1872.] Music of Speech. 287 
under which, indeed, nearly all the rules written by 
elocutionists may be included, is as follows:—The rising 
inflection is indicative of doubt and incompleteness of 
expression; the falling, of certainty and completeness of 
expression; the length of the slide varying in accordance 
with the speaker’s intensity. 
Thus, if I put the question, ‘Do your know your lesson?” 
to a boy conéident in his knowledge, he would give his 
affirmative with one of the falling intervals: 
Mes: 
And here the verbal and vocal sign would justly and ex- 
pressively coincide. If, on the other hand, he were doubtful, 
though affirming by the word, the rising inflection, which 
by the natural law he would employ, would overrule the 
verbal sign and betray his doubtful state of mind: 
js 
Yes. 
From this general law all specific rules for the management 
of the voice may be deduced. Thus, with regard to 
questions which, in their purely logical form apart from 
sentimentality, may be considered as conveying neither affir- 
mation nordenial,the meaning being evolved from the answer, 
the inflection is naturally a rising one, the lowest limit of 
the interval being a major third. This moderate degree of 
inflection is, however, rarely to be met with in ordinary 
conversation, sentiment or a false habit of intonation ex- 
tending the interval employed to a fifth or even more. And 
here arises one of the causes of failure of an untrained 
speaker on a public platform—he having at most only an 
octave and a third or fifth at his command, and seldom even 
this, in using the extended intervals to convey ordinary 
meaning, leaves literally no room for effect; and in rendering 
impassioned passages requiring relatively longer inflections, 
degenerates iato a scream or a monotonous growl. Perhaps 
the day may not be far distant when from all professorial 
chairs of elocution students shall be taught to restrict their 
mere assertion within proper vocal limits, leaving the re- 
maining notes of their voices to the cause of expression. 
Questions are sometimes assertions in disguise, and may 
be regarded as, or even more than, assertions; for instance, 
““Who said so?” may be fully rendered (with the downward 
inflection), ‘‘ Tell me who said so. Finally, the belief implied 
in a question may be overruled by the passion with which it 
is asked. Thus, where Byron says, ‘‘ Shall he expire, and 
