things: namely, clear enunciation, grammatical perspicuity, and logical modulation.

The first of these might, for the present purpose, be dismissed with its mere specification. Clear enunciation is the primary requisite of intelligibility. The indefiniteness of readers in pronouncing syllables is, doubtless, to be attributed, in great measure, to the indefiniteness of letters in representing sounds. Give a learner a distinctive symbol for each separate sound, and he will naturally be as precise in pronunciation as he is now naturally obscure. Our language stands in great need of improvement in this respect. There is nothing in the nature of sounds to prevent their being denoted by uniformly intelligible characters, applicable to all languages, in such a way that a native of any country might pronounce the written words of any language, exactly as they are heard from vernacular speakers. This precision of phonetic writing-long impossible is now rendered practicable by the invention of physiological letters which symbolise the organic mechanism of articulate sounds, and so convert writing literally into visible speech.

The second requisite of reading is grammatical perspicuity. This is really a very simple matter, but simplicity is turned into complexity and confusion by inattention to the most obvious principles. Sentences are made up of facts and circumstances; and readers have merely to discriminate between these: to state facts independently, and circumstances in due relation to facts; not to connect facts with wrong circumstances or to mix circumstances with each other. To take an example:

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Every lady in the land

Has twenty nails upon each hand

Five and twenty on hands and feet-
Nor more nor less to be complete."

ΙΟ

This reading makes nonsense of a true statement. Yet this is the way poetry is generally read with a stop at

the end of each line, whether the sense requires it or not. The proper allocation of facts and circumstances gives the very different reading of these lines:

"Every lady in the land

Has twenty nails: upon each hand

Five; and twenty on hands and feet;
Nor more nor less to be complete."

Whether in reading prose or poetry, the principle is the same: attend to facts and circumstances; unite no words that have not a mutual influence in expressing sense, and separate no words that are so related. Reading can never be good that is regulated either by lines in poetry, or periods in prose. Many divisions must be made where no punctuation is written; and the customary marks must frequently be disregarded, when they interfere with the governing principle of sense the clausing of words for the independent expression of facts and circumstances.

Logical modulation is the last requisite of intelligibility in reading. Words grammatically belonging to the same clause, and circumstances relating to distinct facts are, often, in composition separated from one another; and the reader's voice should ally them, by correspondence of modulation. Thus in the lines:

Slowly and sadly we laid him down
From the field of his fame fresh and gory,"

the clause "fresh and gory" has no reference to either of the nouns in the same line; but it refers to the word "him" in the preceding line:

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Slowly and sadly we laid him (being still fresh and gory)
Down from the field of his fame."

This meaning is brought out, and false meanings are excluded, by a modulation of the voice, separating the clause of ambiguous reference from the words to which it does not refer, and raising it to the level of its true antecedent.

Examples are better than precepts to inculcate a principle. One more example as actually heard from a cleri

cal reader― may be adduced:

"And they came with haste, and found Mary-and-Joseph-and-theBabe-lying in a manger."

This reading conveyed as the "fact" of the sentence that Mary and Joseph, as well as the Babe, were found "lying in a manger;" but the truth of the narrative required the "circumstance"-" lying in a manger" - to be united only with the word "Babe."

Whatever be the subject of reading, the prime requirement is perfect intelligibility. The hearer will be all the better pleased if, at the same time, the matter be rendered attractive by magnetism of voice and manner; but a reader's style should never be obtrusive. Bad reading compels one to notice manner in the first place. Good reading should fix the thoughts upon the matter only.

XXIV. ORATORY AND ORATORS.

Oratory, in the broadest sense, signifies articulate oral communication; and in the more ordinary scholastic sense it means the art of public speaking. In both senses the quality of oratory is the most distinguishing characteristic of man from man. The condition of oratory thus reflects the character of a people, and the character of a person. Among aboriginal and illiterate tribes, before commerce has united them to the brotherhood of nations, oratory is highly figurative, because words are few, expressive primarily of sensible objects, and used each for a variety of ideas. Among lettered and commercial nations, oratory is exact and literal, because words are many, and abstract ideas are expressed by separate terms. So, among classes of men, oratory is, on one hand, limited to a small vocabulary of words, which do duty in almost every sentence, constituting the slang of a grade or the technicalities of a craft; and on the other hand, it is copious and varied in expression, constituting the exactitude of philosophy, or the subtle elegance of poetry.

The great arenas of public oratory are the church, the court-house, the legislative chamber, and the theatre. Every one knows how carefully the orators of each class are trained to high efficiency before they enter on their duties. Nothing short of the every-day achievements of our speakers could be expected from such laborious preparations as they undergo! How curious it seems, to reflect, that there was a time when the glorious faculty of oratory was held in such low esteem that neglect, and ignorance, and perverse habits took the place of instructors, and when orators, under such training, spoke just as a dog barks, or a cat mews; unwitting of the wondrous processes em