defpite of all rule and propriety, are determined to command the attention of the vulgar. These are the speakers, who, in Shakespear's phrase, "offend the judicious hearer to the foul, by tearing a passion to rags, to very tatters, to split the ears of the groundlings." Cicero compares such speakers to cripples who get on horfe-back because they cannot walk: they bellow, becaufe they cannot fpeak..

RULE III.

Acquire a compass and variety in the height of your voice.

HE monotony fo much complained of in

THE

public speakers, is chiefly owing to the neglect of this rule. They generally content themfelves with one certain key, which they employ on all occafions, and on every fubject: or if they attempt variety, it is only in proportion to the number of their hearers, and the extent of the place in which they speak; imagining, that speaking in a high key is the same thing as speaking loud; and not obferving, that whether a fpeaker shall be heard or not, depends more upon the a 6 diftinctnefs

diftinctness and force with which he utters his upon the height at which he pitches

words, than his voice.

But it is an effential qualification of a good fpeaker, to be able to alter the height, as well as the ftrength and the tone of his voice, as occafion requires. Different fpecies of speaking require different heights of voice. Nature instructs us to relate a story, to fupport an argument, to command a fervant, to utter exclamations of anger or rage, and to pour forth lamentations and forrows, not only with different tones, but different elevations of voice. Men at different ages of life, and in different fituations, fpeak in very different keys. The vagrant, when he begs; the foldier, when he gives the word of command; the watchman, when he announces the hour of the night; the fovereign, when he iffues his edict; the fenator, when he harangues; the lover, when he whifpers his tender tale; do not differ more in the tones which they use, than in the key in which they speak. Reading and speaking, therefore, in which all the variations of expreffion in real life are copied, must have continual variations in the height of the voice,

To

To acquire the power of changing the key on which you speak at pleasure, accustom yourself to pitch your voice in different keys, from the lowest to the higheft 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 feveral heights of the voice; read, as exercises 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 composition there may be frequent occasion 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 stage," &c. and his defcription 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 different parts of it; and on this chiefly, perhaps entirely, depends the melody of pronunciation.

RULE

RULE IV.

Pronounce your words with propriety and elegance..

T is not easy to fix upon any standard, by

IT

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 ftandard 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:

are: omitting the afpirate b where it ought to be used, and inferting it where there should be none; confounding and interchanging the vand 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. These faults, and all others of the fame nature, must be corrected in the pronunciation of a gentleman, who is fuppofed to have feen too much of the world, to retain the peculiarities of the diftrict in which he was born.

RULE V.

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

HERE is a neceffity for this direction, be

TH

caufe many speakers have affected an unufual and pedantic mode of accenting words, laying it down as a rule, that the accent should be caft as far backwards as poffible; a rule which has no foundation in the conftruction ofthe English language, or in the laws of harmony. In accenting words, the general custom and a good ear are the best guides: only it may be observed that

accent