The National Preceptor

A little practice, it is believed, will give the reader a perfect command of his voice in all the degrees of tone from the lowest to the highest notes to which the voice can be raised.

ACCENT. Accent is a stress of voice given to a particular syllable to distinguish it from others in the same word; as in the word a-tone'-ment, the stress is laid on the second syllable. Accent is, in a measure, dependent on emphasis, and is transposed where the claims of emphasis require it; as when words occur, which have a partial sameness in form, but are contrasted in sense; as,

Neither jústice nor injustice.
Neither honor nor dishonor.
He must increase but I must decrease.
He that ascended is the same as be that dèscended
Neither lauful nor unlawful.
Neither worthy nor unworthy.

EMPHASIS. Emphasis is a stress of voice laid on particular words in a sentence, to distinguish them from others, and convey their meaning in the best man. ner; as, “ You were not sent here to play, but to study." The learner will perceive that the words play and study are pronounced with more force than the rest of the sentence, and are therefore termed the emphatical words.

A word, on which the meaning of a sentence is suspended, or placed in contrast, or in opposition to other words, is always emphatical.

As to the degree or intensity of force that the reader or-speaker should give to important words in a sentence, no particular rules can be given. He must enter into the spirit of what he reads—feel the sentiment expressed, and he will seldom fail in giving each word its proper force, or emphatic stress. Emphasis is ever associated with thought and emotion ; and he who would become eminent as a reader, or speaker, must remember that the “ soul of eloquence is foeling."

EXAMPLES FOR EXERCISE.
I do not request your attention, but demand it.
It is not so difficult to talk well, as to live well.
Prosperity gains friends, adversity tries them.

"Tis hard to say, if greater want of skill

Appear in uriting or in judging ill.
Angels! and ministers of grace,-defend us.
I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.

A METHOD OF MARKING THE DIFFERENT FORCES OF WORDS. Various methods have been devised to mark the different forces of words in sentences, in such a manner as to convey a clear idea of the pronunciation. The most simple and practical method is to unite the unaccented words to those that are accented, as if they were syllables of them. This classification naturally divides a sentence into just so many portions, as it contains accents; as in the following sentence :

Prosperity I gains friends | and adversity I tries them. When there is no uncommon emphasis in a sentence, we can pronounce i with more or fewer accents, without materially affecting the sense. The following sentence may be pronounced in four portions, or in ten, without
any injury to the sense of it.

Pitchuponthátcourseoflife / whichisthemostexcellent andcustom | will
makeitthemostdelightful.

Some place the bliss ( in action / some , in ease.

Those call it pleasure and contentment, these.
The following extract from the poems of Ossian is inserted as scored
by Dr. Rush:

And is the son of Semo fallen? | Mournful are Tura's walls. / Sorrow
dwells at Dunscai. | Thy spouse is left alone in her youth. The son of
thy love is alone! | 'He shall come to Bragela, | and ask why she weeps ?

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