will remain for the living instructer to do, yet some rules and directions will be found useful to prevent vicious modes of utterance, to give the young reader some taste of the subject, and assist him in acquiring an accurate mode of delivery. All the remarks necessary to be made on this subject may be comprised under the following heads: Proper LOUDNESS OF VOICE; DISTINCTNESS; SLOWNESS; PROPRIETY OF PRONUNCIATION; INFLECTIONS; EMPHASIS; TONES; PAUSES; and MODE OF READING verse. The first attention of every person, who reads to others, doubtless must be, to make himself be heard by all to whom he reads. Every person has three pitches in his voice; the High, the Middle, and the Low one. The high is that, which he uses in calling aloud to some person at a distance. The low is when he approaches to a whisper. And the middle is that which he employs in common conversation, and which he should generally use in reading to others. We shall always be able to give the most force of sound to that pitch of voice, to which we are accustomed in conversation. It should be a constant rule never to utter a greater quantity of voice than we can afford without pain to ourselves and without any extraordinary effort. It is also a useful rule to cast our eye on some of the most distant persons in the company, and consider ourselves as reading to them. By the habit of reading when young in a loud and vehe Questions.-Are rules alone sufficient to make a good reader? What rules are necessary in reading? How many pitches in every person's voice? What are they? When does he use the high one? When the low? When the middle? Read a sentence on each. To what pitch can we give the most force? What rule is useful, in order to be well heard? ment manner, the voice becomes fixed in a strained and unnatural key, and becomes incapable of variety and true harmony. But to being well and clearly understood, distinctness of articulation contributes more than mere loudness of sound. To this, therefore, every reader ought to pay great attention. He must give every sound which he utters its due proportion, and make every syllable and letter be heard distinctly. An accurate knowledge of the simple, elementary sounds of the language, and a facility in expressing them, are so necessary, that, if a learner is deficient, his progress ought to be suspended, till he has become complete master of them. In order to express ourselves distinctly, moderation is requisite with regard to the speed of pronouncing. Precipitancy of speech confounds all articulation, and all meaning; while, on the contrary, a lifeless, drawling manner of reading, which allows the mind of the hearer to be always outrunning the speaker, must render every performance insipid and disgusting, But the fault of reading too fast, being the more common, and when grown into a habit, being very difficult to be corrected, requires to be most guarded against. In the next place, the young reader must study propriety of pronunciation, or the habit of giving, to every word he utters, that sound which the best usage of the language appropriates to it, in opposition to broad, vulgar, or provincial pronunciation. Questions.-What is said of reading in a vehement manner What contributes more than loudness of sound to being clearly understood? How must a person read in order to be distinct in articulation? What is very necessary to distinctness of articulation? What is necessary to express ourselves distinctly? What is said of precipitancy? What on the other hand is to be avoided? Which of the two extremes is most common? What is propriety of pronunciation? The principal inflections or modifications of the voice used in reading and speaking, are the rising inflection, the falling inflection, the circumflex, and the monotone. The rising inflection (marked) is used when a question is asked without any interrogative pronoun or adverb as, "Am I ungrateful' ?" "Is he in earnest' ?" "Would it not employ a beau prettily enough, if, instead of playing eternally with his snuff-box, he spent some part of his time in making one?" But where a sentence is begun with an interrogative pronoun or adverb, the falling inflection (marked ') is used-as, "Who will assist him' ?" "Where is the messenger' ?" "On whom does time hang so heavily, as on the slothful and lazy' ?—to whom are the hours so lingering'?" "Who is here so base that he would be a bondman' ?” A question that may be answered by Yes or No, usually takes the rising inflection; other questions, the falling. When two questions are united in one sentence, and connected by the conjunction or, the first takes the rising, the second the falling inflection-as, "Does his conduct support discipline', or destroy it'?"? The circumflex (marked ▲) is generally used to express irony, reproach, contempt, and raillery-as "Queen. Hamlet, thou hast thy father much offend ed." "Hamlet. Mother, you have my father much offend ed." Questions-What are the principal inflections ? "Hume said he would go twenty miles to hear Whitefield preach, thereby expressing his contempt for common preachers." The monotone is the continuation of the voice upon certain syllables without any variation, and may be marked thus (-). It is used with great effect in a solemn tone and sublime passages in poetry; and in prose, when the subject is grand and dignified, as in this extract: "Shall an inferior magistrate-a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Rō man province, and within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red-hot plates of iron, and at last put to the infamous death of crucifixion, a Roman citi zen ?" By emphasis is meant a stronger and fuller sound of voice, by which we distinguish some word or words to which we wish to attach a particular importance. On the right management of emphasis depends the life of pronunciation. If no emphasis is placed on any words, not only is discourse rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning left often ambiguous. If the emphasis is placed wrong, we pervert and confound the meaning wholly. In order to acquire the proper management of emphasis, the great rule to be given is, that the reader study to attain a just conception of the force and spirit of the sentiments, which he is to pronounce. To lay the emphasis right is a constant exercise of good taste and judgment. But care must be taken not to multiply emphatical words too much, and to use the emphasis indiscriminately. To crowd every sentence with emphat Questions.-What is meant by emphasis ? What depends upon the right management of emphasis? What if no emphasis be placed on any words? What if the emphasis be placed wrong? What great rule is given for the proper management of emphasis? ical words, is like crowding all the pages of a book with italic characters; which, as to the effect, is just the same as to use no such distinctions at all. Tones consist in the notes or variations of sound which we employ. Emphasis affects particular words and phrases, but tones, peculiarly so called, affect sentences, paragraphs, and sometimes even the whole of a discourse. It is chiefly in the proper use of tones, that the spirit, beauty, and harmony of delivery consist. Pauses or rests, in speaking or reading, are a total cessation of the voice, during a perceptible, and, in many cases, a measurable space of time. They are equally necessary to the speaker and hearer;-to the speaker, that he may take breath, without which he cannot proceed far in delivery; and to the hearer, that the ear may be relieved from the fatigue, which it would otherwise endure from a continuity of sound, and that he may have sufficient time to mark the distinction and meaning of sentences. Pauses in reading must generally be formed upon the manner in which we utter ourselves in ordinary sensible conversation. It is not sufficient to attend to the points used in printing-because these are far from marking all the pauses, which ought to be made in reading, and because a mechanical attention to these resting places has been one of the principal causes of monotony. Questions.-To what is crowding every sentence with emphatical words compared? What effect has it? What are tones? What does emphasis affect? What do tones affect? Wherein do the spirit and beauty of delivery consist? To whom are they necessary? Why to the speaker? Why to the hearer ? Upon what must pauses in reading generally be formed? |