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The first of the faults arises from a habit of reading with a mechanical attention to the words, instead of an intelligent observation of meaning. It is the appropriate tone of children, while the difficulty of reading still remains, to some extent, or when they are reading what they do not understand. The habit of attending solely or chiefly to the words of a sentence, soon becomes fixed as a permanent one, and entails unmeaning and arbitrary tones on the reading even of adults. It is hardly necessary to say that this tone is at variance with all meaning, and that it can be removed only by a close attention to the sense of what is read.

The second fault in cadence is contracted usually by reading grave and formal pieces; the solemnity of style in which is unnatural to the tones of youth. The usual standard inadvertently adopted by boys in the reading of such pieces, is that which they too often hear from the pulpit. The effect of this tone is to substitute a heavy and hollow-sounding close, bearing a measured proportion to the preceding parts of a sentence, for the true and varied tone of meaning. This cadence is especially inappropriate in the young, and should be carefully avoided by directing the attention to the nature of the sentiment which is expressed, and adapting the voice to the meaning, and not to a certain routine of mechanical utterance.

The third fault, that of beginning to fall too soon, also arises from the mind being in the habit of attending to the language rather than to the thought, and from the wrong impression that there must necessarily

be a fall at the close of every sentence, and, perhaps, too, from a mistake in taste, by which the young reader is led to imagine that there is something pleasing to the ear, in a regular and formal descent of the voice. This tone is unavoidably associated with a pedantic manner, and should be carefully guarded against, by endeavouring to keep the voice in the same strain of expression which would be observed in conversation, when not marked by incorrect or inappropriate tones. The meaning of a sentence, and nothing else, can suggest the true tone.

The fourth error in cadence is the tone often heard at the close of sentences, in the speaking of declamatory pieces at school and college exhibitions. It falls upon the ear with a sound resembling the close of an hexameter verse. Like the faults already mentioned, it is characterized by a mechanical and measured flow of voice, depending on the succession of the words, and not on the meaning of the sentence. The speaker is inadvertently carried away by the rhetorical force and rhythm of the language, and thus loses a clear and distinct conception of the sentiment. The tone of energy, instead of falling only on emphatic words, is distributed vaguely over the whole surface of a sentence, and floats off in an undulating and half-musical close. This fault would be avoided by directing the attention to the thoughts rather than to the language of a piece, and by observing the true emphasis of meaning, instead of an arbitrary emphasis of sound.

The fifth and sixth faults usually occur in the same general tone; the voice commencing every sentence on a comparatively high note, and with a moderate degree of force, but the pitch gradually falling, and the loudness gradually diminishing, in the progress of the sentence, till the tone has nearly died away at the close. These faults originate in the habits contracted in childhood, from the unnatural attempt to read too loud, or in too large a room, and thus to make an effort which the powers of the voice, are, at that early age, incapable of sustaining. The young reader soon gets accustomed to this subsiding tone, as a matter of course in all reading, until it becomes as it were the fixed gait

of his voice, which he involuntarily transfers to later stages of his progress in education, and even to professional efforts in mature years.

This objectionable tone would, like all others, be removed by the habit of attending to the meaning of what is read or spoken, more than to the phraseology. Written sentences differ from those of conversation chiefly in their inversion; the most forcible and expressive phrases being generally placed last in order. This arrangement favours strength of style in composition; but it needs a sustained and regularly increasing force of voice, to give it just utterance. In good reading, accordingly, the tone strengthens progressively in a sentence, especially if long or complex; whilst in feeble and unimpressive reading, the voice is gradually dwindling where the language requires increasing energy.

The sinking cadence owes its peculiar tone, in part, to the habit of resuming a high pitch at the commencing word of every sentence. This tone prevents the expression of connected meaning; as it makes every sentence a separate object to the ear, and produces something like a sense of weariness in the hearer, by the continual recurrence of its dying note.

This fault arises in part, also, from the mechanical habit of attending to sentences as such, and not to their value, or their connexion in signification. When two sentences are connected in meaning, the latter, if appropriately read, commences on the low note used at the close of the former. The unity of sound thus produced, gives the sentences a unity to the ear. rising of the voice to a new pitch, at the opening of a new sentence, indicates, by the change of note, a change of meaning, or a transition to a new and different thought.

The

Take, for example, the following sentences; and let them be read first in such a manner that the clause, "It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas," shall run upon the same note precisely with which the word "senses," in the preceding sentence, was uttered; -using that word for a key-note, as you would the sound of a pitch-pipe. In this reading, the tone of

connexion between the sentences is produced. Again, let the sentences be read with a new or high pitch upon the opening of the second; and the voice obviously wanders off, as if to express a distinct and unconnected idea.

"Our sight is the most perfect and most delightful of all our senses. It fills the mind with the largest variety of ideas, converses with its objects at the greatest distance, and continues the longest in action without being tired or satiated with its proper enjoy

ments."

The uniform recurrence, then, of a high pitch at the beginning of every sentence, must have the effect of destroying the natural connexion of thought, and thus of obscuring or changing the sense. It is still a clear conception of meaning, however, on which the learner is to depend as the only guide to appropriate cadence. For the fault of a dwindling cadence would not occur, but for the mechanical change of pitch, which is at variance with meaning.

The fault which is mentioned last in the enumeration of errors, is the necessary result of the frequent repetition or constant recurrence of any one of the preceding faults. It implies, then, all the disadvantages of each singly, aggravated by perpetual reiteration, and thus leading to a sameness of sound, which is not less disagreeable to the ear, than the particular tone considered singly.

This, and all the other faulty habits of cadence, are greatly aggravated in verse. [See Reading of Poetry.]

SUGGESTIONS FOR PRACTICE.

The personal tone of each pupil must regulate the adoption of expedients for the removal of habitual faults in regard to cadence. The chief thing to be impressed on the mind, is the deviation of the voice. from the tone of the meaning; since all pupils do not possess a ready ear for the discrimination of sounds considered in relation to music, or even to general good taste.

Imitation may sometimes be resorted to, on

the part of the teacher, with good effect; and, under due superintendence, mutual correction by the pupils themselves, may be very serviceable in correcting bad cadence.

The correction of the fault mentioned first, requires a complete renovation of mental habit, and a wakeful, active attention to what is read. Animated and interesting pieces, in familiar style, will afford the best subjects for practice, with a view to the removal of this fault. The same suggestion may be made in reference to the errors numbered second, third, and fourth. Lively and humorous pieces will be most useful, when the object of practice is to do away the diminishing and half-pathetic cadence.

The expedient of practising in company with the teacher, cannot be so freely recommended here as in other departments of elocution; since adults, and especially teachers, are generally prone to a degree of formality in cadence, which, when transferred to the style of the young, has a very unfavourable effect. The utmost care, too, is necessary in selecting pieces for practice; that when didactic and declamatory exercises are prescribed, they may not prove, as they too generally do, a source of irretrievable injury to tone and cadence, from the nature of the sentiments, and the forms of expression, prevailing in the passage which is read or spoken. Unintelligible ideas and formal language are the chief sources of false and unmeaning cadence, as well as of most other defects in reading and declamation.

READING OF POETRY.

General Observations. The reading of poetry differs from that of prose, chiefly in the following circumstances. Poetry, being the expression of imaginative states of mind, produces a much greater force, variety, and vividness of thought and feeling, than usually occur in prose, which is the language of sentiment in its ordinary form. The qualities of voice required by

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