being the proper management of the voice; and to these are added gesture or action when referring to oratory or recitation.

Of the material consequence that attaches to the first of these, viz., articulation, there can hardly be any dispute. The most essential quality in a speaker being distinctness, not only as regards the pleasure with which he is heard, but also the comfort and convenience of himself, a moderate power of voice being audible at a much greater distance, provided the articulation is pure and cor rect, than would be the case with a much stronger organ if con fused or indistinct in its utterance. Defects in this particular are chiefly attributable to a too great precipitancy of speech, and are not unfrequently the result of school repetitions, in which readiness and quickness of utterance are considered, often, rather a clever achievement on the part of the pupil, and a satisfactory evidence of being perfect by the master. Be this as it may, the result is a bad habit, and the most effectual method of counteracting and removing it that perhaps can be suggested, is the daily practice of reading aloud either a vocabulary of words or some literary composition, neglecting altogether its construction or sense, and paying attention only to the pronunciation of every syllable, particularly regarding the vowel sounds in all their tonic variety, and in this manner going through the entire task slowly and distinctly, much slower indeed than would be necessary if read in the proper manner. The indistinctness acquired by sacrificing sense to rapidity may, by the opposite process, be removed.

This will be found also a very efficient way of strengthening the voice in all its pitches: of which hereafter.

For a correct accentuation, which should be invariably associated with articulation, that is easily attainable by reference to the pronouncing dictionary, and for that purpose the most modern will always be the best, as fashion in many instances is the authority.

Above all things, mind your aitches-an aitch dropped or wrongly aspirated, is to an educated ear what a note played out of tune is to a musician's. Remember, too, that we have many words spelt alike and pronounced differently, accordingly as they are used as nouns or verbs-look these out in the piece you are about to read, if you have any doubt, and consult your dictionary.

CHAPTER III.

ON PAUSE.

THOUGH it would be wrong to affirm, of any particular branch of the "art of elocution," that it is the first in importance, since they all act, as it were, in combination, and each contributes its share essentially in imparting force, elegance, feeling, or harmony to the delivery of the perfect reader or speaker, according to the variety of character with which Infinite Goodness has endowed that supreme and distinctive gift, the articulate voice of man; yet, as the ease and propriety with which we are enabled to pronounce written language, or our own extemporaneous effusions, is mainly dependent on the theory of pausing, its skilful adaptation may at least be considered the foundation on which the art of reading and speaking is in some measure based. To appreciate it properly, it is necessary we should understand the difference that exists between language as it addresses itself to us through two different mediums-those of the eye and the ear-to the first by written characters, and to the latter by oral expression.

Now, the system of punctuation or stops, by which the former of these is distinguished, can only be considered serviceable as it instructs the silent reader in the grammatical construction of the subject before him, and he is thus guided in the sense of his author; that is, if they are correctly placed, which, however, may not always be the case.

These, then, for distinction sake, we will call "Grammatical Pauses." But these are by no means sufficient for the purpose of reading aloud, and it is the ignorance, or disregard of this fact, that is the foundation of many false rules of instruction in this particular branch of education. Hence the common direction, "mind your stops," by which is meant, those alone that appear on the printed page, with no reference at all to any others that may be deemed necessary, and indeed are absolutely essential to correct oral delivery.

Hence, too, the second injunction, which is "that the breath is never to be drawn but at a full stop." Now, concerning these stops,

comma " is a rest while you can count one, a colon" three, and a "period" four, and by

this precise division of time, it is evident that they are generally accepted as sufficient for all the purposes, not only of sense, but expression also. But herein lies the error; for, as Mr. Walker truly observes, "Not half the pauses are found in printing which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader or speaker;" and these, which we distinguish as "Rhetorical Pauses," are necessary to him, to enable him to take breath, relieve the organs of speech, and to mable the attention of his auditors, unwearied by the continuity of sound, to follow with a perfect appreciation of the meaning of that which he utters.

The difficulty of laying down absolute rules for the exact application of these pauses, is manifest in the many elocutionary works extant in which it has been essayed; and however excellent in themselves and useful to the teacher those works may have been, it is to be feared that much confusion and perplexity must have been occasioned to the uninitiated, from their very extent and technicality; and this, perhaps, has caused one writer on the subject to say that no such rules can be laid down; but the fact appears to be, that when the Rhetorical Pauses are added to the "grammatical,” assisting them by divisions of thought and feeling, they are dependent to a certain degree on the judgment of the speaker, and thus, perhaps, appear to be arbitrary; yet it is possible to give something like a general direction, which may serve, by the observation of the student, as a partial guide at all events.

