His hand in mine was fondly clasped. 
  They cultivated shrubs and plants. 
  He selected his texts with great care. 
  His lips grow restless, and his smile is curled half into scorn. 
  Wisdom’s ways are ways of pleasantness. 
  O breeze, that waftst me on my way! 
  Thou boast’st of what should be thy shame. 
  Life’s fitful fever over, he rests well. 
  Canst thou fill his skin with barbed irons? 
  From star to star the living lightnings flash. 
  And glittering crowns of prostrate seraphim. 
  That morning, thou that slumber’d’st not before. 
  Habitual evils change not on a sudden. 
  Thou waft’d’st the rickety skiffs over the cliffs. 
  Thou reef’d’st the haggled, shipwrecked sails. 
  The honest shepherd’s catarrh. 
  The heiress in her dishabille is humorous. 
  The brave chevalier behaves like a conservative. 
  The luscious notion of champagne and precious sugar.

III.  Inflections.

Inflections are slides of the voice upward or downward.  Of these, there are two:  the rising inflection and the falling inflection.

The Rising Inflection is that in which the voice slides upward, and is marked thus (’); as,

   Did you walk’?  Did you walk.

The Falling Inflection is that in which the voice slides downward, and is marked thus (’); as,

  I did not walk’.  I did not walk.

Both inflections are exhibited in the following question: 

  Did you walk’ or ride’? walk or ride.

In the following examples, the first member has the rising and the second member the falling inflection: 

Examples.[1]

  Is he sick’, or is he well’? 
  Did you say valor’, or value’? 
  Did you say statute’, or statue’? 
  Did he act properly’, or improperly’?

[Footnote 1:  These questions and similar ones, with their answers, should be repeatedly pronounced with their proper inflection, until the distinction between the rising and falling inflection is well understood and easily made by the learner.  He will be assisted in this by emphasizing strongly the word which receives the inflection, thus.  Did you ride’ or did you walk’?]

In the following examples, the inflections are used in a contrary order, the first member terminating with the falling and the second with the rising inflection: 

Examples.

  He is well’, not sick’. 
  I said value’, not valor’. 
  I said statue’, not statute’. 
  He acted properly’, not improperly’.

FALLING INFLECTIONS.

Rule vi.—­The falling inflection is generally proper wherever the sense is complete.

Examples.

  Truth is more wonderful than fiction’. 
  Men generally die as they live’. 
  By industry we obtain wealth’.