vii English language, and who must remain a source of admiration to the enlightened, and of instruction to those who seek for Rhetorical and Belles Lettres information. NOTE. The above tribute to departed merit, is not invidiously paid with a view of derogating from the merits of subsequent and powerful writers on the same subject; but in justice to the pioneer who cleared the soil, and rendered it receptive of the high cultivation since bestowed upon it. AN ESSAY ON ELOCUTION. ELOCUTION may be said to be comprised under the following heads :-Articulation, Accent, Emphasis, Pronunciation, Climax, Suspension, Parenthesis, Antithesis, Monotony, or Monotone, Modulation, Enumeration, or Amplification, Pauses, Irony, Alliteration, Iteration, Interrogation, Personation, Metaphor, Comparison, Personification, or Prosopopoeia, Apostrophe, Action. They shall be treated of in their turns. I. ARTICULATION. Articulation is the production of distinct sounds, formed by the unition of the organs of speech, an especial mark of favor, allotted to us by the Deity, and one of the most estimable of his gifts. Articulation should be clear and distinct, not in syllables and words only, but even to the very letter: for as in the formation of the most noble architectural structure, a union of various blocks of granite, marble, or other solid substance is indispensable, so, in the formation of language, a distinct articulation unites the various parts, and, from what would otherwise be an unintelligible mass, produces a perfect and harmonious whole. Those rules already published upon this subject, preclude the necessity of further remark here, as they are sufficiently luminous. II. ACCENT. Accent consists in laying a particular stress on a certain syllable, or the syllables of a word, which gives such syllable, or syllables, force, and marks the grammatical form. The change of accent altering the part of speech, from a substantive to a verb. Emphasis alters the regular seat of accent. Example. Some poets may be compared with others, but Milton and Shakspeare are in'comparable. The regular accent would be incom'parable. III. EMPHASIS. Emphasis produces a primary beauty of oratory; it gives the nice distinctions of meaning, the refined conceptions which language is capable of expressing, and imparts a force and harmony to composition which its absence would render lifeless, and frequently unintelligible. The following question will prove the great nicety and utility of emphasis; for the mode of emphasising it, will give four different meanings. "Do you go to Europe this year?" If the question be asked without a stress on any particular word, the replicant may say yes, or no; if on you, he may say no, I send. If on Europe, he may say no, to India. If on this year, he may say no, next year. The best rule for emphasising justly, is to study the true meaning of the author, and lay the stress upon such words as you would make impressive, were you conversing upon the same subject. The follow.. ing examples will sufficiently elucidate the force and beauty of Emphasis. "It must be so -Plato thou reason'st well- Or whence this secret dread and inward horror, "Tis heav'n itself that points out an hereafter, Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought! 'Thro' what new scenes and changes must we pass ! Thro' all her works, he must delight in virtue; But when? or where This world was made for I'm weary of conjectures-this must end 'em. Thus am I doubly arm'd. My death and life, My bane and antidote are both before me. The wreck of matter and the crash of worlds." |