The Rhetorical Pauses, then, consist of three rests of different durations of time-viz., the smaller, or short pause, answering in this respect to the comma; the greater, or middle pause, to the semicolon; and the greatest, or rest, to the period, or full stop. To the first of these, on account of the frequency of its recurrence, and consequent assistance rendered to the speaker, the most importance is attached.

This pause is generally used after several words occurring in one phrase, serving as the nominative to some verb:

The objective phrase in an inverted sentence-that is, sentences the number of which, when inverted as to order, preserve the same sense :

The emphatic word of force, and the subject of a sentence: Each number of a “series," whether single; that is, composed of single words, or compound, being composed of sentences.

It should be used also before the infinitive mood:

Prepositions (except when part of one phrase), relative pronouns, and conjunctions, adverbs of time, similitude, and some others: In some cases, for the sake of emphasis, it is used after disjunctions.

Whatever number intervenes between the nominative case and the verb, must be considered to be of the nature of a parenthesis, and is therefore separated from both of them by the short pause.

The greater, or middle pause, is properly to be used when a sentence is composed of two principal parts, in the first of which, the sense being incomplete or suspended, is perfected by the latter; the pause taking place at that point where the sense begins to be complete, thus dividing it into distinctive portions, each of which, it is to be observed, has also a distinctive tone, or inflection.

The "great rest,” or “full pause," completes the entire sense, and being identical with the "period," can therefore be well understood. To these various rests a fourth is sometimes added by writers on this subject, which they term the "long pause." It is mentioned here as being chiefly of use to the orator, as, by marking certain divisions in his subject—a change of ideas, or a return from a digression-it affords him, in the heat of argument, or the effects of exhaustion, time to collect himself, and it may be, an opportunity for correcting the tone or pitch of voice, which from excitement may have become raised too high to be sustained with comfort or effect. . To return, however, to the erroneous direction noticed, viz., “That the breath is never to be drawn but at a full stop or period." It has been before observed that the use of these pauses is for the greater ease and facility of the speaker. The absurdity of this injunction must be therefore most apparent, since the fact is really that at every one of these rhetorical pauses or rests, the breath receives, or should receive, a gentle, insensible, but at the same time inaudible, inspiration; and thus the lungs, like the bellows of an organ, being constantly supplied and inflated with fresh breath, the power of the speaker is considerably increased by the very control he is enabled

to exercise in the increase or diminishment of its power at will, after the manner of the "crescendo " and "diminuendo" in music. If the student would practically test this, let him take up the Exordium to Milton's First Book of "Paradise Lost." Now there are four periods in that fine opening; the first consisting of nine and a half lines, the next six and a half, the third five and a half, and the last four and a half. Let him try to accomplish the delivery of the first period without taking breath. If he succeeds he may rest satisfied that he possesses lungs of the consistency of leather with the capacity of the cave of Æolus; but as this experiment will infallibly prove the contrary, let him again essay, using not only the punctuated or grammatical, but the rhetorical pauses in aid, according to the general rules already recited, and he will find himself able to master not the first period alone, but also to reach the end of the subject through the three succeeding ones with the greatest ease and facility, and in addition he will learn also this, that in attempting to pronounce more in a breath than he could conveniently effect, and neglecting those pauses where the breath ought to be taken, he has been obliged to pause where the sense, not being separable, forbade it, and thus has rendered the whole of his subject an unintelligible jumble.

CHAPTER IV.

ON INFLECTION.

LET us now proceed to consider that portion of the art on which the form, variety, and harmony of speaking mainly depends, and that will be found to consist in the proper use of the two inflections of the voice.

Most if not all the defects which are discernible in the generality of readers, with regard to "inflection," arise from an artificial habit acquired in early youth of reading with different tones and cadences from those which they are accustomed to use in speaking. Now, whatever may be the cause from whence it originates, a more fatal error, one more subversive of propriety of delivery, does not exist; for in reading, the utterance should be so regulated as to fall on the ears of the auditors as though we were conveying to them