"Fair Sir! you - spit on me, on Wednesday last; "Well, how's the patient?" Bolus said. John shook his head. "Indeed! hum! ha! that's very odd! He took the draught?" John gave a nod. "Well! how! what then?-speak out, you dunce." Not to detain you from a thing so strange, Taking a puke, has thrown up - 11 three Black Crows. "At the last I did throw up, and told my neighbour so, No man could better gild a pill, Or9 make a bill, Or mix a draught, or9 bleed, or9 blister; Or draw a tooth out of your head, Or chatter scandal by your bed, O19 spread a plaster. Emphasis is commonly considered to be merely an increased stress of voice or articulation; but there is an Emphasis of Time, produced by a slower or quicker rate of utterance; an Emphasis of Modulation, by a change, as it were, of the key-note to a higher or lower pitch; an Emphasis of Inflexion, by a sweep of the voice upwards or downwards; an Emphasis of Monotone, by a solemn, little-varying movement of the voice; an Emphasis of Aspiration, by a sighing, husky, or choking expression of the voice; an Emphasis of Whisper even; and, combined with nearly all these modes of giving prominence to words, the Emphasis of Pause, as we have seen-besides the Emphasis of Force or Stress, which is vulgarly considered the type of all Emphasis. The reason of the peculiarly emphatic power of Pauses, as exemplified in the passages above cited, is, that the mind naturally looks for the immediate sequence of those words which are necessary to give it a distinct and perfect impression; and if a pause be made when the sense is so incomplete as not naturally to admit of one, the attention will be roused, and expectation, and even curiosity, excited-on the watch for the consummation of the sense. In proportion to the degree of hiatus made, and the change of modulation, force, time, &c., assumed on the emphatic utterance, will be the degree of the emphasis, and the satisfactory fulfilment of the expectation raised. When the preparation for important emphasis is thus made before words which are too insignificant to be so dignified, we feel a vexatious disappointment on their utterance. This principle is therefore one of the most effective in giving point to any. thing comic or ludicrous. The hearer is tricked into expectation; and, when a mountain seems in labour, lo! there comes forth a mouse! Thus in the following little piece, if all but the last two lines are feelingly read, we shall be inclined to buffet the reader when at last he comes to the climax. But indeed the reader himself may be more ludicrously deceived by this than the hearer. For this purpose the effect will be best secured by writing the lines so as to render a turn-over necessary for the denouement. THE CONFESSION. There's somewhat on my breast, Father, My kin are leal and true, Father, There's somewhat on my breast! The livelong day I sigh, Father; At night I cannot rest. I cannot take my rest, Father, The lack of worldly gear; They mourn to see my grief; Can give my heart relief. 'Tis not my love is false, Father, 'Tis not that she's unkind; Though busy flatterers swarm around, I know her constant mind: 'Tis not her coldness, Father, That pains my labouring breast; 'Tis-that confounded cucumber I ate, and can't digest. In concluding this part of our subject, we have only farther to remark, that the close of a period should be generally indicated in reading, by a closer rhythm,—a more frequent recurrence of accent-and less connectedness of grouping, than throughout the rest of the period. This enables the reader to impress the last words more strongly and with more point than could be generally maintained throughout a sentence; secures his ease; and prevents the awkwardness of a panting, breathless, "coming in ;" and, besides, imparts a manifest dignity to the conclusion. PART FIFTH. INFLEXION. THE tones of the voice in Speech, have a characteristic formation which distinguishes them from the tones of the voice in song. The latter are continuations of given length on even musical sounds, -monotones; and the former are inflexions of greater or less extent, upwards or downwards from the tone on which they begin. The progression of the scale in singing is by a bound or leap over the interval from note to note, so, that no intermediate sound is formed between those which are the object of effort; and the progression of speaking-tones is by a sweep of the voice over all the intervals, so that every intermediate sound is touched in the progress of the inflexion. Sometimes an inflected formation of voice is used in singing; and it is, especially in plaintive passages, productive of fine effect; and sometimes a degree of the monotonous formation is employed in speech; but rarely, and then chiefly for the expression of solemn or plaintive sentiments. But a perfect monotone has no place in speech, and an ordinary speaking-inflexion is never found in song. The similar sounds which we have stated to be occasionally employed, may be properly called Inflected Monotones : they are prolongations of a commencing tone, finished by inflexion. The three modes of vocal progression may be analogically represented thus, Monotone-Song. Inflected Monotone. Inflexion-Speech. All spoken sounds, however abrupt, have, correctly, the