Accordingly, little or no care is usually taken, either in schools or in private families, to teach young persons to read well. What is called the "English-master " in most seminaries, is usually a person of very humble qualifications; and for the most part, either contents himself with making his pupils "mind their stops," or else teaches them an affected spout. And the consequence is, that, of men otherwise welleducated, a considerable number are found to have acquired an offensively artificial delivery, and a far greater number, a habit of reading as if they neither felt nor even understood what they read.

Unconscious

imitation of what is faulty.

And even men of good sense and good taste, often acquire, through undesigned and unconscious imitation, an absurd style of reading those passages which they have been from infancy accustomed to hear ill-read by others. To the members of our Church accordingly, the difficulty of reading the Liturgy with spirit, or even with propriety, is greatly enhanced by the long established and inveterate faults to which almost every one's ears are become familiar; so that such a delivery as would shock any one of even moderate taste, in any other composition, he will, in this, be likely to tolerate, and to practise. Some, e. g. in the Litany, read, "have mercy upon us, miserable sinners;" and others, "have mercy upon us, miserable sinners;" both laying the stress on a wrong word, and making the pause in the wrong place, so as to disconnect "us " and "miserable sinners; " which the context requires us to combine. Every one, in expressing his own natural sentiments, would say, "have mercy upon us-miserable-sinners."

Many are apt even to commit so gross an error, as to lay the chief stress on the words which denote the most important

things; without any consideration of the emphatic word of each sentence: e. g. in the Absolution, many read, “let us beseech Him to grant us true repentance; because, forsooth, "true repentance" is an important thing; not considering that, as it has been just mentioned, it is not the new idea, and that to which the attention should be directed by the emphasis; the sense being, that since God pardoneth all that have true repentance, therefore, we should "beseech Him to grant it to us."

In addition to the other difficulties of reading the Liturgy well, it should be mentioned, that prayer, thanksgiving, and the like, even when avowedly not of our own composition, should be delivered as (what in truth they ought to be) the genuine sentiments of our own minds at the moment of utterance; which is not the case with the Scriptures, or with any thing else that is read, not professing to be the speaker's own composition.

Different modes of teach

ing the different points of good

But the department of education I am speaking of, instead of being intrusted to such persons as usually conduct it, is one which calls for the assiduous attention of some one well-qualified in point of good taste and sound judgment. Let young persons be accustomed much to reading aloud to a parent or other teacher thus qualified, and who shall be ready to point out and correct any faults they may commit; and let this be done in strict conformity with the principles above laid down. Let the instructor, accordingly, remember that the pupils' attention is then, and then only, to be called to the sounds uttered, when the fault is one which he would wish corrected (and which indeed he should be ready to correct) in the utterance of ordinary conversation. E. G. many young persons have habits, and such as, not

elocution.

seldom, grow up with them, either of an indistinct pronunciation, which makes the vowels audible, while the consonants are slurred,* or of dropping the voice towards the close of each sentence so as to be nearly inaudible, or of rising into a scream, or of too rapid and hurried an utterance, or of some provincial vulgarity, &c. All such faults should, -as has been said, - be corrected not in reading only, but in ordinary speaking.

But on the other hand, all those faults of delivery, which, though common in reading, do not occur in ordinary speaking, constitute a distinct class, and must be carefully indeed corrected, but in a totally different manner. For hardly any one in ordinary conversation speaks as if he did not understand, or did not really mean, what he is saying. In reference therefore to correct reading, (in respect of the sense,) and impressive reading,—such as shall convey the true import, and full force, of what is said, the appeal must be made to the learner's own mind; and his attention should be drawn from the sound, to the sense of what he is reading. And the instructor should give admonitions, when needed, not, as in the other case, by saying, "You have pronounced that word wrong; pronounce it so and so: or "You read too quick," &c.; but "Read that passage as if you understood it read this suitably to a command, that, to an interrogation, &c. express the scorn the exultation the earnestness, &c. of that passage, as if you were expressing such a feeling of your own in your own words," &c.

That such an exercise as this, under a judicious guide, will have most beneficial results, I am convinced from experience.

* A useful maxim as to this point, is, to "take care of the consonants, and the vowels will take care of themselves."

And if the study of Elocution, thus conducted, were made, as it manifestly ought to be, an indispensable part of a liberal education, I have no doubt that good reading would be no longer the exception, but the rule. For though the method I have been recommending, will not, as I have said, so readily and so easily accomplish its object, as the opposite method does its own object, on the other hand this latter is in reality no benefit at all, but a great evil; while, on the other plan, the student is at least put on the right course, and will be in the way of indefinitely improving himself in after-life.

rote.

Learning by

It is almost superfluous to remark, how utterly at variance with all that I have been here recommending, is the practice of setting children to learn by heart and recite, before they are able to understand, poems, chapters of the Bible, collects, &c., to which they attach little or no meaning, while they repeat the words by rote. A habit of reading in an artificial tone, offensive to those of good taste, and tending to impair the force of what is so read, is one natural result though far from the worst — of such a practice. If any who have been thus brought up are found, in after-life, to have a good elocution, — and, I may add, to have their intellectual and moral powers unimpaired, this must be, not in consequence of such a training, but in spite of it.

*See Appendix [O].

CHAP. III. Considerations arising from the Differences between Reading and Speaking.

$ 1.

SOME additional objections to the method I have recommended, and some further remarks on the counterbalancing advantages of it, will be introduced presently, when I shall have first offered some observations on Speaking, and on that branch of Reading which the most nearly approaches to it.

When any one delivers a written composition, of which he is, or is supposed to profess himself, the author, he has peculiar difficulties to encounter, if his object be to approach as nearly as possible to the extemporaneous style. It is indeed impossible to produce the full effect of that style, while the audience are aware that the words he utters are before him : but he may approach indefinitely near to such an effect; and in proportion as he succeeds in this object, the impression produced will be the greater.

It has been already remarked, how easy it is for the hearers to keep up their attention, indeed, how difficult for them to withdraw

Comparative advantages of written and extemporary ad

dresses.

it, - when they are addressed by one who is really speaking to them in a natural and earnest manner; though perhaps the discourse may be encumbered with a good deal of the repetition, awkwardness of expression, and other faults, incident to extemporaneous language; and though it be prolonged for an hour or two, and yet contain no more matter than a good writer could have clearly expressed in a discourse of half an hour; which last, if read to them, would not, without some effort on their