Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub

faulty and unnatural elocution; and there are few perfons who do not daily experience the advantages of the former, or the inconveniences of the latter. The great difficulty is, not to prove that it is a defirable thing to be able to read and fpeak with propriety, but to point cut a practicable and easy method by which this accomplishment may be acquired.

FOLLOW NATURE, is certainly the fundamental law of Oratory, without a regard to which, all other rules will only produce affected declamation, not just elocution. And fome accurate obfervers, judging, perhaps, from a few unlucky fpecimens of modern eloquence, have concluded that this is the only law which ought to be prescribed; that all artificial rules are useless; and that good fenfe, and a cultivated tafte, are the only requifites to form a good public fpeaker. But it is true in the art of speaking, as well as in the art of living, that general precepts are of little ufe till they are unfolded, and applied to particular cafes.. To obferve the various ways by which nature expreffes the feveral perceptions, emotions and paffions of the human mind, and to distinguish these from the mere effect of arbitrary cuftom or falfe tafte;

to

to discover and correct those tones, and habits of speaking, which are grofs deviations from nature, and as far as they prevail must destroy all propriety and grace of utterance; and to make choice of fuch a courfe of practical leffons, as fhall give the speaker an opportunity of exercising himself in each branch of elocution; all this must be the effect of attention and labour; and in all this much affiftance may certainly be derived from inftruction. What are rules or leffons for acquiring this or any other art, but the observations of others, collected into a narrow compafs, and digefted in a natural order, for the direction of the unexperienced and unpractifed learner? And what is there in the art of speaking, which should render it incapable of receiving aid from precepts?

PRESUMING then, that the acquifition of the art of speaking, like all other practical arts, may be facilitated by rules, I proceed to lay before my readers, in a plain didactic form, fuch rules refpecting elocution, as appear beft adapted to form a correct and graceful Speaker.

[blocks in formation]

RULE I.

Let your Articulation be diftinct and deliberate.

A

GOOD Articulation confifts in giving a

clear and full utterance to the feveral fimple and complex founds. The nature of these founds, therefore, ought to be well understood; and much pains should be taken to discover and correct thofe faults in articulation, which, though often afcribed to fome defect in the organs of fpeech, are generally the confequence of inattention or bad example. Many of these respect the founding of the confonants. Some cannot pronounce the letter l, and others the fimple founds r, s, th, fb; others generally omit the aspirate b. Thefe faults may be corrected, by reading fentences, fo contrived as often to repeat the faulty founds; and by guarding against them in familiar

converfation.

OTHER defects in articulation regard the complex founds, and confift in a confufed and cluttering pronunciation of words. The most effectual methods of conquering this habit, are, to read aloud paffages chofen for that purpose (fuch for inftance

inftance as abound with long and unusual words, or in which many short fyllables come together) and to read, at certain stated times, much flower than the sense and juft fpeaking would require. Almost all perfons, who have not studied the art of speaking, have a habit of uttering their words fo rapidly, that this latter exercife ought generally to be made use of for a confiderable time at first: for where there is a uniformly rapid utterit is abfolutely impoffible that there should be ftrong emphasis, natural tones, or any just elocution.

ance,

AIM at nothing higher, till you can read diftinctly and deliberately.

LEARN to speak flow, all other graces
Will follow in their proper places.

RULE

II.

Let your Pronunciation be bold and forcible.

A

N infipid flatnefs and languor is an almost univerfal fault in reading; and even public fpeakers often fuffer their words to drop from

[blocks in formation]

their lips with fuch a faint and feeble utterance, that they appear neither to understand or feel what they fay themselves, nor to have any defire that it should be understood or felt by their audi-ence. This is a fundamental fault: a speaker without energy, is a lifelefs ftatue.

In order to acquire a forcible manner of pronouncing your words, inure yourself, while reading, to draw in as much air as your lungs can contain with cafe, and to expel it with vehemence, in uttering those founds which require an emphatical pronunciation; read aloud in the open air, and with all the exertion you can command; preferve your body in an erect attitude while your are fpeaking; let all the confonant founds be expreffed with a full impulfe or percuffion of the breath, and a forcible action of the organs employed in forming them; and let all the vowel founds have a full and bold utterance. Practife these rules with perfeverance, till you have acquired ftrength and energy of speech.

BUT in obferving this rule, beware of running into the extreme of vociferation. We find this fault chiefly among thofe, who, in contempt and

despite

« AnteriorContinuar »