once from a preceding uniform tone, fault arising from the habit of reading with mechanical attention to the words, instead of an intelligent observation of the meaning. It is the tone used by children, while the difficulty of reading still remains, or when reading what they do not understand. Second: - Falling very low on the closing phrase, — a fault usually contracted by reading only grave and formal selections, the solemnity of style in which is unnatural to the tones of youth. The usual standard inadvertently adopted is that which too often is heard from the pulpit; the effect of this is to substitute a heavy and hollow-sounding close, bearing for the true and varied tone of meaning, a measured proportion to the preceding parts of a sentence. This cadence, especially inappropriate in young readers, should be avoided by care in the selection of exercises for practice, and after directing atten ion to the nature of the sentiment, adapting the voice to the meaning and not to the daily routine of mechanical utterance. Third:-Falling too near the beginning of the sentence, a fault arising from the babit of attending to the language rather than to the thought, from the wrong impression that there must necessarily be a fall, at the close of every sentence, and, perhaps, too, from a mistake in taste by which the young reader is led to imagine that there is something pleasing to the ear, in a regular and formal descent of the voice. This tone is unavoidably associated with a pedantic manner; it must be avoided by keeping the voice in the same strain of expression which should be observed in conversation. Fourth: -Using a waving tone of voice, which makes a false emphasis near the close, an error often heard at declamatory exhibitions at schools and colleges. This fault would be avoided by observing the true emphasis of meaning instead of an arbitrary emphasis of sound. Fifth-A gradual sliding downward from the beginning of the sentence, and a diminishing of the force of the voice, the speaker commencing every sentence on a comparatively high note, and with a moderate degree of force, but the pitch gradually falling and the loudness gradually diminishing in the progress of the sentence, till the tone has nearly died away at the close. These faults originate in the habits contracted in childhood, from the unnatural attempt to read too loud, or in too large a room, thus making an effort which the powers of the voice were then incapable of sustaining. "This objectionable tone would, like all others, be removed by the habit of attending to the meaning of what is read or spoken, more than to the phraseology. Written sentences differ from those of conversation chiefly in their inversion; the most forcible and expressive phrases being generally last in order. This arrangement favors strength of style in composition; but it needs a sustained and regularly increased force of voice, to give it just utterance. In good reading, accordingly, the tone strengthens progressively in a sentence, especially if long or complex; whilst in feeble and unimpressive reading, the voice is gradually dwindling when the language requires increasing energy. "This sinking cadence arises also from the mechanical habit of attending to sentences as such, and not to their value, or their connection in signification. When two sentences are connected in meaning, the latter, if appropriately read, commences on the low note used at the close of the former. The unity of sound thus produced, gives the sentences a unity to the ear. The rising of the voice to a new pitch, at the opening of a new sentence, indicates by the change of note, a change of meaning, or a transition to a new and different thought. The uniform recurrence of a high pitch at the beginning of every sentence, has thus the effect of destroying the natural connection of thought, and of obscuring or changing the sense. It is a clear conception of the meaning, on which the learner is to depend as the only guide to appropriate cadence." - Russell. The frequent repetition or constant recurrence of any one of the preceding errors produces a disagreeable uniformity, which implies all the disadvantages of each single fault, aggravated by perpetual reiteration. Illustrations of Partial and Distinct Cadence. "The Spirit of God yet causes men to hope that a world will come, the better one they call it, perhaps they might more wisely call it the real one. Also I hear them continually speak of going to it, rather than of its coming to them, which again is strange; for in that prayer which they had strait from the lips of the Life of the world, there is not anything about going to another world, - only something of another world coming into this, or rather not another, but the only government, that government which will constitute a world indeed, new heavens and a new earth. Earth no more without form and void but sown with fruits of righteousness; Firmament no more of passing cloud, but of cloud risen out of the crystal sea; cloud in which, as He was once received up, so He shall again come with power."- Ruskin. "The Ideal is ever near us, underlying the Actual, as the spirit does its body, exhibiting itself step by step, through all the falsehoods and confusions of history and society, giving life to all which is not falsehood and decay. "It was a true vision which John Bunyan saw, and one which as the visions of wise men are wont to do, meant far more than the seer fancied, when he beheld in his dream that there was indeed a Land of Beulah, and Arcadian Shepherd Paradise, on whose mountain-tops the everlasting sunshine lay; but that the way to it went past the mouth of Hell, and through the Valley of the Shadow of Death."- Kingsley. "Show me the man you honor, I know by that symptom, better than by any other, what kind of a man you yourself are. For you show me there what your ideal of manhood is; what kind of man you long inexpressibly to be."— Carlyle "Know Reverence is the bond for man P SEXTON'S DAUGHTER.- Sterling. "From our free heritage of will, The bitter springs of pain and ill "God's justice is a bed where we Our anxious hearts may lay, And weary with ourselves, may sleep For right is right, since God is God; To doubt would be disloyalty, To falter would be sin!"- Faber. "Think not the Faith by which the just shall live A thoughtless gift withdrawn as soon as given; That bids eternal truth be present fact." Hartley Coleridge. "I have seen A curious child, who dwelt upon a tract THE EXCURSION.- Wordsworth. "Let each man think himself an act of God, FESTUS.- Bailey. "My fairest child, I have no song to give you; No lark co ild pipe 'o skies so dull and gray: |