"semicolon" two, a

comma "colon

" is a rest while you can count one, a

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three, and a period" four, and by this precise division of time, it is evident that they are generally accepted as sufficient for all the purposes, not only of sense, but expression also. But herein lies the error; for, as Mr. Walker truly observes, “Not half the pauses are found in printing which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader or speaker;" and these, which we distinguish as "Rhetorical Pauses," are necessary to him, to enable him to take breath, relieve the organs of speech, and to enable the attention of his auditors, unwearied by the continuity of sound, to follow with a perfect appreciation of the meaning of that which he utters.

The difficulty of laying down absolute rules for the exact application of these pauses, is manifest in the many elocutionary works extant in which it has been essayed; and however excellent in themselves and useful to the teacher those works may have been, it is to be feared that much confusion and perplexity must have been occasioned to the uninitiated, from their very extent and technicality; and this, perhaps, has caused one writer on the subject to say that no such rules can be laid down; but the fact appears to be, that when the Rhetorical Pauses are added to the "grammatical," assisting them by divisions of thought and feeling, they are dependent to a certain degree on the judgment of the speaker, and thus, perhaps, appear to be arbitrary; yet it is possible to give something like a general direction, which may serve, by the observation of the student, as a partial guide at all events.

The Rhetorical Pauses, then, consist of three rests of different durations of time-viz., the smaller, or short pause, answering in this respect to the comma; the greater, or middle pause, to the semicolon; and the greatest, or rest, to the period, or full stop. To the first of these, on account of the frequency of its recurrence, and consequent assistance rendered to the speaker, the most importance is attached.

This pause is generally used after several words occurring in one phrase, serving as the nominative to some verb:

The objective phrase in an inverted sentence-that is, sentences the number of which, when inverted as to order, preserve the same sense :

The emphatic word of force, and the subject of a sentence: Each number of a "series," whether single; that is, composed of single words, or compound, being composed of sentences.

It should be used also before the infinitive mood:

Prepositions (except when part of one phrase), relative pronouns, and conjunctions, adverbs of time, similitude, and some others: In some cases, for the sake of emphasis, it is used after disjunctions.

Whatever number intervenes between the nominative case and the verb, must be considered to be of the nature of a parenthesis, and is therefore separated from both of them by the short pause.

The greater, or middle pause, is properly to be used when a sentence is composed of two principal parts, in the first of which, the sense being incomplete or suspended, is perfected by the latter; the pause taking place at that point where the sense begins to be complete, thus dividing it into distinctive portions, each of which, it is to be observed, has also a distinctive tone, or inflection.

The "great rest," or "full pause," completes the entire sense, and being identical with the " period," can therefore be well understood.

To these various rests a fourth is sometimes added by writers on this subject, which they term the "long pause." It is mentioned here as being chiefly of use to the orator, as, by marking certain divisions in his subject—a change of ideas, or a return from a digression-it affords him, in the heat of argument, or the effects of exhaustion, time to collect himself, and it may be, an opportunity for correcting the tone or pitch of voice, which from excitement may have become raised too high to be sustained with comfort or effect.

To return, however, to the erroneous direction noticed, viz., "That the breath is never to be drawn but at a full stop or period." It has been before observed that the use of these pauses is for the greater ease and facility of the speaker. The absurdity of this injunction must be therefore most apparent, since the fact is really that at every one of these rhetorical pauses or rests, the breath receives, or should receive, a gentle, insensible, but at the same time inaudible, inspiration; and thus the lungs, like the bellows of an organ, being constantly supplied and inflated with fresh breath, the power of the speaker is considerably increased by the very control he is enabled

to exercise in the increase or diminishment of its power at will, after the manner of the "crescendo" and "diminuendo" in music.

If the student would practically test this, let him take up the Exordium to Milton's First Book of "Paradise Lost." Now there are four periods in that fine opening; the first consisting of nine and a half lines, the next six and a half, the third five and a half, and the last four and a half. Let him try to accomplish the delivery of the first period without taking breath. If he succeeds he may rest satisfied that he possesses lungs of the consistency of leather with the capacity of the cave of Æolus; but as this experiment will infallibly prove the contrary, let him again essay, using not only the punctuated or grammatical, but the rhetorical pauses in aid, according to the general rules already recited, and he will find himself able to master not the first period alone, but also to reach the end of the subject through the three succeeding ones with the greatest ease and facility, and in addition he will learn also this, that in attempting to pronounce more in a breath than he could conveniently effect, and neglecting those pauses where the breath ought to be taken, he has been obliged to pause where the sense, not being separable, forbade it, and thus has rendered the whole of his subject an unintelligible jumble.

