288 Music of Speech. (July, 
unavenged ?”’ the belief of the speaker is accompanied with 
anger, indignation, and other states of mental excitement. 
Imperatives will of course take a downward diretion, as 
also will exclamations. In the latter case how often do we 
hear on the amateur platform the exclamation of Macbeth, 
What hands are here!” rendered with the rising inflection as 
a question. We cannot here dwell upon the numerous 
rhetorical forms of speech—a little thought on the reader’s 
part will soon enable him to class them as being subject to 
a continuative rising or a decisive falling inflection, bearing 
in mind the direction of one of our oldest poets— 
‘The wise Plato sayth, as ye now rede, 
The word must need accorden with the dede; 
If men shall tellen proprely a thing, 
The word must cosin be to the werking.” 
The simple musical intervals and their correlated mental 
states may be recounted as follows :— 
The Tone.—This interval should be consideredthe interval 
of unimpassioned speech; for, as we judge of all musical 
intervals relatively, it matters little what we adopt as a unit. 
However, from the peculiar nature of the musical scale, the 
tone only is the unit that can be adopted in rational speech. 
If this be done the rising tone will be indicative of con- 
tinuity, and the falling tone of the approaching completion 
of the sense. Finally, three successive falling tones indicate 
the completion of a merely assertive sentence. 
The Third.—Two tones, or a third, is the musical interval 
correlated to that state of mind which may be termed 
moderately assertive or appellatory. As has been said, the 
interval is naturally employed (either in three successive 
syllabic tones or otherwise) in the completion of an assertion. 
The Fifth.—Falling; this interval denotes command, ex- 
ceeding confidence, wilfulness, or petulance; rising, it 
appeals in surprise or passion. While the octave is expressive 
of still more passionate feelings. 
The reader may exemplify to himself these intervals by 
the utterance of the following formulated phrases :— 
Rising : 
ard. 5th. 
Is it gone? Can it be gone? 
Falling : 
3rd. 5th. 
It is gone. It must be gone! 
There is yet another interval, the semitone, which, as can 
be most easily exemplified by repairing to the pianoforte, 
