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AN ESSAY

ON ELOCUTION.

Much declamation has been employed to convince the world of a very plain truth, that to be able to fpeak well is an ornamental and useful accomplishment. Without the laboured panegyries of ancient or modern orators, the importance of a good elocution is folliciently obvious. Every one will acknowledge it to be of fome confequence, that what a man has hourly occafion to do, fhould be done well. Every private company, and almoft every public affembly affords opportunities of remarking the difference between a juit and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution; and there are few perfons who do not daily experience the advantages of the former, and the inconveniences of the latter. The great difficulty is, not to prove that it is a desirable thing to be able to read and speak with propriety, but to point out a practicable and easy method by which this accomplishment may be acquired.

Follow Nature, is certainly the fundamental law of Oratory, without a regard to which, all other rules will only produce affected declamation, not juft elocution. And fome accurate obfervers, judging, perhaps, from a few untucky fpecimens of modern eloquence, have concluded that this is the only law which ought to be prefcribed; that all artificial rules are ufelefs; and that good fenfe, and a cultivated tafte, are the only requifites to form a good public speaker. But it is true in the art of fpeaking, as well as in the art of living, that general precepts are of little ufe till they are unfolded, and applied

to particular cafes. To obferve the various ways by which nature expreffes the feveral preceptions, emotions, and paffions of the human mind, and to distinguish these from the mere effect of arbitrary cuftom or false taste : to discover and correct thofe tones, and habits of speaking, which are grofs deviations from nature, and as far as they prevail must destroy all propriety and grace of utterance : and to make choice of fuch a courfe of practical leffons, as fhall give the speaker an opportunity of exercising himfelf in each branch of elocution: all this must be the effect of attention and labour; and in all this much affiftance may certainly be derived from inftruction. What are rules or leffons for acquiring this or any other art, but the obfervations of others, collected into a narrow compafs, and digested in a natural order, for the direction of the unexperienced and unpractifed learner? And what is there in the art of fpeaking which should render it incapable of receiving aid from precepts ?

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Prefuming then, that the acquifition of the art of fpeaking, like all other practical arts, may be facilitated by rules, I proceed to lay before my readers, in a plain didactic form, fuch rules refpecting elocution, as appear belt adapted to form a correct and graceful speaker.

RULE I.

Let your Articulation be diftin&t and deliberate. A GOOD Articulation confifts in giving a clear and full utterance to the several simple and complex founds. The nature of these founds, therefore, ought to be well underftood; and much pains fhould be taken to discover and correct thofe faults in articulation, which, though often afcribed to fome defect in the organs of fpeech, are generally the confequence of inattention or bad example. Many of thefe refpect the founding of the confonants.

Some eannot pronounce the letter 7, and others the fimple founds expreffed by r, s, th, fh; others generally omit the afpirate h. These faults may be corrected, by reading fentences, fo contrived as often to repeat the faulty founds; and by guarding against them in familiar conversation.

Other defects in articulation regard the complex founds, and confift in a confufed and cluttering pronunciation of words. The most effectual methods of conquering this habit, are, to read aloud, paffages chofen for that purpose (fuch for inftance as abound with long and unusual words, or in which many fhort fyllables come together) and to read, at certain ftated times, much flower than the sense and just speaking would require. Almost all perfons, who have not ftudied the art of speaking, have a habit of uttering their words fo rapidly, that this latter exercise ought generally to be made use of for a confiderable time at first: for where there is a uniformly rapid utterance, it is absolutely impoffible that there fhould be ftrong emphasis, natural tones, or any juft elocution.

Aim at nothing higher, till you can read diftinctly and deliberately.

Let

Learn to speak flow, all other graces
Will follow in their proper places.

RULE II.

your Pronunciation be bold and forcible. An infipid flatnefs and langour is an almost univerfal fault in reading, and even public fpeakers often fuffer their words to drop from their lips with fuch a faint and feeble utterance, that they appear neither to understand or feel what they say themselves, nor to have any defire that it fhould be understood or felt by their audience. This is a fundamental fault: a fpeaker without energy, is a lifeless statue,

In order to acquire a forcible manner of pronouncing your words, inure yourself while reading to draw in as much air as your lungs can contain with cafe, and to expel it with vehemence in uttering thofe founds which require an emphatical pronounciation; read aloud in the open air, and with all the exertion you can command; preferve your body in an erect attitude while you are fpeaking; let all the confonant founds be expreffed with a full impulfe or percuffion of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs employed in forming them; and let all the vowel founds have a full and bold utterance. Practise these rules with perfeverence, till you have acquired firength and energy of fpeech.

But in obferving this rule, beware of running into the extreme of vociferation. We find this fault chiefly among thofe, who, in contempt and defpite of all rule and propriety, are determined to command the attention of the vulgar. Thefe are the fpeakers, who, in Shakspeare's phrafe, "offend the judicious hearer to the foul, by tearing a paffion to rags, to very tatters, to fplit the ears of the groundlings." Cicero compares fuch speakers to cripples who get on horseback because they cannot walk: they bellow, because they cannot fpeak.

RULE IH.

Acquire a Compafs and Variety in the Height of your Voice.

THE monotony fo much complained of in public speakers, is chiefly owing to the neglect of this rule. They generally content themselves with one certain key, which they employ on all occafions, and on every fubject: or if they attempt variety, it is only in proportion to the number of their hearers, and the extent of the place in which

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