known well how to manage his intonation; but in his attempt. to delineate its degrees, he is even less definite than Mr. Steele. His insinuation that music and speech, each being but varying affections of sound, should not be illustrated by some analogous notation, and his erroneous diagrams of the progress of pitch, are instances of a want of reflection and of obtuseness of ear, which would be quite reprehensible in any one, who, without compulsion, should undertake to investigate the relationships of sound.

I have thus summed up the sources, and noted the degree of our knowledge of the vocal functions. There exists a copious detail in the branches of articulation, emphasis, accent, (in its signification of stress) and pause. On the other hand, the analysis of intonation has not been carried much beyond the recorded knowledge of the ancients. Greek and Roman writers tell us, of the acute, grave, and circumflex movements; and these, with the newly described inverted-circumflex, have, at a recent date, first been formally regarded, in the art of speaking the English language.

These four general heads of intonation are truly drawn from nature: yet, with their present indefinite meaning, they are useless for practical instruction, and are no less imperfectly expressive of the measurable modifications of speech, than the four cardinal terms of the compass are descriptive of all the points, distances, and contents of space.

The discovery of the above mentioned distinctions in intonation, which must indeed form the outline of all nicer discriminations, was the result of philosophical inquiry. A much more abundant, but not more precise nomenclature has been derived from criticism. The following phrases are extracted from a description of Mr. Garrick's manner of reading the church service, and have an especial reference to the intonation of his voice. Even tenor of smooth regular delivery'— "Fervent tone'-'Sincerity of devotional expression'—' Repentant tone'-Reverential tone'- Evenness of voice''Tone of solemn dignity'-' Of supplication'—' Of sorrow and contrition.'

Those who know what constitutes the accuracy of terms, must confess that these, and similar attempts to name the signs of expression, have no more claims to the title of clear elemen

tal description, than belongs to the rambling signification of vulgar nomenclature. We are not aware that no describable perceptions are associated with these phrases, until required to illustrate them by some definite discrimination of vocal sounds. Grandeur of feeling,' says a writer, 'should be expressed with pomp and magnificence of tone;' and we may presume, that if he had been asked how pomp and magnificence of feeling should be expressed, he would have said, by grandeur of tone. These are words, not explanations. Nor can any weight of authority give them the power of description: since the terms sorrowful expression,' and 'tone of solemn dignity' in the precepts of an accomplished Elocutionist, have no more precision of meaning, as to pitch, time, and force of sound, than those of fine turned cadence,' and ' chaste modulation,' in the idle criticism of a daily gazette.

All arts and sciences appear under two different conditions. They may be seen through the medium of terms of vague signification, adapted to the limited knowledge and feeble senses of the ignorant, in every caste of society. Those who view them under this condition, in vainly pretending to discriminate, express nothing but their approbation. In the other light, they are shown in definite delineation, by a language of unchangeable meaning; and independently of the perversions, which slender ability, natural temper, or momentary humour may create. He who thus views an art, in expressing his approbation, always discriminates.

Some branches of the art of speaking, are, even at this late period, scarcely removed from the first of these conditions. We might say, this is strange, if the causes were not so manifest. The specific constituents of intonation and force and time, have never been described: and the mind has consequently wanted that fine stimulus to attention, which abundant and definite terms always afford. The fulness of the nomenclature of an art is always directly proportional to the degree of its improvement; and the precision of its terms is generally the index of its perfection. The few and indeterminate designations of the modes of sound in Reading, compared with their number and accuracy in Music, imply the different degree of success with which each has been cultivated. The inquirers into the nature of speech, have given up their judgments to

authority, and their pens to quotation. The musician has devoted his ear to observation, and his labour to the trial of its truth. The words, quick, slow, long, short, loud, soft, rise, fall and turn, include nearly all the analytic terms of the art. How far they fall short of an enumeration of all the functions of the voice, and how fairly I have represented the present condition of our knowledge, shall be determined by an age to come, when the ear will have made deliberate examination.

A conviction of the imperfect state of our knowledge in some of the branches of the art of speaking, first suggested the design of the ensuing investigation of them: whilst a hope to influence others to assist in the completion of a desirable measurement and method of the voice, produces the present publication. If I have failed to furnish a plan for the future establishment of the principles of intonation and time and force, I must still desire to believe, without controversy, in the attainable nature, and practical benefits of such a work.

