Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war!
Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and Henry of Navarre!
The Battle of Ivry.

MACAULAY.

MIDDLE KEY

1. To live content with small means, to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony. My Symphony.

WILLIAM HENRY CHANNING.

2.

Oh, if I could only make you see
The clear blue eyes, the tender smile,
The sovereign sweetness, the gentle grace,
The woman's soul and the angel's face,
That are beaming on me all the while !
I need not speak these foolish words;
Yet one word tells you all I would say, —
She is

my
mother; you

will agree
That all the rest may be thrown away.

-ALICE CARY.

3. If I were a man, a young man, and knew what I know to

day,
I would look into the eyes of Life undaunted

By any fate that might threaten me.
I would give to the world what the world most wanted

Manhood that knows it can do and be;
Courage that dares and faith that can see
Clear into the depth of the human soul,

And find God there, and the ultimate goal,
If I were

man, a young man, and knew what I know to-day. If I Were a Young Man.

ELLA WHEELER Wilcox.

The little Road, like me,

Would seek and turn and know;
And forth I must, to learn the things

The little Road would show!
The House and The Road.

JOSEPHINE PEABODY. ,

LOW KEY

1.

'Tis midnight's holy hour,-and silence now
Is brooding like a gentle spirit, o'er
The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds
The bell's deep tones are swelling,—'tis the knell

Of the departed year.
T'he Closing Year.

GEORGE D. PRENTICE.

sa

2.

Then,
with
eyes

that not, I kissed her;
And she, kissing back, could not know
That

my kiss was given to her sister,

Folded close under deepening snow.
The First Snow-Fall.

JAMES R. LOWELL.

3.
At last the thread was snapped: her head was bowed;

Life dropped the distaff strough his hands serene;
And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud,

While death and winter closed the autumn scene.
The Closing Scene.

THOMAS BUCHANAN READ.

4. And, anon, there strikes the ebony clock which stands in the hall of the velvet. And then, for a moment, all is still, and all is silent save the voice of the clock. The dreams are stiff-frozen as they stand.

But the echoes of the chime die away—they have endured but an instant—and a light, half-subdued laughter floats from them as they depart. Masque of the Red Death.

EDGAR A. Poe.

5. All is peace; and God has granted you this sight of your country's happiness, ere you slumber in the grave. He has allowed you to behold and to partake of the reward of your patriotic toils; and he has allowed us, your sons and countrymen, to meet you here and in the name of the present generation, in the name of your country, in the name of liberty, to thank you! Bunker Hill Oration,

WEBSTER.

INFLECTION. By inflection, in its broad sense, is meant the various bends or waves of the voice above and below the dominant key. Its uses are to aid in bringing out the thought, to express the relationship between the ideas in a discourse, and, in general, to give the “lights and shades” to expression in reading. While the inflections of a wellmodulated voice are infinite in number-gradual or abrupt, long or short-the principal movements are as follows: The Falling Inflection ('), the Rising Inflection ( - ), the Sustained Inflection ( - ), the Falling Circumflex (^), the Rising Circumflex (v), the Falling Slide (\), and the Rising Slide (1).

Inflections are not conventional devices, but are expressive of the mind and emotion of the reader or speaker. Now, a given passage may be spoken with different inflections, according to the interpretation of the individual reader, but similar shades of meaning will always find expression through similar inflections. One's meaning is often expressed far more clearly by the inflections used, than by the mere words uttered. If, for example, you see a friend evidently making preparations to leave the house, and you ask, “Are you going to town?” for the purpose of receiving information, you would naturally use a rising inflection on “town.” If surprised at your friend's leaving, you would use a still wider rising inflection. If, now, you had asked the question several times and received no answer, and felt impatient thereat and demanded your right to an answer, then, on' repeating the question, you would naturally use a pronounced falling inflection,—as if to say, "I want to know if you are going to town, and that's all there is to it." Hence the General Law of inflection is: When the thought is complete, the voice falls; when the thought is incomplete, the voice rises. That is, the completeness or incompleteness of the thought, not the form of the sentence or the punctuation, determines the inflection. Nothing could be more misleading than to suppose that the voice always falls

at the period, for a sentence may be grammatically complete, but incomplete in thought. However, since the purpose of punctuation is to aid in determining the thought, a period usually denotes that the thought is complete.

Now, there are various applications of the General Law as above stated. Let us notice some of them.

1. The falling inflection denotes affirmation, determination, positiveness, assertion,-completeness. Such completeness may be either final or momentary. If final, the thought is concluded at that point, and this is indicated by the fall of the voice, as in the following examples:

1. I expect to pass through this life but once. If there is any kindness or any good thing I can do to my fellow-beings, let me do it now. I shall pass this way but once.

-WILLIAM PENN. 2. And Morley was dead; to begin with.-DICKENS. 3.

Man's inhumanity to man,

Makes countless thousands mourn.-Burns. 4. If every ducat in six thousand ducats

Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
I would not draw them: I would have my bond!

-SHAKESPEARE. .

II. Momentary completeness arises whenever we wish to give a strong affirmative emphasis to a word, although this word does not really complete a statement.

Examples:
1. The charge is utterly, totally and meanly false.

-GRATTAN. 2. True eloquence does not consist in speech. Words and phrases may be marshalled in every way, but they cannot compass it. It comes, if it comes at all, like the outbreak of a fountain from the earth, or the bursting forth of volcanic fires, with spontaneous, original, native force.-WEBSTER.

8. I am one among the thousands who loved Henry Grady, and I stand among the millions who lament his death. I loved

him in the promise of his glowing youth, when across my boyish vision he walked with winning grace from easy effort to success. I loved him in the flush of his splendid manhood, when a nation hung upon his words,-and now I love him best of all as he lies under the December skies, with face as tranquil and with smile as sweet as patriarch ever wore.

4. I am astonished, shocked, to hear such principles confessed, to hear them avowed in this House, or even in this country! Principles equally unconstitutional, inhuman, and unchristian !-SELECTED.

-GRAVES.

The falling inflection at pauses of momentary completeness, as indicated in the foregoing examples, gives the combined effect of emphasis and positiveness. Used with discretion, it is very effective. Used to excess, the delivery becomes heavy and monotonous, and sacrifices the on-movement of the thought.

III. A series of words or phrases equally emphatic in theory takes the rising inflection, except the last.

Examples: 1. Property, character, reputation, everything was sacrificed.

2. Charity beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

IV. Incompleteness of thought arises in a variety of forms. Generally speaking, conditional, doubtful, obvious, or negative ideas denote incompleteness, and hence should be followed with the rising inflection.

Examples:
1. If we fail, it can be no worse for us.

2. I will wait for you in the corridor, if you do not stay too long

3. It is in studying as in eating—he that does it gets benefit, not he that sees it done. 4. He may be an honest man'; he

says. I cannot promise definitely, but I think you may rely upon getting it.

6. It is not necessary to be rich in order to be happy. We are

he is.