consists in elevating the voice, and giving it a forcible stress upon words or syllables. To prevent emphasis from being confounded with quantity, as well as with a view to elucidate its meaning, it will be illustrated in the next article.

ON EMPHASIS.

By emphasis, is meant a particular and forcible utterance of significant words, so as to convey their meaning in the most lively and striking manner. It consists chiefly in the loudness of the note in which they are uttered. It imparts brilliancy to composition. It requires that words which are the most important in sense, be made the most prominent to the ear of the hearer. Words that stand for new ideas should be emphasised.

No precise rules can properly be laid down to regulate the application of emphasis. In order that it may be correctly used, the exact import of what is read, must be understood. To avoid that jerking emphasis which is sometimes witnessed on the part of readers and speakers, let them employ a portion of quantity. Emphasis and quantity, judiciously combined, constitute the very soul of delivery. A caution, however, must be given against uniting them too frequently. Emphasis itself, is inseparably associated with sentiment and emotion. Thoughts, to which it is given, should beam from the eye, play upon the countenance, before they are uttered. A speaker or reader should be enamoured with his subject. It should fill his heart. Then will emphatic stress be spontaneous, natural, and deeply impressive.

and

Cicero says, that "every emotion of the mind has naturally its peculiar countenance, voice, and gesture, which, like the strings of a musical instrument, act agreeably to the impressions they receive from the mind." The place and amount of emphasis, must be determined by the sense of the passage, and by the exercise of good taste and enlightened reason. emphatic word is generally, but not always, used antithetically, with some other word or phrase.

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To assist the student in reading and oratory, a few examples will now be given, in which the italicised words should be made emphatic. Let it not be supposed that the same quantity of emphasis is due to each word thus marked. As Dr Gregory, in his treatise on the composition and delivery of

a sermon, observes: "That emphasis is best, which is most discriminative." It will be perceived from the following specimens, that emphatic stress is sometimes absolute.

ABSOLUTE EMPHASIS.

"I warn you, do not dare to lay your hands on the constitution."

(6 Why will ye die?"

"Has the gentleman done, has he completely done?"

"Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that, for the last ten years."

"We must fight.”

"Conquest awaits you."

"To arms! to arms!"

"Who dares to tremble, by this weapon, dies."

"UP! comrades, Up!"

"Haste! pass the seas. Fly hence! Begone!".

"Soldiers! stand firm."

"On! on! ye brave. Rise! fellow-men !"

t Back, to the infernal pit, I drag thee chained."

"WHENCE and what art thou, execrable shape ?"

"Angels and ministers of grace, defend us."

EMPHATIC STRESS BY CONTRAST, OR ANTITHETIC EMPHASIS,

"Virtue, not rolling suns, the mind matures."

"The man of wisdom, is the man of years."

"But own man born to live, as well as die.”
"Virtue alone outbuilds the pyramids;
Her monuments shall last, when Egypt's fall."

"High worth is elevated place."

"Short pleasures for long woes are to succeed."

"Kind souls, what! weep you, when you but behold Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? Look you here! Here is HIMSELF."

"And wisdom at one entrance, quite shut out."

"At thirty, man suspects himself a fool.”

"Thou sun! of this world both eye Acknowledge Him thy greater."

and soul,

"A day, an hour of virtuous liberty, is worth a whole eternity of bondage."

"Oh! swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon."

"O, Death, the good man's dearest friend."

"The rich man had exceeding many flocks and herds."

"And Nathan said to David, thou art the man."

"Then said the chief priests of the Jews, to Pilate: Write not, the king of the Jews; but that he said, I am king of the Jews."

"Henceforth, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing."

"And Paul said: I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost and ALTOGETHER such as I am, except these bonds."

"And it was the sabbath day when Jesus made the clay and opened his eyes."

"But the Jews did not believe concerning him, that he had been blind and received his sight, until they called the parents of him that had received his sight."

"Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He answered and said, Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?"

"I came not to baptize, but to preach the GOSPEL.'

"The queen of the south came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold! a greater than Solomon is here."

"It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body."

"If you seek to make one rich, study not to increase his stores, but to diminish his desires."

Alexander." I could honor thy courage, but I detest and must punish thy crimes.

Robber. What have I done, of which you can complain?"

Gomez.-" Silence, or tremble!

Orozembo.-Beardless robber! I never yet have learned to tremble before man: why before thee, thou less than man?”

Rolla.-"That soldier, mark me, is a man. All are not men that wear the human form."

Dionysius.-"What wonder's this?

Is he thy brother?

Pythias.-No, not quite my brother!
Not yes, he is-he is my brother!

Dion.-Damon, is this a quibble of thy school?
Damon.-No quibble, for he is not so in kin,
Not in the fashion that the world puts on,
But brother in the heart!"

Othello." What dost thou mean?

Iago.-Good name in man, and woman, dear

Is the immediate jewel of their souls;

my lord,

Who steals my purse, steals trash; 'tis something, nothing'

'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands⚫

But he that filches from me my good name,

Robs me of that which not enriches him,

And makes me poor indeed."

Brakenbury-"I am, in this, commanded to deliver The noble duke of Clarence to your hands.

I'll to the king; and signify to him,

That thus I have resigned to you my charge.

1st Murderer.—You may, sir.

2nd Murd.-What, shall we stab him as he sleeps?

1st Murd.-No; he'll say 'twas done cowardly when he wakes.

2nd Murd.-When he wakes! why, fool, he shall never wake until the great judgment day.

1st Murd. Why, then he'll say we stabb'd him sleeping."

"The quality of mercy is not strained;

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: It is twice bless'd;
It blesses him that gives, and him that takes.”

"Thus am I doubly arm'd. My death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me."

"Though the rock of my last home is shiver'd,
And its fragments are sunk in the wave;
Though I feel that my soul is deliver'd
To pain-it shall not be its slave.
There is many a pang to pursue me;

They may crush, but they shall not contemn:
They may torture, but shall not subdue me,
"Tis of thee that I think—not of them.”

Almost every sentence contains certain words which are more significant than others, and which ought to be distinguished by a natural and forcible emphasis. Without emphasis, sentences would be resolved into their original words, just as words would become mere syllables, without accent.

If a good piece be read or recited without presenting in a stronger light to the "mind's eye" of the hearer, words which have a greater share in conveying the author's meaning than the rest, it is uninteresting. It is like gold in the ingot. If, on the other hand, a poor piece be well read or recited, an interest is felt and manifested in hearing it.

Dionysius, who was entirely destitute of those natural and acquired abilities, without which no man can write poetry well, had the foolish vanity to suppose that he was a great poet. He wrote several poems, if, indeed, they can be called so, which, notwithstanding they were "full of sound and fury,