Ray Pencil of Rars, a number of rays iffuing from a point of an object, and diverging in the form of a Reading. cone. RAZOR, a well-known inftrument, ufed by furgeons, barbers, &c. for fhaving off the hair from various parts of the body.-As fhaving to many people is a moft painful operation, cutlers in different countries have long applied their fkill to remove that inconvenience. Some have invented foaps of a peculiar kind to make the operation more easy, and fome have invented straps. With refpect to razors, some artists have fucceeded rather by accident than from any fixed principle; and therefore we have found great inequality in the goodness of razors made by the fame artist. A correfpondent affures us, that he has for 40 years past been at much pains to find out razors made by the beft makers both in England and Scotland, and was for tunate enough, about 22 years ago, to discover a kind made by a Scotchman of the name of Logan, which he called magnetical razors, because they were directed to be touched with an artificial magnet before ufing. Thefe, our friend affures us, are most excellent razors, and he has used them for upwards of 20 years. He fays likewife that they continue in good order, without requiring to be ground; but that the great draw-back on their being generally ufed, is the price, which is higher than most people are able or difpofed to give for that inftrument. Our correfpondent, who refides in the vicinity of London, alfo informs us, that lately the famous furgeon's inftrument-maker, Mr Savigny in Pall Mall, after numberless experiments, in the course of above 20 years, has at length brought razors to a degree of perfection never yet equalled; and with fuch certainty, that the purchaser is in no danger of a difappointment, though the price is very moderate. By thefe, we are told, the operation of fhaving is performed with greater ease, more perfectly, and more expeditiously, than with any other. RE, in grammar, an infeparable particle added to the beginning of words to double or otherwife modify their meaning; as in re-action, re-move, re-export, &c. RE-ACTION, in phyfiology, the refiftance made by all bodies to the action or impulfe of others that endeavour to change its ftate whether of motion or reft, &c. READING, the art of delivering written language with propriety, force, and elegance. "We must not judge fo unfavourably of eloquence or good reading (fays the illuftrious Fenelon), as to reckon it only a frivolous art, that a declaimer uses to impose upon the weak imagination of the multitude, and to ferve his own ends. It is a very serious art, defigned to instruct people; to fupprefs their paffions and reform their manners; to fupport the laws, direct public councils, and to make men good and happy." Delivery in Reafon and experience demonftrate, that delivery in reading reading ought to be lefs animated than in interested speaking. fhould be In every exercife of the faculty of fpeech, and thofe exted than in preffions of countenance and gefture with which it is interested generally attended, we may be confidered to be always fpeaking. in one of the two following fituations: Firft, delivering our bofom fentiments on circumftances which relate to ourfelves or others, or, fecondly, repeating fomething that was spoken on a certain occafion for the amuse. lef- anima ment or information of an auditor. Now, if we obferve Reading This repetition of another's words might be fuppofed to pass through the mouth of a second or third person; and in these cafes, fince they were not ear and eye witneffes of him who first spoke them, their manner of delivery would want the advantage neceffarily arifing from an immediate idea of the original one; hence, on this account, this would be a ftill lefs lively representation than that of the first repeater. But as, from a daily observation of every variety of speech and its affociated figns of emotion, mankind foon become pretty well acquainted with them, and this in different degrees, according to their difcernment, fenfibility, &c. experience fhows us that these latter repeaters (as we call them) might conceive and ufe a manner of delivery which, though lefs charaderiflic perhaps, would on the whole be no way inferior to the firft, as to the common natural expression proper for their fituation. It appears, therefore, that repeaters of every degree may be efteemed upon a level as to animation, and that our twofold diftinction above contains accurately enough the whole variety of ordinary delive ry; we say ordinary, because There is another very peculiar kind of delivery fometimes used in the person of a repeater, of which it will in this place be neceffary to take fome notice. What we mean here is mimicry; an accomplishment which, when perfectly and properly difplayed, never fails of yielding a high degree of pleafure. But fince this pleasure chiefly refults from the principle of imitation refpecting manner, and not from the purport of the matter communicated; fince, comparatively fpeaking, it is only attainable by few perfons, and