Here the action of the arm which enforces the emphafis ought to be fo directed, that the ftroke of the hand may be given exactly on the word dash; this will give a concomitant action to the organs of pronunciation, and by this means the whole expreffion will be greatly augmented. This action may be called beating time to the emphafis, and is as neceffary in forcible and harmonious fpeaking, as the agreement between the motion of the feet, and the mufic in dancing.*

These are some of the fimpleft and most neceffary directions, and fuch as may be followed with the greatest safety: obferving the action of the best readers and fpeakers, may, with fome cautions, be recommended to youth; but cannot with the fame fafety be propofed to those who, by long practice, are confirmed in habits of their own; it may, instead of a modest and negative kind of awkwardnefs, which is fcarcely offenfive, fubftitute a real and difgufting kind of mimickry; and this, by every person of the leaft tafte, will be looked upon as a bad exchange.

To the generality of readers and fpeakers, therefore, it may be propofed to make use of no more action than they can help. If they are really in earnest, as they ought to be, fome gefticulation will naturally break out; and if it be kept within bounds, it will always be tole

*For a fimple outline of action, as it may be called, it is prefumed the Elements of Gesture, prefixed to the Academic Speaker, will be found highly useful; as the directions there given are illuftrated by plates defcribing the feveral pofitions of the body, legs, arms and hands, in a graceful and forcible delivery.

rable. A man's own feelings will often tell him how far he may venture with safety; for in that fituation which he finds the easiest to himfelf, he will appear moft agreeable to his auditory. Such a fympathy do we find between fpeaker and hearer, that the one cannot be in an awkward fituation without communicating a feeling of it to the other,

Thus have we endeavoured to delineate thofe outlines, which nothing but good fenfe and tafte will fill up. The more diftinctly thefe lines are marked, the easier will be the finishing; and if, instead of leaving so much to taste, as is generally done, we were to push as far as poffible our inquiries into thofe principles of truth and beauty, in delivery, which are immutable and eternal; if, I fay, we were to mark carefully, the feemingly infinite variety of voice and gefture in fpeaking and reading, and compare this variety with the various fenfes and paffions of which they are expreffive; from the fimplicity of nature in her other operations, we have reafon to hope, that they might be fo claffed and arranged, as to be of much eafier attainment, and productive of much certainty and improvement, in the very difficult acquifition of a juft and agreeable delivery,

Y

The Paffions.

Ir now remains to fay fomething of those

tones which mark the paffions and emotions of the fpeaker. These are intirely independent on the modulation of the voice, though often confounded with it: for modulation relates only to speaking either loudly or foftly, in a high or a low key; while the tones of the paffions or emotions mean only that quality of found that indicates the feelings of the speaker, without any reference to the pitch or loudnefs of his voice; and it is in being eafily fufceptible of every paffion and emotion that presents itself, and being able to exprefs them with that peculiar quality of found which belongs to them, that the great art of reading and speaking confifts. When we speak our own words, and are really impaffioned by the occafion of speaking, the paffion or emotion precedes the words, and adopts fuch tones as are fuitable to the paffion we feel; but when we read, or repeat from memory, the paffion is to be taken up as the words occur; and in doing this well, the whole difficulty of reading or repeating from memory lies.

But it will be demanded, how are we to acquire that peculiar quality of found that indicates the paffion, we wish to exprefs? The anfwer is eafy by feeling the paffion which expreffes itself by that peculiar quality of found. But the question will return, how are we to acquire a feeling of the paffion? The answer to this question is rather difcouraging, as it will advife thofe who have not a power of impaffion

ing themselves upon reading or expreffing fome very pathetic paffage, to turn their ftudies to fome other department of learning, where nature may have been more favourable to their wifhes. But is there no method of affifting us in acquiring the tone of the paffion we want to exprefs; no method of exciting the paffion in ourselves when we wish to exprefs it to others? The advice of Quintilian and Cicero on this occafion, is, to reprefent to our imagination, in the most lively manner poffible, all the most ftriking circumftances of the transaction we defcribe, or of the paffion we wish to feel. "Thus," fays Quintilian, "if I complain of "the fate of a man who has been affaffinated, "may I not paint in my mind a lively picture

of all that has probably happened on the oc"cafion? Shall not the affaffin appear to rush "forth fuddenly from his lurking-place? "Shall not the other appear feized with hor"rors? Shall he not cry out, beg his life, or fly to fave it? Shall not I fee the affaffin dealing the deadly blow, and the defenceless "wretch falling dead at his feet? Shall not I

figure to my mind, and by a lively impresfion, the blood gushing from his wounds, "his ghaftly face, his groans, and the laft gafp he fetches?"

st

This must be allowed to be a very natural method of exciting an emotion in the mind; but ftill the woes of others, whether real or fictitious, will often make but a weak impreffion on our own mind, and will fail of affecting us with a fufficient force to excite the fame emotions in the minds of our hearers. In this exigence, it may not, perhaps, be unprofit

able, to call to our affiftance the device of the ancient Grecian actor Polus; who, when he had the part of Electra to perform, and was to represent that princess weeping over the afhes of her brother Oreftes, ordered the urn which contained the afhes of his dear and only fon to be brought upon the ftage, and by this means excited in himself the pitch of grief with which he wished to affect his audience.

Calling to mind, therefore, fuch paffages of our own life as are fimilar to those we read or fpeak of, will, if I am not mistaken, confiderably affift us in gaining that fervor and warmth of expreffion, which, by a certain sympathy, is fure to affect thofe who hear us.

But our natural feelings are not always to be commanded ; and, when they are, stand in need of the regulation and embellishments of art: it is the business, therefore, of every reader and fpeaker in public, to acquire fuch tones and geftures as nature gives to the paffions; that he may be able to produce the femblance of them when he is not actually impaffioned. The feelings of men, when unpremeditatedly impaffioned, will do wonders. We feldom hear a perfon exprefs love, rage, or pity, when thefe paffions are produced by a powerful object on the spot, without feeling in ourfelves the workings of the paffions thus inftantaneously produced. Here the reality of the fituation contributes greatly to our own feelings, as well as to the feelings of the fpeaker. The fpeech of a malefactor feldom fails to move move us powerfully, however wretchedly delivered; and a perfon really in the agonies of paffion moves us irrefiftibly. But these are fituations very different