inflected formation; though an ear unaccustomed to very accurate observation might not readily detect it in the little tittles of sound heard in many of our syllables,-it, at, ate, up, &c. But sufficiently close attention will discover inflexion in the shortest, as well as in the longest of our sounds. Those prolonged monotones which are heard in what is called a sing-song delivery, are, there K k fore, barbarisms; they belong neither to speech nor song they are a sort of recitative, passionless, senseless, and unnatural, to which, nevertheless, good sentiments are often chanted and drawled by worthy men. Animated conversation is the most inflected kind of speech, and the language of solemn warning or of prayer, the least inflected. Reading, and speaking from memory, are generally much less inflected, and therefore less natural, agreeable, and impressive, than conversation and extemporaneous delivery; and that reading must be considered the best which approaches most nearly in its tones to conversational and extemporal variety. Even the most effective speakers,-those who are perfectly free from any drawling, tune, or sing-song,-can seldom give utterance to a studied address with the same spontaneity of tone and manner which characterizes a perfectly extemporary delivery; yet such might easily do so, or at least make a very close approximation to this, by a little art, and by art of such a nature that none need hesitate to practise it; for it would infallibly tend to "hide itself,” and so fulfil the conditions of artistic perfection :-"the Art itself is Nature." But our observations on this the highest attainment in delivery would be premature in this place, and perhaps, in some degree, unintelligible, without the necessary explanations and illustrations of the mechanism and application of inflexions, which we shall, therefore, in the first place offer. The subject of Inflexion has been more fully treated by most authors than any other department of Elocution; and the mass of Rules, Observations, and Examples which they have accumulated, have so overloaded the simple natural principles that lie at the bottom of all genuine rules, that not one student in fifty can discover them. The consequence too often is, that Elocutionary students either throw up the study, in disgust at the stiff unnatural mannerism it seeks to impart; or, less fortunately, perhaps, imbibing something of its principles, awkwardly endeavour their adoption, in ignorance of a better directory; or else, judging "Elocution" to be, what it too often really seems, a thing of no fixed principles, but, regulated only by taste or caprice, form systems of their own, founded on some favourite model, or on a combination of incongruous models; and thus gradually swell the ranks of tuneful ranters, and level drawlers. 66 Elocution, according to the great majority of system-makers, appears to be nothing else than the management of Inflexion. Ask them "what is the chief point in Delivery?" Repeat, and reiterate the question. The answer is still the same, 'Inflexion!" The ancients, who better understood the subject, thought otherwise; and their oft-cited foreman Demosthenes, the most honourable example of excellence attained by persevering effort, and in spite, too, of habitual and physical drawbacks, said otherwise, and acted on a very different principle. When he determined to qualify himself for oratory, he wisely and rationally began with his articulation. This is recorded for our example! and when we imitate it, we, like him, shall find a certain and direct way to natural eloquence, whatever may be the sphere in which it is to be exerted. Oratory was of old a very comprehensive subject, and its study was the labour of a life. It included the arts of Logic, Rhetoric, and almost every department of general knowledge, and mental and moral discipline, as well as Pronunciation, or what we now call Elocution or Delivery. Hoary hairs were considered indispensable to the consummate orator, whose laborious preparations were supposed to require the length and vigour of the youth and prime of life. Consistently with this, Oratory was emblematized under the figure of an Old Man : threads of amber issuing from his lips, and winding into the ears of gaping auditors. Our orators expect to jump into the rostrum, and oratorical ability, at once; and without preparation even for the first and most indispensable requisite of public speaking,-Articulation. Our learned men affect to despise the very name of oratory. May not the reason be, they are not orators? They feel not, nor know the power of Eloquence. They can prepare the beautiful anatomy of a discourse, or declamation, but to animate it with the voice, the look, the action of natural utterance, is beyond their skill; it falls lifeless from their hands: or, if it struggle into breath, its life is that of the crawling insect, spumily trailing along beneath us, and not that of the bold soaring eagle, elevating the eye into dazzling regions, and towering among scenes of grandeur and sublimity. Demosthenes, in the zenith of his oratorical greatness, declared the most important part of a speaker's study to lie in Delivery. Matter was practically confessed to be much, but manner he, from |