practifed only on particular occafions; -on thefe accounts it muft be refused a place among the modes of useful delivery taught us by general nature, and efteemed a qualification purely anomalous. Thefe diftinctions with regard to a fpeaker's fitua tion of mind premised, let us fee to which of them an author and his reader may most properly be referred, and how they are circumstanced with regard to one another.. The matter of all books is, either what the author fays in his own perfon, or an acknowledged recital of the words of others: hence an author may be efteemed both an original speaker and a repeater, according as what he writes is of the firft or fecond kind. Now a reader must be fuppofed either actually to perfonate the author, or one whofe office is barely to communicate what he has faid to an auditor. But in the first of thefe fuppofitions he would, in the delivery of what is the author's own, evidently commence mimic; which being, as than ufu, yet (it) requires that the fame proportion Reading, in point of quantity be obferved in the fyllables, as there is in mufical notes when the fame tune is played in quicker or flower time." But that this deviation fron ordinary fpeech is not a fault, as our author afferts; nay, that on the contrary it is a real beauty when kept under proper regulation, the following obfervations it is hoped will fufficiently prove. Reading above obferved, a character not acknowledged by general nature in this department, ought to be rejected as generally improper. The other fuppofition therefore must be accounted right; and then, as to the whole matter of the book, the reader is found to be exactly in the fituation of a repeater, fave that he takes what he delivers from the page before him inftead of his memory. It follows then, in proof of our initial propofition, that, if we are directed by nature and propriety, the manner of our delivery in reading ought to be inferior in warmth and energy to what we should ufe, were the language before us the fpontaneous effufions of our own hearts in the circumstances of those out of whose mouths it is fuppofed to proceed. Accent. Evident as the purport of this reafoning is, it has not fo much as been glanced at by the writers on the fubject we are now entered upon, or any of its kindred ones; which has occafioned a manifeft want of accuracy in feveral of their rules and obfervations. Among the reft, this precept has been long reverberated from author to author as a perfect ftandard for propriety in reading. "Deliver yourselves in the fame manner you would do, were the matter your own original fentiments uttered directly from the heart." As all kinds of delivery muft have many things in common, the rule will in many articles be undoubtedly right; but, from what has been faid above, it must be as certainly faulty in refpect to several others; as it is certain nature never confounds by like figns two things fo very different, as a copy and an original, an emanation darted immediately from the fun, and its weaker appearance in the lunar reflection. The precepts we have to offer for improving the above-mentioned rule, shall be delivered under the heads of accent, emphafis, modulation, expression, pauses, &c. I. Accent. In attending to the affections of the voice when we fpeak, it is eafy to obferve, that, independent of any other confideration, one part of it differs from another, in firefs, energy, or force of utterance. In words we find one fyllable differing from another with refpect to this mode; and in fentences one or more words as frequently vary from the reft in a fimilar This ftrefs with regard to fyllables is called accent, and contributes greatly to the variety and harmony of language. Refpecting words, it is termed emphafis; and its chief office is to affift the fenfe, force, or perfpicuity of the fentence-of which more under the manner. next head. "Accent (as defcribed in the Lectures on Elocution) is made by us two ways; either by dwelling longer upon one fyllable than the reft, or by giving it a fmarter percuffion of the voice in utterance. Of the first of these we have inftances in the words glory, father, bōly; of the last in battle, hab'it, borrow. So that accent with us is not referred to tune, but to time; to quantity, not quality; to the more equable or precipitate motion of the voice, not to the variation of the notes or inflexions." In theatric declamation, in order to give it more pomp and folemnity, it is ufual to dwell longer than common upon the unaccented fyllables; and the author now quoted has endeavoured to prove (p. 51. 