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innattention or bad example. Many of thefe refpect the founding of the confonants. Some cannot pronounce the letter, and others the fimple founds r, s, th, fb; 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 confused and cluttering pronunciation of words. The most effectual methods of conquering this habit, are, to read aloud, paffages chosen for that purpose (such 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 fenfe and just speaking would require. Almoft all perfons, who have not ftudied the art of fpeaking, have a habit of uttering their words fo rapidly, that this latter exercife ought generally to be made use of for a confiderable time at firft: for where there is a uniformly rapid utterance, it is abfolutely impoffible that there fhould be a strong emphasis, natural tones, or any just elocution.

AIM at nothing higher, till you can read diftin&tly and deliberatly.

LEARN to fpeak flow, all other graces
Will follow in their proper places.

RULE II.

Let your PRONUNCIATION be BOLD and FORCIBLE. ́

AN-infipid flatness and languor is an almost uni

verfal fault in reading; and even public speakers 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 fay themfelves, 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 lifelefs ftatue.

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 ease, and to expel it with vehemence in uttering thofe founds which require an emphatical pronunciation; 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 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. Practife thefe rules with perfeverance, till you have acquired ftrength and energy of speech.

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Bur 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 split the ears of the groundlings." Cicero compares fuch fpeakers to cripples. who get on horfeback becaufe they cannot walk, they bellow, because they cannot speak..

RULE III.

Acquire a COMPASS and VARIETY in the height of your

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VOICE.

HE monotony fo much complained of in public fpeakers, 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 subject; or if they attempt variety, it is only in proportion to the number of their hearers, and the extent of the place in which they speak; imagining, that fpeaking in a high key is the fame thing as fpeaking loud; and not obferving, that whether a fpeaker fhall be heard or not, depends more upon

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the distinctnefs and force with which he utters his words, than upon the height at which he pitches his voice.

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BUT it is an effential qualification of a good speaker, to be able to alter the height, as well as the ftrength and the tone of his voice, as occafion requires. Different fpecies of fpeaking require different heights of voice. Nature inftructs us to relate a story, to fupport an argument, to command a fervant, to utter exclamation of anger or rage, and to pour forth lamentations and forrows, not only with different tones, but different elevations of voice. Men at different ages of life, and in different fituations, fpeak in very different keys. The vagrant, when he begs; the foldier, when he gives the word of command; the watchman when he announces the hour of the night; the fovereign, when he iffues his edict; the fenator, when he harangues; the lover, when he whispers his tender tale; do not differ more in the tones which they ufe, than in the key in which they speak. Reading and speaking, therefore, in which all the variations of expreffion in real life are copied, must have continual variations in the height of the voice.

To acquire the power of changing the key on which you fpeak at pleasure, accuftom yourself to pitch your voice in different keys, from the lowest

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to the highest notes you can command. Many of these would neither be proper nor agreeable in speaking; but the exercife will give you fuch a command of voice, as is scarcely to be acquired by any other method. Having repeated this experiment till you can speak with ease at several heights of the voice; read, as exercises on this rule, fuch compofitions as have a variety of speakers, or fuch as relate dialogues, obferving the height of voice which is proper to each, and endeavouring to change them as nature directs.

IN the fame compofition there may be frequent. occafion to alter the height of the voice, in passing from one part to another, without any change of perfon. Shakspeare's "All the World's a Stage," &c. and his description of the Queen of the Fairies, 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.

RULE IV.

PRONOUNCE your words with PROPRIETY and

ELEGANCE.

Tis not eafy to fix upon any standard, by which the propriety of pronuciation is to be determined.

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