Do

we pervert and confound the meaning wholly. To give a common inftance; fuch a fimple question as this: "Do you ride to town to-day?" is capable of no fewer than four different acceptations, according as the emphafis is differently placed on the words. If it be pronounced thus: Do you ride to town to-day? the answer may naturally be, No; I fend my fervant in my ftead. If thas; Do you ride to town to-day? Answer, No; I intend to walk. you ride to town to-day? No; I ride out into the fields. Do you ride to town to-day? No; but I fhall to-morrow. In like manner, in folemn difcourfe, the whole force and beauty of an expreffion often depend on the accented word; and we may present to the hearers quite different views of the fame fentiment, by placing the emphafis differently. In the following words of our Saviour, obferve in what different lights the thought is placed, ac cording as the words are pronounced. "Judas, betrayeft thou the Son of Man with a kiss?" Betrayeft thou-makes the reproach turn, on the infamy of treachery. -Betrayelt thou-makes it reft, upon Judas's connection with his master. Betrayeft thou the Son of Man-refts it, upon our Saviour's perfonal character and eminence. Betrayeft thou the Son of man with a kifs? turns it upon his proftituting the fig nal of peace and friendship, to the purpofe of a mark of destruction.

In order to acquire the proper management of the emphafis, the great rule, and indeed the only rule poffible to be given, is, that the speaker ftudy to attain a juft conception of the force and fpirit of thofe fentiments which he is to pronounce. For to lay the emphasis with exact propriety, is a conftant exercife of good fenfe and attention. It is far from being an inconfiderable attainment. It is one of the greatest trials of a true and just taste; and muft arife from feeling delicately ourfelves, and from judging accurately of what is fitteft to ftrike the feelings of others. There is as great a difference between a chapter of the Bible, or any other piece of plain profe, read by one who places the feveral emphafes every where with tafte and judgment, and by one who neglects or mistakes them, as there is between the fame tune played by the most masterly hand, or by the most bungling performer.

In all prepared difcourfes, it would be of great ufe, if they were read over or

rehearfed in private, with this particular view, to fearch for the proper emphases before they were pronounced in public; marking, at the fame time, with a pen, the emphatical words in every fentence, or at least the most weighty and affecting parts of the difcourfe, and fixing them well in memory. Were this attention oftener bestowed, were this part of pronunciation ftudied with more exactness, and not left to the moment of delivery, as is commonly done, public fpeakers would find their care abundantly repaid, by the remarkable effects which it would produce upon their audience. Let me caution, at the fame time, against one error, that of multiplying emphatical words too much. It is only by a prudent referve in the use of them, that we can give them any weight. If they recur too often; if a fpeaker attempts to render every thing which he fays of high importance, by a multitude of ftrong emphafes, we foon learn to pay little regard to them. To crowd every fentence with emphatical words, is like crowding all the pages of a book with italic characters, which, as to the effect, is juft the fame with ufing no fuch diftinctions at all.

Next to emphafis, the Paufes in speaking demand attention. These are of two kinds; first, emphatical paufes; and next, fuch as mark the diftinétions of fenfe. An emphatical paufe is made, after fomething has, been faid of peculiar moment, and on which we want to fix the hearer's attention. Sometimes, before fuch a thing is faid, we usher it in with a pause of this nature. Such paufes have the fame effect as a strong emphafis, and are fubject to the fame rules; especially to the caution juft now given, of not repeating them too frequently. For, as they excite uncommon attention, and of course raife expectation, if the importance of the matter be not fully answerable to fuch expectation, they occafion difappointment and difguft.

But the most frequent and the principal ufe of paufes, is to mark the divifions of the fenfe, and at the fame time to allow the fpeaker to draw his breath; and the proper and graceful adjustment of fuch paufes, is one of the moft nice and difficult articles in delivery. In all public speaking, the management of the breath requires a good deal of care, so as not to be obliged to divide words from one another, which have fo intimate a connection, that they ought to be pronounced with the

fame

fame breath, and without the leaft feparation. Many a fentence is miferably mangled, and the force of the emphafis totally loft, by divifions being made in the wrong place. To avoid this, every one, while he is fpeaking, fhould be very careful to provide a full fupply of breath for what he is to utter. It is a great miftake to imagine, that the breath must be drawn only at the end of a period, when the voice is allowed to fall. It may eafily be gathered at the intervals of the period, when the voice is only fufpended for a moment; and, by this management, one may have always a fufficient ftock for carrying on the longest sentence, without improper interruptions.