54) the practice faulty, and to fhow (p. 55.) that "though it (i. e. true folemnity) may demand a flower utterance (I.) It is a truth of the most obvious nature, that thofe things which on their application to their proper fenfes have a power of raifing in us certain ideas and emotions, are ever differently modified in their conftituent parts when different effects are produced in the mind; and alfo (II.) that, within proper bounds, were we to fuppofe thefe conftituent parts to be proportionally increafed or diminished as to quantity, this effect would ftill be the fame as to quality. For inftance: The different ideas of ftrength, swiftnefs, &c. which are raised in us by the fame fpecies of animals, is owing to the different form of their correfponding parts; the different effects of mufic on the paffions, to the different airs and movements of the melody; and the different expreffions of human fpeech, to a difference in tone, fpeed, &c. of the voice. And these peculiar effects would ftill remain the fame, were we to fuppofe the animals above alluded to, to be greater or leer, within their proper bounds; the movement of the mufic quicker or flower, provided it did not palpably interfere with that of fome other fpecies; and the pitch of the voice higher or lower, if not carried out of the limits in which it is obferved on fimilar occafions naturally to move. Farther (III.) fince, refpecting the emotions more efpecially, there are no rules to determine à priori what effect any par ticular attribute of modification of an object will have upon a percipient, our knowledge of this kind must evidently be gained from experience. Laftly, (IV.) In every art imitating nature we are pleased to fee the characteristic members of the pattern heightened a little farther than perhaps it ever was carried in any real example, provided it be not bordering upon fome ludicrous and difagreeable provinces of excels. Now for the application of thefe premiffes.-To keep pace and be confiftent with the dignity of the tragic mufe, the delivery of her language fhould neceffarily be dignified; and this it is plain from obfervation (I.) cannot be accomplished otherwife than by fomething diffe rent in the manner of it from that of ordinary fpeech; fince dignity is effentially different from familiarity. But how muft we difcover this different manner? By attend ing to nature and in this case she tells us, that besides ufing a flower delivery, and greater diflindness of the words (which every thing merely grave requires, and gravity is a concomitant of dignity, though not its effence), we must dwell a little longer upon the unaccented fyllables than we do in common. As to what our author obferves in the above quotation, of dignity's only requi ring a flower utterance than ordinary, while the proportion of the fyllables as to quantity continues the fame; it is apprehended the remark (II.) respecting quickness and flowness of movement, will fhow it to be not altogether true. For fince the delivery is not altered in form, its expreffion must be ftill of the fame kind, and perhaps what may be rightly fuggetted by the term gravely familiar. C 2 But Reading. Emphalis. have been an unheard-of and dreadful punishment Reading, Brought death into the world, &c. But if we were to fuppofe mankind knew there was fuch But Tomething farther may be yet faid in defence of this artificial delivery, as our author calls it. Is not the movement of any thing, of whatever fpecies, when dignified or folemn, in general of an equable and deliberate nature (as in the minuet, the military step, &c.)? And in theatrical declamation, is not the propensity to introduce this equableness fo ftrong, that it is almoft impoffible to avoid it wholly, were we ever fo determined to do it? If thefe two queries be answered in the affirmative (as we are perfuaded they will), while the firft fupports our argument for the propriety of the manner of delivery in queftion, the fecond difcovers a kind of neceffity for it. And that this manner may be carried a little farther in quantity on the stage than is ufual in real life, the principle (IV.) of heightening nature will juftify, provided fashion (which has ever fomething to do in thefe articles) give it a fanction; for the precife quantity of feveral heightenings may be varied by this great legiflator almost at will. II. Emphafs. As emphafis is not a thing annexed Of man's firft difobedience, and the fruit. Suppofing, in reference to the above well-known Of man's first difobedience, and the fruit, &c. Of man's first difobedience, &c. Brought death into the world, &c. Now from a proper delivery of the above lines, with regard to any one of the fuppofitions we have chofen, out of feveral others that might in the fame manner have been imagined, it will appear that the emphasis they illuftrate is effected by a manifeft delay in the pronunciation, and a tone fomething fuller and louder than is ufed in ordinary; and that its office is folely to determine the meaning of a fentence with reference to fomething faid before, prefuppofed by the author as general knowledge, or in order to remove an ambiguity where a pafiage is capable of having more fenfes given it than one. But, fuppofing in the above example, that none of the fenfes there pointed out were precifely the true one, and that the meaning of the lines were no other than what is obviously fuggefted by their fimple conftruction; in that cafe it may be asked, if in reading them there fhould be no word dignified with the emphatical accompanyments above defcribed?