place they inhabited had been free from it till their transgression, the line would run thus: The following examples illustrate the nature and use of the inferior emphasis: "Many persons mistake the love, for the practice of virtue." "Shall I reward his services with falsehood? Shall I forget him who cannot forget me?" "If his principles are false, no apology from himself can make them right: if founded in truth, no censure from others can make them wrong." "Though deep, yet clear; though gentle, yet not dull; "A friend exaggerates a man's virtues; an enemy, his crimes." "The wise man is happy, when he gains his own approbation; the fool, when he gains that of others." The superior emphasis, in reading as in speaking, must be determined entirely by the sense of the passage, and always made alike: but as to the inferior emphasis, taste alone seems to have the right of fixing its situation and quantity. Among the number of persons, who have had proper opportunities of learning to read, in the best manner it is now taught, very few could be selected, who, in a given instance, would use the inferior emphasis alike, either as to place or quantity. Some persons, indeed, use scarcely any degree of it: and others do not scruple to carry it far beyond any thing to be found in common discourse; and even sometimes throw it upon words so very trifling in themselves, that it is evidently done with no other view, than to give greater variety to the modula tion*. Notwithstanding this diversity of practice, there are certainly proper boundaries, within which this emphasis must be restrained, in order to make it meet the approbation of sound judgment and correct taste. It will doubtless have different degrees of exertion, according to the greater or less degree of importance of the words upon which it operates; and there may be very properly some. variety in the use of it: but its application is not arbitrary, depending on the caprice of readers. Emphasis, besides its other offices, is the great regulator of quantity. Though the quantity of our syllables is fixed, in words separately pronounced, yet it is mutable, when these words are ranged in sentences; the long being changed into short, the short into long, according to the importance of the words with regard to meaning: and as it is by emphasis only, that the meaning can be pointed out, emphasis must be the regulator of the quantity. few examples will make this point very evident. Pleas'd thou shalt hear—and learn the secret power, &c. A In the first of these instances, the words pleas'd and hear, being equally emphatical, are both long; whilst the two intermediate words, thou and shalt, being rapidly passed over, as the sense demands, are reduced to a short quantity. * By modulation is meant that pleasing variety of voice, which is perceived in uttering a sentence, and which, in its nature, is perfectly distinct from emphasis, and the tones of emotion and passion. The young reader should be careful to render his modulation correct and easy; and, for this purpose, should form it upon the model of the most judicious and accurate speakers. Z In the second instance, the word that by being the most important, obtains the chief, or rather the sole emphasis; and thus, it is not only restored to its natural long quantity, but obtains from emphasis a still greater degree of length, than when pronounced in its separate state. This greater degree of length, is compensated by the diminution of quantity in the words pleas'd and hear, which are sounded shorter than in the preceding instance. The word shall still continues short. Here we may also observe, that though thou is long in the first part of the verse, it becomes short when repeated in the second, on account of the more forcible emphasis belonging to the word alone, which follows it. In the third instance, the word shall having the emphasis, obtains a long quantity. And though it is impossible to prolong the sound of this word, as it ends in a pure mute, yet in this, as in all similar instances, the additional quantity is to be made out by a rest of the voice, proportioned to the importance of the word. In this instance, we may also observe, that the word shall, repeated in the second part of the line, is reduced again to a short quantity. In the fourth instance, the word hear placed in opposition to the word behold, in the latter part of the line, obtains from the sense the chief emphasis, and a proportionate length. The words thou and shall, are again reduced to short quantities; and the word pleas'd lends some of the time which it possessed, to the more important word hear. From these instances, it is evident, that the quantity of our syllables is not fixed; but governed by emphasis.— To observe a due measurement of time, on all occasions, is doubtless very difficult; but by instruction, attention, and practice, the difficulty may be overcome. Emphasis changes, not only the quantity of words and syllables, but also, in particular cases, the seat of the ac eent. This is demonstrable from the following examples: "He shall increase, but I shall decrease." "There is a difference between giving and forgiving." "In this species of composition, plausibility is much more essential than probability." In these examples, the emphasis requires the accent to be placed on syllables, to which it does not commonly belong. In order to acquire the proper management of the emphasis, the great rule, and indeed the only rule possible to be given, is, that the speaker or reader study to attain a just conception of the force and spirit of the sentiments which he is to pronounce. For to lay the emphasis with exact propriety, is a constant exercise of good sense and attention. It is far from being an inconsiderable attainment. It is one of the greatest trials of a true and just taste; and must arise from feeling delicately ourselves, and from judging accurately, of what is fittest to strike the feelings of others. There is one error, against which it is particularly proper to caution the learner; namely, that of multiplying emphatical words too much. It is only by a prudent reserve in the use of them, that we can give them any weight. If they recur too often; if a speaker or reader attempts to render every thing which he expresses of high importance, by a multitude of strong emphases, we soon learn to pay little regard to them. To crowd every sentence with emphatical words, is like crowding all the pages of a book with italic characters, which, as to the effect, is just the game as to us» no such distinctions at all. Z2 SECTION 4. Of Pauses. Pauses or rests, in speaking and reading, are a total cessation of the voice, during a perceptible, and, in many cases, a measurable space of time. Pauses are equally necessary to the speaker, and the hearer. To the speaker, that he may take breath, without which he cannot proceed far in delivery; and that he may, by these temporary rests, relieve the organs of speech, which otherwise would be soon tired by continued action to the hearer, that the ear also may be relieved from the fatigue, which it would otherwise endure from a continuity of sound; and that the understanding may have sufficient time to mark the distinction of sentences, and their several members. An There are two kinds of pauses: first, emphatical pauses; and next, such as mark the distinctions of the sense. emphatical pause is made, after something has been said of peculiar moment, and on which we desire to fix the hearer's attention. Sometimes, before such a thing is said, we usher it in with a pause of this nature. Such pauses have the same effect as a strong emphasis; and are subject to the same rules; especially to the caution just now given, of not repeating them too frequently. For as they excite uncommon attention, and of course raise expectation, if the importance of the matter is not fully answerable to such expectation, they occasion disappointment and disgust. But the most frequent and the principal use of pauses, is, to mark the divisions of the sense, and at the same time |