XXXIX. Religion, XL. Character of Washington, SIR HUMPHRY DAVY 154 MRS. SIGOURNLY 163 XLIII. The Way to make Money Plenty in every Man's Pocket, XLIV. The Rising of the Sun, 170 . FRANKLIN 173 XLV. Address before an Agricultural Society,. STURM 175 S. F. DICKINSON 179 .STURM 184 XLVI. Causes of Heat and Cold, 213 LL. Pocahontas, PERCIVAL 223 JUDGE STORY 214 ANONYMOUS 230 APPENDIX. Variable Orthography, Words of variable Pronunciation, Quotations from other Languages, 232 235 237 OBSERVATIONS ON THE PRINCIPLES OF GOOD READING. THE art of reading with propriety, and speaking gracefully, is a matter of so much utility and importance to man, in the various departments of society, that it is greatly to be regretted so necessary a part of education should be almost totally neglected. That a general inability to read and speak with elegance prevails, is fully evinced both from private and public performances. The source from which this incapacity arises, is either natural or artificial. To read with propriety is a pleasing and important attainment, productive of improvement both to the understanding, and the heart. It is essential to a complete reader, that he minutely perceive the ideas, and enter into the feelings of the author, whose sentiments he professes to repeat; for how is it possible to represent clearly to others, what we have but faint or inaccurate conceptions of ourselves? That the cause of bad reading and speaking is not natural, will appear evident by considering, that there are few persons, if any, who, in private discourse, do not deliver their sentiments with propriety and force, whenever they speak in earnest. Here, then, is an unerring standard fixed for reading and speaking justly and forcibly; which is, to adopt the same easy and natural mode to read and speak publicly, as we use in private conversation. This natural mode would certainly be adopted, were we not, in early life, taught a different way, with tones and cadences, different from those which are used in common conversation; and this artificial method is substituted instead of the natural one, in all performances at school, as well as in reading. To correct, in some degree, this artificial manner, it will be necessary to unfold the real sources of our errors and faults in the art of reading; partly arising from the inattention of instructers, and partly from defects and imperfections in the very art of writing itself. The principal objects to be attained by reading are three: 1. To acquire knowledge. 2. To assist the memory to retain this knowledge, when acquired; and, 3. To communicate it to others. The first two are answered by silent reading; but to communicate knowledge to others, loud reading is ne cessary. To give rules for the management of the voice in reading, by which the necessary pauses, emphasis, and tones, may be discovered and put in practice, is not possible. After all the directions that can be offered on these points, much will remain to be taught by the living instructer: much will be attainable by no other means than the force of example influencing the imitative powers of the learner. Some rules and principles on these heads will, however, be found useful, to prevent erroneous and vicious modes of utterance; to give the young reader some taste of the subject; and to assist him in acquiring a just and ac curate mode of delivery. The observations which we have to make, for these purposes, may be comprised under the following heads: PROPER LOUDNESS OF VOICE; DISTINCTNESS; DUE DEGREE OF SLOWNESS; PROPRIETY OF PRONUNCIATION; EMPHASIS; TONES; PAUSES; and MODE OF Reading verse. PROPER LOUDNESS OF VOICE. The first attention of every person who reads to others, doubtless, must be, to make himself be heard by all those to whom he reads. He must endeavor to fill with his voice the space occupied by the company. This power of voice, it may be thought, is wholly a natural talent. It is, in a great measure, the gift of nature; but it may receive considerable assistance from art. Much depends, for this purpose, on the proper pitch and management of the voice. Every person has three pitches in his voice; the HIGH, the MIDDLE, and the Low one. The high, is that which he uses in calling aloud to some person at a distance. The low is, when he approaches to a whisper. The middle is, that which he employs in common conversation, and which he should generally use in reading to others. It is a great mistake to imagine that one must take the highest pitch of his voice, in order to be well heard in a large company. This is confounding two things which are different, loudness or strength of sound, with the key or note on which we speak. There is a variety of sound within the compass of each key. A speaker may, therefore, render his voice louder, without altering the key: and we shall always be able to give most body, most persevering force of sound, to that pitch of voice, to which, in conversation, we are accustomed. Whereas, by setting out on our highest pitch or key, we certainly allow ourselves less compass, and are likely to strain our voice before we have done. We shall fatigue ourselves, and read with pain; and, whenever a person speaks with pain to himself, he is always neard with pain by his audience. DISTINCTNESS. In the next place, to being well heard and clearly understood, distinctness of articulation contributes more than mere loudness of sound. The quantity of sound necessary to fill even a large space, is smaller than is commonly imagined; and, with distinct articulation, a person with a weak voice will make it reach farther, than the strongest voice can reach without it. To this, therefore, every reader ought to pay great attention. He must give every sound which he utters, its due proportion; and make every syllable, and even every letter in the word which he pronounces, be heard distinctly; without slurring, whispering, or suppressing any of the proper sounds. DUE DEGREE OF SLOWNESS. In order to express ourselves distinctly, moderation is requisite with regard to the speed of pronouncing. Precipitancy of speech confounds all articula tion, and all meaning. It is scarcely necessary to observe, that there may be also an extreme on the opposite side. It is obvious that a lifeless, drawling manner of reading, which allows the minds of the hearers to be always outrunning the speaker, must render every such performance insipid and fatiguing. But the extreme of reading too fast is much more common, and requires the more to be guarded against, because, when it has grown into a habit, few errors are more difficult to