But of this there is no doubt, that the Kettle and the Cricket, at one and the same moment, and by some power of amalgamation best known to themselves, sent each his fireside song of comfort streaming into a ray of the candle that shone out through the window, and a long way down the lane. And this light, bursting on a certain person who, on the instant, approached towards it through the gloom, expressed the whole thing to him, literally in a twinkling, and cried, "Welcome home, old fellow! Welcome home, my boy!" Dickens.

XXX. SUBORDINATION.

ANOTHER most important element of naturalness, which is

a combination of both inflection and change of pitch, is subordination. Neither good inflections alone, nor changes of pitch apart from inflection, can produce natural subordination. This must result from a certain relationship of both to each other. In fact, the form of the voice and the emphasis will be imperfect without the co-operation of both.

As has been shown, in speaking a simple sentence such as “I saw your father this morning," the voice progresses toward the emphatic word 'father' by means of rising inflections and intervals; the emphatic word has a falling inflection from a higher pitch, and the unemphatic words following this have also falling inflections, with intervals causing each to be successively lower in pitch. (See diagram on page 119.) If, on the contrary, the emphatic word has a rising inflection, the following words are also rising, and successively higher in pitch.

Subordination gives the greatest beauty to speech. It is also one of the chief elements in the expression of thought, and the most important means of securing a greater degree of emphasis and dignity.

Subordination gives the effect of a background. It shows discrimination and clear thinking. If the central idea is brought out, and others subordinated to it, the mind is led to conceive clearly and definitely the central idea with its proper relations.

Subordination is the natural and effective expression of a mental painting of a scene. It gives the background or the perspective by which the mind is enabled to bring a scene into unity. The listening mind is by it given the right centre or point of view, and thus is awakened to respond creatively to the successive scenes and situations.

It is the lack of power to give subordination which often leads to vulgar and declamatory methods of emphasis. In trying to make a word salient, and failing to get that beautiful perspective or modulation of the form or melody by subordination, there is necessarily an increase of force or push upon the emphatic word, and emphasis by form is destroyed. Unless the change of pitch is salient, unless it is varied, unless the unemphatic words are put into the background, it is impossible for us to realize the real centre of the mind's attention without the use of unnecessary force, and a sacrifice of dignity. Ability to subordinate is also essential to the acquisition of range. To try to secure range by very long inflections or by sudden changes of pitch makes all results labored, constrained, and unnatural.

A lack of subordination is the chief cause of monotony. The voice gets upon one pitch and stays there; even inflection alone cannot prevent monotony. We change from the fixed pitch not merely by the saliency of the emphatic word, but by subordinating the words which are not emphatic.

The development of subordination is dependent upon securing definite thinking, upon the power to sustain attention upon one conception while relating others to this central idea; upon the flexibility of voice, and an ear trained to recognize this element of naturalness.

Most of the problems which have been already stated for the development of range and inflection may be used as a means of developing subordination. To make salient certain words, and to put others in the most extreme subordination, must be the purpose of practice.

Subordination cannot be too greatly insisted upon, or too much exaggerated. We may speak too loud or with too much force, but the greater the subordination, the greater the emphasis of the central idea, and the greater the dignity, clearness, and beauty of speech.

Problem LVIII. Make the emphatic word of a clause salient by a falling inflection, and subordinate the unemphatic words by giving them the same inflection, but shorter and upon a much lower pitch. Reverse the form, and give rising inflections.

246 MAN can have the gift of life but once, for he waited a whole eternity to be born, and now has a whole eternity waiting to see what he will do when born.

Carlyle.

Problem LIX. Make one word very salient by inflection, then, after a pause, give many words upon a lower pitch and with shorter inflections, for the purpose of training the ear and securing the power to subordinate the voice.

247 THOU art like the bird that alights and sings,

Though the frail spray bends-for he knows he has wings.

Victor Hugo.

