18.

"Ill spirit, I would hold more talk with thee!"

19.

Brutus remarks to Cassius, “I shall be glad to learn of noble men.” Could he more plainly say in words that Cassius is not noble?

20.

The words of Cassius, "It is not meet that every nice offense should bear his comment," refers not to offenses in general, but to small ones in contrast to great.

[In each of these examples, transfer the emphasis from its proper place to the grammatical subject of the sentence, and note the effect.]

PAUSES AND SLIDES.

"A pause is often more eloquent than words."

Emphasis does not entirely depend upon force. It is given by variations in pauses, time, pitch, and inflections. These means must be principally relied on in delicate, tender, and pathetic passages, the effect of which would be entirely destroyed by force, and yet which need a great deal of expression. A word or phrase is emphasized by anything which attracts attention.

A Rhetorical pause is one made in reading, but not in writing, being necessary for the ear, though not for the eye; as, "You think it just that he should use his intellect to take the bread out of other men's mouths."

1.

“We are stewards | of whatever talents are intrusted to us.”

2.

"Even apparent defeat assumed the insolence of victory."

3.

"Habits of mental discipline | are necessary in any system of education."

4.

"His comrade | bent to lift him, but the spark of life | had fled."

5.

"For he was all the world | to us, that hero | gray and grim."

6.

'They show the banners | taken, they tell his battles | won."

[In the preceding examples, the insertion of commas would confuse the eye while the omission of pauses would be equally confusing to the ear.]

Punctuation is not to be regarded as an infallible guide in the pauses or inflections of the voice. Words and clauses in the same grammatical construction are often independent in thought. While such are separated merely by commas for the assistance of the eye, they must be more decidedly separated by the voice for the assistance of the ear.

"Day by day the blood recedes, the flesh deserts, the muscles relax, the sinews grow powerless."

That each of these clauses embodies a complete thought, is proved by the fact that each one can be separately parsed, and could be as correctly written in this form:

"Day by day the blood recedes. The flesh deserts. muscles relax. The sinews grow powerless."

The

Read the sentence aloud in both forms, keeping the voice up at the commas, dropping it at the periods, and judge which style conveys the clearest and strongest meaning to the ear. Moreover, the clauses are of equal importance; but, by keeping the voice suspended until the close, the last one is made more emphatic than any of the others.

The same principle is illustrated in the following paragraphs:

"Labor spans majestic rivers, suspends bridges over deep ravines, pierces solid mountains, makes the furnace blaze, the anvil ring, the wheel turn round, and the town appear." "Cobblers abandoned their stalls to give lessons on political economy; blacksmiths suffered their fires to go out, while they stirred up the fires of faction; tailors neglected their own measures to criticise the measures of government."

"France arrests the attention; Napoleon rose and seated himself on the throne of the Bourbons; he pointed the thunder of his artillery at Italy, and she fell before him; he levelled his lightning at Spain, and she trembled; he sounded the knell of vengeance on the plains of Austerlitz, and all Europe was at his feet; he was greater than Cæsar; he was greater than Alexander.”

The tendency to a "sing-song" or monotonous tone in the reading of poetry (caused generally by marking the rhythm by the voice without regard to the sense) can be remedied by transposing the clauses-putting the lines into plain prose-thereby making the meaning more prominent and destroying the regularity of the accent; as,

"And once, behind a rick of barley,

Thus looking out did Harry stand;
The moon was full and shining clearly,
And crisp with frost the stubble land."

Behind a rick of barley, Harry stood, looking out.

The

moon was full; it shone clearly. The stubble land was crisp with frost.

STYLES OF READING.

All Styles of Reading can be grouped under a few general heads, with subdivisions expressive of their various modifications. No strict classification is possible. For example, while all Didactic, Narrative and Descriptive styles are in their simplest forms Unemotional; all Noble, Patriotic and Impassioned styles more or less Oratorical, the different styles are often blended, and discrimination must be made accordingly. A narrative may be unemotional in some parts, while descriptive, impassioned, solemn, pathetic, humorous, or all of them, in others. As a rule, the prevailing style of the selection should decide its character. Several terms can be used when necessary. A knowledge of the style of piece to be read is essential to the student, in order that he may decide upon its elocutionary effect.

In all forms of Vocal exercise, theory is of less consequence than practice. But it is desirable that the student should understand the few technical terms which it is necessary to employ in Elocution, and be able to properly apply them. This is essential with students who are fitting themselves for the profession of teaching.