PAUSE.

Pauses are necessary, not only to take breath, but in order to give the hearer a more clear perception of the meaning of each clause and sentence, and a more perfect understanding of the whole passage..

The length of the pause can not in any case be determined by rules. There are, however, a few general principles which may be safely observed: one is, that the pause should be in proportion to the rate of utterance, the pause being comparatively long when the utterance is slow, and short when it is quick. They should correspond in frequency and duration with those that we make when we express ourselves in ordinary, animated, or in serious conversation, and not in any formal or artificial manner. Although there is a measure for words in poetry, there is no measure for pauses.

The pauses that are made in the natural flow of speech have no definite and invariable proportion. Every word or group of words conveying a distinct idea should be followed by a pause. In the natural flow of conversation we notice pauses of various lengths-some scarcely perceptible, others long enough for the speaker to take breath, others much longer.

The Grammatical Pauses, indicated by punctuation marks, are not a sufficient guide to the reader, either as to when or how long he ought to pause. A good reader will frequently pause where no grammarian would insert a point.

The Rhetorical Pause consists in suspending the voice, either directly before or directly after, or both before and after, the utterance of a word that is intended to be very significant or expressive.

The pause before the word awakens curiosity and excites. expectation; after the word, it carries the mind back to what has already been said. A pause of greater or less

duration is always necessary wherever an interruption occurs in the progress of thought, or in the construction of the sentence, as in the case of the dash, the exclamation, etc. In these cases the action of the mind is supposed to be checked or arrested by the sudden change of sentiment or passion.

All the examples given for practice in antithesis, climax, exclamation, interrogation, or under any of the rules, are suitable passages for exercise in the pause.

MOVEMENT.

Movement, or the rapidity with which the voice moves in speech, will necessarily vary with the nature of the thought, sentiment, and emotion which prompts the utterance. It should, however, never move so slowly that those who listen can anticipate what is about to be said, nor so rapidly that some of the words spoken are indistinctly heard. Both are serious faults, but the latter much the worse. Practice will enable even those who are very slow of speech to speak with great rapidity, and yet, at the same time, to be perfectly distinct. The rate of utterance in reading or speaking should be increased or diminished as sound judgment and correct taste may direct.

"Learn to speak slow; all other graces
Will follow in their proper places;

And while thus slowly onward you proceed,
Study the meaning of whate'er you read."

A very rapid utterance, especially at the beginning of a discourse or a reading, is almost certain to lead the speaker into a high pitch, an artificial tone, and a strained, unnatural manner of delivery, and has a tendency to produce a kind of nervous excitement, which, at the same time,

tends to confound memory, confuses thought, and often causes distressing embarrassment. The ability to change. the rate of utterance with perfect ease and naturalness, from the most slow and solemn to the most rapid and excited movement, is essential to the accomplished reader and the eloquent speaker.

EXERCISES IN MOVEMENT.

Select a passage and deliver it very slowly, taking special care to avoid every thing like drawling. Read the same passage again, with a slight increase of movement. Continue to repeat the passage with gradually increasing rapidity, until you can speak no faster without becoming somewhat indistinct. Having done this, repeat the same passage more and more slowly, until you again obtain the slowest movement. While increasing the rate of utterance, take care not to let the voice run into a high key. Keep it in the same key, as near as you can, and do not at any time speak indistinctly.

Although there are a great many shades or degrees of difference in movement, between very slow and very fast, yet five are as many as the pupil needs to observe in exercises in movement. These may be named very slow, slow, moderate, rapid and very rapid. In uncontrollable and intense excitement, the rate in which words are uttered is very rapid, and the pervading quantity is short. In solemnity, adoration, and other deep feelings of our nature, the pervading quantity is very long and the movement of the voice is very slow.

The examples given in short quantity are suited for practice in rapid and very rapid movement; those in long quantity, are equally adapted for practice in slow and very slow movement. Continue to exercise in movement until words can be uttered distinctly, forcibly, and with ease at the rate of three hundred words a minute.

EXAMPLES IN SLOW MOVEMENT.

1. In vain I seek from out the past
Some cherished wreck to save;
Affection, feeling, hope are dead-
My heart is its own grave.

2. Come to the bridal chamber, Death!
Come to the mother, when she feels,
For the first time, her first-born's breath;
Come, when the blessèd seals

That close the pestilence are broke,
And crowded cities wail its stroke;
Come in consumption's ghastly form,
The earthquake's shock-the ocean storm;
Come when the heart beats high and warm
With banquet song and dance and wine:
And thou art terrible;-the tear,

The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,
And all we know, or dream, or fear

Of agony, are thine.

3. Be ye patient! I have but a few more words to say. I am going to my cold and silent grave; my lamp of life is nearly extinguished; my race is run; the grave opens to receive me, and I sink into its bosom! I have but one request to make at my departure from this world, it is the charity of silence! Let no man write my epitaph: for, as no man who knows my motives dare now vindicate them, let not prejudice or ignorance asperse them. Let them and me repose in obscurity and peace, and my tomb remain uninscribed, until other times and other men can do justice to my character. When my country takes her place among the nations of the earth, then, and not till then, let my epitaph be written. I have done.

EXAMPLES IN QUICK MOVEMENT.

1. Where's Harry Blount? Fitz-Eustace, where?
Linger ye here, ye hearts of hare?
Redeem my pennon-charge again,

Cry Marmion to the rescue! '—Vain!

To Dacre bear my signet-ring:

Tell him his squadrons up to bring.

Let Stanley charge, with spur of fire,
With Chester charge and Lancashire,
Full upon Scotland's central host,
Or victory and England's lost!

Must I bid twice? hence, varlets, fly!
Slowly. Leave Marmion here alone to die!

2. Ah! what is that flame, which now bursts on his eye?
Ah! what is that sound that now larums his ear?
'Tis the lightning's red glare, painting hell on the sky!
'Tis the crash of the thunder, the groans of the sphere!
He springs from his hammock-he flies to the deck;

Amazement confronts him with images dire—
Wild winds and mad waves drive the vessel a wreck-
The masts fly in splinters-the shrouds are on fire!
3. Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide,
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height. Now on you noblest English,
Whose blood is fetched from fathers of war-proof;
Fathers, that like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn to even fought,
And sheathed their swords for lack of argument:
Be copy now to men of grosser blood,
And teach them how to war!

PARENTHESIS.

A Parenthesis is an explanatory clause unnecessary both to the construction and sense of the paragraph in which it is found. Generally the parenthetical clause should be spoken much more rapidly, and in a lighter tone, than the other parts of the sentence in which it occurs. When the parenthesis is in the middle of a sentence, it should always be preceded and followed by a pause. The facial expression and manner of the reader must change as he passes from the most important to the subordinate clauses, or from the subordinate to the important.

K. N. E.-7.