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Conjunction, prepofition, adverb join

To stamp new vigour on the nervous line :
In monofyllables his thunders roll

He, she, it, anD, WE, YE, THEY, fright the foul. Emphasis is often deftroyed by an injudicious attempt to read melodioufly. Agreeable inflections and easy variations of the voice, as far as they rife from, or are confiftent with juft fpeaking, are deferving of attention. But to fubftitute one unmeaning tune, in the room of all the proprieties and graces of good elocution, and then to applaud this manner, under the appellation of musical fpeaking, can only be the effect of great ignorance and inattention, or of a depraved taste. If public fpeaking must be mufical, let the words be fet to music in recitative, that these melodious fpeakers may no longer lie open to the farcafm; Do you read or fing? if you fing, you fing very ill. Serioufly, it is much to be wondered at, that this kind of reading, which has fo little merit considered as mufic, and none at all confidered as speaking, fhould be fo ftudiously practised by many speakers, and so much admired by many hearers. Can a method of reading, which is fo entirely different from the ufual manner of conversation, be natural and right? Is it poffible that all the varieties of fentiment, which a public fpeaker has occasion to introduce, fhould be properly expreffed by one melodious tone and cadence, employed alike on all occafions and for all purposes?

RULE VII

Acquire a juft Variety of Paufe and Cadence.

ONE of the worst faults a speaker can have is to make no other paufes than what he finds barely neceffary for breathing. I know of nothing that fuch a speaker can

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fo properly be compared to, as an alarum bell, wich, when once fet a going, clatters on till the weight the moves it is run down. Without pauses, the fenfe muft always appear confufed and obfcure, and often be mifunderstood; and the spirit and energy of the piece must be wholly lott.

In executing this part of the office of a speaker, it will by no means be fufficient to attend to the points used in printing; for these are far from marking all the pauses which ought to be made in fpeaking. A mechanical attention to these refting places has perhaps been one chief" caufe of monotony, by leading the reader to a uniform found at every imperfect break, and a uniform cadence at every full period. The ufe of points is to aflift the reader in difcerning the grammatical conftruction, not to direct his pronunciation. In reading, it may often be proper to make a pause where the printer has made none. Nay, it is very allowable for the fake of pointing out the fenfe more ftrongly, preparing the audience for what is to follow, or enabling the fpeaker to alter the tone or height of the voice, fometimes to make a very confiderable pause, where the grammatical conftruction requires none at all In doing this, however, it is necessary that in the word immediately preceding the pause, the voice be kept up in fuch a manner as to intimate to the hearer that the fenfe is not completed. Mr. GARRICK often obferved this rule with great fuccess. This particular excellence Mr. STERNE has defcribed in his usual sprightly manner. See the following work, Book VI. Chap. III.

Before a full pause, it has been customary in reading to drop the voice in a uniform manner; and this has been called the cadence. But furely nothing can be more destructive of all propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and heights at the clofe of a fentence ought to be infinitely diversified, according to the general nature of

the dicourfe, and the particular conftruction and meani-8 - of the fentence. In plain narrative, and especially in argumentation, the leafl attention to the manner in which we relate a story, or fupport an argument in conversation, will fhow, that it is more frequently proper to raise the voice than to fall it at the end of a fentence. Interrogatives, where the speaker seems to expect an answer, should almost always be elevated at the clofe, with a peculiar tone, to indicate that a question is afked. Some fentences are so conftructed, that the laft word requires a stronger emphasis than any of the preceding; whilft others admit of being closed with a foft and gentle found. Where there is nothing in the fense which requires the last sound to be elevated or emphatical, an eafy fall, fufficient to fhow that the fenfe is finished, will be proper. And in pathetic pieces, especially thofe of the plaintive, tender, or folemn kind, the tone of the paffion will often require a ftill lower cadence of the voice. But before a speaker can be able to fall his voice with propriety and judgment at the close of a sentence, he must be able to keep it from falling, and to raise it with all the variation which the fenfe requires. The best method of correcting a uniform cadence, is frequently to read felect fentences, in which the ftyle is pointed, and frequent antithefis are introduced; and argumentative pieces, or fuch as abound with interrogatives.

RULE VIII.

Accompany the Emotions and Pafions which your Words exprefs, by correfpondent Tones, Looks, and Geftures.

THERE is the language of emotions and paffions, as well as of ideas. To exprefs the latter is the peculiar province of words; to exprefs the former, nature teaches us

to make use of tones, looks, and geftures. When anger, fear, joy, grief, love, or any other active paffion arifes in our minds, we naturally difcover it by the particular manner in which we utter our words; by the features of the countenance, and by other well-known figns. And even when we fpeak without any of the more violent emotions, fome kind of feeling ufually accompanies our words, and this, whatever it be, hath its proper external expreffion. Expreffion hath indeed been fo little studied in public fpeaking, that we feem almoft to have forgotten the language of nature, and are ready to confider every attempt to recover it as the laboured and affected effort of art. But nature is always the fame; and every judicious imitation of it will always be pleafing. Nor can any one deferve the appellation of a good speaker, much lefs of a complete orator, till to diftinct articulation, a good command of voice, and juft emphafis, he is able to add the various expreffions of emotion and paffion.

To enumerate thefe expreffions, and describe them in all their variations, is impracticable. Attempts have been' made with fome fuccefs to analyze the language of ideas; but the language of fentiment and emotion has never yet been analyzed; and perhaps it is not within the reach of human ability, to write a Philofophical Grammar of the Paffions. Or, if it were poffible in any degree to execute this defign, I cannot think, that from fuch a Grammar it would be poffible for any one to inftruct himself in the ufe of the language. All endeavours, therefore, to make men Orators by describing to them in words the manner in which their voice, countenance, and hands are to be employed, in expreffing the passions, must in my apprehenfion, be weak and ineffectual. And, perhaps, the only inftruction which can be given with advantage on this head, is this general one: Obferve in what manner

the feveral emotions or paffions are expreffed in real life, or by those who have with great labour and taste acquired a power of imitating nature; and accuftom yourfelf either to follow the great original itself, or the best copies you meet with; always, however, with this special obfervance, that you" O'ERSTEP NOT THE MODESTY OF NATURE.”

In the application of these rules to practice, in order to acquire a juft and graceful elocution, it will be neceffary to go through a regular courfe of exercises; beginning with fuch as are most easy, and proceeding by flow fteps to fuch as are more difficult. In the choice of thefe, the practitioner fhould pay a particular attention to his prevailing defects, whether they regard articulation, command of voice, emphasis, or cadence: and he should content himself with reading and speaking with an immediate view to the correcting of his fundamental faults, before he aims at any thing higher. This may be irksome and difagreeable; it may require much patience and refolution; but it is the only way to fucceed. For, if a man cannot read fimple fentences, or plain narrative, or didactic pieces, with diftinct articulation, juft emphafis, and proper tones, how can he expect to do justice to the fublime descriptions of poetry, or the animated language of the paffions?

In performing these exercises the learner fhould daily read aloud by himself, and, as often as he has opportu nity, under the correction of an Inftructor, or Friend. He should also frequently recite compofitions memoriter. This method has feveral advantages, it obliges the speaker to dwell upon the ideas which he is to express, and hereby enables him to difcern their particular meaning and force, and gives him a previous knowledge of the several inflections, emphafs and tones which the words require. And by taking off his eye from the book, it in part, re

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