pers his tender tale; do not differ more in the tones which they ufe, than in the key in which they fpeak. Reading and speaking, therefore, in which all the variations of expreffion in real life are copied, muft have continual variations in the height of the voice.

To acquire the power of changing the key on which you speak at pleasure, accuftom yourself to pitch your voice in different keys, from the lowest to the highest notes you can command. Many of these would neither be proper nor agreeable in fpeaking; but the exercife will give you fuch a command of voice, as is fcarcely to be acquired by any other method. Having repeated this experiment till you can speak with ease at several heights of the voice; read, as exercifes on this rule fuch compofitions as have a variety of fpeakers, or fuch as relate dialogues, obferving the height of voice which is proper to each, and endeavouring to change them as nature directs.

In the fame compofition there may be frequent occafion to alter the height of the voice, in paffing from one part to another, without any change of perfon. Shakespear's "All the world's a ftige," &c. and his description of the Queen

of the Fairies, afford examples of this. Indeed every sentence which is read or spoken, will admit of different elevations of the voice in dif ferent parts of it; and on this chiefly, perhaps entirely, depends the melody of pronunciation.

IT

RULE IV.

Pronounce your words with propriety and elegance T is not easy to fix upon any standard, by which the propriety of pronunciation is to be determined. Mere men of learning, in attempting to make the etymology of words the rule of pronunciation, often pronounce words in a manner, which brings upon them the charge of affectation and pedantry. Mere men of the world notwithstanding all their politeness, often retain fo much of their provincial dialect, or commit fuch errors both in fpeaking and writing, as to exclude them from the honour of being the ftandard of accurate pronunciation. We should perhaps look for this standard only among those who unite these two characters, and with the correctnefs and precifion of true learning, combine the eafe and elegance of genteel life. An attention to fuch models, and a free intercourfe with the polite world, are the best guards against the peculiarities and vulgarifms of provincial dialects. Those which refpect the pronunciation of words are innumerable, Some of the principal of them

are omitting the afpirate h where it ought to be used, and inferting it where there fhould be rone; confounding and interchanging the v and w; pronouncing the diphthong ou like au or like oo, and the vowel i like oi or e; and cluttering many confonants together without regarding the vowels. Thefe faults, and all others of the fame nature, must be corrected in the pronunciation of a gentleman who is fuppofed to have seen too much of the world, to retain the peculiarities of the diftri&t in which he was born.

RULE V.

Pronounce every word confifting of more than one fyllable with its proper ACCENT.

THE

'HERE is a neceffity for this direction, because many speakers have affected an unufual and pedantic mode of accenting words, laying it down as a rule, that the accenting fhould be caft as far backwards as poffible; a rule which has no foundation in the conftruction of the English language, or in the laws of harmony. In accenting words, the general custom and a good ear are the beft guides: only it may be obferved that accent fhould be regulated, not by any arbitrary rules of quantity, but by the number and nature of the fimple founds.

RULE

RULE VI.

In every fentence diftinguish the more fignificant words by a natural, forcible, and varied EM

PHASIS.

E

MPHASIS points out the precise meaning of a sentence, fhews in what manner one idea is connected with, and rifes out of another, marks the feveral claufes of a fentence, gives to every part its proper found, and thus conveys to the mind of the reader the full import of the whole. It is in the power of emphasis to make long and complex fentences appear intelligible and perfpicuous. But for this purpose it is neceffary, that the reader fhould be perfectly acquainted with the exact construction and full meaning of every fentence which he recites. Without this it is impoffible to give those inflections and variations to the voice, which nature requires and it is for want of this previous ftudy, more perhaps than from any other cause, that we so often hear perfons read with an improper emphasis, or with no emphasis at all, that is with a ftupid monotony. Much study and pains are neceffary in acquiring the habit of just and forcible pronunciation; and it can only be the effect of close attention and long practice, to be able, with a mere glance of the eye, to read any piece with good emphafs and good difcretion.

Ir is another office of Emphafis to exprefs the oppofition between the feveral parts of a fentence, where the ftyle is pointed and antithetical. Pope's Effay on Man, and his Moral Effays, and the Proverbs of Solomon, will furnish many proper exercises in this fpecies of fpeaking. In fome fentences the antithefis is double, and even treble; these must be expressed in reading, by a ve. ry distinct emphasis on each part of the oppofition. The following inftances are of this kind:

ANGER may glance into the breast of a wife man; but refts only in the bofom of fools.

An angry man who fuppreffes his paffion, thinks worse than he speaks and an angry man that will chide, speaks worse than he thinks.

:

BETTER to reign in Hell, than serve in heaven.
He rais'd a mortal to the skies;

She brought an angel down.

EMPHASIS likewife ferves to express fome particular meaning not immediately arifing from the words, but depending upon the intention of the speaker, or fome accidental circumstance. The following fhort fentence may have three different meanings, according to the dif ferent place of the Emphasis: Do you intend to go to London this Summer ?