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nothing that fuch a speaker can so properly be compared to, as an alarum-bell, which, when once fet a-going, clatters on till the weight that moves it is run down. Without paufes, the fense must always appear confufed and obfcure, and often be misunderstood; and the spirit and energy of the piece must be wholly loft.

In executing this part of the office of a speaker, it will by no means be fufficient to attend to the points used in printing; for these are far from marking all the pauses which ought to be made in speaking. A mechanical attention to these refting places has perhaps been one chief cause of monotony, by leading the reader to a uniform found at every imperfect break, and a uniform cadence at every full period. The use of points is to affift the reader in difcerning the grammatical construction, not to direct his pronunciation. In reading, it may often be proper to make a pause where the printer has made none. Nay, it is ve ry allowable for the fake of pointing out the sense more strongly, preparing the audience for what is to follow, or enabling the speaker to alter the tone or height of the voice, fometimes to make a very confiderable pause, where the grammatical conftruction

conftruction requires none at all. In doing this, however, it is neceffary that in the word immediately preceding the pause, the voice be kept up in fuch a manner as to intimate to the hearer that the fenfe is not compleated. Mr. GARRICK, often obferved this rule with great fuccefs. This particular excellence Mr. Sterne has described in his usual sprightly manner. See the following Work, Book VI. Chap. III.

BEFORE a full paufe, it has been cuftomary in reading to drop the voice in a uniform manner; and this has been called the cadence. But furely nothing can be more deftructive of all propriety and energy than this habit. The tones and heights at the clofe of a fentence ought to be infinitely diverfified, according to the general nature of the discourse, and the particular conftruction and meaning of the fentence. In plain narrative, and especially in argumentation, the leaft attention to the manner in which we relate a story, or fupport an argument in conversation, will show, that it is more frequently proper to raise the voice than to fall it at the end of a sentence. Interrogatives, where the speaker seems to expect an anfwer, fhould al

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most always be elevated at the close, with a peculiar tone, to indicate that a question is asked. Some fentences are fo conftructed, that the last word requires a ftronger emphasis than any of the preceding; whilft others admit of being clofed with a foft and gentle found. Where there is nothing in the fense which requires the laft found to be elevated or emphatical, an easy fall, fufficient to fhow that the fenfe is finished, will be proper. And in pathetic pieces, especially those of the plaintive, tender, or folemn kind, the tone of the paffion will often require a ftill lower cadence of the voice. But before a speaker can be able to fall his voice with propriety and judgment at the clofe of a fentence, he must be able to keep it from falling, and to raise it with all the variation which the fenfe requires. The best method of correcting a uniform cadence, is frequently to read select sentences, in which the ftyle is pointed, and frequent antithefes are introduced, and argumentative pieces, or fuch as abound with interrogatives.

RULE

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Accompany the Emotions and Paffions which your words exprefs, by correfpondent tones, looks, and geftures.

THERE

HERE is the language of emotions and paffions, as well as of ideas. To exprefs the latter is the peculiar province of words; to exprefs the former, nature teaches us to make ufe of tones, looks, and geftures. When anger, fear, joy, grief, love, or any other active paffion arises in our minds, we naturally difcover it by the particular manner in which we utter our words; by the features of the countenance, and by other well known figns. And even when we speak without any of the more violent emotions, fome kind of feeling ufually accompanies our words, and this, whatever it be, hath its proper external expreffion. Expreffion hath indeed been fo little studied in public fpeaking, that we seem almost to have forgotten the language of nature, and are ready to confider every attempt to recover it as the laboured and affected effort of art. But Nature is always the fame; and every judicious imitation of it will always be pleafing.

Nor

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can any one deserve the appellation of a good speaker, much less of a complete orator, till to distinct articulation, a good command of voice, and just emphafis, he is able to add the various expreffions of emotion and paffion.

To enumerate thefe expreffions, and defcribe them in all their variations is impracticable. Attempts have been made with some success to analyse the language of ideas; but the language of fentiment and emotion has never yet been analyfed; and perhaps it is not within the reach of human ability, to write a Philofophical Grammar of the Paffions. Or, if it were poffible in any degree to execute this defign, I cannot think, that from fuch a grammar it would be possible for

any one to inftruct himself in the use of the language. All endeavours therefore to make men Orators by defcribing to them in words the manner in which their voice, countenance, and hands are to be employed, in expreffing the paffions, muft, in my apprehenfion, be weak and ineffectual. And, perhaps, the only instruction which can be given with advantage on this head, is this general one: Observe in what manner the several emotions or paffions are expreffed in real life, or by thofe who have with B

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