If any one, in public fpeaking, fhall have formed to himself a certain melody or tune, which requires reft and paufes of its own, diftinct from those of the fenfe, he has, undoubtedly, contracted one of the worst habits into which a public fpeaker can fall. It is the fenfe which thould always rule the paufes of the voice; for wherever there is any fenfible fufpenfion of the voice, the hearer is always led to expect fomething correfponding in the meaning. Paufes in public difcourfe, muft be formed upon the manner in which we utter ourselves in ordinary, fenfible converfation; and not upon the stiff, artificial manner which we acquire from reading books according to the common punctuation. The general run of punctuation is very arbitrary; often capricious and false; and dictates an uniformity of tone in the pauses, which is extremely difagreeable: for we are to obferve, that to render paufes graceful and expreffive, they must not only be made in the right place, but also be accompanied with a proper tone of voice, by which the nature of these paufes is intimated; much more than by the length of them, which can never be exactly meafured. Sometimes it is only a flight and fimple fufpenfion of voice that is proper; fometimes a degree of cadence in the voice is required; and fometimes, that peculiar tone and cadence, which denotes the fentence finished. In all these cafes, we are to regulate ourselves, by attending to the manner in which nature teaches us to speak when engaged in real and earneft difcourfe with others.

When we are reading or reciting verfe, there is a peculiar difficulty in making the paufes juftly. The difficulty arifes from the melody of verfe, which dictates to the

ear paufes or refts of its own; and to adjuft and compound thefe properly with the paufes of the fenfe, fo as neither to hurt the ear, nor offend the understanding, is so very nice a matter, that it is no wonder we fo feldom meet with good readers of poetry. There are two kinds of paufes that belong to the mufic of verfe; one is, the paufe at the end of the line; and the other, the cafural pause in the middle of it. With regard to the paufe at the end of the line, which marks that strain or verse to be finished, rhyme renders this always fenfible, and in fome measure compels us to observe it in our pronunciation. In blank verfe, where there is a greater liberty permitted of running the lines into one another, fometimes without any fufpenfion in the fenfe, it has been made a queftion, Whether, in reading fuch verfe with propriety, any regard at all should be paid to the close of a line? On the stage, where the appearance of speaking in verfefhould always be avoided, there can, I think, be no doubt, that the close of fuch lines as make no pause in the fenfe, fhould not be rendered perceptible to the ear. But on other occafions, this were improper for what is the use of melody, or for what end has the poet compofed in verfe, if, in reading his lines, we fupprefs his numbers; and degrade them, by our pronunciation, into mere profe? We ought, therefore, certainly to read blank verse so as to make every line fenfible to the ear. At the fame time, in doing fo, every appearance of fing-fong and tone must be carefully guarded againft. The clofe of the line, where it makes no paufe in the meaning, ought to be marked, not by fuch a tone as is ufed in finishing a sentence, but without either letting the voice fall or elevating it, it fhould be marked only by fuch a flight fufpenfion of found, as may diftinguish the paffage from one line to another, without injuring the meaning.