I can not withhold from this place, a few very general remarks on the importance of fixed principles in the arts; not only because these principles are the true sources of the intellectual enjoyment which the arts afford, but because they are the most effective means for their improvement. And although the entire want of such principles, for the government of intonation, has unnecessarily led to the belief that they can not be instituted, still I hope to show, in the following essay, that they are not only as essential, but likewise as attainable in Elocution, as in any other art which employs the judgment, and interests the imagination.

Those persons who receive the highest enjoyment from the works of art, know well, that its fulness and durability are derived from the wide and vivid discernment, which is acquired by a disciplined reflection on those principles of taste that directed their production. The knowledge of these principles gives power to the artist, and delight to him who contemplates the work. It is not the form, or color, or sound, which merely passes into the eye or ear, that constitutes an enlightened perception of the objects of the fine arts. Delicate organization is, indeed, essential to this perception: but it is the activity of the senses or the mind in the work of comparison, together with the application of pre-established rules, which forms the

liberal pleasure of taste. And if there is yet to be discovered some surpassing efficacy of art, it can never be attained, except through the influence of sure and multiplied principles.

Besides the means of advancement, which systematic principles afford an art, their powers are operative after a temporary decline, or total loss of its practice. They work a speedy restoration when the influence of evil example has passed away, or a tradition of former excellence has produced a desire for its revival. The definite description of elementary constituents and the statement of the rule of their use, are particularly necessary in the art of speaking well; since its exercise leaves no durable effect. The works of art, unaccompanied by the history of their production and uses, are often as deep an enigma, as the works of nature: and a long course of observation is in each case equally required, to note and class their phenomena, and to discover their efficient and final causes.

Although the ancients have left us abundant eulogistic anecdotes of the art of Painting, they have been almost silent in relation to its higher principles: and the want of these, even with the benefits of patronage, was one cause of the delay of at least two centuries, in the gradual progress to its complete restoration, in modern Europe. Stories of the graces and possible powers of ancient art were revolved in the minds of the image-makers of Italy, and of the decorators of cloisters, like the problems of the mechanical wonders of Archimedes, which were not to be solved by record or tradition.

Ancient architecture has, by the fragments of its ruins, been revived in modern days, to that degree which belongs to the dull precision of measurement: and in this view, may have all the accuracy of a copy. Delicate observation, aided by a refined taste in other arts is yet to be employed, in order to retrieve the knowledge of those principles which must have directed the varied excellence of the Greeks: but which Vitruvius perhaps designedly omitted, whilst compiling a popular book for builders; and which Pausanias, in his hurried tour, forgot to set down, as the proper preface to his inventory of temples.

If the old writers on music had not transmitted some account of the ancient scales, and their practical applications, the records of Choragic monuments, and the accounts of the

Odeum would have created in us, only a stupid wonder at all the works of sound. The inventive mind of Guido, instead of completing the modern scale, might have only laid its foundation, by fixing a single chord across a shell, and the finished system of modern harmony might now have been but just begun.

The following essay exhibits an attempt to delineate the varying modes of speech, with that precise analysis which may render criticism instructive, and afford to future times, the means of comprehending its discriminations.

The discussion of the subject of standard principles, in some of the arts, has always involved the question of their origin: and nature has generally been assumed as the source.

There are two modes through which nature affords her governing rules in the arts. In one she sets as a prototype for exact imitation, in those branches of art which profess to copy her actual details. In the other, which consists in adorning some one creation of art, by a selection from her scattered integrals of beauty, the standard grows out of that congenial judgment and feeling, exhibited in strong similarity among persons of equal cultivation, which, if it does not declare conformity in taste to be the development of irreversible nature, at least affords education effectual means to personate her.

The uses of the voice have not yet been brought to the rule of either of these conditions. Nature, or what we call nature in this case-unenlightened humanity, cannot be imitated entirely in her own aggregates; since she never furnishes a single instance worthy to be copied: and from the want of a full knowledge and definite nomenclature of the elements of speech, there has never been that clear perception of the causes of beauty and deformity, which would warrant the construction of a system upon the more artificial mode of selection. The highest achievements in statuary, painting, and the landscape, consist of those ideal forms and compositions, which are perhaps never found purely associated in nature, but which, in the estimation of taste, far surpass her individual productions.

In the following essay, the reader will find an analysis of the human voice, which will enable an Elocutionist of any nation, to reduce to established form, the best modes of speech in his language. He will also find the outline of a system of