162 “ Whether Music is necessary to the Orator,— 
Quintilian in a certain passage of his ‘ Institutes” (the book and 
chapter of which I cannot immediately call to my recollection). 
assigns to this figure [interrogatory] the property of acuteness: 
his words I renember—“Interrogantes acuto tenore concludunt.” 
[Interrogations terminate in an acute manner.] This general 
practice among the Romans, so analogous to our own, could not 
however, any more than with ourselves, have affected all the in- 
dividual syliables of which an interrogatory is composed; the 
general term acuteness being applicable to the ordinary genius, 
only, of such interrogatory on approaching its conclusion. 
The true character of this figure does not appear, in my mind, 
to have been justly appreciated by any of our modern gram- 
marians ;—they have spoken at random, and were either incapa- 
ble, or never took the trouble of analysing the question. In what 
then, independently of local usage, does the essence of interro- 
gatory consist? Not, most assuredly, in the elevation or de- 
pression of any individual syllable or word,—nor yet in the eom- 
parative acuteness or gravity of its general tenor, or even of its 
conclusion ; but—in opposition to the genius of the period—a: 
suitable preparation having been made, it must terminate with a 
non-finish. Every musician will understand me: and, to prove 
the practicability, in different ways, of this operation, in speech, 
{ shall set the following sentence (which is intentionally com- 
menced with a verb, and terminated by an emphatical word,) 
both in an ascending and a descending form. , 
Experiment. 
[The requisites for the execution of this passage will be found 
in the Philosophical Magazine for May. The second example, 
in particular, as deviating considerably from our ordinary habits, 
may require some little practice. The judicious management 
of forte, and the avoiding of jerk, especially on the two last syl- 
lables of the word ‘ proportion,” must be attentively regarded. ] 
Sg i gt ae ) 
Se ee Ascending. 
oe 
Are you sa-tis-fied with your own pro-por-tion? 
ee eg ge ge ge ee : 
——————— Descending. 
From the most cursory survey of both these interrogatories, 
which are perhaps equally good; although the latter, notwith- 
standing its intentional termination with a flat fifth, has, when 
wel executed, been more generally preferred—is it not evident 
that our grammarians have been very idly employed in ushering 
‘ their 