The other kind of mufical pause, is that which falls fomewhere about the middle of the verfe, and divides it into two hemiftichs; a paufe, not fo great as that which belongs to the clofe of the line, but ftill fenfible to an ordinary ear. This, which is called the cæfural paufe, in the French heroic verfe falls uniformly in the middle of the line, in the English, it may fall after the 4th, 5th, 6th, or 7th fyllables in the line, and no other. Where the verfe is fo conftructed that this cæfural paufe coincides with the flightest paufe or divifion in

the

the fenfe, the line can be read eafily; as in the two first verses of Mr. Pope's Mef

fiah,

Ye nymphs of Solyma! begin the fong;

To heavenly themes, fublimer strains belong;

But if it fhall happen that words, which have such a strict and intimate connection, as not to bear even a momentary feparation, are divided from one another by this cæfural paufe, we then feel a fort of flrug gle between the fenfe and the found, which renders it difficult to read fuch lines gracefully. The rule of proper pronunciation in fuch cafes is, to regard only the pause which the fenfe forms; and to read the line accordingly. The neglect of the cæfural pause may make the line found fomewhat unharmonioufly; but the effect would be much worse, if the sense were facrificed to the found. For inflance, in the following line of Milton,

What in me is dark, Illumine; what is low, raife and support. The sense clearly dictates the paufe after "illumine," at the end of the third fyllable, which, in reading, ought to be, made accordingly; though, if the melody only were to be regarded, " illumine" fhould be connected with what follows, and the paufe not made till the 4th or 6th fyllable. So in the following line of Mr. Pope's (Epiftle to Dr. Arbuthnot):

I fit, with fad civility I read:

The ear plainly points out the cæfural paufe as falling after fad," the 4th fyllable. But it would be very bad reading to make any paufe there, fo as to feparate "fad" and "civility." The fenfe admits of no other paufe than after the fecond fyllable fit," which therefore must be the only pause made in the reading.

I proceed to treat next of Tones in pronunciation, which are different both from emphasis and paufes; confifting in the modulation of the voice, the notes or variations of found which we employ in public fpeaking. How much of the propriety, the force and grace of difcourfe, muft depend on thefe, will appear from this fingle confideration; that to almost every fentiment we utter, more especially to every ftrong emotion, nature hath adapted fome peculiar tone of voice; infomuch, that he who should tell another that he was very angry, or much grieved, in a tone which did not fuit fuch emotions, inftead of being believed, would

be laughed at. Sympathy is one of the moft powerful principles by which perfuafive difcourfe works its effect. The speaker endeavours to transfufe into his hearers his own fentiments and emotions; which he can never be fuccefsful in doing, unless he utters them in fuch a manner as to convince the hearers that he feels them. The proper expreffion of tones, therefore, deferves to be attentively ftudied by every one who would be a fuccessful orator.

The greatest and moft material inftruction which can be given for this purpose is, to form the tones of public speaking upon the tones of fenfible and animated converfation. We may obferve that every man, when he is much in earnest in common difcourfe, when he is engaged in fpeaking on fome fubject which interefts him nearly, has What is the reason of our being often fo an eloquent or perfuafive tone and manner. frigid and unperfuafive in public discourse, but our departing from the natural tone of fpeaking, and delivering ourselves in an affected, artificial manner? Nothing can be more abfurd than to imagine, that as foon as one mounts a pulpit, or rifes in a public affembly, he is inftantly to lay afide the voice with which he expreffes himself in private ; to affume a new, ftudied tone, and a cadence altogether foreign to his natural manner. This has vitiated all delivery; this has given rife to cant and tedious monotony, in the different kinds of modern public fpeaking, efpecially in the pulpit. Men departed from nature; and fought to give a beauty or force, as they imagined, to their difcourfe, by fubftituting certain ftudied. mufical tones, in the room of the genuine expreffions of fentiment, which the voice carries in natural difcourse.

Let every

"All that paffes in the mind of man may be "reduced to two claffes, which I call, Ideas, and "Emotions. By Ideas, I mean all thoughts "which rife and pafs in fucceffion in the mind: "By Emotions, all exertions of the mind in ar"ranging, combining, and feparating its ideas; "as well as all the effects produced on the mind "itfelf by thofe ideas, from the more violent "agitation of the paffions, to the calmer feelings "produced by the operation of the intellect and "the fancy. In short, thought is the object of "the one, internal feeling of the other. That "which ferves to exprefs the former, I call the "Language of Ideas; and the latter, the Lan"guage of Emotions. Words are the figns of the

one, tones of the other. Without the use "of thefe two forts of language, it is impoffible to communicate through the ear all that passes

"in the mind of man."

