ride out into the country." «Do you ride to town to-day?" «No, but we shall to-morrow?"

The emphasis is often laid on the word which asks a question: as, ce Who said so?" When will he come?"

And when two words are seen in contrast, or in opposition to one another, they are both emphatick: as, He is the ty rant, not the father, of his people."

The emphatick accent is simple or complex. Simple when it points out the plain meaning of any proposition: as, And Nathan said to David, thou art the man. 'Tis complex when besides the meaning, it marks some affection or emotion of the mind; or gives a meaning to words, which they would not have in their usual acceptions: as, Why will ye die!"

N. B. The different variations of emphatiek accent should not only make known the various sentiments of the person who speaks, but likewise the figures of speech, which would exceed the bounds prescribed here. Wherefore I shall close this part of prosody ty saying with P. Buffier, that & Where grammar ends, rhetorick begins."

CHAPTER II.

OF QUANTITY.

The quantity of a syllable is that time which is occupied in pronouncing it. It is considered as long or short. A vowel or syllable is long, when the accent is on the vowel, which occasions it to be slowly joined in pronunciation with the following letters as: "Tall, bale, mood, house, feature.

The syllable is short, when the accent is on the consonant; which occasions the vowel to be quickly joined to the succeeding letter: as" art, bonnet, hunger."

A long syllable requires double the time of a short one in the pronunciation of it; as, "fat, fate not, note."

Unaccented syllables are generally short: admire, boldness,

sinner.

But to this rule there are many exceptions, as also, exile, gángrene, úmpire."

When the accent is on a semi-vowel, the time of the syllable may be protracted, by dwelling upon the semi-vowel: as, our,

can, fulfill: but when the accent falls on a mute, the syllable cannot be lengthened in the same manner: as, búbble, cáptain, tótter, &c.

Though the quantity of our syllables is fixed in words seperately 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, the emphatick accent must be the regulator of the quantity. For example:

Pleased thou shalt hear-and learn the secret power......

In this example, the words pleased and hear, being both emphatical, must also be long; whilst the two intermediate words, thou and shalt, being rapidly passed over, as the sense requires, are reduced to the short quantity. But if I

say:

Pleased thou shalt hear-and thou alone shalt hear..........

In this example, the word thou, 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 diminuition of quantity in the words pleased and hear, which are sounded shorter than in the preceding instance. Observe also, that thou which is long in the first part of the verse, becomes short when repeated in the second, on account of the more forcible emphasis belonging to the word alone, which follows it.

Pleased thou shalt hear-in spite of them shalt hear................ In this instance the shalt becomes long as being the emphatick one, but as this word finishes in a mute, its pronunciation cannot be lenghtened; therefore the additional quantity in this and the like cases, is made up by a rest of the voice proportioned to the importance of the word. Here we may observe that shalt, repeated in the second part of the line, is reduced a gain to a short quantity.

1

Pleased thou shalt hear, though not behold the fair.................. As in this instance hear is opposed to behold, it must take the emphasis, by which means it becomes long: while thou and shalt are short.

What the word hear gains in quantity is lost by pleased; se that the time required in the verse is neither increased nor decreased by this transposing manner of the parts which constitute the phrase.

CHAPTER III.

OF PAUSES.

Pauses or rests, in speaking and reading, are a total cessation of the voice, during a perceptible, and, in some cases, a measurable space of time. Pauses are equally necessary to the speaker, and, the reader. 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.

There are two kinds of pauses: the first, emphatical pauses ; and next, such as mark the distinction of the sense. An 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, to allow the speaker to draw his breath; and the proper and delicate adjusment of such pauses, is one of the most nice and difficult articles of deli

very.

In all reading and public speaking, the management of the breath requires a good deal of eare, so as not to oblige us to divide words from one another, which have so intimate a connexion, that they ought to be pronounced with the same breath, and without the least separation. Many a sentence is miserably mangled. and the force of the emphasis totally lost, by divisions being made in the wrong place. To avoid this, every one, while he is speaking or reading, should be very careful to provide a full supply of breath for what he is to utter. 'Tis a great mistake to imagine that the breath must be drawn only at the end of a period, when the voice is allowed to fall. It may easily be gathered at the intervals of the period, when the voice is

only suspended for a moment; and by this management, one may always have a sufficient stock for carrying on the longest sentence, without improper interruptions.

