DIVISION OF A LONG SIMPLE SERIES.

RULE.

When a simple series exceeds five members, avviae the whole into two or more shorter series; and read the divisions according to rule,-marking each division with the middle pause.

EXAMPLE.

The works of the flesh are manifest; which are these:

།

Adultery," fornication, uncleanness," lasciviousness,

སྐ

idolatry, witchcraft, hatred,* variance,

emulations, wrath, strife," seditions," heresies,

envyings, murders, drunkenness," revellings, and such like.-Gal,

In a series of so many members as this, the division (as above) prevents that unpleasing and cataloguelike monotony, which is produced by reading the whole as one series, with an unbroken succession of rising inflections. The division is of course arbitrary, as to the number of members which may be allotted to each division; but the object to be aimed at in the separation of the members is a distinct classification; so that things, objects or ideas, resembling or allied to each other in quality or degree, shall be kept together, and not be thrown in confusedly with others of a different nature.

Now, in the above example, such a distinct classification is rendered difficult, if not impossible, to the reader, by the absence of order and classification in the passage itself. It may indeed be remarked, with

the greatest respect, that great confusion is caused to the mind by the indiscriminately throwing together a series of offences very widely differing from each other in quality and degree; and the climax of the whole is enfeebled, if not destroyed, by the addition of "drunkenness and revellings," after the high crime of murder. As that crime is the climax of the works of the flesh, what follows weakens the effect, and is, in fact, an anti-climax. I am now analyzing it merely as a piece of composition; and for the purpose of making my meaning more clear, suppose the passage to have stood as follows:

The works of the flesh are manifest; which are these: Fornication," adultery," uncleanness," lasciviousness, witchcraft heresy idolatry

By this arrangement, the classification of crime would have been clear and perfect, gradually growing and increasing in power up to the climax-murder,-the last dread work of the flesh. And it is to aid this logical arrangement, classification and progression, that the rules for reading the series are given. In the following series the classification is distinct and perfect as it is written, and it will be felt that the elocutionary arrangement and inflections very much 'aid it:

For I am persuaded that

neither death nor life

nor angels nor principalities nor powers

nor things present nor things to come

nor height nor depth nor any other creature

shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans, c. viii.

IRREGULAR SERIES.

A series is frequently irregular,—that is, in part simple, and in part compound. In such cases:

RULE.

Separate and class the simple and compound members,-and read them in series according to their respective rules.

EXAMPLES.

All the circumstances and ages of men,

༈༙

poverty, riches, youth, old age,

all the dispositions and passions,

melancholy, love, grief," contentment,

are capable of being personified in poetry, with great propriety.-Blair.

ཡ

2. Neither blindness, nor gout,ˇ nor age,ˇ nor penury,

nor domestic afflictions, nor political disappointments,

ཝ

།

nor abuse, nor proscription, nor neglect,

had power to disturb his sedate and majestic patience.

Macauley

Besides the inflections proper to a series, increasing force should be given to the delivery of each additional member; so that the sound and volume of voice shall swell and increase in the same proportion as the sense grows and is amplified,-until both reach the climax together. This will be more fully explained and illustrated in the Third Division, under the head of INTONATION. The reader may now practise the

following

EXERCISE ON SERIES.

1. If you look about you, and consider the lives of others as well as your own; if you think how few are born with honor, and how many die without name or children; how little beauty we see, and how few friends we hear of; how many diseases and how much poverty there is in the world;

you will fall down upon your knees;

and, instead of repining at one infliction, will admire so many blessings you have received at the hand of God!

2. It was a loathsome herd,-which could be compared to nothing so fitly as to the rabble of Comus,—

Grotesque monsters,

half human, half bestial,

dropping with wine,

bloated with gluttony,

and reeling in obscene dances.

3. This decency, this grace, this propriety of manners to character, is so essential to princes in particular, that, whenever it is neglected, their virtues lose a great degree of lustre, and their defects acquire much aggravation. Nay, more; by neg

lecting this decency, and this grace, and for want of a sufficient regard to appearances, even their virtues may betray them into failings, their failings into vices, and their vices into habits unworthy of princes and of men.

NEGATIVE series: (as a simple concluding series.)

RULE.

A series of negative members is read with a rising inflection on every member but the last: (note, that the inflection falls on the word or thing negatived.)

EXAMPLE.

Charity envieth not charity vaunteth not itself is not puffed

up;

Doth not behave itself unseemly seeketh not her own is not easily provoked thinketh no evil.-1 Cor. c. xiii.

INTERROGATIVE SERIES.

A series of interrogations may be read either

1. Under the rule for single Questions, see p. 81; or,
2. With the same inflections as simple concluding series; or,
3. As the compound concluding series.

It is well, in delivery, to vary them, when they occur frequently, or when several series follow closely on each other. For example, the following, from Romans, c. viii., admits of being read under either of the three rules:

1. As single interrogations:

Who shall separate us from the cross of Christ? Shall