How do I know that your reading is correct? For what reason is it that you read this passage in one way, and that in another? Have you any other reason to assign for it than a mere general and indefinite appeal to your own ear or taste? Is this the only ground on which you pretend to teach others to read? If so, then I am entitled to conclude that the real principle of your method, when plainly stated, is nothing more or less than this-Read as I do, without any reason for it. Granting even that the instructor reads well, and that the pupil follows him exactly; the effect of this method can be only transient and limited. When the pupil comes to a second passage, he will be as little able to read that without hearing it read, as he was to read the first before it was read. Or supposing even that he has sufficient discernment to discover which sentences are similar, and therefore reads them correctly, he will still be at a loss when he meets with others of a new construction. In short, this method is quite as ridiculous, as if a man were to attempt to learn the art of Historical Painting by merely copying the works of the great masters, without acquiring any knowledge either of the structure of the human body or the laws of perspective. Though it is of great consequence that good models of reading and speaking should be exhibited to the pupil, these are by no means sufficient to effect the purpose in view. He who would make a good reader of his pupil must not say to him, Read as I do, but, Read according to the rules which I give you. This is the only true method of teaching to read, since it is the only one which can produce an extensive, a certain, and permanent effect.

Were this method to be generally adopted, we should then be gratified much more frequently than we now are with good reading and speaking, both in public and in private. We should then much seldomer have occasion to request our friend to repeat what he has just said; a more correct and elegant manner would be imparted to conversation, and family worship would become infinitely more instructive and impressive than it is to be feared that it now is. Our Senators would then divest themselves of that unpleasant peculiarity of manner which distinguishes most members of parliament; we should have a greater number of good Pleaders at the Bar, and fewer bad speakers on the Stage; and, what is of still more consequence, our Churches and Chapels would then be filled with crowds of attentive and devout worshipers, instead of being, as they now too frequently are, either half empty, or occupied by persons who feel but little of the spirit which the place and the subject are so well fitted to excite.

GRAMMAR OF ELOCUTION.

CHAPTER I.

DEFINITION OF ELOCUTION AND OF THE FIVE ACCIDENTS OF SPEECH. PAUSE.

ELOCUTION, in the modern sense of the term,* is that pronunciation which is given to words when they are arranged into sentences and form discourse. As a part of Rhetoric it relates simply to delivery. Rhetoric, or the art of persuasion, may be considered in three lights, as relating either to the matter of what is delivered, to the style, or to the manner of delivery. In the two former views, it refers to the selection and arrangement of such arguments, illustrations, and language, as are most likely to have the effect of convincing or persuading those whom the

* Cicero uses Elocutio to denote the choice and order of words; and in this sense the term Elocution has been applied by many of our own writers: but it is now generally used to denote oratorical pronunciation or delivery, without any reference whatever to style.

12

THE FIVE ACCIDENTS OF SPEECH.

speaker addresses; in the third it includes the tones of voice, the utterance, and enunciation of the speaker, with the proper accompaniments of countenance and gesture. The art of Elocution, therefore, may be defined to be that system of rules, which teaches us to pronounce written or extemporaneous composition with justness, energy, variety, and ease; and agreeably to this definition, good reading or speaking may be considered as that species of delivery which not only expresses the sense of the words so as barely to be understood, but at the same time gives them all the force, beauty and variety of which they are susceptible.

As there are in written language nine sorts of words, called, in Grammar, parts of speech, so are there in spoken language five accidents, or properties. These five accidents of speech are Pause, Inflection, Quantity, Emphasis, and Force. PAUSE is the interval of silence or rest between words and sentences.

INFLECTION* denotes the turn or slide of the voice either upwards or downwards.

QUANTITY denotes the relative value of sounds, and also of pauses, in duration of time.

EMPHASIS is the stress which distinguishes syllables or words from one another.

* This accident of speech is commonly called Accent, but the term Inflection is here preferred as being less ambiguous.