2. Although the voice must rise in the delivery of an earnest of passionate sentence, care should be taken to resume the natural tone as soon as the excitement is over, or when the next need arises there will be no inflective power left in the vocal organs.

3. The force or loudness with which we speak need not be accompanied by a rise in the key on which we speak, and such a mistake should be carefully avoided. (By "the key" is implied what, in music, is called the tone or pitch of a composition, strain, or passage.)

4. In general, the voice should regain its natural tone at the end of each full sentence; certainly at the end of each paragraph. 5. The several clauses of the same sentence ought to be so pronounced as to imply that the sense is unfinished; this is done by slightly raising the voice at the end of each clause. A dash (—) or semi-colon (;) mark these clauses.

6. In asking questions beginning with verbs, the voice should be raised at the end; but the answer should be uttered in the natural key-note.

7. In questions depending on adverbs or pronouns, the emphasis should be given to the interrogative word.

8. Qualifying words take a stronger tone than the words they qualify.

9. Parenthetical, explanatory, or modifying clauses ought to be pronounced in a tone different from, i.e., either higher or lower than, the other parts of the sentence.

10. Clauses beginning with exceptive words lower the tone. II. Commands raise the voice; reasoning keeps it equable. 12. Opposition, or antithesis, should be expressed by contrast of tone.

With regard to ACTION the rule is, as in the quality of enunciation, to follow nature-to be natural, and avoid affectation, exaggeration, and artificial force. A mannerism-as in the case of John Randolph, whose almost sole gesture was with one hand and the index finger-is preferable to promiscuous and meaningless movements of the hands, head, and body. The action of the body and of its several parts, and of the facial muscles, should in all cases correspond with the enunciation, as that does with the spirit and style of the author, and these with the subject of discourse. It is the perfect harmony of all these which makes the true orator.

or rises to address a public assembly, he is instantly to lay aside his natural voice, and to assume a new and studied tone, and a cadence altogether foreign to his natural manner."-BLAIR.

"It ought to be a first principle with all public readers and speakers, rather to begin under the common level of their voice than above it. The attention of an audience at the commencement of a lecture or oration makes the softest accents of a speaker audible, at the same time that it affords a happy occasion for introducing a variety of voice, with out which every address must soon tire."-WALKER.

THE PRINCIPLES OF PAUSATION.

PRINCIPLES OF PAUSATION.

13

It is a singular fact, that even many "educated" persons are ignorant of the force and power of punctuation. Every editor knows that a properly punctuated manuscript is the exception, not the rule. This ignorance is the more astonishing considering how simple a matter the law of pausation is, and how exceedingly essential correct punctuation is to the sense. By simply misplacing a comma or other point, by omitting it altogether, or by use of the wrong point, the entire signification of the composition may be changed. It is, therefore, important alike to writers and speakers, to understand the uses and powers of each given mark of punctuation and expression.

Pausation is logical and rhetorical. With the first we are not now directly concerned, since it especially relates to composition. Rhetorical pausation demands our notice.

The ordinary points or marks of punctuation used, are: comma (,) semi-colon (;) colon (:) dash (—) period (.) exclamation (!) interrogation (?) parenthesis (). These, in speech, may be represented by comma. semi-colon. . colon . . . period. that is--pausing long enough to count one for each dot, viz. :

The mighty sun had just gone down

Into the chambers of the deep.

The ocean birds had upward flown.
Each in his cave to sleep.

And silent was the island shore.

And breathles all the broad. red sea.

And motionless beside the door

Our solitary tree. . . .

This may be regarded as about the proper length or force of the comma, &c. ; but, it will be found in speaking that there are Dauses where the mere grammatical construction demands none. Thus, the last four lines of the verse just quoted, as correctly spoken, would be given-

There is, therefore, a pause left to the discretion of the speaker, just as there are tone, emphasis, and action which are his own. The close study of the example, or the piece selected for recitation, as already suggested, will develop these rhetorical or unwritten pauses, while their use will determine, to a great degree, the speaker's aptness as an orator, and the extent of his studies.*

* Upon this point Walker says:-"Not half the pauses (a subject of the utmost importance) are found in printing, which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader or speaker. If we would read or speak well, we must pause, upon an average, at every

The dash in composition always implies a prolongation of the sense of the preceding words or sentence; hence, demands that the voice be sustained, using the rising inflection.

The exclamation, as a sign of wonder or surprise, will be expressed accordingly.

The interrogation marks a question.

The parenthesis indicates a clause dropped into a sentencethe sentence being complete without such parenthetical clause. Such clause is, therefore, to be read or pronounced in a lower tone of voice, to indicate its secondary or incidental relation to the rest of the sentence, with a pause equal to two dots before and after the clause.

