For what follows we have been obliged to a pamphlet, written by Mr. GENTLEMAN, fome few years fince.

READING and DECLAMATION confift of emphafis, climax, modulation, paufes, breaks, tranfitions, tones, cadences, and gefture.

EMPHASIS may be divided into two branches, explanatory and expressive: by the first is meant that ftrefs of utterance, which presents more clearly to conception the meaning of what we deliver; as for example:-"A popular man is, in truth, no better than a prostitute to common fame, and to the people he lies down to every one he meets, for the hire of praife, and his humility is only a difguifed ambition."-By marking the preceding pallage fo, the meaning ftrikes immediately, with full force; whereas, if the ftrefs was laid upon other words, or if the whole was uttered with monotony (a fameness of tone) the fenfe would be confused; and to a hearer, whofe apprehenfion was not very quick, perhaps quite unintelligible.-In cafes where the fenfe is doubtful, proper emphafis is indifpenfably neceffary; for inftance: "Did the Englishman deserve to die?—If I lay the ftrefs upon did, then it marks a question arising from furprife; if Englishman is diftinguished, then it implies that others were concerned, and that I would know his case particularly.—If die is marked, then it appears that I admit guilt, but want to know if his crime was of fuch a nature as to deferve capital punishment.

Expreffive emphasis is that which we use to render a paffage, whofe meaning is obvious, more for

eible;

cible; as may appear by properly marking the following quotation from Shakespeare

In this, ye GoDs, you make the weak most strong;
In this, ye GoDs, you tyrants do defeat ;
Nor ftony tow'rs, nor walls of beaten brass,
Nor airless dungeon, nor ftrong links of iron,
Can be retentive to the strength of spirit :
But life, being weary of thefe worldly bars,
Never lacks power to dismiss itself.

Let us take another example, from an higher Epic.

He bids the SPIRY firs arife,

The cedar, vig'rous, pierce the fkies,
From Lebanon's chill brow :

Fearless amid conflicting forms,
The tow'ring ftork his cradle forms,
High on the founding bough.

104th PSALM.

By laying the emphasis on spiry, in the first line, the peculiar form of the trees mentioned is explained; whereas, had the stress been laid upon firs, it would leave us at liberty to think upon oaks, elms, &c. fpiry too.The word arife is marked, as being the purport of a command; and though, in general, the voice falls, at the end of a line, yet, in this cafe, the meaning requires it should be raised, but not too high, nor abruptly.

In the fecond line, vigʼrous is marked as a property of the cedar: indeed all epithets, whether

*All words printed in Italic (except proper names) are those on which the emphasis is to be laid; but words in CAPITALS require a more powerful emphasis.

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they

they precede or follow, require emphafis.-Pierce is noted as painting a quicknefs and boldness of vegetation, while the imagination is raised to a more than ordinary height, by particularifing fkies.

In the third line, chill is distinguished as a characteristic quality of the climate of Lebanon.

Fearless, in the fourth line, is pointed out as an extraordinary attribute of a bird; and conflicting forms are emphatical, as a proof of that attribute; enlarging the idea much more than the fimple word fearless, unaffifted, would have done.

In the fifth line, tow'ring is distinguished as an epithet; and cradle, which happily defcribes the fork's neft in that rocking fituation, is pointed out as the motive of the bird's resolution.

In the last line, high is marked as a material circumstance of the imagery, and founding not only as an epithet, but alfo as referring to its turbulent fituation among whistling or roaring gales.

I have chofen the above ftanza from the Pfalms, as picturefque poetry refts more upon emphafis, than any other fpecies of writing; and I have been fo minute in the explanation of it, not only that my meaning might be understood, as to this branch of expreffion, but likewife to fhow that emphasis fhould be founded on reafon, not laid merely for a jingle, or variation of found.-Having thus marked and explained one ftanza, I fhall propofe two more for the exercife of the ftudent, without any marks of diftinction.

H, as a curtain, fretch'd on high

The raft cerulean canopy,

And gave with fires to glow:

'Twas he, tremendous Potentate!
Built on the waves his hall of ftate,
Wide as the waters flow.

He walks upon the wings of wind,
And leaves the rapid ftorms behind;
Their monarch's awful will

Seraphs await in dread fufpence,
And, fwifter than the lightning's glance,
His mighty word fulfil.

After all that can be faid, the degrees of emphafis are fo many and fo variable, that no precife rules can be laid down for their application. reading and declamation, as in music, there mult be tafte, to give beauty; without it mere rectitude will be moft unaffectingly infipid. This quality, though improveable, muft certainly be first derived from Nature.A reader, before he can reach bare propriety, must thoroughly understand what he reads; for which reafon the custom of putting children to perufe the Bible, in which there are many difficult words and abftrufe paffages, is by no means to be commended; nay, if we confider it in another light, it is highly blameable; for by being made the fubject of puzzle and embarrassment, by being toffed about in a carelefs and flovenly manner, that love and refpect which the facred writings juftly claim, are too frequently fet afide in youth *. We are told, that among the

This important point is very judiciously enforced by Mr. Hull, in a note on one of Mr. Preston's Genuine Letters" He objected to the absurd custom practifed then, as at this day, "of fuffering children to learn to read from the Bible; whence "they too often contract a diftafte to the most edifying and inແ portant volume, that can, in the procefs of their lives, be "laid before them." Vol. I. Letter 53. Page 241. Turks,

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Turks, if a piece of written paper appears on the ground, it is taken up and carefully preserved, left the word ALLAH, or GOD, be infcribed on it.Mark the contrafted irreverence of Chriftians! who not only profane with their mouths that moft aw ful name; upon the moft trivial cccafions, but also frequently ufe, as wafte paper, whole fheets, in which not only his facred name is mentioned, but every letter a part of his divine word. a

Another reafon against making the Bible an early book among learners, is the frequency of periods, and peculiarity of style, in which it differs widely from most other compofitions. It is not rare to find many perfons, who, by laboriously conning over the chapters, can ftumble their way pretty tolerably through any part of it; yet put them to any other book, you fhall find them lamentably hampered, and frequently at an abfolute ftand.

But to return more particularly to my subject.As no abfolute rules can be laid down for emphafis, in general, we must be content with remarks upon particular cases; fuch as, that opposition, or antithefis, requires an emphafis upon each of the op pofed words; and that moft monofyllables, beginning a question, must be strongly marked: as, Why did he fo? What can he mean? How did fhe look? In compound words, that are opposed to others, the emphasis, or rather accent, properly falls on the distinguishing fyllables: for instance, The virtuous are modeft-the vicious immodefthe righteous are blessed-the unrighteous are miferable. Here I have opposed fimple to fimple, and compound to compound; were the words immodeft and unrighteous to be pronounced without oppofition, the accent would fall upon the fecond fyllable, inftead of the firft.