and after, its utterance. Read the following examples with and without pausing at the dashes, and note the difference in the effect:

(a) The one rule for attaining perfection in any art is—practice. (b) Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation.

(c) In this

God's

world, dost thou think there is no justice?

(f) The days of pompous eloquence · are gone by.

(g) These men

were our fathers; their lives were stainless. (h) The scenes amid which they moved, as princes among men, have vanished - forever.

2. Time-emphasis. Again, a word or phrase may be emphasized by taking relatively more time for its utterance. To take approximately the same time in speaking each word, whether important or unimportant, is to show an utter lack of discrimination. Take relatively more time in uttering the words that carry the principal idea; expand — dwell upon the important words. In the following sentence, for example, note how much more expressive of the thought it is to dwell upon the italicized words and phrases:

Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

3. Stress-emphasis.-While pausing and time-taking are important, the most important and most common method of emphasizing a word is by means of stress. Hence, emphasis and stress are often used synonymously. The Century Dietionary, for example, defines emphasis as "a special stress of the voice given to the utterance of a word . . . in order to excite special attention." Now, stress is to emphasis what accent is to syllabication. In polysyllabic words, indeed, it

is accentuated accent. Stress consists in raising the voice above the average key,— hitting a word, as it were,—and thereby calling special attention to the word so stressed or emphasized. After the pitch is raised for such stress, the voice swings back to or below the average key.

The student should note this mechanical movement of the voice when stress is applied to a word, and acquire the power of applying it at will. This done, he will have learned that the prime essential of emphasis is not noise, not mere loudness, but a significant stress of the voice. Suppose you wish to express the contrast between "Capital" and "Force” in the following sentence, "The feudalism of Capital is not a whit less formidable than the feudalism of Force." It will be noted that in emphasizing Capital the voice rises on the first syllable, then, as a result of the application of this stress, it swings back to and below the average key, and then, since the thought is incomplete, it rises again on the last syllable, and the vocalization ends with the voice again above the key. The following may represent, roughly, the movement of the voice in this in

stance:

Cap

tal

Key

"Force," on the other hand, completes the statement, hence the voice falls at the close:

In the synthesis of delivery, no one element of expression, it should be borne in mind, is used to the exclusion of other elements. The stress method of emphasizing is identical with certain inflectional forms, as we shall see in the follow

ing chapter. In the diagrams on page 47, attention has been especially called to the mechanical movement of the voice in applying stress, since its acquisition is necessary for that flexibility which is a mark of the conversational, or natural, style of speaking. Failure to apply stress results in a monotone, and stress applied at random defeats the intended meaning, and results in a “sing-song" delivery. It is, therefore, of practical importance to know how to emphasize, and so train the voice to express the mental concept. To this end, practice placing a vocal stress on the italicized words in the following examples:

(a) Necessity is the mother of invention.

(b) Wherever you meet a dozen earnest men pledged to a new idea, you meet the beginning of a new revolution.

(c) The development of Americanism was the predominant fact of the nineteenth century.

(d) Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal.

(e) The story of Major André is the one overmastering romance of the Revolution.

(ƒ) A life of ignoble ease is as little worthy of a nation as of an individual.

(g) A wise man seeks to shine in himself; a fool, in others. (h) Americans may be friends of the English, but subjects, never. (i) He who would speak well, must acquire command of himself.

Importance of Emphasis. It will be seen that emphasis is a most important element of expression. If you take the question, Do you ride to town to-day? emphasizing by turn each word, as many different meanings will be expressed as there are words in the sentence. An example frequently given of the effect of misplaced emphasis is that of a young preacher who, on the theory that all italicized words in the Bible were to be emphasized, so read the following passage

in 1 Kings, xiii. 27, "And he spake to his sons, saying, 'Saddle me the ass,' and they saddled him."

Misplaced emphasis is the most fruitful source of the sing-song tone, which comes from the stress being applied at regular intervals. This is especially noticeable in the reading of poetry, but is not uncommon in the rendering of prose. The paramount rule to be observed in emphasis is, Read or speak as you would talk. Unfortunately, this rule is not always, or even generally, observed.

For

the purpose of correcting common faults, some further rules, with examples, are given below. It will be found that these rules are largely the reflex, just as emphasis itself is, of the thought-analysis as set forth in Chapter I.

Rules of Emphasis.

1. The key-word or words of a sentence should be discovered and emphasized. To state the rule in another way: Analyze the sentence to find the word or words that carry the principal idea, or that express a new idea, and then give vocal expression to the results of such analysis. To determine the most important word or words in a sentence, three tests may be applied: Is it (1) a word that is indispensable to the thought? (2) a word that a person must hear to tell what you are talking about? (3) a word that can, by rearrangement, be made the climax of the sentence?

Illustrative examples of this rule are given below. In the examples given under the various headings of this book, it should be understood that all the shades or degrees of emphasis, or of other elements of expression, are not indicated, nor can they be indicated, on the printed page; that the marking of examples is intended to be suggestive merely, to aid in calling attention to one principle at a time, and to refer only to the particular rule or principle.

then under consideration. In the examples below, keywords are suggested by the italicizing. Different results, however, may be obtained by the individual student, since analyses may differ. But the point is, have some reason for emphasizing a given word, else do not emphasize it; and when you have a reason for emphasizing it, emphasize it - know that your voice is obeying your mind.

Examples.

(a) Time has a dooms-day book, upon whose pages he is continually recording illustrious names. But as often as a new name is written there, an old one disappears. Only a few stand in illuminated characters never to be effaced. These are the high nobility of nature -lords of the public domain of thought. Posterity shall never question their titles. But those whose fame lives only on the indiscreet opinion of unwise men must soon be as well forgotten as if they had never been. To this great oblivion must most men come. LONGFELLOW.

(b) There is a time in every man's experience when he arrives at the conclusion that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself, for better or for worse, as his portion; that, though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed upon that plot of ground that is given him to till. The power that resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried. Therefore, my text is, Trust thyself. Is it not an iron string to which vibrates every

heart?- EMERSON.

(c) Centuries ago, on the rock-bound coast of Massachusetts Bay, one night there was a wedding. The sky was the roof that covered the high contracting parties, and the stars, painted by the finger of God, were the fresco-work; the music was that of the singing night-bird and the surge of the gray old ocean; the bidden guests were the Puritan fathers and the Puritan mothers; the unbidden guests were the dusky savages; the bride and the bridegroom were the meeting-house and the schoolhouse, and from that marriage