3. Then out spake Spu'rius Lar'tius, - "I will abide on thy left side, And keep the bridge with thee." 4. "Horatius," quoth the Consul, Romulus divided the Romans into three tribes, called Rhamner THE KEEPING OF THE BRIDGE. 7. Back darted Spu'rius Lartius; And, as they passed, beneath their feet But when they turned their faces, And on the further shore 8. But, with a crash like thunder, And, like a dam, the mighty wreck 9. Alone stood brave Horatius, With a smile on his pale face. 10. Round turned he, as not deigning Naught spake he to Lars Porsena, But he saw on Pălati'nus The white porch of his home; And he spake to the noble river That rolls by the towers of Rome: 11. "O Tiber! Father Tiber! To whom the Romans pray! 89 A Roman's life, a Roman's arms, 12. No sound of joy or sorrow Was heard from either bank; They saw his crest appear, All Rome sent forth a rapturous cry, 3. "Out on him!" quoth false Sextus; We should have sacked the town!" 14. And now the ground he touches, And now, with shouts and clapping, LORD MACAULAY. (1800 SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION. 91 XXXII. -SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION. PART I. CLAUSE (klauz), n., a separate mem- DIS-PERSE', v. t., to scatter; to dis Pronounce Mirabeau, Mir'a-bo. Do not say empasis for em'pha-sis (em'fa-sis); spiled for spoiled; doo for due; particlar for particu-lar. Re'al-ly is in three syllables. Do not call it reely. In cer'tain, cap'tair, noun'tain, &c., ai has the sound of short i. 1. ARTICULATION is the correct formation, by the organs of speech, of certain sounds. Every word of more than one syllable is distinguished by the more forcible utterance, called accent, of one particular syllable, and the lighter utterance of the other, or others. The following words afford examples of accent: A com'pound, to com-pound'; an ac'cent, to ac-cent'; blas'phe-mous, blas-phēm'ing; com-mand'er, com-mandant'. 2. Pronunciation is the utterance of words with those vowel and consonant sounds, and that accent, which the best usage has established. Thus, pronunciation teaches us to say, ve'he-ment instead of ve-he'ment; mis'chiev-ous instead of mis-chiev'ous; and to sound the ou in group and soup like o in move, instead of like ou in house. The correct pronunciation of words can be best learnt by reference to the dictionary. 3. Pronunciation properly includes articulation. “In just articulation," says Austin, "the words are not hurried over, nor precipitated syllable over syllable. They are delivered out from the lips, as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint, deeply and accurately im 92 SPECIAL EXERCISES IN ELOCUTION. pressed, perfectly finished, neatly struck by the proper organs; distinct, sharp, in due succession, and of due weight." 4. Inflections of the voice are those upward and downward slides in tone, by which we express either the suspension or the completion of the meaning of what we utter. Read the following sentence: "As trees and plants necessarily arise from seeds, so are you, An'tony, the seed of this most calamitous war." Here the voice 'slides up at the end of the first clause, at seeds, as the sense is not per-fected, and slides down at the completion of the sense, at the word war, where the sentence ends. 5. Emphasis is that peculiar stress which we lay upon particular words, to bring out their meaning or importance more directly. Thus, in the following couplet from Pope, there is an example of emphasis: "'Tis hard to say if greater want of skill Here the words writing and judging are opposed to each other, and are, therefore, the emphatical words. 6. Another example: "When a Persian soldier was reviling Alexander the Great, an officer reprimanded him, by saying, Sir, you were paid to fight against Alexander, and not to rail at him." Here, the reader who fully comprehends the force and meaning of the sentence, will not go astray in laying stress on the prominent words. We may apply the same remark to the following couplet, by Cowper: "A modest, sensible, and well-bred man Would not insult me, and no other can. 7. Arbitrary rules are of little value in teaching to read. If you fully understand and feel what you are reading, if you can pronounce all the words correctly, and if you have acquired facility of utterance |