The Art of Elocution ...

by the continuity of the sense, with the next, and perhaps with several succeeding periods. In such cases, the punctum or full-stop which marks the grammatical close of a sentence, should be rejected in reading; the middle pause should be used in its stead; and the rest or full pause should not be introduced till the actual winding up of all the sentences which have a close relation to each other in continuing or carrying out the sense to its climax or perfect close.

Take the following sentences, with their grammatical punctuation, as an

EXAMPLE.

Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of mankind can never feel an interest in them. They must have images.

Now here the second short sentence is intimately connected with, and, in its relation to the sense, forms part of the first; in fact, it completes and closes the proposition which the first sentence opened and began. Yet it is divided from that first sentence (with which, in its relation to the sense, it is so intimately connected) by the grammatical full-stop or period; and yet the close of the whole proposition contained in these two sentences admits, in grammatical punctuation, of no greater division from what may follow, in support and illustration of that proposition, than the same period or full-stop, which has been already used to separate the two parts of the whole proposition. This is illogical. The two sentences should thus be relatively marked and read with rhetorical pause :

Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of mankind can never feel an interest in them - They must have images.

For further illustration, I give the following sentences, marked both grammatically and rhetorically, by which it will be seen that the period or full-stop is frequently used when the middle pause is sufficient, and indeed absolutely necessary, to keep up the continuity of the sense, or the carrying out of an idea; and that, at the full close of the relation between the sentences so divided by the middle pause, and not till then,the full pause should have place.

EXAMPLE.

The

I have always preferred cheerfulness' to mirth.latter I consider as an act, the former as a habit of the mind."Mirth is short and transient, cheerfulness fixed Those are often raised into the greatest

and permanent. transports of mirth who are subject to the greatest depression of melancholy: on the contrary, cheerfulness, though it does not give the mind such an exquisite gladness prevents us falling into such a depth of sorrow." 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.

Now, each of the above sentences is intimately connected with the succeeding one. Each is only an amplification and illustration of the original proposition, which it serves to establish and carry completely out. They cannot therefore logically admit of a greater separation by pause than that which I have marked above: their final close alone can be marked with the full pause.

4. LONG PAUSE, I, or Bar-rest,

Marks the close of a subject, or of an important division of it.

It precedes

The change from one division of a discourse to another;
A new train of ideas or course of argument;

A return from a digression, or from excited declamation to calm statement and logical discussion.

This pause affords an opportunity to correct the tone or pitch of voice, which may have reached a high range in the excitement of earnest argument or intense feeling, and will therefore require to be lowered for the relief both of speaker and hearer. In this latter regard the long pause is of great use and assistance to the reader and the orator.

The system of Rhetorical Pause deserves the student's best attention; for its proper application will contribute greatly to the perspicuity and effect of his discourse, as well as to his own ease in delivery, by a just economy of breath.

Let him now read aloud the following marked

EXERCISE ON PAUSE.

SENSE TASTE AND GENIUS.

USHER.

The human genius with the best assistance breaks forth but slowly- and the greatest men have but gradually acquired a just taste and chaste simple conceptions of beauty- At an

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immature age the sense of beauty is weak and confused and requires an excess of colouring to catch the attention- It then prefers extravagance and rant to justness' engaging light of nature and glaring to the fine

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gross false wit to the and the showy rich

and amiable –

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This ។ is the childhood of taste- but as the human genius strengthens and grows to maturity if it be assisted by a happy education the sense of universal beauty awakes it begins to be disgusted with the false and mis-shapen deceptions that pleased before and rests with delight on elegant simplicity on pictures of easy beauty and unaffected grandeur

The progress of the fine arts in the human mind may be fixed at three remarkable degrees from their foundation to the loftiest height- The basis is a sense of beauty and of the sublime second step we may call taste genius 1

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the

and the last

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A sense of the beautiful and of the great is universal which appears from the uniformity thereof in the most distant ages and nations What was engaging and sublime in ancient Greece and Rome is so at this day and as I observed before there is not the least necessityTM of improvement or science to discover the charms of a graceful or noble deportment There is a fine but an ineffectual light in the breast of After nightfall we have admired the planet the beauty and vivacity of her lustre'

man Venus

the immense distance

from which we judged her