JB_102_328.xml

Title: [14 Aug. 1814 M Logic 2]

Description: 14 Aug. 1814 M

Logic

2

Ch. Language

Qualities desirable

'.7.6 Melodiousness

16

2

Applied to different species of discourse, i.e. to discourse considered as employed for different purposes, melodiousness or harmoniousness, whichsoever be the term, presents two ideas somewhat different, though differing rather in degree than in any other particular. In this point of view the opposite ends of the scale may be designated by the terms positive and negative: a sort of medium being assumed - any point being taken at pleasure, as and for the medium /middle/ point, positive melodiousness has place when the degree of that quality is considered as being above that middle point, negative melodiousness, when the situation of the degree in question is considered as being below that point.

In the discourse in question, what degree of this quality is required depends upon the nature of the discourse, i.e. upon the purpose and the occasion on which the discourse is employed.

1. In the case of poetry, in so far as rhythm, i.e. the succession of measured sounds, is considered as entering into the composition of it, melodiousness, on the positive side of

the scale, is universally understood as essential and indispensable; in the case of the art and labour of the composer, one great object is the securing the undiscontinued existence of it.

2. In the case of that sort of poetry in which rhythm is not employed, and of which the agreeableness is understood to depend on the intercourse between the imagination of the author and the imagination, melodiousness in the positive degree is not of the essence of the discourse; but the quantum of the pleasure produced cannot but be more or less dependent on the degree in which this quality has been conferred on it; and, at any rate, by any positive degree of the opposite quality - unmelodiousness or unharmoniousness - the design cannot be proportionally counteracted.

51

JB_102_329.xml

Title: [14 Aug. 1814 M Logic 3]

Description: 14 Aug. 1814 M

Logic

3

Ch. Language

Qualities desirable

'.7.6 Melodiousness

17

3

3. In the case of public speaking - of a speech delivered to or before a public assembly - though the melody or harmony is of a different cast from what is of, in the case of vocal music, or even that of poetry, metrical or unmetrical; and though positive harmoniousness enter not here, as there, into the very essence of the purpose, yet to that purpose, as universally acknowledged, of this quality, in so far as obtainable, an extraordinary share, is, in proportion to the degree of it, conducive; and, at any rate, by any such deficiency as leaves the degree below the middle point, the purpose cannot but be, in a proportionate degree, counteracted.

4. In a word, there is not perhaps that imaginable occasion on which, by the degree of harmoniousness or unharmoniousness appertaining to the discourse, its efficiency, with relation to the design of it, be that design what it may, may not in some degree be influenced.

This connexion, viz. between the efficiency of a discourse and the harmoniousness of it, when indicated, howsoever clear and indisputable, is in no small degree apt to be unobserved.

Speaking of the admiration universally bestowed upon Shakspeare, it is to the harmony of his numbers as much as, if not more than, to any other feature of excellence in the works of that author, that Mrs. Montague attributes the effect. When this observation first made its appearance, the character of originality was, it is believed, very generally attributed to it; at any rate, the quality in question presented itself to the author of these pages in that same character, and the observation as one which, though, when once presented, the justice of it was felt, had not till then presented itself to his mind.

52

JB_102_326.xml

Title: [14 Aug. 1814 M Logic Language]

Description: 14 Aug. 1814 M

Logic Language

Ch. Language

Qualities desirable

'.8.7 Facility of Utterance

18

1

7. Facility of Utterance.

Though in the field of causality intimately connected with melodiousness, this quality is in its nature, and thence in idea, sufficiently distinguishable from it. In proportion as, to produce it requires effort on the part of the speaker, and on that occasion effort is accordingly employed, the fact of its being employed naturally becomes perceptible, and the existence of it is actually perceived; and in proportion as in the bosom of the speaker uneasiness is, or by the hearer is supposed to have place, by the force of sympathy, the like effect is, in his own bosom, apt to take place.

That in the formation of language in general, melodiousness and facility of utterance, taken together, have actually, in the character of ends, been generally aimed at, is a matter of fact that may be stated as perceptible in the history of some languages, and it is supposed in a degree more or less considerable in the history of every language.

In every known language, in so far as it is known, changes in structure are observable; and in every instance these changes appear to have had for their cause, a general endeavour towards the giving to the instrument of discourse these agreeable qualities in a continually increasing degree.

49