acquisition of a chaste and impressive style of reading.

And

if we can afterwards teach the best use of the voice, and cultivate the ear to appropriate inflections, natural and easy transitions, and judicious pauses, we shall have overcome all obstacles to the attainment of this essential element of good reading, viz., evenness of tone.

Now, in order to secure such a result, the observance of the foregoing rules, and diligent practice of the exercises, have been enjoined, and should have already enabled the pupil to bring out his voice to advantage, to display its best tones, to command its resources with ease, and to apply them with economy and effect.* If this has been done, we are now prepared for the separate consideration of each kind of accented syllables.

NATURE OF HEAVY OR ACCENTED SYLLABLES.

Syllables have hitherto been spoken of as being either accented or unaccented; and it has been insisted on that those which are not to be accented should be uttered with their legitimate vowel distinctly audible, while in loudness they are to form a striking contrast with the accented ones.

Accented syllables are of two kinds generally; which may, for convenience, be designated by the terms long and short accented syllables. But there are syllables of such a nature as to participate, to a certain extent, in the peculiarities of each of these two kinds.

* Nec abest facundis gratia dictis.

QUANTITY.-Long syllables are such as are susceptible of quantity, and quantity means the prolongation or continuance of sound. Syllables containing the long vowel sounds are often eminently susceptible of quantity, as 'angel,' 'holy,' 'hail.' The first syllable in each of these words owes its quantity to the long vowel element. The first syllable in each of the words 'fearless,' endless,' 'warning,' 'mournful,' is susceptible of quantity by virtue of other considerations than the character of their vowel element.

6

The

Short syllables are accented by PERCUSSIVE FORCE. They are only to be uttered by an abrupt explosive effort, and cannot be said to be susceptible of quantity or extension. first syllable in the words 'habit,' 'battle,' 'temporal,' 'radical,' is short, and cannot be prolonged with any show of propriety. Such syllables, then, are to be accented by the force of percussion.

The voice should now be exercised in the faculty of giving quantity; and for this purpose a list of words is subjoined, requiring the display of this element. The voice is to come out free and unobstructed from the chest, as low down as possible, and the sub-vowel sounds are to be given fully and slowly, so that the spelling of the words, as far as possible, shall be known to the ear by their clear and perfect articulation.

Day, age, eel, ooze, isle, thou, our, arm, warm, orb, aid, save, old, all, stars, call, home, hose, flow'd, air, star, war, prose, knoll, lull, one, burn, swell'd, wild, fair, plumed, there, praise, tears, turn, man, woe, gain, spire, rhyme, hail, world, aim, pure, dove, low, moved, times, wings, bear, scorą, doom, bale, flames, knows, nine, morn.

Words of similar construction to these are eminently susceptible of quantity, and require to be uttered with fullness. and deliberation.

If the time occupied in the utterance of such syllables be compared with the duration of syllables like 'act,' 'put,' 'work,' 'blood,' 'bliss,' 'gift,' or with that of the first syllable in the words 'finish,' 'perish,' 'manage,' 'village,' 'mention,' a striking contrast must appear; and yet syllables of this latter kind may be strongly accented by the forcible and abrupt manner of striking them.

THE VANISH.-Much has been said by some writers, and justly, as it seems to me, on the beauty and effect of a distinctly marked vanish. The meaning of this is that, after the utterance of an accented syllable which is followed by a pause or suspension of voice, the sound of that syllable should be heard to die away, as it were, by a gradual and tapering process, until it is lost to the ear. This is in contradistinction to the short and abrupt ending which is common to fast reading. An example may be found in the following lines, taken from the opening of Shakspeare's Richard III.

"Now, is the winter of our discontent

Made glorious summer by this sun of York."

Observe the vanish of the word 'Now;' after which, if properly spoken, the voice should be suspended for a moment, as well for the purpose of emphasis as to give opportunity properly to take up the unaccented vowel sound which follows; and, perhaps, not less than either, for the sake of this very

effect, viz., to display the fine delineation of the vanish upon

ABRUPTNESS is one of the forms of FORCE; one of the modes of its application considered essential to the full expression of certain emotions. The syllables in our language which have been described as not susceptible of quantity, were said to furnish examples for the display of the force of percussion; and many passages might be quoted where a succession of monosyllables invite this species of emphasis. Observe the short percussive force in the following examples :

"The string let fly,

Twang'd short and sharp, like the shrill swallow's cry."

"When squadrons fainting paused-or stark and stiff,
Toppled to gulphy death, far down the cliff."

"And bowl the round nave down the steep hill of heaven."

The abruptness of the short accented syllables in these lines is well adapted to the sentiment of the language. It forms a striking contrast with the smooth flowing character of verses where long quantity is displayed.*

TRANSITION OF VOICE might likewise be here spoken of as constituting one of the beauties of agreeable speech; but as that subject belongs legitimately to Intonation, it will be treated in the Second Part.

*This property of language, as it properly belongs to rhythm, will come under particular consideration in the Third Part of this book, which is devoted to the subject of Measure.

CHAPTER XII.

PRONUNCIATION.

STANDARD OF PRONUNCIATION-ERRORS OF THE VULGAR-ERRORS OF THE ERUDITE CUSTOM-COMMON ERRORS CLASSIFIED-LIST OF WORDS IN COMMON USE, ACCENTUATED ACCORDING TO THE MOST APPROVED AUTHORITY.

THE word pronunciation, in its restricted sense, means simply the giving of accent or force to the right syllable of a word, and a certain breadth or closeness to the vowel sounds. Now in this narrow signification, it may be difficult to find a standard of pronunciation which the Philologist will readily accept.

As regards the determining of the accented syllable, there are many words in which no general agreement among scholars has ever been effected; and as to the more open or the closer sound of the vowels, as of 'a' in the words 'dance,' " command,' &c., this is often merely a characteristic of localities, and therefore a provincialism. A disagreement on this may distinguish persons from different countries, or from distant parts of the same country; but can never furnish a criterion by which to judge of the erudition or the correctness of a speaker.