ires greater effort to address a person who is at a
distance than one close at hand, or to address a large audience than
a small one. Observe the comparatively high pitch in which Antony (p.
225) begins his oration:

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.

If the reader wishes to give prominence to a thought, the effort put
forth causes muscular tension, resulting in a higher pitch. On the
other hand, a thought, which the reader regards as not of special
importance to the listener, finds expression in lower pitch, more as
if he were addressing himself:

Bold words!--but, though the beast of game
The privilege of chase may claim,
Though space and law the stag we lend,
Ere hound we slip, or bow we bend,
Who ever recked, where, how, or when,
The prowling fox was trapped or slain?

Observe the lower pitch of the subordinate clauses in the first four
lines, and the higher pitch in the last two lines which project the
leading thought.

"I think, boys," said the schoolmaster, when the
clock struck twelve, "that I shall give an extra half-holiday
this afternoon."

Similarly, the narrative clause "said the schoolmaster" which
interrupts the direct speech is read in lower pitch and is separated
by a marked pause before and after.

Parenthetical expressions, also for the same reason, are read in lower
pitch.

She had not perceived--how could she until she
had lived longer?--the inmost truth of the old
monk's outpourings, that renunciation remains sorrow,
though a sorrow borne willingly.

He (Mr. Pickwick) would not deny that he was
influenced by human passions, and human feelings,
(cheers)--possibly by human weaknesses--(loud
cries of "No"); but this he would say, that if ever
the fire of self-importance broke out in his bosom,
the desire to benefit the human race in preference,
effectually quenched it.

Passages which are collateral or co-ordinate in construction, and
equally balanced, will find their natural vocal expression in the same
pitch and, of course, the pitch varies as the attitude of the mind
changes:

Forty flags with their silver stars,
Forty flags with their crimson bars,
Flapped in the morning wind: the sun
Of noon looked down and saw not one.

The first two lines have the same pitch, because there is no
difference in intensity of feeling or in the mental conception. There
is, however, an e