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be avoided by giving emphasis with simple inflection, instead of the circumflex. See "Errors in Inflection."*

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE.

Pupils who fail in force of emphasis, may derive great assistance from an exercise founded on Walker's classification of emphasis, as expressed by the phrases 'unaccented,' 'accented,' and 'emphatic' force. The first of these distinctions applies to the degree of force with which we naturally utter particles and other less significant words in a sentence such as the following: "Exercise and temperance strengthen even an indifferent constitution." The words which in this sentence have only the 'unaccented' force, are "and," "even," "an." The words which possess the second degree of force, or that which is called 'accented,' are "Exercise," "temperance," "strengthen, ""constitution." This force they naturally receive as being more significant than the words mentioned above. The highest, or "emphatic" force, belongs to the distinctive word "indifferent," as containing the peculiar meaning of the sentence. These three degrees of force, if expressed to the eye, in type, would be represented thus: Exercise and temperance strength

en even an INDIFFERENT constitution.

The exercise founded on these comparative degrees of force, is the following. Let the pupil first be permitted to read a whole sentence with his usual and perhaps monotonous utterance; then let him be required to repeat the sentence, using the second, or accented, degree of force on all words but particles;

*The Rev. Dr. Porter's work on elocution, excellent as it is in other respects, seems to sanction this tone in a few instances. See Analysis, p. 84.

The rising circumflex, however, in the cases alluded to, will be found by an attentive observer to constitute the distinguishing accent of New England,-not only as differing from the prevailing mode of emphasis in England, but from the current style of expression in other parts of the United States, and imparting to the voice a peculiar and habitual turn of overdone emphasis.

and, lastly, repeating the sentence once more, let him add the highest or emphatic force on the word or words to which it belongs. This exercise should be repeated till the learner has acquired not only the power of discrimination as to these degrees of force, but the habit of expressing them fully and correctly. Mechanical as this exercise may seem, it has a peculiar intellectual value in securing the attention and exercising the judgment of young pupils.

An exercise more strictly mental in its character, will be still more useful,—that of requiring of each pupil, previous to his reading a sentence, a statement of the sentiment in his own words. The object of this exercise is to aid in attaining a clear and accurate conception of the meaning,-the true preparation for right emphasis.

The emphasis of emotion may, in part, be communicated from the teacher's own reading, or, to still better advantage, by conversing with the pupils on the piece or passage which is read, so as to bring their minds into the right mood of feeling, by an interest in the subject.

The faulty emphasis of circumflex may be removed by the discipline of repeated practice on the examples given under the head of inflection, and by expedients adapted to individual cases. Mutual correction by the pupils, will be very important here, as in all other departments of elocution.

EXERCISES ON EMPHASIS.

Absolute emphasis in emotion:

1. Wo! wo! to the riders that trample them down!

2. Oh! joy for her whene'er in winter

The winds at night had made a rout,
And scattered many a lusty splinter,
And many a rotten bough about!

3. In the deep stillness of the night,
When weary labour is at rest,
How lovely is the scene!

4. And when the reapers end the day,

Tired with the burning heat of noon,
They'll come, with spirits light and gay,
And bless thee,-lovely harvest moon.

5. Òn! on, like a cloud, through their beautiful vales, Ye locusts of tyranny! blasting them o'er!

6. Oh! what a tale that dreadful chilness told? 7. Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star In his steep course?

8. Weep Albyn! to death and captivity led!

In designation:

1. The vales are thine:-and when the touch of

Spring

Thrills them, and gives them gladness, in thy light

They glitter,

The hills are thine: they catch thy newest beam,

And gladden in thy parting,

Thine are the mountains,-where they purely lift
Snows that have never wasted, in a sky

Which hath no stain ;

The clouds are thine: and all their magic hues
Are pencil'd by thee.

2. But I will not tire my reader's patience by pointing out all the pests of conversation: nor dwell particularly on the sensible, who pronounce dogmatically on the most trivial points, and speak in sentences; the wonderers, who are always wondering what o'clock it is, or wondering whether it will rain or no, or wondering when the moon changes; the phraseòlogists, who explain a thing by all that, or enter into particulars with this and that and t'other; and lastly, the silent men, who seem afraid of opening their mouths, lest they should catch cold.

Relative emphasis:

[Repeat the second and third classes of examples in the Table of Inflections, and the examples of unequal antithesis.]

1. I had rather be a dog, and bay the moon, Than such a Roman.

2. Slight are the outward signs of evil thought;
Within-within-'t was there the spirit wrought!
3. Did Í, base wretch! corrupt mankind?
The fault's in thy rapacious mind.

4. Is it for thée the lark ascends and sings?
Joy tunes his voice, joy elevates his wings.
The bounding steed you pompously bestride,
Shares with his lord the pleasure and the pride.
Is thine alone the seed that strews the plain?
The birds of heaven shall vindicate their grain.
Thine the full harvest of the golden year?
Part pays, and justly, the deserving steer.

5. It is not the scene of destruction which is before him. It is not the Tiber, diminished in his imagination to a paltry stream, flowing amid the ruins of that magnificence which it once adórned. It is not the triumph of superstition over the wreck of human greatness, and its triumphs erected on the very spot where the first honours of humánity have been gained. It is ancient Rome which fills his imagination. It is the country of Caesar, and Cicero, and Virgil, which isbefore him. It is the mistress of the world which he sees, and who seems to him to rise again from her tomb, to give laws to the universe.

Correspondent and antithetic emphasis:

[Read the examples and exercises given under the corresponding head, in the lesson on Inflections.]

1. I have always preferred cheerfulness to mirth. The latter I consider as an áct, the former as a habit of the mind. Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed and permanent. Mirth is like a flash of lightning, that breaks through a gloom of clouds, and glitters for a moment; cheerfulness keeps up a kind of daylight in the mind, and fills it with a steady and perpetual serenity.

2. The very actions which they have only réad I

have partly seen, and partly myself achieved. What they know by réading I know by action. They are pleased to slight mý mean birth; I despise their mean characters. Want of birth and fortune is the objection against mé, want of personal worth against thèm.

Emphatic phrases:

1. Upon the whole, I will beg leave to tell the House in a few words what is really my opinion. It is, that the Stamp Act ought to be repealed-ABSOLUTELY— TÓTALLY-and IMMEDIATELY.

2. And were I an Amèrican, as I am an Énglishman, while a single foreign troop remained in my country, I would never lay down my arms :-NÈVER--NÉver—

NEVER.

PAUSES.

General Observations. Distinct articulation requires slowness of utterance, or that deliberate succession of sounds, which enables the hearer to distinguish them from one another, and thus to make those discriminations in sense, which render what is read or spoken intelligible. Distinctness of speech, however, and clearness of meaning, require still further aid. It is not sufficient that the successive sounds of the voice, in letters and syllables, be kept from running into one another, and blending so as to cause confusion. A due distance must be preserved between those words which are not so closely connected in meaning, as others. The intervals of sound, or cessations of voice, thus produced, are termed pauses. Their effect on the ear, is similar to that of distance between objects in space, to the eye; aiding, by the unembarrassed action of the organ, the formation of clear and distinct conceptions in the mind. They separate, in sound, what we wish to separate in sense; and, they serve, on the other hand, by the length or shortness of their duration, and the comparative interval of sound thus produced, to give us the idea of more or less intimate connexion between the successive parts of thought, as expressed in one or more sentences.

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