be corrected. To pronounce with a proper degree of slowness, and with full and clear articulation, is necessary to be studied by all, who wish to become good readers: and it can not be too much recommended to them. PROPRIETY OF PRONUNCIATION. After the fundamental attention to the pitch and management of the voice, to distinct articulation, and to a proper degree of slowness of speech, what the young reader must, in the next place, study, is propriety of pronunciation; or, giving to every word which he utters, that sound which the best usage of the language appropriates to it, in opposition to broad, vulgar, affected, or provincial pronunciation. This is requisite both for reading intelligibly, and for reading with correctness and ease. Instructions concerning this article may be best given by the teacher. But there is one observation, which it may not be improper here to make. In the English language, every word which consists of more syllables than one, has one accented syllable. The accents rest sometimes on the vowel, sometimes on the consonant. The genius of the language requires the voice to mark that syllable by a stronger percussion, and to pass more slightly over the rest. By attentively consulting "Walker's Critical Pronouncing Dictionary," the young reader will be much assisted in his endeavors to attain a correct pronunciation of the words belonging to the English language. EMPHASIS. By emphasis is meant a full and stronger sound of voice, by which we distinguish some word or words, on which we design to lay particular stress, and to show how they affect the rest of the sentence. Sometimes the emphatic words must be distinguished by a particular tone of voice, as well as by a particular stress. On the right management of the emphasis depends the life of pronunciation. If no emphasis be placed on any words, not only is discourse rendered heavy and lifeless, but the meaning often left ambiguous. If the emphasis be placed wrong, we pervert and confound the meaning wholly. Emphasis may be divided into the SUPERIOR and the INFERIOR emphasis. The superior emphasis determines the meaning of a sentence, with reference to something said before, presupposed by the author as general knowledge, or removes an ambiguity, where a passage may have more senses than one. The inferior emphasis, enforces, graces, and enlivens, but does not fix, the meaning of any passage. The words to which this latter emphasis is given, are, in general, such as seem the most important in the sentence, or, on other accounts, to merit this distinction. The following passage will serve to exemplify the superior emphasis: "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste Brought death into the world, and all our wo," &c. Supposing that originally other beings, besides men, had disobeyed the commands of the Almighty, and that the circumstances were well known to us, there would fall an emphasis upon the word man's in the first line; and hence it would read thus: "Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit," &c. But if it were a notorious truth, that mankind had transgressed in a peculiar manner more than once, the emphasis would fall on first; and the line be read, "Of man's first disobedience," &c. Again; admitting death (as was really the case) to have been an unheard of and dreadful punishment, brought upon man in consequence of his transgression; on that supposition the third line would be read, "Brought death into the world," &c. But if we were to suppose that mankind knew there was such an evil as death in other regions, though the place they inhabited had been free from it till their transgression, the line would run thus: "Brought death into the world," &c. The superior emphasis finds place in the following short sentence, which admits of four distinct meanings, each of which is ascertained by the empha is only. "Do you ride to town to-day ?" 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. As emphasis often falls on words in different parts of the same sentence, so it is frequently required to be continued with a little variation, on two, and sometimes more words together. The following sentences exemplify both the parts of this position: "If you seek to make one rich, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires." "The Mexican figures, or picture writing, represent things, not words: they exhibit images to the eye, not ideas to the understanding." Some sentences are so full and comprehensive, that almost every word is emphatical: as, "Ye hills and dales, ye rivers, woods, and plains!" or, as that pathetic expostulation in the prophecy of Ezekiel, "Why will ye die !" 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 arranged in sentences; the long being changed into short, the short into long, according to the importance of the word with regard to meaning. Emphasis also, in particular cases, alters the seat of the accent. 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. TONES. Tones are different both from emphasis and pauses; consisting in 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 constant state of activity, emotion, or agitation, from the different effects which those ideas produce in the speaker. The limits of this introduction do not admit of examples to illustrate the variety of tones belonging to the different passions and emotions. We shall, however, select one, which is extracted from the beautiful lamentation of David over Saul and Jonathan, and which will, in some degree, elucidate what has been said on this subject. "The beauty of Israel is slain upon ny high places: how are the mighty fallen! Tell it not in Gath, publish it not in the streets of Askelon; lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. Ye mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew, neither let there be rain upon you, nor fields of offerings: for there the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away, the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil." The first of these divisions expresses sorrow and lamentation: therefore the note is low. The next contains a spirited command, and should be pronounced much higher. The other sentence, in which he makes a pathetic address to the mountains where his friends had been slain, must be expressed in a note quite different from the former two; not as low as the first, or as high as the second, in a manly, firm, and yet plaintive tone. PAUSES OR STOPS. Pauses or rests, in speaking or 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 can not 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 |