sion that the converse of this principle must needs be likewise true, and that all antithesis implies emphasis. As if because every potato is undoubtedly a vegetable, every vegetable must of course be a potato! Upon this false assumption, rules for the inflexion of antithetic sentences have been founded, which led to a constant up and down alternation of the voice on opposed words, than which nothing can be more at variance with the natural law of emphasis, or with its invariable manifestation in the spontaneous utterance of conversation. It is only when verbal opposition is inferred and not fully expressed, that we have a genuine instance of the figure of Antithesis, and nature has provided us with a distinctive intonation by which the antithetic idea may be unmistakeably suggested. When the opposition is complete in terms, the tones of antithesis are not required, and the emphasis follows the general law, by which the idea new to the context, or uppermost in the speaker's mind. is rendered prominent by mere accentual stress, and with simple tones. It is no less true in Elocution than in physics, that the brightest light casts the deepest shadow. The light of emphasis on any word throws a shade of subordination on all allied words, the darker and more concealing in proportion to the lustre of the emphasis. Among speakers whose tones are adjusted by artificial rules, we look in vain for this "night side of nature." this shadow of the illuminated thought. Each word of every contrasted pair of words is thrown mechanically into equal prominence, with the effect expressed by Pope in his "Essay on Criticism :"

"False eloquence, like the prismatic glass.

Its gaudy colors spreads on every place."

We may follow out the Poet's idea, and add a converse couplet :

True eloquence, the lens's part must play,

And blend the colours in one focal ray.

With many speakers who aim at being emphatic without knowing how to be so, every leading grammatical word—noun and verb.—or every qualifying word-adjective and adverb-is delivered with an intensity of stress which defeats its own object, and is as destitute of intelligent effect as that tame and drawling monotony in which others indulge, where nothing rises above the level of constant dulness. Words are emphatic or otherwise,

not in virtue of their inherent grammatical rank, but of the relation they bear to each other in the context. The discriminating principle which marks this relation is called accent in reference to combinations of syllables, emphasis in reference to groups of words, and modulation in reference to successions of sentences. But it is the same art in all its applications, governed by the same intellectual perception of relative proportion and comparative importance.

The student is now referred to the body of the Work for a full development of Principles. Enough has been said here to prove that Elocutionary Art is something more than merely imitative; that it has more intellectual exercises than the sentimental declamations usually associated with the name; and that, if it has been encumbered with useless Rules, it is not destitute of guiding Principles.

THE

PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION.

Part First.-Pronunciation.

I. GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

I. SPEECH is the audible result of a combination of mechanical processes, separately under the government of volition, and conventionally expressive of ideas.

2. As, in learning to play upon an instrument of music, it is indispensable to be practically acquainted with its mechanical principles, so, in studying the Art of Speech, it is of consequence that the learner be familiar with the structure and working of the instrument of Speech.

3. But this important fundamental knowledge is not anatomical in its nature. The pianist does not require to understand the arrangement of the interior of his instrument,-its pegs and wires, and hammers and dampers -but to be familiar with its keys, and with the principles of digital transition, so that he may gallop over its gamuts without stop or stumble: The violinist needs not to know the details of shape and fastening of the parts of the fiddle-frame, but he must have perfect acquaintance with the working of the pegs, the stopping of the strings, and the drawing of the bow: The flutist does not require any knowledge of the arts of turning and boring the block from which his instrument is formed, or of the mathematical calculations and nice relative measurements which regulate the holing; but he must thoroughly understand how to blow, to tongue, and to "govern the ventages," so as to make it "discourse its eloquent music." And so, the SPEAKER does not require to learn of how many,

and of what muscles and cartilages the larynx is formed, and by what sets of "motors" and "antagonists" the various organs of speech are influenced: such knowledge may be a welcome addition to his stock of information, but he cannot bring it into any practical use in speaking. He should, however, comprehend clearly the dynamic principles of the vocal instrument, and the mechanical means by which the various sounds and articulations of speech are produced and modified.

4. The instrument of speech combines the qualities of a wind and of a stringed instrument: voice being produced by means of a current of air impelled from a sort of bellows the lungs, and modified by contraction or expansion of the voice-channels, and by tension or relaxation of the vibrating membranes.

5. The speaking machine, while thus resembling in certain points the organ and the violin, is characteristically distinct from all instruments of music in its unique apparatus of Articulation; which embraces the pharynx; the nares or nostrils; the palates, soft and hard; the tongue; the teeth; and the lips.

6. In the management of the Breath, and of the Organs of Articulation, lie the mechanical principles with which the speaker should be practically familiar, in order to enable him to use his oratorical powers healthfully, in energetic and protracted efforts, and with ease, grace, and precision at all times.

7. ELOCUTION, or Delivery, comprehends, besides the principles of salutary respiration, distinct articulation, and correct pronunciation, those of mental and emotional Expressiveness, by tones, gestures, &c.

8. Regulating the Expressive, as well as the Articulative departments of Elocution, are various mechanical principles with which the student should be experimentally familiar, that he may be gracefully efiective in every effort; in nothing giving offence to the eye or ear of taste, or "o'erstepping the modesty of nature."

II. PRINCIPLES OF RESPIRATION.

9. Speech consists of variously modified emissions of breath. Breath is thus the material of Speech. It fol