The Scotch.

Habit of the French.

Pronunciation.

is one of the most common mistakes. The R should not be made so prominent and trilled as it is by the Scotch, but it should be full and distinct. It is an extremely pleasant sound when correctly given. It is one of the liquids, and adds much to the beauty and melody of a sentence. The consonant S is another of those letters that commonly receives very harsh usage. It has a soft, flute-like sound that is very agreeable. But most public speakers, and almost every one in conversation, substitute for this, a rough harsh one that tears the ear. The French exercise the greatest care in uttering all their nice and pleasant sounds, that they may produce by means of them a favorable effect. But we as a nation are unmindful of the rich treasury of the nicest and most exquisite elements in which our language abounds.

Pronunciation is not a matter which strictly pertains to vocal culture, and yet it can not be neglected. The standard of pronunciation, is the usage of that class of society the most refined by mental culture. There are provincialisms, and the style of speaking in different cities, which may prevail even in the best cultivated circles. But local peculiarities should be discarded. A dictionary is usually considered the standard; but it can not be authority unless it give what is good usage. A dictionary based upon any

Tongues of many nations.

Pitch and inflection.

other plan than that of detailing present usage is worthless. The lexicographer can not make laws for language. But he must be the faithful chronicler of the custom of our best speakers. That dictionary should therefore be used, which most strictly conforms to this principle. The slightest variation of sounds from true pronunciation should be promptly corrected, and pupils should be taught to distinguish the errors to which they are liable with the nicest perception of what is correct, so that they may soon acquire the habit of watching with critical care every sound that escapes their lips. The child inherits many errors in pronunciation. Our population is so heterogeneous, being made up of representatives from almost every nation on the globe, that we not unfrequently find in the same school a variety of peculiarities traceable to the language of the people from which the family has descended. The greatest care on the part of the teacher is therefore needed. These peculiarities are to be dispelled, and the tongues of all nations made to blend in harmonious English, or, if you choose, American.

Pitch and inflection should next receive our attention. The best place for a boy to learn these is upon the play-ground. During a single intermission, a company of lads will give expression to almost every variety of pitch and inflection known to elo

Tones in the class.

Night soliloquy in Venice.

cutionists. In the exuberance of youthful feeling, and the contentions for their privileges and rights, they have occasion to utter thoughts and emotions of every shade and degree,

"From grave to gay, from lively to severe."

In general these intonations will be correct. The feelings one cherishes, naturally prompt to a proper expression of them. But those same boys, at the call of the bell, will enter the school room and read a lesson from their books in their "reading tone," entirely different from that which they so appropriately used upon the play-ground. They observe the pauses, and give inflections according to some spelling-book rule, regardless of the sentiment to be communicated and the emotions which it is intended to awaken. They have an abundance of tones at command when surrounded by their companions, but when they have taken their places in the class, their command of voice forsakes them, and they have only one pitch for every variety of thought. There is a monotonous tone, uninterrupted by any species of modulation, which is characteristic of most youth at some period, and which many never abandon. Whether the sentiment be intended to awaken peaceful and gentle thoughts, like the words of Lioni in the night soliloquy in Venice:

Words of Brutus.

Dialogue for practice.

"All is gentle: nought

Stirs rudely; but congenial with the night,

Whatever walks, is gliding like a spirit;"

or, bold and defiant as the language of Brutus, when chafed by the testy spirit of his friend :

Fret, till your proud heart break-
Go show your slaves how choleric you are,

And make your bondmen tremble;"

it is all read to the same pitch, and upon that same unvarying tone. The spelling-book has made it his duty to keep the voice up at a comma, and to let it fall at a period, and to this he religiously adheres through all the storms of passion, and the peace and quiet of a summer evening and moonlight hoursthrough the wild shouts of "sentries' shriek," the clang of arms and the torrent's roar, or the gentle rippling of the brook and the soft sighing of the breeze.

To break up false habits and establish correct ones, can most easily be accomplished by employing for practice that species of composition which the pupils are accustomed to use in conversation, and which they naturally use correctly. If the scholar reads with an unnatural and drawling tone, let the teacher copy upon the blackboard a little fragment of talk which he has overheard in passing the playground, and let that be the lesson. By the reading of a familiar conversation, and giving the correct, the nat

Advantages.

Calling words, not reading.

Rhetorical thought.

ural inflections and intonations, the identity of conversing and reading, of speaking and declaiming is established. For this reason, dialogue, carefully and correctly read, has great advantages over any other kind of composition. It is not well for a class to read continually in course. Those passages should be selected which illustrate the particular branch of elocution upon which instruction is being given. It is a great mistake, which many of our teachers make, in allowing their pupils to read on, piece after piece, day after day, as the squirrel turns the wheel of his cage, knowing no object or end, and only correcting the words called wrong; as though the calling of words were reading. A single passage thoroughly understood and correctly practiced may be of more service than carelessly calling the words of many pages. For the reading of that exercise is a pattern by which all others may be read of that class. A few such passages cover the whole ground of what is termed by elocutionists rhetorical thought, and he who has once mastered these is in the proper way to improvement.

We would not be understood by these remarks to discard extensive practice. The calling of words readily is the basis of good reading, and the pupil needs much exercise in acquiring the habit. But if he first understand the meaning of the words he