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WHEN any term, or phrafe, is used to exprefs fome *particular meaning, not obviously arising from the words, it should be marked by a strong emphasis; as,

TO BE, contents his natural defire.

Sir Balaam now, he lives like other folks.

Then you will pass into Africa: WILL pafs, did I say?

IN expreffing any maxim, or doctrine, which contains much meaning in a few words, the weight of the fentiment should be accompanied with a correfpondent energy of pronunciation. For example;

One truth is clear; Whatever is, is right.

The principal words, which serve to mark the divifions of a discourse, should be diftinguished in the fame

manner.

EMPHASIS may also serve to intimate fome allufion, to exprefs surprise, or to convey an oblique hint. For example:

While expletives their feeble aid Do join.

He faid; then full before their fight

Produc'd the beaft, and lo!-'twas wHITE.

And Brutus is an HONOURABLE man.

LASTLY, Emphafis is of use in determining the fenfe of doubtful expreffions. The following short sentence admits of three different meanings, according to the place of the emphasis:

Do you intend to go to London this fummer ?

I

FOR

FOR want of attending to the proper emphasis, the following paffage of fcripture is often misunderstood:

If therefore the light that is IN thee be darkness, how great is THAT darkness!

In order to acquire a habit of speaking with a juft and forcible emphafis, nothing more is neceffary, than previously to ftudy the construction, meaning, and spirit of every fentence, and to adhere as nearly as poffible to the manner in which we distinguish one word from another in conversation; for in familiar difcourfe we fcarcely ever fail to express ourselves emphatically, or place the emphafis improperly. With refpect to artificial helps, fuch as distinguishing words or claufes of fentences by particular characters or marks; I believe it will be found, upon trial, that, except where they may be neceffary as a guide to the sense, not leaving the reader at full liberty to follow his own understanding and feelings, they rather mislead than affist him.

THE most common faults refpecting Emphafis are, laying fo ftrong an emphafis upon one word as to leave no power of giving a particular force to other words, which though not equally, are in a certain degree emphatical; and placing the greateft ftrefs on conjunctive particles, and other words of fecondary importance. This latter fault is humorously ridiculed by Churchill, in his cenfure of Moffop:

With ftudied improprieties of fpeech

He foars beyond the hackney critic's reach,

To

To epithets allots emphatic state,

Whilft principals, ungrac'd,like lacquies wait;
In ways first trodden by himself excels,
And ftands alone in indeclinables;
Conjunction, prepofition, adverb, join

To stamp new vigour on the nervous line:
In monofyllables his thunders roll,

HE, SHE, IT, AND, WE, YE, THEY, fright the foul.

EMPHASIS is often deftroyed by an injudicious attempt to read melodiously. In reading verfe, this fault fometimes arifes from a falfe notion of the neceffity of preferving an alternate fucceffion of unaccented and accented fyllables: a kind of uniformity, which the poet probably did not intend, and which, if he had, would certainly, at least in a poem of confiderable length, become infufferably tirefome. In reading profe, this fondnefs for melody is, perhaps, more commonly the effect of indolence, or affectation, than of real tafte: but, to whatever cause it be afcribed, it is certainly unfavourable to true oratory. Agreeable inflections and easy variations of the voice, as far as they arife from, or are confiftent with juft fpeaking, may deferve attention. But to fubftitute one unmeaning tune in the room of all the proprieties and graces of elocution, and then to applaud this manner under the appellation of musical fpeaking, implies a perverfion of judgment which can admit of no defence. If publick fpeaking muft be mufical, let the words be fet to mufic in recitative, that these melodious fpeakers may no longer lie open to the farcasm; Do you read, or fing? if you fing, you fing very ill. It is much to be wondered at, that a kind

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of reading, which has fo little merit confidered as mufie, and none at all confidered as speaking, fhould be fo ftudiously practifed, and so much admired. Can a method of reading, which is so entirely different from the ufual manner of converfation, be natural or right? Or is it poffible that all the varieties of fentiment, which a public speaker has occafion to introduce, fhould be properly expreffed in one melodious tone and cadence, employed alike on all occafions, and for all purposes?

PA

RULE VII.

Acquire a juft variety of Paufe and Inflection. AUSES are not only necefiary, in order to enable the speaker to take breath without inconvenience, and hereby preferve the command of his voice, but in order to give the hearer a diftinct perception of the conftruction and meaning of each fentence, and a clear understanding of the whole. An uninterrupted rapidity of utterance is one of the worft faults in elccution. A fpeaker, who has this fault, may be compared to an alarum-bell, which when once put into ⚫ motion clatters on, till the weight that moves it is run down. Without paufes, the fpirit of what is delivered must be loft, and the fenfe muft appear confused, and may even be mifreprefented in a manner moft abfurd and contradictory. There have been reciters, who have made Douglas fay to Lord Randolph *:

We fought and conquer'd ere a sword was drawn.

* Book ii. Chap. 18.

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 cause of monotony, by leading the reader to an uniform cadence at every full period. The primary use of points is to affift the reader in difcerning the grammatical construction; and it is only indirectly that they regulate his pronunciation. 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 fenfe more strongly, preparing the audience for what is to follow, or enabling the speaker 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 necessary that, upon the word immediately preceding the pause, the voice be suspended in such a manner as to intimate to the hearer that the fenfe is not completed. The power of suspending the voice at pleasure, is one of the most useful attainments in the art of speaking: it enables the fpeaker to pause as long as he chufes, and ftill keep the hearer in expectation of what is to follow *.

In order to perceive the manner in which this effect is produced, it is neceffary to confider Pauses as connected with thofe inflections of the voice which precede them. Thefe are of two kinds; one of which conveys the idea

Mr. Garrick's power of fufpending the voice is well defcribed by Sterne. See Book vi. Chap. 3. of this work.

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