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among thofe, who, in contempt and defpite of all rule and propriety, are determined to command the attention of the vulgar. These are the speakers, who, in Shakfpeare's phrase, "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 speakers to cripples who get on horfe-back because they cannot walk: they bellow, because they cannot speak.

RULE III.

Acquire a compass and variety in the height of your

TH

voice.

HE monotony fo much complained of in public fpeakers, is chiefly owing to the neglect of this rule. They commonly content themfelves with one certain key, which they employ on all occafions, and upon 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 speaking loud; and not observing, that whether a speaker shall be heard or not, depends more upon the diftinctnefs and force with which he utters his words, than upon the height of the key in which he speaks.

WITHIN a certain compass of notes, above or below which articulation would be difficult, propriety of speaking requires variety in the height, as well as in the

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ftrength

Arength and tone of the voice. Different kinds of fpeaking require different heights of voice. Nature inftructs us to relate a ftory, to fupport an argument, to command a fervant, to utter exclamations of anger or rage, and to pour forth lamentations and forrows, not only with different tones, but with 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 use, than in the key in which they speak. Reading and fpeaking, 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 speak at pleasure, accuftom yourself to pitch your voice in different keys, from the lowest to the highest notes on which you can articulate diftinctly. Many of these would neither be proper nor agreeable in speaking; but the exercise 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 eafe at feveral heights of the voice; read, as exercises on this rule, fuch compofitions as have a variety of speakers, or such as relate dialogues; obferving the height of voice which is proper to each, and endeavouring to change them as nature directs.

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but an unmeaning fucceffion of detached fyllables. Accent may be applied either to long or to fhort fyllables, but does not, as fome writers have fuppofed, change their nature; for accent implies not an extenfion of time, but an increase of force. In the words, pity, enemy, the first fyllables, though accented, are still short. Syllables may be long, which are not accented; as appears in the words, empire, exile. Accent affects every part of the fyllable, by giving additional force to the utterance of the whole complex found, but does not lengthen or change the vowel-found. In the words habit, fpecimen, proper, as they are pronounced by Englishmen, the first syllable, though accented, is not long. Some words confifting of feveral fyllables admit of two accents, one more forcible than the other, but both fufficiently distinguishable from the unaccented parts of the word; as in the words, monumental, manifestation, naturalization.

IN accenting words, care fhould be taken to avoid all affected deviations from common usage. There is the greater occafion for this precaution, as a rule has been arbitrarily introduced upon this fubject, which has no foundation either in the ftructure of the English Language, or in the principles of harmony; that, in words confifting of more than two fyllables, the accent should be thrown as far backward as poffible. This rule has occafioned much pedantic and irregular pronunciation; and has, perhaps, introduced all the uncertainty which attends the accenting of several English words.

RULE

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In every fentence, diftinguish the more fignificant words by a natural, forcible, and varied EMPHASIS.

THERE

are in every fentence certain words, which have a greater fhare in conveying the speaker's meaning than the reft, and are, on this account, diftinguifhed by the forcible manner in which they are uttered. Thus in the fentence *:

Cheerfulness keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual ferenity:

and

conveys

the principal ftrefs is laid upon certain fubftantives, adjectives and verbs; and the reft of the fentence is spoken with an inferior degree of exertion. This ftrefs, or Emphasis, ferves to unite words, and form them into fentences. By giving the feveral parts of a fentence its proper utterance, it difcovers their mutual dependance, their full import to the mind of the hearer. It is in the power of Emphasis, to make long and complex sentences appear intelligible and perfpicuous. But for this purpose it is necessary, that the reader should be perfectly acquainted with the exact conftruction, and full meaning, of every fentence which he recites. Without this it is impoffible 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,

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that we so often hear perfons read with an improper emphafis, or with no emphafis at all, that is, with a ftupid monotony. Much study and pains are neceffary 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 difcretion.

It is another office of Emphasis to express the oppofition between the feveral parts of a fentence, where the ideas are contrafted or compared; as in the following fentences:

When our vices leave us, we fancy that we leave them.

A count'nance more in Sorrow, than in Anger.

A custom more honour'd in the Breach, than the Obfervance.

IN fome fentences the antithefis is double, and even treble: these must be expreffed in reading, by a correfponding combination of emphases. The following

inftances are of this kind:

ANGER may glance into the breast of a wife man; but refts only. in the bofom of fools.

To err is human; to forgive, divine.

An angry man who fuppreffes his paffion, thinks worfe than he fpeaks; and an angry man that will chide, fpeaks worfe than he thinks.

BETTER to reign in hell, than ferve in heaven.

He rais'd a mortal to the skies;

She brought an angel down.

When

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