cannot and a speaker should always have a regard to the memory as well as to the understanding of his hearers.

As it is a fault to speak too quickly, so it is likewise ■ blemish in elocution to speak too slowly. Some persons are apt to read or speak in a heavy, droning, sleepy way; and, through mere carelessness, make pauses at improper places. This is very disagreeable: but to hem, sneeze, yawn, or cough, between the periods, is much more so. A too slow elocution is most faulty in reading trifles, subjects that do not require much atten tion. It then renders every sentence tedious. A too slow elocution, however, is a fault rarely to be found, unless in aged people, and those who naturally speak so in common conversation: but in these, if the proLunciation be in other respects just, decent, and proper, and especially if the subject be weighty or intricate, it is more excusable, and is frequently overlooked.

An irregular or uneven voice is a great fault in reading or speaking. This happens, when the voice rises and falls by fits or starts, as it is generally termed; that is, when it is elevated or depressed unnaturally or unseasonably, without regard to the sense of the passage and the meaning of the author, or to the points or stops in ■ just method of punctuation; or in always beginning a sentence with a high voice, and, on the contrary, concluding it with a low one, or always beginning and concluding it in the same key.

Another fault, which may be looked upon as the direct opposite to this, is a flat, dull, uniform tone of voice; without emphasis or cadence, or even regard to the

Bense or subject of what is read or speken. This is a habit which children, who have been used to read their lessons by way of task, are very apt to fall into, and retain as they grow up. Indeed, it is a great blemish when it becomes habitual; because it deprives the hearer of the greater part of the benefit he might otherwise receive by a close attention to the interesting parts of the sub ject, which should always be distinguished by the pronunciation for a just pronunciation is a good com. mentary; and therefore no person ought to read a chapter of the Bible or a Psalm, in public, or a speech in a play, or a poetical extract, before he has carefully read it over himself once or twice in private.

The greatest and most common fault is that of reading or speaking with what is called a tone. There is not any habit more easy to be contracted than this, nor more difficult to be conquered. This unnatural tone in reading and speaking is very various; but, whatever it be, it is always disgustful to persons of delicacy and judgment. Some have a womanish squeaking tone; which persons whose voices are shrill and weak, and overstrained, are very liable to fall into. Some have a singing or canting note: others assume a high, swelling, theatrical tone; and, being ambitious of the fame of fine orators, lay too much stress or emphasis on every sentence, and thereby transgress the rules of true oratory. Some affect an awful and striking tone, attended with solemn grimace, as if they would move the hearer with every word they utter, whether the weight of the subject bear them out in that method or aot. This is what persons of a gloomy or melancholy

sast of rind are most like y to fall into. Soine have a set, uniform tone of voice, and others an odd, whimsical, whining tone, peculiar to themselves, and which cannot be well described; only, that it is an improper laying cf the emphasis on words which do not require or de serve it.

Such are the common faults of a bad pronunciation. We now proceed, in the second place, to point out how a bad pronunciation is to be avoided. And to this end, it will be exceedingly proper that a person should not read in too loud nor in too low a voice. If a person would not read in a voice which is too loud or strong, nor in one that is too low, or faint, or weak, he should consider whether his voice be naturally too low or toc loud, and endeavor to correct it accordingly in his daily. ordinary conversation; by which means he will be better able to correct it in reading. If his voice be too low, he should converse with those who are hard of hearing; if too loud, with those whose voices are low. should begin his periods with an even moderate voice, that he may have such a command of it, as to be able to raise or depress it as the subject requires.

He

In order to cure a thick, confused, cluttering voice, a person should accustom himself, in conversation, read. irg, and speaking, to pronounce every word distinctly and clearly. He ought to observe with what delibera tion some persons converse and read, and how full a sound they give to every word; and closely imitate them. He should never affect to contract his words, as some have done, or run two into one. This may do very well in conversation, or in reading

familiar dia.

logues, but it is not so decent nor so decorous in grave and solemn subjects; especially in reading the Scrip tures, sermons, or extracts from religious books. It appears, from the case of Demosthenes, that this fault of pronunciation cannot be cured without much difficulty, nor will the remedy which he adopted be found effectual without a considerable share of perseverance.

To break a habit of reading or speaking too fast, a person must attend diligently to the sense, weight, and propriety of every sentence he has occasion to read, and of every emphatical word contained therein. This will not only operate as an advantage to himself, but be a double one to those who hear him; for it will at once give them time to do the same, and excite their atten. tion when they perceive the speaker's is fixed. A solemn pause after a weighty thought is not only beau tiful but striking. A well-timed cessation or pause gives as much grace to speech as it does to music. Let a person imagine that he is reading to persons of slow and unready conceptions; but he must not measure the hearer's apprehension by his own. If he does, he may possibly outrun it. And, as in reading he is not at liberty to repeat his words and sentences, that should engage him to be very deliberate in pronouncing them, that their sense may not be misconceived or lost. The ease and advantage that will arise both to the reader and hearer, by a free, full, and deliberate pronunciation, Is hardly to be conceived. A too slow pronunciation i a fault which very few are likely to fall into.

To cure an uneven, desultory voice, a person should take care that he does not begin his periods either in too

high or in too low a key; for that will necessarily lead him to an unnatural and improper variation of it. He should have particular regard to the nature and quantity of his points, and the length of his pericds; and keep his mind intent on the sense, subject, and spirit of his author.

It is very requisite that similar directions should be given to every young gentleman destined to read or speak in public, that he may constantly avoid a monotony in pronunciation; that is, a dull, set, uniform tone of voice: and, if the mind of the student be attentive to the sense of the subject before him, he will naturally manage and modulate his voice agreeably to the nature and importance of the subject.

In order to avoid all kinds of unnatural and disagreeable tones, he must endeavor to speak with the same ease and freedom as he would do, on the same subject, in private conversation. You do not hear any person converse in a tone, unless he has the accent of some other country, or has contracted a habit of altering the natural key of his voice when he is talking of some serious subject, of religion particularly. But I do not see any particular reason why, in common conversation, we speak in a natural voice, with proper accent and emphasis; yet, so soon as we begin to read or talk of religion, or speak in public, we should immediately assume a stiff, awkward, unnatural tone. If we are indeed deeply affected with the subject we read or talk of, the voice will naturally vary according to the passion excited; but if we vary it unnaturally, only to seem affected, or with a design to affect others, it then be