XII,

LECT. prefs ourselves ill, there is, befides the mifmanagement of Language, for the most part, some mistake in our manner of conceiving the fubject. Embarraffed, obfcure, and feeble Sentences, are generally, if not always, the refult of embarraffed, obfcure, and feeble thought. Thought and Language act and re-act upon each other mutually. Logic and Rhetoric have here, as in many other cafes, a ftrict connection; and he that is learning to arrange his Sentences with accuracy and order, is learning, at the fame time, to think with accuracy and order; an obfervation which alone will justify all the care and attention we have bestowed on this subject.

LECTURE XIII,

STRUCTURE OF SENTENCES,

-HARMONY.

XIII.

ITHERTO we have confidered Sen- LECT. tences, with refpect to their meaning, under the heads of Perfpicuity, Unity, and Strength. We are now to confider them, with refpect to their found, their harmony, or agreeableness to the ear; which was the laft quality belonging to them that I propofed to treat of.

SOUND is a quality much inferior to sense; yet fuch as muft not be difregarded. For, as long as founds are the vehicle of conveyance for our ideas, there will be always a very confiderable connection between the idea which is conveyed, and the nature of the found which conveys it. Pleafing ideas can hardly be tranfmitted to the mind, by means of harsh and difagreeable founds. The imagination revolts as foon as it hears them uttered. "Nihil," fays Quinctilian," poteft intrare "in affectum quod in aure, velut quo

"dam

LECT.

XIII.

"dam veftibulo ftatim offendit *."

Mufic has naturally a great power over all men to prompt and facilitate certain emotions: infomuch, that there are hardly any difpofitions which we wish to raise in others, but certain founds may be found concordant to thofe difpofitions, and tending to promote them. Now, Language may, in fome degree, be rendered capable of this power of mufic; a circumftance which muft needs heighten our idea of Language as a wonderful invention. Not content with fimply interpreting our ideas to others, it can give them thofe ideas enforced by correfponding founds; and to the pleasure of communicated thought, can add the new and separate pleasure of melody.

In the Harmony of Periods, two things may be confidered. Firft, Agreeable found, or modulation in general, without any particular expreffion: Next, The found fo ordered, as to become expreffive of the sense. The firft is the more common; the fecond, the higher beauty.

FIRST, Let us confider agreeable found, in general, as the property of a well-conftructed Sentence: and, as it was of profe Sentences we have hitherto treated, we fhall

*Nothing can enter into the affections which stumbles at the threshold, by offending the ear."

8

confine

XIIL

cónfine ourselves to them under this head. LECT. This beauty of musical construction in profe, it is plain, will depend upon two things; the choice of words, and the arrangement of them.

I BEGIN with the choice of words; on which head, there is not much to be faid, unless I were to defcend into a tedious and frivolous detail concerning the powers of the feveral letters, or fimple founds, of which speech is compofed. It is evident, that words are most agreeable to the ear which are compofed of smooth and liquid founds, where there is a proper intermixture of vowels and confonants; without too many harsh confonants rubbing against each other; or too many open vowels in fucceffion, to caufe a hiatus, or difagreeable aperture of the mouth. It may always be affumed as a principle, that, whatever founds are difficult in pronunciation, are, in the fame proportion, harsh and painful to the ear. Vowels give foftnefs; confonants, ftrength to the found of words. The mufic of Language, requires a juft proportion of both; and will be hurt, will be rendered either grating or effeminate, by an excess of either. Long words are commonly more agreeable to the ear than monofyllables. They please it by the compofition, or fucceffion of founds which they prefent to it; and, accordingly, the most mufical Languages abound moft in them. Among

words

LECT. words of any length, thofe are the most mufiXIII. cal, which do not run wholly either upon

long or fhort fyllables, but are composed of an intermixture of them; fuch as, repent, produce, velocity, celerity, independent, impetuofity.

THE next head, refpecting the Harmony which refults from a proper arrangement of the words and members of a Period, is more complex, and of greater nicety. For, let the words themfelves be ever fo well chofen, and well founding, yet, if they be ill difpofed, the mufic of the Sentence is utterly loft. In the harmonious ftructure and difpofition of Periods, no writer whatever, antient or modern, equals Cicero. He had studied this with care: and was fond, perhaps to excefs, of what he calls, the "Plena ac numerofa oratio." We need only open his writings, to find inftances that will render the effect of mufical Language fenfible to every ear. What, for example, can be more full, round, and fwelling, than the following Sentence of the 4th Oration against Catiline?«< Cogitate quantis labori"bus fundatum imperium, quantâ virtute "ftabilitam libertatem, quantâ Deorum be

nignitate auctas exaggeratafque fortunas, una nox pene delerit." In English, we may take, for an inftance of a musical Sentence, the following from Milton, in his Treatife on Education: "We fhall conduct