CHAPTER IV.

ON INFLECTION.

LET us now proceed to consider that portion of the art on which the form, variety, and harmony of speaking mainly depends, and that will be found to consist in the proper use of the two inflections of the voice.

Most if not all the defects which are discernible in the generality of readers, with regard to "inflection," arise from an artificial habit acquired in early youth of reading with different tones and cadences from those which they are accustomed to use in speaking. Now, whatever may be the cause from whence it originates, a more fatal error, one more subversive of propriety of delivery, does not exist; for in reading, the utterance should be so regulated as to fall on the ears of the auditors as though we were conveying to them

the sentiments of the author-as if they were the emanations of our own mind.

"There are few per

Mr. Sheridan, in his "Lectures," observes, sons who in private company do not deliver their sentiments with propriety and force in their manner whenever they speak in earnest; consequently, here is a sure standard for propriety and force in public speaking." And this observation must apply therefore equally to reading; but to reduce this to practice it is essentially necessary that we should first be perfect masters of the nature and subject-matter to be delivered, and the intention of the author; and to this end, therefore, it is always advisable that the student should accustom himself in his private practice, first, to peruse carefully the composition he intends to read aloud, so as entirely to comprehend the full meaning and import of the words, and the general construction of the language, the character of which sometimes bears the distinctive impress of its particular writer, and then let him endeavour to deliver it as if the ideas and sentiments were his own, and in that natural and forcible manner as in that case he would; and this can only be effected by observing those various inflections of voice which Nature herself has prescribed, and adapting them according to the form and sense of the various sentences. These consist of the "Rising," the "Falling," and the Circumflex," or 'Compound Inflections." The first of these is so called from the voice rising or ascending upwards, the second when it falls or slides downwards, and the last when both the rising and falling inflection is combined in the same word, or even in more than one, as is sometimes the case; but when the voice continues on the same note, it is then said to be "monotone."

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The "Circumflex Inflection is capable of being again subdivided for distinction's sake into the rising and falling circumflex, according as it commences with either the rising or falling slide of the voice.

Now, in speaking, the voice is regulated either by the implied or expressed sense or feeling of the subject, or nature of the sentence; that is, it indicates either that the sense is complete or suspended— is "Affirmative," "Negative," "Interrogative," or "Imperative." Thus, suspended sense is accompanied and marked by the "rising

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inflection," coupled with the "middle pause" we have before spoken of in a previous part of our subject. Complete or finished sense is distinguished by the falling, and to it also belongs the "full pause," answering to the period or full stop, as before mentioned. But here it is necessary to notice a very common error-one calculated to generate a bad habit, and one therefore that ought to be exploded for ever; it is the very common direction to drop the voice at the end of a sentence. Now, the last part of a sentence— and more especially the last word, as it completes the sense-must of necessity be the most essential to the perfect understanding of that sentence. To let it, therefore, fall listlessly or feebly on the ear, so as to strain the attention of the auditor, or reduce him to the bewilderment of guessing at its import, is a manifest absurdity. The fact is, it should ever be considered of equal importance to the first; and, though receiving the downward inflection of the voice, as such maintain its full tone, pitch, and enunciation.

To proceed, however. The Affirmative sense is indicated by the falling, and the Negative, as a general rule, receives the rising inflection. The same applies to the Interrogative sentences, while the Imperative is distinguished by the falling: of course, it must be understood that all these are subject to certain exceptions, which exceptions are caused by the influence of what is termed the emphasis* of force or feeling, and depend, therefore, on the judgment and intelligence of the speaker.

The compound or circumflex inflection, as we have before stated, both descends and ascends in what may be described as a curve of the voice, and is generally used in strong or vehement interrogation, its extent being determined by the force or extent of the passion by which it is governed; it is expressive of "Wonder,” Contempt," "Scorn," "Ridicule," "Irony," &c., &c.

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The speech of "Brutus," in the quarrel scene between himself and "Cassius," will afford an apt illustration of the nature of this particular inflection of the voice, beginning "All this, and more," &c., &c.

*This emphasis being distinguished from the emphasis of sense in its inflection by the domination of the feeling with which it is used.