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Is sparkling wit the world's exclusive right-

[The fix'd fee-simple of the vain and light?

Can hopes of heaven, [bright prospects of an hour,

That come to waft us out of sorrow's power, |

Obscure, or quench...a faculty, that finds

Its happiest soil in the serenest minds?

Religion curbs indeed its wanton way,

And brings the trifles under rigorous sway;

But gives it usefulness [unknown before, |

And purifying | makes it shine the more.

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A Christian's wit is inoffensive light,

A beam that aids, but never grieves the sight;

Vigorous in age, as in the flush of youth,

'Tis always active on the side of truth;

Temperance and peace insure its healthful state, ightest

And make it brightest at its latest date.

WOMAN.- Barrett.

Ask the poor pilgrim, on this convex cast,—

[His grizzled locks distorted in the blast, |

Ask him... what accent soothes, what hand bestows

The cordial beverage, garment and repose?

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Oh, he will dart a spark of ancient flame,

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And clasp his tremulous hands, ... and... woman name!☎

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Peruse the sacred volume: Him who died

Her kiss betrayed not, nor her tongue denied.

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While even the apostle left him to his doom,

She lingered round his cross, and watched his tomb.

Part Fourth.-Emphasis.

1. GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

1. As every word of more than one syllable has an accented syllable, and every grammatical group of words has an accented word, so every sentence or association of grammatical groups has an accented or emphatic idea. Emphasis is to verbal and clausular accents what the accents themselves are to unaccented syllables.

2. Accent gives prominence to the leading syllables in words, or words in clauses; emphasis gives prominence to the leading Idea, though it may be expressed by the most subordinate word in the sentence.

3. The leading idea in a sentence is almost invariably the new idea, and on the word expressive of this, whatever its grammatical value, the accent or emphasis falls.

4. The primary words in sentences are the noun (the subject) and the verb (the predicate ;) and were clauses containing nouns and verbs with their adjuncts, separated from their sentential context, and pronounced as in a vocabulary, the clausular accents would fall on these parts of speech. Thus,

A funeral note,
A farewell shot.

Eagerly wished.
Distinctly remembered.

The struggling moonbeam, | Greatly marvelled.

No useless coffin,

No longer hesitating.

If the noun or verb preceded the qualifying word, the accent would probably be required by the latter, as it would then be directly suggestive of antithesis. Thus,

The moonbeam struggling. | Wished eagerly.

No coffin useless,

Remembered distinctly.

5. Nouns and verbs are the essential elements of senA sentence may be complete with these alone,

tences.

while no other parts of speech could make a sentence. 6. Next in grammatical value to nouns and verbs are those words which qualify nouns and verbs, called adjectives and adverbs; and next to these latter are those words which qualify adjectives and adverbs, called also adverbs, though they are adjuncts of an inferior class to adverbs proper.

7. Of the other parts of speech the article is of the same nature as the Adjective; the Pronoun of the same nature as the Noun; the Preposition of the same nature as the Adverb; and the Interjection and Conjunction of the same nature as the Verb.

8. "We never speak but we say something" is an adage that is not merely sarcastic in its application. Every sentence says (or asserts) something, or asks something, or enjoins something; but in connection with that something, much more is frequently added of an explanatory or complemental nature. In conversation we feel what we wish to say, and we instinctively give prominence to the leading thought and subordinate the accessory parts of our sentences. On the printed page we have the whole of a sentence before the eye at once, principal and accessory parts alike, and in accordance with our view of the sense, we can, by varying the emphatic relation of the accents, make the sentence express any one of a half a dozen different thoughts as the principal idea. As in extemporary delivery our perfect knowledge of our own intention dictates the emphasis that best expresses our meaning; so, in reading, a clear perception of the author's aim, and recollection of what has been said, suggests the emphasis that is expressive of the intended meaning.

9. In extemporary delivery we do not pronounce whole sentences at a time, but clauses only; and each clause, as it is pronounced, receives such a modification of stress, inflexion, and modulation, as marks its relation to the dominant idea. We must apply the same principle to reading. Each clause contains a distinct idea, which might take the form of a separate grammatical sentence, and which is not so expressed only because its idea is subordinate to the principal thought with which it is associated in the grammatical period. Clauses then should be con

sidered as distinct assertions, appeals or injunctions; and each SHOULD BE PRONOUNCED WITH TONES ACCORDANT WITH ITS OWN NATURE, merely modified as to pitch, force, time, and stress, in reference to the leading idea in the sentence.

10. Antithesis or contrast is involved in emphasis. We have seen that words, having a common accented syllable, as expulsive and repulsive, have the accent shifted to the syllable of difference when the words are used in contrast. So in sentences: the most important grammatical words will be pronounced without emphasis if the same words or any words involving the same idea have occurred in the context, and the leading emphasis will be given, perhaps, to some words of the most subordinate grammatical class which, but for the previous implication of the more important words, would have been pronounced entirely without accent.

11. The strongest emphasis is given to words that are suggestive of unexpressed antithesis. When antithesis. is fully expressed, the first of the contrasted words will be emphatic only when it is new or antithetically suggestive in relation to the preceding context; it is not emphatic merely because an antithetic word follows. The second of the contrasted words must be emphatic, because opposed to the preceding term.

12.

The effect on the meaning of a sentence produced by a change in the emphatic word, may be illustrated in an often quoted example, the full variability of which has not been brought out: "Do you ride to town to-day?" These six words may, as the emphasis varies, express seven distinct meanings, in any one mode of intonation, rising or falling. Thus,

Do you ride to town to-day'? implying the fact of riding, and the destination "to town," and asking only as to the time, "to-day," or some other time.

Do you ride to town' to-day?

implying the riding, and the time, and asking only as to the destination, "to town," or to some other locality. Do you ride to town to-day?

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