doing this, then let him in these same pieces determine the places for the rests, which, it is important to add, will be of more frequent recurrence in dignified than in sprightly style. And when he has done this, he will be prepared to commence dividing the matter into measures, and to test the correctness of the division by attempts to read the pieces thus scored. This exercise will be of special service to those readers who have fallen into the habit of giving an improper stress to unimportant words, or of reading with a measured, scanning movement of the voice. This error is more common in the reading of poetry than of prose, and is often acquired in childhood, while learning to read under bad instruction. But in the training of the public speaker it will perform a much more important part, as it will not only adapt his delivery to the principles of good taste, but to that regular action of the heart and lungs which is so essential to the healthful exercise of the functions of life, but which is always interrupted just so far as the principles of this section are violated in speech. Persons of easy and graceful delivery speak according to these principles, though they may never have studied them; and in view of the consequences of their violation, we can scarcely avoid wishing that the movements of the voice were as little influenced by neglect, or subject to derangement by bad habits, as are the movements of the heart. Then would they always act in harmony, and health would at least generally be promoted rather than injured by the exercise of speaking. SECTION II. OF PAUSES. RESTS in speech are to sentences, what the division into syllables is to words;-their object being to separate the language by which thought is expressed, into portions corresponding with the sense; for the purpose of presenting to the ear an idea of the connection of the thought, as more or less intimate and close. The clearness, and especially the dignity of style depend materially on the minute observance of all the requisite rests. That the learner may know what these are, the following enumeration is made. The pauses marked by the comma, semicolon, colon, period, and other points which divide discourse into sentences, are for this reason called Sentential or Grammatical pauses. Of these, important as they are in a grammatical point of view, nothing need here be said, but that in the language of emotion, they give no intimation as to tone or inflection, nor even indicate with any definiteness the length of the pause. The comma, for example, sometimes, when it marks only the grammatical relation of words, indicating no rest of the voice, as in "Yes, Sir," "No, Sir ;" and at others, being used to mark a rest altogether beyond its ordinary length. In the last section another set of pauses was developed, which depend entirely on the mechanism of the voice, and are independent of the usual marks of punctuation. Connecting themselves necessarily with the natural measured movement of the voice, they may be called by way of distinction Rhythmic pauses. Nothing need here be added concerning these, except the remark, that these two classes of pauses are from their very nature so interspersed in all correct delivery, as to furnish every necessary facility for taking breath even in the most hurried utterance. It is only from their disregard, that injury or even inconvenience can arise to the speaker from too great an expenditure of air from the lungs. There is another pause connected solely with rhetorical delivery, for the purpose of adding force to the expression of the emotions, and which may be called the Rhetorical or Emphatic pause. This pause, made immediately before or after the utterance of some striking thought, commands the special attention of the hearer, at the same time that it gives him time to fix the thought more deeply in his memory. It also indicates feeling on the part of the speaker. It is a means of enforcing sentiment, which requires to be used with caution, but which in the hands of a master is an element of great power. Its effect is well understood in music. In the following examples this pause is marked by a dash. 1. Alexander wept: the great and invincible Alexander-wept at the fate of Darius. 2. Industry—is the guardian of innocence. 3. Mirth-I consider as an act, cheerfulness-as a habit of the mind. Mirth—is like a flash of lightning, that glitters for a moment; cheerfulness-keeps up a kind of day-light in the mind. 4. Men will wrangle for religion; write for it; fight for it; die for it; any thing but—live for it. 5. Vice-is a monster of so frightful mien, As to be hated, needs but to be seen; Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face, We first endure, then-pity, then-embrace. 6. America-is full of youthful promise; Europe-is rich in the accumulated treasures of age; her very ruins-tell the history of times gone by, and every mouldering stone-is a chronicle. 7. Let not a monument-give you or me hopes, Since not a pinch of dust remains of Cheops. 8. Contemporaries-appreciate the man, rather than the merit; but posterity-will regard the merit, rather than the man. 9. On whatever side we contemplate Homer, what principally strikes us, is-his wonderful invention. 10. It is an honor to a man to cease from strife; but every fool —will be intermeddling. 11. Some place the bliss in action, some-in ease; Those-call it pleasure, and contentment-these. The Pause which marks the Transition from one paragraph or division of discourse to another is too important to be overlooked. This may be called the Paragraphic pause. As a mere pause, it is sufficient to remark that it is longer than that which marks the division of periods, which are more closely related to each other. It is however accompanied with several other agencies.-1. It is preceded by the Prepared Cadence. 2. It is followed by a change in Pitch and usually by some change in the Phrases of Melody. 3. It is the place where the Transitions most frequently occur, which mark the changes of sentiment in discourse, and which were made the subject of a section in the last chapter. In practice this pause will be found to furnish to the speaker a very convenient occasion to return to a lower note, a slower utterance, or a freer movement of the voice, when he finds himself speaking on too high a pitch, too rapidly, or in a monotonous and constrained manner. There are two pauses which belong exclusively to verse, ་ and are hence called Musical Pauses; the cesural pause which divides the line into two parts, and the final pause at the end of the line. 1. The cesural pause is not essential to verse, as the shorter kinds of measure do not recognise it; but in our heroic and blank verse, consisting of five feet, it can never be omitted in reading, without destroying its euphony. This pause may exist in any part of the line, but is most agreeable when found in the middle; that is, in the middle of the third foot, as in the first five lines of the following: Can that arm measure. ... with an arm divine? And canst thou thunder.... with a voice like mine? The bulk of waters, the wide spreading main, .... When, mad with tempests, . . . . all the billows rise In all their rage, . . . . and dash the distant skies? ... The cesural pause may be found at the end of the first, second, or third foot, or in the middle of the second or fourth. The euphony is diminished as the place of this pause departs from the middle of the line-but is greater when it occurs before the middle than after it. It is however for the writer to determine the place of the cesural pause, and for the reader to observe it, and mark it with his voice. 2. The other pause peculiar to poetry occurs at the end of the line, and is hence called the final pause. When not coincident with the Grammatical pause, it is introduced by the phrase of the monotone or the rising or falling ditone, with no downward slide of the voice. In the reading of verse, the end of every line should be marked by such a rest, unless forbidden by the closeness of the gramma |