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Pauses in reading and public discours which we uiter ourselves in ordinary, sensible conversation; and not upon the stiff artificial manner which we acquire, from reading books according to the common punctuation. It will by no means be sufficient to attend to the points used in printing; for these are far from marking all the pauses which ought to be made in speaking. A mechanical attention to these resting places, has perhaps been one cause of monotony, by leading the reader to a similar tone at every stop, and a uniform cadence at every period. The primary use of points is, to assist the reader in discerning the grammatical construction: and, 'tis only as a secondary object, that they regulate his pronunciation. To render pauses pleasing and expressive, they must not only be made in the right place, but also accompanied with a proper tone of voice, by which the nature of these pauses is animated; much more than by the length of them, which can seldom be exactly measured. Sometimes it is only a slight and simple suspension of voice that is proper; and sometimes a degree of cadence in the voice is required; and sometimes that peculiar tone and cadence which denote the sentence to be finished. In all these cases we are to regulate ourselves, by attending to the manner in which nature teaches us to speak, when engaged in earnest and real discourse with others.

It is a general rule, that the suspending pause should be used when the sense is incomplete; and the closing pause, when it is finished.

But there are phrases, in which though the sense is not completed, the voice takes the closing, rather than the suspending pause: and others, in which the sentence finishes by the pause of suspension. The closing pause must not be confounded with that fall of the voice, or cadence, with which many readers uniformly fi

nish a sentence.

Nothing is more destructive of propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and inflexions of the voice at the close of a sentence, ought to be diversified, according to the general nature of the discourse, and the particular construction and meaning of the sen

tence.

In plan narrative, and especially in argumentation, a small attention to the manner in which we relate a fact, or maintain an argument in conversation, will show, that it is frequently more proper to raise the voice, than to fall it, at the end of a sentence. Some sentences are so constructed, that the last words require a stronger emphasis than any of the preceding; while others admit of being closed with a soft and gentle sound. Where there is

nothing in the sense which requires the last sound to be elevated snow that the sense is finished, will be proper. And in pathetic pieces, especially those of the plaintive, tender, or solemn kind, the tone of the passion will often require a still greater cadence of the ce. The best method of correcting a uniform cadence is frequently to read select sentences, in which the style is pointed, and in which antitheses are frequently indroduced, and argumentive pieces, or such as abound with interrogatives, or earnest exclamation.

CHAPTER IV.

voi.

OF TONES.

nous manner "

Tones are different both from emphasis and pauses; consisting in the modulation of the voice, the notes or variations of sound which we employ in the expression of our sentiments. Emphasis affects particular words and phrases with a degree of tone or inflection of voice; but tones, peculiarly so called, affect sentences, paragraphs, and sometimes even the whole of a discourse. To show the use and necessity of tones, we need only observe, that the mind, in communicating its ideas, is in a continual state of activity, emotion or agitation, from the different effects which those ideas produce in the speaker. Now the end of such communication being, not merely to lay open the ideas, but also the different feelings which they excite in him who utters them, there must be other signs than words, to manifest those feelings; as words uttered in a monotocan represent only a similar state of mind, perfectly free from all activity or emotion. As the communication of these internal feelings, was of much more consequence in our social intercourse, than the mere conveyance of ideas, the Author of our being did not, as in that conveyance, leave the invention of the language of emotion to man; but impressed it himself upon our nature in the same manner as he has done with regard to the rest of the animal world; all of which express their various feelings, by various tones. Ours, indeed, from the superior rank that we hold, are in a high digree more comprehensive as there is not an act of the mind, an exertion of the fancy, or an emotion of the heart, which has not its peculiar tone, or note of the voice, by which it is to be expressed, and which is suited exactly to the degree of internal feeling. It is chiefly in the proper use of these tones, that the life, spirit, beauty and harmony of delivery

consist.

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