( Si] 
XIV. On the Question « W hether Music. is necessary to the 
Orator,—to what Extent, and how most readily attainable ? 
By Henry Upineton, Esq. 
y 
[Continued from p. 38.] 
To Mr. Tilloch. 
; ; Blair's Hill, Cork, Jan. 7, 1819 
Sir, — In the early part of this letter I laid before the reader~ 
an-easy and expeditious method for executing the notes of any 
‘simple tune'on the piano, by means of an oblong board. /The 
- mensuration of the time of syllables in the ratio of two to one is 
equally facile, nothing more being necessary than a pendulum, 
which, set in motion by the hand, shall perform a sufficient num- 
- ber of vibrations for the oceasion*. ‘Thai employed by the Speaker 
consisted of an ivory ball one inch in diameter, with a delicate 
brass hook, suspended. by a silken thread, from a similar hook 
inserted in the under part ‘of the. projecting arm of a wooden 
stand—thus, 
“+, which, during operation, was fastened 
ona table by an iron clamp; and was -used in the following 
‘manner for the cultivation of hexameter +. 
The first exercise, ‘and certainly the easiest, was that of Tityre 
tw patulee down to sylvas. A fifteen-inch string, which is nearly 
equivalent to a three-quarter-second pendulum {, regulated the 
measure of the long syllable. Ti consequently occupied one vi- 
bration, tyre § the succeeding one, éu the third, patw the fourth, 
and 
* Notwithstanding the very great difference in the erlent of swing, as the 
power of this pendulum declines; yet the perceptible difference in the re- 
lative time of its vibrations, while any tolerable motion exists, is too trivial 
to affect our measurement. i 
+ The experimenter will immediately discover by his pendulum, that al- 
though the stately and solemn recitation of an articulate language like the 
Greek or Roman, rather constantly admits the full ratio of two to one in its 
syllables; yet that iu the ordinary reading of such languages, he must con- 
tent himself for the most part with the ratio of three to two. The mensu- 
ration of this Jatter, and indeed of any other ratio than that of fwo to one 
—is, for the purposes of speech, not only useless but absurd. 
3 This pendulum is tov long for ordinary poetry, and consequently a great 
deal too long for prose. The judicious practitioner must feel this observa- 
tion as he proceeds. 
§ For comparing the s/ort syllables of any given dacty! with each other, 
_the pendulum must be shortened in the ratio of four to ove; i.e. if the long 
syllable shall occupy the vibration of a sixteen-inch penduluu—the short 
Vol?53, No, 250. Feb, 1819. F syllable 
/ 
