32 



Aspiration perhaps finds its counterpart in the US9 of the 

 loud pedal or organ swell. 



But may not our speech also be uttered in the rhythm of 

 music. It is, if, in reading aloud or other speaking, just after 

 we have taken a breath anywhere we let our hand fall at the first 

 accented syllable, and again at the second, we shall find the 

 third coinciding with the third beat, and the fourth (if there be 

 one ere we breathe again) coinciding with the fourth beat ; the 

 number of intervening unaccented syllables neither hastening 

 nor hindering the occurence of the accented. 



Thus in the following extract from a newspaper article, 

 breathing naturally at the double lines and accenting the 

 syllables that just follow, we perceive by beating time between 

 our breaths that the accents all fall at even intervals of time. 



" II The I Greeks have a dis | tinct national | cause |1- clear 

 and I practical | national | claims. || The | cause and the | 

 claims are | recognised* and ac | cepted || by | all the Greek | 

 people alike." ||t 



And these equal measures from accent to accent are here 

 instinctively preserved, although in the first breathing period of 

 the above passage, for example, there come four syllables be- 

 longing to the accent on Greeks ere the next is heard, one be- 

 longing to the accent on " tinct " and four to the accent on 

 " na." 



These discoveries show that vowels are really musical notes, 

 with diphthongs as their chords; that consonants impart to 

 these notes when preceding them diverse characters which are 

 with much reason likened to those of the various musical in- 

 struments, and that our sentences are cut up into rhythmical 

 periods. Thus is that means which God has given to us men 

 for conveying to each other our every feeling, reflection, and 

 judgment, replete with tune, and most varied music pouring 

 forth, in spite of much degeneracy, delightful symphonies from 

 mouth to ear. 



Some might breathe here. t Uaily News, 31st October, 1890. 



