without in the least hurting the sense: that is, at passion, admiration, circumstances, and behaviour; but, if instead of pausing at these words, we were to pause at the words for, produces, in, and of, which are the words immediately succeeding, we shall soon perceive to which words the prepositions naturally belong.

Homer and Hesiod intimate to us how this art should be applied, when they represent the Muses as surrounding Jupiter, and warbling hymns about his throne.

In this example, the conjunction as, and the cop, ulative and, in the last clause, must necessarily be classed with the succeeding, and not the preceding

words.

I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

Old Testament,

Here the conjunction except, naturally associates with the latter part of the sentence, and requires a short pause before it.

This let him know,

Lest, wilfully transgressing, he pretend
Surprisal. Milton.

In this example the conjunction lest is very properly separated from the preceding words by a short pause at know, and as the parenthetick words wilfully transgressing come between the conjunction, and the pronoun to which it belongs, the conjunction has very properly a pause both before and after it.

People expect in a small essay, that a point of humour should be worked up, in all its parts, and a subject touched upon, in its most essential articles, without the repetitions, tautologies, and enlargements, that are indulged to longer labours.

Spectator, No. 124.

In this sentence the preposition up is separated from in, because it enters into the composition of the verb

work, as to work up forms one complex verb; the same may be observed of the preposition upon, in the next clause of the sentence. An exception to this will be found in the following rule.

Rule XVI. When words are placed either in opposition to, or in apposition with, each other, the words so placed require to be distinguished by a pause.

This is a rule of very great extent, and will be more fully treated under the article Emphasis: it will be proper, however, to give a general idea of it in this place, as pause and force are very different things, and ought therefore to be treated separately and distinctly.

EXAMPLES.

The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not so gross as those of sense, nor so refined as those of the understanding. Spectator, No. 411.

In this example we shall find all writers and printers agree in placing but one pause between the four contrasted parts, and this point is at sense: here, it must be owned, is the principal pause; but it must likewise be acknowledged by every judicious ear, that a short pause at gross, and another at refined, convey more forcibly and distinctly every part of the

sentence.

Some place the bliss in action, some in ease;
Those call it pleasure, and contentment these.
Pope's Essay on Man.

In this couplet we never see a pause after the two words some in the first line, nor after the words those and contentment in the second; and yet nothing can be more evident than that a short pause after these words tends greatly to place the sense in a clear and distinct point of view.

In the same manner, when one object is successively contrasted with another, though these objects form the nominative case to the verb, and consist but of a single word, it is necessary to pause after each, in order to show the contrast more distinctly.

EXAMPLES.

At the same time that I think discretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Discretion points out the noblest ends to us, and pursues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: Cunning has only private selfish aims, and sticks at nothing which may make them succeed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like well formed eye, commands a whole horizon: Cunning is a kind of short-sightedness, that discovers the minutest objects that are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Discretion, the more it is discovered, gives a greater authority to the person who possesses it; Cunning, when it is once detected, loses its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even those events which he might have done, had he passed only for a plain man. Discretion is the perfection of reason, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: Cunning is a kind of instinct, that only looks out after our immediate interest and welfare. Discretion is only found in men of strong sense and good understandings: Cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in persons who are but the fewest removes from them: in short, Cunning is only the mimick of Discretion, and may pass upon weak men, in the same maner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom. Addison's Spectator, No. 225.

In this passage, much of the force and precision of the contrast between discretion and cunning would be lost without a sensible pause after each.

The necessity of distinguishing opposite or contrasted parts in a sentence, will sometimes oblige us to separate words that are the most intimately united.

EXAMPLES.

To suppose the zodiack and planets to be efficient of, and antecedent to themselves, would be absurd. Bentley.

Here the prepositions of and to are in opposition to each other, and both connected intimately with the word themselves; but this connection does not preclude the necessity of a pause after each, to show their distinct and specifick relation to their governing words, and their equal relation to the common word themselves. Indeed, the words of and to, in this sentence are emphatical, from that exactness and precision which the argument seems to require.

It is objected by readers of history, that the battles in those narrations are scarce ever to be understood. This misfortune is to be ascribed to the ignorance of historians in the methods of drawing up, changing the forms of battalia, and the enemy retreating from, as well as approaching to, the charge.

Spect. No. 428. The pretexts were, his having invaded and overcome many states that were in alliance with, and under the protection of Rome. Goldsmith's Rom. Hist.

Though a pause seems admissible both after from and to in this sentence, yet the opposition between these prepositions seems as much marked by emphasis as by rest and in examples of this kind it seems necessary to pause a smaller time after the last preposition than after the first.

To sum up the whole in a few words, as those classes of words which admit of no separation are very small and very few, if we do but take the opportunity of pausing where the sense will permit, we shall never be obliged to break in upon the sense when we find ourselves under a necessity of pausing; but if we overshoot ourselves by pronouncing more in a breath than is necessary, and neglecting those intervals where we may pause conveniently, we shall often find ourselves obliged to pause where the sense is not separable, and, consequently, to weaken and obscure the composition. This observation, for the sake of the memory, may be conveniently comprised in the following verses:

In pausing, ever let this rule take place,
Never to separate words in any case

That are less separable than those you join :
And, which imports the same, not to combine
Such words together as do not relate

So closely as the words you separate.

The interrogation, exclamation, and parenthesis, seem rather to be whole sentences than members of a sentence; and as they are distinguished from others, more by a peculiar inflection of voice than by paus. ing, they naturally belong to that part of this essay which treats of those inflections of voice which are annexed to sentences, and parts of sentences, according to their different structure and signification.

Thus have I attempted, with a trembling hand, to hint a few more rules for pausing than have been hitherto generally adopted; and though but little is accomplished, I flatter myself enough is done to show how much farther we might go in this subject, if we would apply ourselves to it systematically, and leave less to the taste and understanding of the reader.

I doubt not but many will be displeased at the number of pauses I have added to those already in use; but I can with confidence affirm, that not half the pauses are found in printing which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader or speaker; and that, if we would read or speak well, we must pause upon an average, at every fifth or sixth word. It must also be observed, that publick reading, or speaking, requires pausing much oftener, than reading and conversing in private; as the parts of a picture which is to be viewed at a distance, must be more distinctly and strongly marked, than those of an object which are nearer to the eye, and understood at the first inspection.