Bearing in mind this proportionate length or strength of the different pauses, the student will soon learn what their value is in his own speech; and, like his manner and style, the period, semi-colon, &c., will assume a definite relation to his delivery. Edward Everett, a very scholarly but highly artificial orator, made a special effort to give distinct pausation to his speech; hence his pauses were unduly long, but always well proportioned as to time or length. Henry Clay, one of nature's orators, was equally clear in his sentential pauses, but gave them not more than half the time in seconds or moments which Everett accorded them. Their observance of the pauses indicated the characteristics of the men. One was cautious and artificial; the other was all earnestness and enthusiasm, and their respective positions as orators well illustrate the relative value of the two "schools"-the highly trained and artificial, and the natural or self-taught.

fifth or sixth word. Public reading, or speaking, requires pausing much oftener than reading and conversing in private; just as the part of a picture, which is to be viewed at a distance, must be more distinctly and strongly marked than those of an object which is nearer to the eye, and understood at the first impression."

THE ballad is generally regarded as the easiest form of poetic composi tion—being simply a story in verse; but it is, as poets know, a very difficult species of verse, demanding, as it does, the utmost simplicity in utterance for the purest and strongest emotion. As a consequence, the number of perfect ballads which exist in our language is limited. Those which aim to catch and please only the lower or more untrained taste, are numerous; and to this class-of which "John Gilpin" is the model or prototype-almost every day witnesses an accession.

The recitation of a ballad is less easy than would at first seem prob able. Every teacher of elocution knows how nearly impossible it is to find a pupil, or even a professed reader, who can correctly deliver Coleridge's "Ancient Mariner," or his "Christabel," or can express the tenderness and exquisite pathos which permeate every line of his "Dark Ladie." It is only the master of utterance and action who can properly interpret such compositions. Campbell's "Lord Ullin's Daughter" is the stock of every school stage-it is so readily declaimed. But, though readily declaimed, not one pupil in one hundred expresses half the meaning and power which the poet gave it. What is demanded is, that the student shall perfectly comprehend the author, or, rather, shali apprehend all his meaning. The recitation of the several stanzas will then elicit tone, emphasis, and gesture quite different from that used in a mere recitation of what has been committed to memory, but not understood.

Of American ballads, Whittier's "Maud Muller" and "Skipper Ireson's Ride; Longfellow's "Skeleton in Armor" and " Wreck of the Hesperus;" Poe's "Annabel Lee;" Duganne's "Maiden of the Shield; " Alice Cary's "Young Soldier ". '--are examples worthy of study. Poe's poem we here quote. Let the student, in committing it to memory, seek fully to fathom its significance, and to give to it that earnestness which is inseparable from true pathos.

ANNABEL LEE. (52) (47) (14)*—Edgar A. Poe.

It was many and many a year ago, (281)

In a kingdom by the sea,

That a maiden there lived whom you inay know,

By the name of Annabel Lee;

And this maiden she lived with no other thought
Than to love and be loved by me.

I was a child and she was a child, (51)

In this kingdom by the sea:

But we loved with a love that was more than love

I and my Annabel Lee;

With a love that the winged seraphs of heaven

Coveted her and me.

And this was the reason, that, long ago, (28)

In this kingdom by the sea,

A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling (14)
My beautiful Annabel Lee;

So that her high-born kinsman came
And bore her away from me,

To shut her up in a sepulchre,

In this kingdom by the sea.

The angels, not half so happy in heaven, (281)

Were envying her and me

Yes!-that was the reason (as all men know, (379)

In this kingdom by the sea)

That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.

But our love it was stronger by far than the love
Of those who were older than we-

Of many far wiser than we;

And neither the angels in heaven above,

Nor the demons down under the sea, (471)
Can ever dissever my soul from the soul

Of the beautiful Annabel Lee :

For the moon never beams without bringing dreams
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee, (442)

And the stars never rise but I see the bright eyes
Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;

And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side

Of my darling-my darling-my life and my bride,
In the sepulchre there by the sea,

In her tomb by the sounding sea.

Blank verse is, like the ballad form of verse, usually regarded as easy both to write and to speak. It is neither: on the contrary it requires a skilled hand, a musical ear, and a fine enthusiasm to produce a poem in unrhymed and running lines, but rhythmic and, throughout, full of that harmony of measure and emphasis which are never wanting in true \ poetry. In reading or reciting blank verse there is a strong tendency to

*The figures given with the heading indicate the predominate sentiment or passion of the example, for exposition of which see corresponding numbers in Sheridan's Analy sis, Part III. The numbers introduced in the text are to suggest some special action, or to assist in a correct apprehension of the author's meaning.