an emphatical pronunciation; read aloud in the open air, and with all the exertion you can command; preserve your body in an erect attitude while you are speaking; let all the consonant sounds be expressed with a full impulse or percussion of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs employed in forming them; and let all the vowel sounds, have a full and bold utterance. Practice these rules with perseverance, till you have acquired strength and ener♥y of speech.

But in observing this rule, beware of running into the extreme of vociferation. We find this fault chiefly among those, who, in contempt and despite of all rule and propriety, are determined to command the attention of the vulgar. These are the speakers who in Shakespeare's phrase, "offend the judicious hearer to the soul, by tearing a passion to rags, to very tatters, to split the ears of the groundlings." Cicero compares such speakers to cripples, who get on horseback because they cannot walk; they bellow, because they cannot speak.

RULE III.

Acquire a compass and variety in the Height of your Voice.

THE monotony so much complained of in public

chiefly owing to

They generally content themselves with one certain key which they employ on all occasions, and on every subject; or if they attempt variety, it is only in proportion to the number of their hearers, and the extent of the places in which they speak; imagining that speaking in a high key, is the same as speaking loud; and not observing,. that whether a speaker shall be heard or not,depends more upon the distinctness and force with which he utters his words, than upon the height at which he pitches his voice.

But it is an essential qualification of a good speaker, tö be able to alter the height, as well as the strength and tone of his voice as occasion requires. Different species of speaking require different heights of voice. Nature in

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in

structs us to relate a story, to support an argument, command a servant, to utter exclamations of anger or rage, and to pour forth lamentations and sorrows, not only with different tones, but different elevations of voice. Men at different ages oflife,and in different situations,speak very different keys. The vagrant, when he begs; the soldier,when he gives the word of command; the watchman, when he announces the hour of the night; the sovereign, when he issues his edict; the senater, when he rangues; the lover when he whispers his tender tale, do not differ more in the tones which they use, than in the key in which they speak. Reading and speaking, therefore, in which all the variations of expression in real life are copied, must have continued variations in the height of the voice.

·To acquire the power of changing the key on which you speak at pleasure, accustom youself to pitch your voice in different keys, from the lowest to the highest notes you command. Many of those would neither be proper nor agreeable in speaking; but the exercise will give you such a command of voice as is scarcely to be acquired by any other method. Having repeated the experiment till you can speak with ease at several heights of the voice; read, as exercises on this rule, such compo sitions as have a variety of speakers, or such as relate dialogues, observing the height of voice which is proper to each, and endeavoring to change them as nature directs.

In the same composition there may be frequent occasions to alter the height of the voice, in passing rom one part to another, without any change of person. Shakespeare's "All the world's a stage," &c. and his descrip tion of the Queen of the Faries, afford examples of this. Indeed every sentence which is read or spoken will admit of different elevations of the voice in different parts of it; and on this chiefly, perhaps entirely, depends the melody of pronunciation.

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RULE IV.

PRONOUNCE your words with propriety and elegance.

T is not easy indeed to fix upon any standard, by which

the propriety of pronunciation is to be determined. Mere inen of learning, in attempting to make the etymology of words the rule of pronunciation, often pronounce words in a manner, which brings upon them the charge of affectation and pedantry. Mere men of the world, notwithstanding all their politeness, often retain so much of their provincial dialect, or commit such errors both in speaking and writing, as to exclude them from the honor of being the standard of accurate pronunciation. We should perhaps look for this standard only among those who unite these two characters, and with the correctness and precision of true learning combine the ease and elegance of genteel life. An attention to such models, and a free intercourse with the polite world, are the best guards against the peculiarities and vulgarisms of provincial dis alects. Those which respect the pronunciation of words are innumerable. Some of the principal of them are omitting the aspirate h where it ought to be used, and inserting it where there should be none: Confounding and intercharging the v and w; pronouncing the diphthong ou like au or like oo, and the vowel í like oi ore; and cluttering many consonants together without regarding the vowels. These faults, and all others of the same nature, must be corrected in the pronunciation of a gentleman, who is supposed to have seen too much of the world, to retain the peculiarities of the district in which he was born.

RULE V.

Pronounce every word consisting of more than one syllable with its proper Accent.

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HERE is a necessity for this direction, because ma ny speakers have affected an unusual and pedantic mode of accenting words, laying it down as a rule, that the accent should be cast as far backwards as possible ; #

rule which has no foundation in the construction of the English language, nor in the laws of harmony. In accenting words, the general custom and a good ear are the best guides; only it may be observed that accent should be regulated, not by any arbitrary rules of quantity, or by the false idea that there are only two lengths in syllables and that two short syllables are always equal to one long, but by the number and nature of the simple sounds.

RULE VI.

In every Sentence, distinguish the more SIGNIFICANT WORDS by a natural, forcible and varied emphasis.

E

ous.

MPHASIS points out the precise meaning of a sentence, shows in what manner one idea is connected with and rises out of another, marks the several clauses of a sentence, gives to every part its proper sound, and thus conveys to the mind of the reader the full import of the whole. It is in the power of emphasis to make long and complex sentences appear intelligible and perspicuBut for this purpose it is necessary that the reader should be perfectly acquainted with the exact construction and full meaning of every sentence he recites. Without this it is impossible to give those inflections and variations to the voice, which nature requires; and it is for want of this previous study, more perhaps than from any other cause, that we so often hear persons read with an improper emphasis, or with no emphasis at all, that is, with a stupid monotony. Much study and pains are necessary in acquiring the habit of just and forcible pronunciation; and it can only be the effect of close attention and long practice, to be able with a mere glance of the eye, to read any piece with good emphasis and good discretion.

It is another office of emphasis to express the opposition between the several parts of a sentence where the style is pointed and antithetical. Pope's Essay on Man, and his Moral Essays, and the Proverbs of Solomon, will furnish many proper exercises in this species of speaking. In some sentences the antithesis is double, and even treble; these must be expressed in reading, by a very distinct em

phasis on each part of the opposition. The following instances are of this kind:

Anger may glance into the breast of a wise man ; but rests only in the bosom of fools.

An angry man who suppresses his passion, thinks worse than he speaks; and an angry man that will chide, speaks worse than he thinks.

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Better reign in hell, than serve in heaven.

He rais'd a mortal to the skies;

She brought an angel down.

Emphasis likewise serves to express some particular meaning not immediately arising from the words, but de pending upon the intention of the speaker, or some inci. dental circumstance. The following short sentence may have three different meanings, according to the different places of the Emphasis: Do you intend to go to London this summer?

In order to acquire a habit of speaking with a just and forcible emphasis, nothing more is necessary than previ ously to study the construction, meaning aud spirit of ev ery sentence, and to adhere as nearly as possible to the manner in which we distinguish one word from another in conversation; for in familiar discourse we scarcely ev er fail to express ourselves emphatically, or to place the emphasis properly. With respect to artificial helps, such as distinguishing words or clauses of sentences by par ticular characters or marks; I believe it will always be found, upon trial, that they mislead, instead of assisting the reader, by not leaving him at full liberty to follow his own understanding and feelings.

The most common faults respecting emphasis are laying so strong an emphasis on one word as to leave no powe er of giving a particular force to other words, which, though not equally, are in a certain degree emphatical; and placing the greatest stress on conjunctive particles, and other words of secondary importance. These faults are strongly characterized in Churchill's censure of Mos sop.

With studied improprieties of speech

He soars beyond the hackney critic's reach,
To epithets allots emphatic state,

Whilst principals, ungrac'd, like lacquies wait;