—The answer is, Not one with an emphasis of the fame kind as that we have just been illustrating; yet it is nevertheless true, that on hearing these lines well read, we fhall find fome words diftinguished from the reft by a manner of delivery bordering a little upon it (4). And these words will in general be fuch as feem the most important in the fentence, or on other accounts to merit this diftinction. But as at beft it only enforces, graces, or enlivens, and not fixes the meaning of any paffage, and even caprice and fashion (B) have often a hand in determining its place and magnitude, it cannot properly be reckoned an effential of delivery. However, it is of too much moment to be neglected by thofe who would wish to be Again, admitting death (as was really the cafe) to good readers; and, for the fake of diftinction, we may not (A) The following lines will illuftrate both thefe kinds of ftreffes: For, to convey their right meaning, the word ANY is evidently to be pronounced louder and fuller than those with the accents over them. Get wealth and pláce, if poffible with grace; If not, by ANY means get wealth and pláce. POPE. This couplet is accented in the manner we find it in the Effay on Elocution by Mafon. And if, according to the judgment of this author, the words thus diftinguished are to have an emphatical refs, it must be of the inferior kind above-mentioned, and which a little farther on we call emphasis of force; while the word ANY in a different type alone poffeffes the other fort of energy, and which is there contradiftinguished by the term emphafis of fenfe. (B) Among a number of people who have had proper opportunities of learning to read in the best manner it is now taught, it would be difficult to find two, who, in a given inftance, would ufe the emphasis of force alike, either as to place or quantity. Nay fome scarce ufe any at all: and others will not fcruple to carry it much beyond any thing we have a precedent for in common difcourfe; and even now and then throw it upon words fo very trifling in themselves, that it is evident they do it with no other view, than for the fake of the variety it gives to the modulation.-This practice, like the introduction of difcords into mufic, may without doubt be indulged now and then; but were it too frequent, the capital intent of these energies would manifeftly either be deftroyed or rendered dubious. Reading. not unaptly denominate both the kinds of energies in queftion, by the terms emphafis of fenfe, and emphafis of force (c). Now from the above account of these two fpecies of emphafis it will appear, "that in reading, as in fpeaking, the firft of them must be determined entirely by the fenfe of the paffage, and always made alike: But as to the other, tale alone feems to have a right of fixing its fituation and quantity."- Farther: Since the more effential of thefe two energies is folely the work of nature (as appears by its being conftantly found in the common converfation of people of all kinds of capacities and degrees of knowledge), and the most ignorant perfon never fails of ufing it rightly in the effufions of his own heart, it happens very luckily, and ought always to be remembered, that provided we understand what we read, and give way to the dictates of our own feeling, the emphafs of fenfe can fearce ever avoid falling fpontaneously upon its proper place. Here it will be neceflary to fay fomething by way of reply to a question which will naturally occur to the mind of every one. As the rule for the emphofis of fenfe requires we should understand what we read before it can be properly used, it is incumbent upon us never to attempt to read what we have not previoufly ftudied for that purpose? In anfwer to this, it must be obferved, that though fuch a ftep will not be without its advantages; yet, as from the fairness of printed types, the well-known paufes of punctuation, and a long ac quaintance with the phrafeology and conftruction of our language, &c. experience tells us it is foffible to comprehend the fenfe at the first reading, a previous perufal of what is to be read does not feem neceffary to all, though, if they would wish to appear to advantage, it may be expedient to many; and it is this circumftance which makes us venture upon extemporary reading, and Reading give it a place among our amufements. Similar remarks might be made with regard to modulation, expref-. fion, &c. did not what is here obferved naturally anticipate them. III. Modulation (D). Every perfon muft have obfer- Modulaved, that, in fpeaking, the voice is fubject to an alteration. tion of found, which in fome measure resembles the movement of a tune. Thefe founds, however, are evidently nothing like fo much varied as thofe that are ftrictly mufical; and we have attempted to fhow in the preceding chapter, that, befides this, they have an effential difference in themfelves. Nevertheless, from the general fimilitude of these two articles, they poffefs fe-veral terms in common; and the particular we have now to examine is in both of them called