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of the feelings of the mind by those means which nature has provided, and which she has rendered equally necessary to all her subjects. For example, if we wish to repeat the sentence, Thou art the man,' in a proper manner, we shall have to direct the attention, first to the articulation of the words, and next to the expression of the meaning. Any mispronunciation of the words, will be an offence against the conventional authority, which has settled and imposed them. Any erroneous communication of the meaning, will be the result of a departure from the natural canons of delivery. A sentence like the one just given will admit of" many meanings, according as the natural elements of expression may be used by the person who reads it. We may make it wholly unemphatic, or, if we please, we may speak it as a positive denunciation. It may even be made a question, Thou art the man?' and the question may have any degree of earnestness we may like to give it. It may be read angrily or sorrowfully.. It may have the attention directed to any one of the words in it at pleasure: Thou are the man,' 'Thou art the man,' &c. Any of these changes, (and they are a few only of those which might be enumerated,) are to be effected entirely by the natural modes of expression by the voice and gestures.

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The first step, then, in the gymnastics of Delivery is the acquisition of a perfectly distinct articulation; the second is the obtaining a command over all the other functions of the voice, and over those motions of the body which are useful in supporting their effect. Elocution, in its common sense, does not include the last mentioned item. This is referred to under the head

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of Gesture. In this work, nothing is said of it. The pupil may be referred, after he has mastered the purely elocutionary system given here and in the Grammar, to another little treatise of mine expressly on this subject, which will, I am satisfied, prove useful to any who would put this last finish to their mode of delivery.

With respect to the precise character of the illustrations and exercises contained in the succeeding chapters, it may be of use to add one or two hints to those persons who may honor them by employing them in their teaching. If we are not mistaken, there will be found very few, if any, sentences in the body of this little book, which the pupils will not do well to understand and learn. The explanations may not perhaps be in every case in themselves sufficiently copious to meet the intelligence of some children. They have all been written with a view to careful recitation, and the great effort has throughout been to condense them. Wherever it may be found necessary, the teacher should enlarge on them till they are clearly understood. Nothing can be gained without this. The selection of examples, by which to illustrate the various movements of the voice, has proved no easy task. It has been made on the principle of always giving the pupil trial sentences, of such a character as that their meaning should be readily perceived, and their proper intonation recognised. A greater number might have been advisable, in order to suit the different capacities of various individuals; but such an attempt would have increased the bulk of the work, beyond its reasonable limits. The teacher's ingenuity must be tasked to invent more, on the pattern furnished him. The degree to which he

will be called to exercise it, will be decided by the talents of his class. No movement of the voice should be passed by, till the pupils have obtained a perfect perception of its sound and uses. In many cases one example may suffice; in others, perhaps, several may be needed.

Another point, which must not on any account be lost sight of, is the careful practice of all the prescribed exercises. Practice is the sine qua non of Elocution. If in any department of it, it be omitted, or even slurred over, the inevitable result will be failure. The pupil may have learnt the explanations, and understood them; he may have listened to, and laughed at, the examples; but if he have not practised all the exercises, till he has overcome their difficulties altogether, his own delivery will be but very little improved, however much he may have increased his power of criticising others.

After the pupil has passed through this course of training, and not before, let him be brought to reading. The pieces given in this book may serve as a first selection. They are of very different characters, selected to exemplify all, or nearly all, the different species of reading. It is not intended that the scholars should merely read them through, in the ordinary fashion of schools. Every sentence should be separately analysed, and the class should be required to say what intonation they think the precise idea to be conveyed demands. When this point is decided, let the sentence be read, and repeated till its intonation has become familiar. After every sentence in the piece has been thus gone over, the whole may be then taken up together

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with advantage. The old mode of school reading and declaiming is perhaps worse than useless.

On these principles the author of this little work has uniformly conducted his instruction. Perhaps he may be authorised, without undue presumption, to recommend the adoption of his course to others.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

GRAMMAR OF ELOCUTION.

CHAPTER I.

ON THE VOCAL ELEMENTS.

By the word element we mean the simplest form of anything. Thus, when we speak of the elements of geometry, we mean the truths of that science stated in their simplest form. The elements of algebra or arithmetic are the simplest truths of those sciences. every science, the elements should be first taught.

In

The elements of Elocution are its simplest truths. They are of different kinds.

The first kind of elements are those which we call the vocal elements. In order to speak well, it is first of all necessary to pronounce correctly. Now there is only one effectual way of learning to pronounce distinctly every word in a language; and that is, to acquire by practice the power of giving every simple sound, of which these words may be made up. These simple sounds we call the elements of articulation, or the vocal elements.

Suppose we take the word 'matter' as an example

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