ing are none of these. If the teacher is obliged to be upon his guard when he teaches, least he pronounce wrong, he will teach a stiff, affected, mouthing manner of speaking; he may even give something like the language of an illiterate Englishmannay, he may give some sounds as fine as a Cockney; but, though such vulgarity is too often mistaken for what is correct, it is, however, at a vast distance from that ease, accuracy, and elegance inseparable from genuine English.

Even the articulation of the first elements, the letters, is of much more consequence, than most parents and teachers seem to be aware. It is at the age when these are generally taught, that distinctness and accuracy, or the reverse, are most easily acquired. To this period can be traced that drawling, cluttering, indistinct articulation, which is so very prevalent, and which generally remains during life, bidding defiance to all future attempts to ameliorate, or destroy, what time and custom has formed into a second nature.

They are, therefore, miserably mistaken, who either deceive themselves or the public into the belief, that any instructor can teach children the first elements; or that a man may be a very good teacher, not only of the initiatory part of the English language, but even of Elocution, (for almost every initiator is a Professor of Elocution,) although his mode of pronouncing, when in conversation, does not place him above the level of those

who are destined to drudge in the illiterate arts of life, and who have, from their education and profession, no pretensions either to accuracy or elegance in the pronunciation of their native language,

English syllables, and indeed the syllables of every language, differ from one another in a vast variety of ways. Those teachers who wish to acquire an accuracy and neatness in articulating and pronouncing the language, and who are desirous of making good readers, will particularly attend to this. Many of these varieties are of a very delicate nature, and take their rise from the various passions, emotions, sentiments, &c. with which we are affected. Many of the most important of these can only be exemplified to the pupil, when he is studying those passages that require particular and appropriate intonations of voice, arising from the various degrees of agitation with which the mind is affected, when reading or delivering such passages.-These are most prevalent in the higher degrees of oratory, and in Epic and Dramatic speaking. But the principal, and indeed, the indispensable differences, because they are constantly occurring in all ordinary cases, are the following, viz.

I. Syllables differ from one another in their enunciative elements, that is, in the qualities of the letters of which they are composed.

II. In their respective quantities, that is, in the time required in pronouncing them. This difference takes in a much wider range than commentators,

grammarians, and prosodians allow in the Greek and Latin languages. These literati, not the languages, for, in many respects, these languages are more perfect than the English; allow only a time and half a time to their syllables; whereas, in our language, we have all the degrees, from a time to the eighth of a time.

III. Syllables differ from each other in their poize, viz. in the affections of heavy and light the Thesis and Arsis of the Greeks. These alternations, understood by so very few, constitute those measureable cadences, by which alone the proportion and varieties of rhythmus can be rendered palpable to the ear. Without a thorough knowledge of these most important affections of speech, in vain will we attempt to measure, or read English poetry.

IV. Syllables differ from one another by the quality of percussion. By this is meant an additional explosive force; not arising from organic affection, as just mentioned, though always upon the syllable under Thesis, but from the sense of the passage. This additional force upon the heavy syllable, or word, is independent, for its place, of the taste, feeling, or judgment of the reader, but inherent in the very nature of the sentence, and may properly be called the emphasis of sense.

This species of emphatic percussion, must be carefully distinguished from that commonly called emphasis of force, which is entirely at the option and taste of the reader, and which we use when we

wish to be animated, forceful, or impressive. But although this additional force may grace, enforce, or enliven our reading and speaking, it cannot, in any degree, affect the sense of any passage. Whatever degree of percussive force we may give to such words or syllables, it must always be inferior to that degree of percussion which exclusively belongs to the emphasis of sense, if any such occur in the

sentence.

Even this emphasis of sense has its varieties of percussive force; and this depends entirely upon the nature of the emphasis. We have, under the general term Emphasis or Thesis, the five following varieties, viz.

1. The Thesis or heavy syllable, constantly alternate with the light.

2. The additional percussion given to the heavy syllable, called emphasis of force.

3. The percussion given to the heavy syllable, called emphasis of sense, when the antithesis is expressed, and not denied.

4. The force given to the emphasis of sense, when the antithesis is expressed and denied. In the last place, the highest degree of emphatic force, is that which is given to the emphatic word, when it affirms something in the emphasis, and denies what is opposed to it in the antithesis, while the antithesis is not expressed but understood.-No emphasis of sense can take place without an antithesis either expressed or understood; whereas the

emphasis of force, though frequently mistaken for it, is infinitely of inferior moment, and always at the option of the reader.

5. Syllables are still farther diversified by their degrees of loudness and softness, piano and forte, and other varieties of modulation. As a general rule, for I cannot here go into particulars, substantives, verbs, and adjectives require more swelling loudness than the smaller and less significant words and syllables.

6. Syllables differ from each other in those most evanescent, yet highly important properties, their musical accents which constitute the melody of speech.

CHAPTER X.

DISTINCTION BETWEEN PROSE AND VERSE, &c.

VERSE is constituted of a regular succession of similar cadences, or of a limited variety of cadences, divided by grammatical pauses and emphasis, into proportional clauses, so as to present sensible responses to the ear, at regular proportioned distances.

Prose differs from verse, not in the proportions, or in the individual character of its cadences, but in