modulation. This affection of the voice, being totally arbitrary, is differently characterized in different parts of the world; and, through the power of cuftom, every place is inclined to think their own the only one natural and agreeable, and the reft affected with fome barbarous twang or ungainly variation E). It may be observed, however, that though there is a general uniform cast or fashion of modulation peculiar to every country, yet it by no means follows, that there is or can be any thing fixed in its application to particular paffages; and therefore we find different people will, in any given inftance, ufe modulations fomething different, and nevertheless be each of them equally agreeable. But, quitting these general remarks, we shall (as our purpofe requires it) confider the properties of modulation a little more minutely. First, then, we may obferve, that, in fpeaking, there is a particular found (or key-note, as it is often called) in which the modulation for the most part runs, and to which (c) The first of these terms anfwers to the simple emphasis described in the Leatures on Elocution, and the fecond nearly to what is there called complex. The difference lies in this. Under complex emphafis the author feems (for he is far from being clear in this article) to include the tones fimply confidered of all the emotions of the mind; as well the tender and languid, as the forcible and exulting. Our term is intended to be confined to such modes of expreffion alone as are marked with an apparent firefs or increase of the voice. (D) The author of the Introduction to the Art of Reading, not allowing that there is any variation of tone, as to high and low, in the delivery of a complete period or fentence, places modulation folely in the diverfification of the key-note and the variety of fyllables, as to long or fort, fwift or flow, ftrong or weak, and loud or foft. As we are of a different opinion, our idea of modulation is confined purely to harmonious inflexions of voice. These qualities of words, it is true, add greatly both to the force and beauty of delivery; yet, fince fome of them are fixed and not arbitrary (as long and fort), and the others (of fwift and flow, frong and weak, loud and foft), may be confidered as modes of expreffion which do not affect the modulation as to tone, it will agree best with our plan to esteem thefe properties as refpectively belonging to the established laws of pronunciation and the imitative branch of expreffion mentioned in the end of the enfuing head. (E) From what accounts we have remaining of the modulation of the ancients, it appears to have been highly ornamented, and apparently fomething not unlike our modern recitative; particularly that of their theatric decla mation was mufic in its ftricteft fenfe, and accompanied with inftruments. In the course of time and the progrefs of refinement, this modulation became gradually more and more fimple, till it has now loft the genius of mufic, and is entirely regulated by tafte. At home here, every one has heard the fing-fong cant, as it is called, of Ti ti dum dum, ti ti dum ti dum de, Ti dum ti dum, ti dum ti dum dum de; which, though difguftful now to all but mere ruftics on account of its being out of fashion, was very probably the favourite modulation in which heroic verfes were recited by our ancestors. So fluctuating are the taste and practices of mankind! But whether the power of language over the paffions has received any advantage from the change just mentioned, will appear at leaft very doubtful, when we recollect the ftories of its former triumphs, and the inherent charms of musical sounds. diverfify the key-note, and increase the frequency of Reading. cadences in proportion to the merit of the compofi-" tion." It will readily be feen, that the precepts here drawn from a comparifon between fpeaking and reading, would be very inadequate, were they left deftitute of the affiftance of tafe, and the opportunity of frequently bearing and imitating maflerly readers. And indeed, to these two great auxiliaries we might very properly have referred the whole matter at once, as capable of giving fufficient directions, had we not remembered that our plan required us to found several of our rules as much on the principles of a philofophical analyfis, as on those more familiar ones which will be found of greater efficacy in real practice. Reading which its occafional inflexions, either above or below, in fome refpects be conceived to have a reference, like that which common mufic has to its key-note. Yet there is this difference between the two kinds of modulation, that whereas the first always concludes in the key-note, the other frequently concludes a little below it (F). This key-note, in fpeaking, is generally the found given at the outfet of every complete fentence or period; and it may be obferved on fome occafions to vary its pitch through the limits of a mufical interval of a confiderable magnitude. The tones, that fall a little lower than the key at the clofe of a fentence or period, are called cadences. Thefe