SHERIDAN on the Art of Reading.

public fpeaker guard against this error. Whether he fpeak in a private room, or in a great affembly, let him remember that he ftill fpeaks. Follow nature: confider how the teaches you to utter any fentiment or feeling of your heart. Imagine a subject of debate started in converfation among grave and wife men, and yourself bearing a fhare in it. Think after what manner, with what tones and inflexions of voice, you would on fuch an occafion exprefs yourself, when you were moft in carneft, and fought most to be. liftened to. Carry thefe with you to the bar, to the pulpit, or to any public affembly; let thefe be the foundation of your manner of pronouncing there; and you will take the fureft method of rendering your delivery both agreeable and perfuafive.

I have faid, Let thefe converfation tones be the foundation of public pronunciation; for, on fome occafions, folemn public fpeaking requires them to be exalted beyond the ftrain of common difcourfe. In a formal, ftudied oration, the elevation of the style, and the harmony of the fentences, prompt, almoft neceffarily, a modulation of voice more rounded, and bordering more upon mufic, than converfation admits. This gives rife to what is called, the Declaiming Manner. But though this mode of pronunciation runs confiderably beyond ordidinary difcourfe, yet ftill it must have, for its bafis, the natural tones of grave and dignified converfation. I muft obferve, at the fame time, that the conftant indulgence of a declamatory manner, is not favourable either to good compofition, or good delivery; and is in hazard of betraying public Speakers into that monotony of tone and cadence, which is fo generally complained of. Whereas, he who forms the general run of his delivery upon a fpeaking manner, is not likely ever to become difagreeable through monotony. He will have the fame natural variety in his tones, which a perfon has in converfation. Indeed, the perfection of delivery requires both thefe different manners, that of fpeaking with liveliness and cafe, and that of declaiming with stateliness and dignity, to be poffeffed by one man; and to be employed by him, according as the different parts of his difcourfe require either the one or the other. This is a perfection which is not attained by many; the greatest part of public fpeakers allowing their delivery to be formed altogether accidentally, according as fome turn of voice appears to them most beautiful, or fome artificial model has caught their fancy; and

acquiring, by this means, a habit of pronunciation, which they can never vary. But the capital direction, which ought never to be forgotten, is, to copy the proper tones for expreffing every fentiment from those which nature dictates to us, in converfation with others; to fpeak always with her voice; and not to form to ourselves a fantaftic public manner, from an abfurd fancy of its being more beautiful than a natural one *.

It now remains to treat of Gesture, or what is called Action in public difcourfe. Some nations animate their words in common converfation, with many more motions of the body than others do. The French and the Italians are, in this respect, much more fprightly than we. But there is no nation, hardly any perfon fo phlegmatic, as not to accompany their words with fome actions and getticulations, on all occafions, when they are much in earnest. It is therefore unnatural in a public fpeaker, it is inconfiftent with that carneftness and ferioufnefs which he ought to fhew in all affairs of moment, to remain quite unmoved in his outward appearance; and to let the words drop from his mouth, without any expreflion of meaning, or warmth in his gefture.

The fundamental rule as to propriety of action, is undoubtedly the fame with what I gave as to propriety of tone. Attend to the looks and gestures, in which earnestness, indignation, compaffion, or any other emotion, difcovers itself to most advantage in the common intercourfe of men; and let thefe be your model. Some of thefe looks and geftures are common to all men; and there are alfo certain peculiarities of manner which distinguish every individual. A public fpeaker must take that manner which is moft natural to himself. For it is here juft as in tones. It is not the business of a fpeaker to form to himself a certain fet of motions and geftures, which he thinks moft becoming and agreeable, and to practife

thefe in public, without their having any correfpondence to the manner which is natural to him in private. His geftures and motions ought all to carry that kind of expreffion which nature has dictated to him; and, unless this be the cafe, it is impoffible, by means of any study, to avoid their appearing ftiff and forced.

