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ON

ELOCUTION.

-Id affert ratio, docent literæ, confirmat confuetudo legendi et

loquendi.

CIC.

UCH declamation has been employed to con

MUC

vince the world of a very plain truth, that to be able to speak well is an ornamental and ufeful accomplishment. Without the laboured panegyrics of ancient or modern orators, the importance of a good elocution is fufficiently obvious. Every one will acknowledge it to be of fome confequence, that what a man has hourly occafion to do, fhould be done well. Every private company, and almoft every public affembly affords. opportunities of remarking the difference between a juft and graceful, and a faulty and unnatural elocution; and there are few perfons who do not daily experience the advantages of the former, and the inconveniencies of the latter. The great difficulty is, not to prove that it is a defirable thing to be able to read and speak with propriety, but to point out a practicable and eafy method by which this accomplishment may be acquired.

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FOLLOW

FOLLOW NATURE, is certainly the fundamental law of Oratory, without a regard to which, all other rules will only produce affected declamation, not juft elocution. And fome accurate obfervers, judging, perhaps, from a few unlucky fpecimens of modern eloquence, have concluded that this is the only law which ought to be prescribed; that all artificial rules are useless; and that good fenfe, and a cultivated tafte, are the only requifites to form a good public fpeaker. But it is true in the art of speaking, as well as in the art of living, that general precepts are of little use till they are unfolded, and applied to particular cafes. To difcover and correct those tones, and habits of speaking, which are grofs deviations from nature, and as far as they prevail must deftroy all propriety and grace of utterance; and to acquire a habit of reading, or fpeaking, upon every occafion, in a marner fuited to the nature of the subject, and the kind of discourse or writing to be delivered, whether it be narrative, didactic, argumentative, oratorical, colloquial, defcriptive, or pathetic; must be the refult of much attention and labour. And there can be no reafon to doubt, that, in paffing through that courfe of exercise which is neceffary in order to attain this end, much affiftance may be derived from inftruction. What are rules or leffons for acquiring this or any other art, but the obfervations of others, collected into a narrow compass, and digested in a natural order, for the direction of the unexperienced and unpractifed learner? And what is there in the art of fpeaking, which should render it incapable of receiving aid from precepts?

PRESUMING

PRESUMING then, that the acquifition of the art of fpeaking, like all other practical arts, may be facilitated by rules, I fhall lay before my readers, in a plain didactic form, fuch Rules refpecting Elocution, as appear beft adapted to form a correct and graceful speaker.

RULE I.

Let your Articulation be difiinct and deliberate.

GOOD Articulation confists in giving a clear

A and full utterance at the feveral smile and contr

plex founds. The nature of thefe founds, therefore, ought to be well understood; and much pains should be taken to discover and correct thofe faults in articulation, which, though often afcribed to fome defect in the organs of speech, are generally the confequence of inattention or bad example.

SOME perfons find it difficult to articulate the letter 1; others, the fimple founds expreffed by r, s, th, fh. But the inftance of defective articulation which is moft common, and therefore requires particular notice, is the omiffion of the afpirate h. Through feveral counties in England, this defect almost univerfally prevails, and fometimes occafions ludicrous, and even ferious mistakes. This is an omiffion, which materially affects the energy of pronunciation; the expreffion of emotion and paffions often depending, in a great meafure, upon the vehemence with which the afpirate is uttered. The his fometimes, perverfely enough, omitted where it ought to be founded, and founded

where

where it ought to be omitted: the effect of which will be easily perceived in the following examples; He had learned the whole art of angling by heart: heat the foup.. -Thefe and other fimilar faults may be corrected, by daily reading fentences fo contrived, as frequently to repeat the founds which are incorrectly uttered; and especially, by remarking them whenever they occur in converfation.

OTHER defects in articulation regard the complex founds, and confift in a confufed and cluttering pronunciation of words. The moft effectual methods of conquering this habit, are, to read aloud paffages chosen for the purpose; fuch, for instance, 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 fense and just speaking would require. Almost all perfons, who have not studied 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 first: for where there is an uniformly rapid utterance, it is abfolutely impoffible that there fhould be ftrong emphafis, natural tones, or any just elocution.

AIM at nothing higher, till you can read diftinctly and deliberately.

LEARN to speak flow, all other graces

Will follow in their proper places.

RULE

RULE II.

Let your Pronunciation be bold and forcible.

Ault reading. Even public speakers often fuffer

N infipid flatnefs and languor is almost an univerfil

their words to drop from their lips with such 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 cafe, and to expel it with vehemence, in uttering those 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 a 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. Continue thefe exercises with perfeverance, till you have acquired ftrength and energy of speech.

BUT in obferving this rule, beware of running into the extreme of vociferation. This fault is chiefly found

among

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