cadences, if we are accurate in our diftinctions, will, with refpect to their offices, be found of two kinds; though they meet fo frequently together, that it may be beft to conceive them only as anfwering a double purpofe. One of thefe offices is to affift the fenfe, and the other to decorate the modulation. An account of the firft may be feen in the section on Paufes; and the latter will be found to fhow itself pretty frequently in every thing grave and plaintive, or in poetic defcription and other highly ornamented language, where the mind is by its influence brought to feel a placid kind of dignity and fatisfaction. These two cadences, therefore, may be conveniently diftinguished by applying to them refpectively the epithets fignificant and ornamental. We have already obferved, that reading fhould in fome things differ from fpeaking; and the particular under confideration feems to be one which ought to vary a little in these arts. For, Modulation in reading ferves a twofold purpofe. At the fame time that it gives pleasure to the ear on the principles of harmony, it contributes through that medium to preferve the attention. And fince written language (when not purely dramatical) is in general more elegant in its conftruction, and mufical in its periods, than the oral one; and fince many interefting particudars are wanting in reading, which are prefent in fpeaking, that contribute greatly to fix the regard of the hearer; it seems reasonable, in order to do juftice to the language, and in part to supply the incitements of attention juft alluded to, that in the former of these two articles a modulation fhould be used fomething more harmonious and artificial than in the latter. Agreeably to this reasoning, it is believed, we shall find every reader, on a narrow examination, adopt more or lefs a modulation thus ornamented: though, after all, it must be acknowledged there are better grounds to believe, that the practice has been hitherto directed intuitively by nature, than that it was difcovered by the inductions of reason. We fhall conclude this head with a rule for modulation in reading. "In every thing dramatic, colloquial, or of fimple narrative, let your modulation be the fame as in fpeaking; but when the fubject is flowery, folemn, or dignified, add fomething to its harmony, as to the 5 IV. Expreffion. 1. There is no compofition in mufic, Expreffion however perfect as to key and melody, but, in order tones of the to do juftice to the fubject and ideas of the author, voice. will require, in the performing, fomething more than an exact adherence to tune and time. This fomething is of a nature, too, which perhaps can never be adequately pointed out by any thing graphic, and refults entirely from the tafte and feeling of the performer. It is that which chiefly gives mufic its power over the paffions, and characterises its notes with what we mean by the words fweet, barfb, dull, lively, plaintive, joyn ous, &c. for it is evident every found, confidered abftractedly, without any regard to the movement, or high and low, may be thus modified. In practical mufic, this commanding particular is called Expreffion; and as we find certain tones analogous to it frequently coalefcing with the modulation of the voice, which indi cate our paffions and affections (thereby more particularly pointing out the meaning of what we fay), the term is ufually applied in the same sense to speaking and reading. Thefe tones are not altogether peculiar to man.— Every animal, that is not dumb, has a power of ma king feveral of them. And from their being able, unaffifted by words, to manifeft and raise their kindred emotions, they conflitute a kind of language of them. felves. In this language of the heart man is eminently converfant; for we not only understand it in one another, but alfo in many of the inferior creatures subject. ed by providence to our service. The expreffion here illuftrated is one of the most effential articles in good reading, fince it not only gives a finishing to the fenfe, but, on the principles of fympa. thy and antipathy, has alfo a peculiar efficacy in inte refting the heart. It is likewife an article of moft difficult attainment; as it appears from what follows, that a mafterly reader ought not only to be able to incorporate it with the modulation properly as to quality, but in any degree as to quantity. Every thing written being a proper imitation of fpeech, expreffive reading muft occafionally partake of all (F) As mufical founds have always an harmonical reference to a key or fundamental note, and to which the mind is ftill fecretly attending, no piece of mufic would appear perfect, that did not clofe in it, and fo naturally put an end to expectation. But as the tones used in speech are not mufical, and therefore cannot refer harmo nically to any other found, there can be no neceffity that this terminating found (and which we immediately beJow term the cadence) should either be used at all, or follow any particular law as to form, &c. farther than what is impofed by tafte and custom. 8 |