must be mufical, let the words be fet to mufic in recitative, that these melodious speakers may no longer lie open to the farcasm; Do you read or fing? If you fing, you fing very ill. Seriously, it is much to be: wondered at, that this kind of reading, which has fo little merit confidered as mufic, and none at all confidered as fpeaking, fhould be so studioufly practifed by many fpeakers, and fo much admired by many hearers. Can a method of reading, which is fo entirely different from the usual manner of conversation, be natural and right? Is it poffible that all the varieties of sentiment, which a public speaker has occafion 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 just VARIETY of PAUSE 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 fpeaker can fo properly be compared to, as an alarm-bell, which, when once fet a-going, clatters on till the weight that moves it is run down. With

out

out pauses, the sense must always appear confused and obfcure, and often be misunderstood; and the spirit and energy of the piece must be wholly loft.

IN executing this part of the office of a speaker, it will by no means be fufficient to attend to the points ufed in printing; for thefe 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 cause 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 grammattical conftruction, not to direct his pronuciation. 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 sense more strongly, 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 paufe, where the grammatical conftruction requires none at all. In doing this, however, it is neceffary 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 sense is not completed. Mr. GARRICK often obferved this rule with great fuccefs. This particular excellence

Mr.

Mr. Sterne has described in his usual sprightly manner. See the following work, Book VI. Chap. III.

BEFORE a full paufe, 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 deftructive of all propriety and energy. than this habit. The tones and heights at the close of a sentence ought to be infinitely diversified, according to the general nature of the difcourfe, and the particular conftruction and meaning of the fentence. In plain narrative, and efpecially in argumentation, the leaft attention to the manner in which we relate a story, or support an argument in converfation, will fhew, that it is more frequently proper to raise the voice than to fall it at the end of a sentence. Interrogatives, where the speaker seems to expect an anfwer, fhould almost always be elevated at the close, with a peculiar tone, to indicate that a question is afked. Some fentences are fo conftructed, that the laft word requires a stronger emphasis than any of the preceding; whilst others admit of being closed with a foft and gentle found. Where there is no-thing in the fenfe which requires the laft found to be elevated or emphatical, an eafy fall, fufficient to fhew that the fenfe is finished, will be proper. And în pathetic pieces, efpecially thofe of the plaintive,

tender,

tender, or folemn kind, the tone of the paffion will often require a still 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 beft 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 PASSIONS which your words exprefs, by correfpondent TONES, LOOKS, and

GESTURES.

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 passion arises in our minds, we naturally dif cover 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 speak

speak without any of the more violent emotions, the fame kind of feeling ufually accompanies our words, and this, whatever it be, hath its proper external ex-preffion. Expreffion hath indeed been fo little ftadied in public fpeaking, that we seem almost 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 distinct articulation, a good command of voice, and juft emphafis, he is able to add the various expreffions of emotion and passion.

To enumerate thefe expreffions, and defcribe 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 defcribing to them in words the manner in which their voice, countenance, and

hands,