Слике страница
PDF
ePub

But how happens it, that while few are insensible to the charms of a good elocution, we find so many bad readers and speakers, even among those who are esteemed well educated? No doubt, in the majority of cases, the cause can be traced to a defective mode of early instruction; or perhaps to the misfortune of falling, at a later period, into the hands of a conceited elocutionist.

Children, in their first attempts to read, find great difficulty in making out the right pronunciation of the separate words; they are necessarily so intent upon this, as almost wholly to lose sight of connection, sense, and sentiment; and thus they contract a habit, which is apt to abide long after the cause that produced it has ceased to operate. Hence we may see how important it is to keep children to the same reading lesson, till it is rendered so familiar, that they can speak the words with ease, and connect them with the appropriate colloquial utterance; and also to limit their attention to subjects suited to their comprehension, their tastes, and feelings. To put them to lessons above their comprehension is the most direct way to induce habits of reading wholly artificial; each separate word may have the right pronunciation; but the spirit of a just utterance will not be

there.

These lessons, the result of much experience, much study and care, are intended to meet what seem to be the special wants of the pupil; and, like a kind and judicious friend, to take him, as it were, by the hand; to help him to correct whatever is found to be faulty, to guard him against whatever is fanciful, or conceited; and to lead him on, by a gentle, plain, and natural

course of instruction, to the attainment of an easy, manly, and graceful elocution.

As a

Elocution is simply an appropriate utterance. science, its office is to teach an easy, correct, and expressive manner of speaking; whether in conversation, in speaking in public, or in reading aloud to others. It comes from two Latin words-ex, signifying from, or out of, and loquor, to speak: it means to speak out distinctly and impressively, from right thoughts and feelings, in the most becoming manner.

LESSON II.

READING AND PUNCTUATION.

THE first object of the reader or speaker should be to graduate the force of his utterance to the space necessary to be reached, so as to make every word plainly audible to the persons addressed: that is, to speak just loud enough to be heard with ease, and no louder, unless to give prominence to some particular thought; and to pronounce with such distinctness, that not a word can be misapprehended, or mistaken for any other than the very word he designs to utter; and, at the same time, so as to avoid all harshness of tone cr vociferation, and every appearance of preciseness and formality.

It is well ever to bear in mind, that reading aloud, as well as talking and speaking in public, is for the ears of others; and that the special characteristic of good

utterance is to present the words with as much distinctness to the ear of the hearer, as the fairly written or printed page does to the eye of the reader.

Pains must be taken also, not only to deliver the words distinctly and audibly, but with just such pause, quantity, inflection, tone, emphasis, and cadence; and to vary them with just such a degree of slowness or quickness, as will best convey the sense, and be most agreeable to the ear. And here again we must look to colloquial utterance as the best illustration.

In the natural flow of conversation, we perceive pauses of various lengths-some scarcely perceptible, others long enough to afford the speaker time to breathe, others much longer; nearly all accompanied with different tones and inflections of the voice; and it is needless perhaps to say, that all these must be fully copied in reading.

The points used in printing are called punctuation. They divide a printed or written discourse into distinct parts, just as they happen to be more or less separated in sense, and they afford to the reader a partial guide for pauses. These are called the comma (,), semicolon (;), colon ( : ), period ( . ), paragraph ( . ), interrogation (?), exclamation (!), dash (-), and parenthesis ( ).

The (,) is a curved dot; the ( ;) is a dot with a comma under it; the (:) is two dots, one over the other; the (.) is one dot; the paragraph generally ends with a period, and is distinguished from it by a break in the line after it, and the next line beginning farther from the margin; the (?) resembles the figure (5) inverted; the (!) resembles the letter (i) in

a

little

verted; the (-) is a horizontal line, longer than the hyphen; and the () is two curved lines, pointing towards each other.

Of all the pauses indicated by these points, the comma is the shortest: some fix it at a second of time, or while one syllable can be uttered; the semicolon, double that of the comma; the colon, double that of the semicolon; the period, double that of the colon, and the paragraph nearly double that of the period. The pause of the interrogation and exclamation may be varied to equal that of the comma, the semicolon, colon, period, or paragraph: the paragraph may also be terminated by the interrogation or exclamation. The dash requires a pause longer or shorter according to the sense, and the parenthesis, unattended by any other point, needs but a slight pause. But the sense often requires innumerable variations from the above scale.

The interrogation is used at the end of a question; as, What are you reading? The exclamation, after a word or words expressing some emotion; as, What folly! what wickedness for youth to waste so much precious time! How fleeting is life!

The dash is used to indicate a sudden interruption, or a sudden change of thought it is used sometimes to give a marked prominence to the word or clause that follows; also to show an ellipsis, or blank; or to intimate that what follows is an explanation of what came before; and some writers use it for the parenthesis.

The parenthesis includes a passage or phrase inserted in the body of a sentence, not necessary to the construction, though it may be to the sense; as, Pride (I use the

words of a sacred writer) was not made for man: the passage so inserted is also called a parenthesis; and, in reading, should be run through more quickly, and in a modulated tone; so that its beginning and its end may be distinctly marked.

A paragraph contains one distinct subject; and may consist of one or more sentences. It begins a little farther from the left margin, and generally ends with a break in the line. In the old style of printing, every paragraph was denoted by a blotted P reversed (¶ ) ; but this mark is retained now only in the Bible.

A sentence is a simple enunciation of thought: it begins with a capital letter, and generally ends with a period; and the sentence itself is also called a period. A simple sentence contains but one subject, and one finite verb; as, John reads. A compound sentence is two or more simple sentences, joined by conjunctions, adverbs or relative pronouns, either expressed or understood; as, Wisdom's ways are the ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

LESSON III.

PAUSES UNNOTED BY POINTS "DIVISIONS OF SENSE"-BARS—SYLLABLES

ACCENTS QUANTITY.

BESIDES those pauses denoted by grammatical punctua tion-which are always strictly to be regarded a good reader makes nearly as many others, though generally

« ПретходнаНастави »