THE QUARTERLY 
JOURNAL OF SCIENCE. 
JULY, 1872. 
lr. THE MUSIC OF SPEECH: 
By the Rev. R. WiLxti4m Hiaas, Oxford Scholar. 
SVQ 
GF all the gifts of God to man, the most godlike, that 
of rational speech, is universally the most neglected. 
The neglect is without extenuation, and particularly 
in the matter of our native tongue. A sonorous and yet 
easily modulated language, English offers many advantages 
to the elocutionist. The language as a language has been 
studied most thoroughly. So much might be said of the 
languages of all civilised countries. But can we go a step 
further and say that speech has been so far studied that 
anyone of moderate attainment in science can explain how 
sentiment, logical continuity, or logical conclusion are ex- 
pressed in elliptical sentences or phrases,—can tell how a 
“‘ves” may imply negation or a ‘‘no” affirmation? Certainly 
not. Yet we send our sons to school or college to imbibe 
what is generally understood as the ‘‘je ne sais quot” of in- 
tonation without thought as to whether or no that peculiar 
and admired style is imparted upon principle or only by 
imitation. Need it be said how often imitation is too late 
discovered to have been the routine pursued. And what 
are the consequences? ‘The boy completing his education 
enters a profession or the counting-house, and in addition 
to hisown mannerism falls into those most prominent among 
his fellows. Thus he obtains a peculiar intonation, pleasing 
or the reverse—thus is there one set tone pervading certain 
cliques of society, too hackneyed a subject for re-considera- 
tion here. 
We Englishmen, or those of us who cry so loudly for 
“* progress,” should be proud that the discovery that speech 
has a peculiar music of its own is due to a member of an 
English-speaking nation. Dr. James Rush, of Philadelphia, 
in his ‘‘ Philosophy of the Human Voice,” has shown that 
the sentiment and the logic of our speech have a distinct 
mode of expression apart from the subject-matter—has, in 
VOL. II. (N.S.) 20 
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