248 WE should conceive of poetry worthily, and more highly than it has been the custom to conceive of it. We should conceive of it as capable of higher uses, and called to higher destinies, than those which, in general, men have assigned to it hitherto. More and more mankind will discover that we have to turn to poetry to interpret life for us, to console us, to sustain us. Without poetry, our science will appear incomplete; and most of what now passes with us for religion and philosophy will be replaced by poetry.

249. ABOU BEN ADHEM.

ABOU BEN ADHEM- may his tribe increase ·
Awoke one night from a sweet dream of peace,
And saw, within the moonlight in his room,
Making it rich, and like a lily in bloom,
An angel writing in a book of gold.

Exceeding peace had made Ben Adhem bold,
And to the presence in the room he said,

Matthew Arnold.

"What writest thou?" The vision raised its head,

And, with a look made all of sweet accord,

Answered, "The names of those who love the Lord."
"And is mine one?" said Abou. "Nay, not so,"
Replied the angel. Abou spoke more low,

But cheerily still; and said, “I pray thee, then,
Write me as one that loves his fellow-men."
The angel wrote and vanished. The next night
It came again, with a great wakening light,
And showed the names whom love of God had blest;
And lo! Ben Adhem's name led all the rest.

Leigh Hunt.

XXXI SILENCE AS A MEANS OF EMPHASIS.

ANOTHER mode of emphasis is pause. This, especially when

associated with inflection and change of pitch, is a most powerful means of expression. Just what is meant by the emphatic pause may be difficult to explain. Pauses have been shown to be universal characteristics of all natural speech; but the accentuation of a pause, the prolongation of silence, or especially the introduction of a pause in the midst of a phrase after an emphatic word or inflection, and associated with a corresponding change in pitch, becomes a means of emphasis. Thus pauses are not only an important sign of natural or conversational speech, but are often the most effective means of manifesting the importance of a thought.

The special province of the pause in emphasis is to manifest the weight of an idea. It shows that the mind not only centers its attention upon an idea, but that it lingers over it meditatively and with intense interest. Pause is an essential element whenever there is breadth of vision, whenever a mind sincerely tries to manifest a higher feeling. It is the most spiritual mode of emphasis. "Speech is silvern, silence is golden." A pause is man's only means of suggesting the infinite and the eternal.

Like change of pitch, pause is a noble and dignified form of emphasis, but its dignity is of another kind. It is imaginative dignity, dignity of character, dignity of emotion, dignity and

weight of thought. It is the strongest and most reposeful appeal to the deepest faculties and feelings of man.

Pause and change of pitch are always found together; whenever there is a pause without change of pitch, it means hesitation and weakness. It is change of pitch united to the pause that furnishes the greatest power and significance; in fact, the noblest form of emphasis. There is thus an intimate connection between change of pitch and pause; still their significance can be more or less distinguished. Change of pitch primarily shows a change in the attention of the mind, a variation in the progress of the thought; but the pause shows the moral intensity or the depth of realization of an idea. The one manifests the variation of thinking; the other the spiritual weight of the idea. One gives clearness, definiteness, and relation; the other gives weight and importance to thought.

Pause is associated with the most dignified forms of reading. It is one of the most important means of expression in reading the Scriptures. The more satisfactory the reading of the Bible, the more frequently will pauses be found present.

Pause has great significance also, because in all emotional passages there is a struggle for breath, a struggle for control; the pause suggests this struggle, and thus gives the mind an appreciation of the cause of the expression. Struggle with the breath is the first effect emotion causes in the man. Without a pause, the struggle is eliminated; the breath cannot be controlled nor can the texture of the voice be modulated by the emotion. It is thus associated with all manifestation of deep feeling.

Problem LX. Make long pauses after the emphatic words in some passage of deep thought, sustaining the weight of the idea in the mind, and then add the unemphatic words with such subordination in pitch as to justify the pause.

250 Two hands upon the breast, and labour's done;
Two pale feet crossed in rest, the race is won.

"Now and Afterwards,"

Dinah Muloch-Craik.