However, although nature must be the ground-work, I admit that there is room in this matter for fome study and art. For many perfons are naturally ungraceful in the motions which they make; and this ungracefulness might, in part at least, be reformed by application and care. The ftudy of action in public fpeaking, confifts chiefly in guarding against awkward and difagreeable motions, and in learning to perform fuch as are natural to the speaker, in the most becoming manner. For this end, it has been advised by writers on this fubject, to practise before a mirror, where one may fee, and judge of his own geftures. But I am afraid, perfons are not always the best judges of the gracefulness of their own motions and one may declaim long enough before a mirror, without correcting any of his faults. The judgment of a friend, whofe good taste they can truft, will be found of much greater advantage to beginners, than any mirror they can ufe. With regard to particular rules concerning action and gefticulation, Quinctilian has delivered a great many, in the laft chapter of the 11th Book of his Inftitutions; and all the modern writers on this fubject have done little elfe but tranflate them. I am not of opinion, that fuch rules, delivered either by the voice or on paper, can be of much ufe, unless perfons faw them exemplified before their eyes*.

:

The few following hints only I fhall adventure to throw out, in cafe they may be of any fervice. When speaking in public, one should study to preserve as much dignity as poffible in the whole altitude of the body. An erect pofture is generally to be chofen: ftanding firm, fo as to have the fulleft and freeft command of all his motions; any inclination which is ufed, fhould be forwards to wards the hearers, which is a natural expreffion of carneftnefs. As for the countenance, the chief rule is, that it should correfpond with the nature of the difcourfe, and when no particuler emotion is expreffed, a ferious and manly look is always the beft. The eyes fhould never be fixed clofe on any one object, but move eafily round the audience. In the motions made with the hands, confifts the chief part of gefture in fpeaking. The Ancients condemned all motions performed by the left hand alone; but I am not fenfible, that thefe are always offenfive, though it is natural for the right hand to

I fhall only add further on this head that in order to fucceed well in delivery, nothing is more neceffary than for a speaker to guard against a certain flutter of fpirits, which is peculiarly incident to those who begin to fpeak in public. He must endeavour above all things to be recollected, and mafter of himself. For this end, he will find nothing of more ufe to him, than to ftudy to become wholly engaged in his fubje&t; to be poffeffed with a fenfe of its importance or ferioufnefs; to be concerned much more to perfuade than to please. He will generally please moft, when pleasing is not his fole nor chief aim. This is the only rational and proper method of raifing one's felf above that timid and bafhful regard to an audience, which is fo ready to disconcert a fpeaker, both as to what he is to fay, and as to his manner of saying it.

I cannot conclude, without an earnest admonition to guard against all affectation, which is the certain ruin of good delivery. Let your manner, whatever it is, be your own; neither imitated from another, nor affumed upon fome imaginary model, which is unnatural to you. Whatever is native, even though accompanied with feveral defects, yet is likely to pleafe; because it fhows us a man; because it has the appearance of coming from the heart. Whereas, a delivery attended with several acquired graces and beauties, if it be not eafy and free, if it betray the marks of art and affectation, never fails to difguft. To attain any extremely correct, and perfectly. graceful delivery, is what few can expect; fo many natural talents being requifite to concur in forming it. But to attain, what as to the effect is very little inferior, a forcible and perfuafive manner, is within the

be more frequently employed. Warm emotions, demand the motion of both hands correfponding together. But whether one gefticulates with one or with both hands, it is an important rule, that all his motions fhould be free and eafy. Narrow and ftraitened movements are generally ungraceful; for which reafon, motions made with the hands are directed to proceed from the shoulder, rather than from the elbow. Perpendicular movements too with the hands, that is, in the ftraight line up and down, which Shakespeare, în Hamlet, calls," fawing the air with the hand," are feldom good, Oblique motions are, in general, the most graceful. Too fudden and nimble motions should be likewife avoided. Earneftnefs can be fully expreffed without them. Shakespear's directions on this head, are full of good fente; "ufe all gently," fays lie," and in the very tor"rent and tempeft of paflion. acquire a tempe"rance that may give it fmoothnefs."

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