Page images
PDF
EPUB

point out, at the moment, the fault to be corrected. For some time the rate of utterance should be slower than usual, and directed to the single point of distinctness, dismissing all regard to the sense of words, lest this lead him to forget the object. To make sure of this end, if he cannot do it otherwise, he may pronounce the words of a common vocabulary. At any rate, let him make a list of such words and combinations as he has found most difficult to his organs, and repeat them as a set exercise. If he has been accustomed to say omnip-e-tent, pop-e-lous, pr-mote, pr-vent, let him learn to speak the unaccented vowels properly.

IMPEDIMENTS.

As directly connected with articulation, a few remarks on impediments seem to be necessary. Stammering may doubtless exist from such causes, and to such degree as to be insurmountable; though in most cases, a complete remedy is attainable by the early use of proper means. They who have given most attention to this defect, suppose that it should generally be ascribed to some infelicity of nervous temperament. When this is the cause, eagerness of emotion, fear of strangers, surprise, anxiety, -any thing that produces a sudden rush of spirits, will communicate a spasmodic action to the organs of speech. The process of cure in such a case, must begin with such attention to bodily health, as will give firmness to the ner

subject of curiosity, The judge explained it by saying, that his vocal powers, which were orginally quite imperfect, had acquired clearness and strength by the long continued habit of reading aloud, for about half an hour, every day.

vous system, and produce a calm, clear, and regular action of the mind.

With this preparation, it is best not to put the stammerer at first to the hardest task of his organs, but to begin at a distance, and come to the difficulty by regular approaches. The course that has been pursued, with perfect success, by one respectable teacher, is this. The pupil is to begin with reading verse; the more simple and regular, the better he is to mark the feet distinctly with his voice, and beat time with his hand or toe to the moyement. From verse of this regular structure, he may proceed to that which is less uniform in metrical order; then to prose, of the elevated and poetic kind; then to common prose; and then by degrees to the difficult combinations at which he had been accustomed to stammer.

In repeating certain words there may be an obstinate struggle of the organs; as in the attempt to pronounce parable, the p may be spoken again and again, while the remainder of the word does not follow. In such a case, the advice of the celebrated Dr. Darwin was, that the stammerer should, in a strong voice, eight or ten times, repeat the word, without the initial letter, or with an aspirate before it; as arable, harable; and then speak it softly, with the initial letter p,--parable. This should be practised for weeks or months, upon every word, where the difficulty of utterance chiefly occurs.

CHAP. III.

TONES AND INFLECTIONS.

THE former of these terms is more comprehensive than the latter, embracing, in its most extensive sense, all sounds of the human voice. In a more restricted and proper sense, we mean by tones those sounds which stand connected with some rhetorical principle of language. In a few cases passion is expressed by tones which have no inflection; but more commonly inflection is what gives significance to tones. Except a few general remarks here, no consideration of tones seems, necessary, distinct from the subjects of the following chapters, especially Modulation.

SECT. 1. Tones considered as a language of emotion.

SIGHT has commonly been considered as the most active of all our senses. As a source of emotion, we derive impressions more various, and in some respects more vivid, from this sense, than from any other. Yet the class of tender emotions, such as grief and pity, are probably excited more strongly by the ear than the eye.

Whether any reason can be assigned for this or not, the fact seems unquestionable. A groan or shriek uttered by the human voice, is not only more intelligible than words, but more instantly awakens our sensibility than any signs of distress, that are presented to the sight. Our

sympathy in the sufferings of irrational animals, is increased in the same way. The violent contortions of the fish, in the pangs of death, being expressed without the aid of vocal organs, very faintly excite our compassion, compared with the plaintive bleatings of an expiring lamb. And a still stronger distinction seems to prevail among brutes themselves. For while the passion of fear in them, is associated chiefly with objects of sight, that of pity is awakened, almost exclusively, by the sense of hearing. cry of distress from a suffering animal, instinctively calls around him his fellows of the same species, though this cry is an unknown tongue to animals of any other class. At the same time his own species, if he utters no cries, while they see him in excruciating agony, manifest no sympathy in his sufferings.

The

Without inquiring minutely into the philosophy of vo cal tones, as being signs of emotion, we must take the fact for granted that they are so. And no man surely will question the importance of this language in oratory, when he sees that it is understood by mere children; and that even his horse or his dog distinguish perfectly those sounds of his voice which express his anger or his approbation.

SECT. 2. Utility of systematic attention to tones and inflections.

Analysis of vocal inflections bears the same relation to oratory, that the tuning of an instrument does to music. The rudest performer in this latter art knows, that his first business is to regulate the instrument he uses, when it is so deranged as to produce no perfect notes, or to produce

others than those which he intends. The voice is the speaker's instrument, which by neglect or mismanagement is often so out of tune as not to obey the will of him who uses it. To cure bad habits is the first and hardest task in elocution. Among instructors of children scarcely one in fifty thinks of carrying his precepts beyond correctness in uttering words, and a mechanical attention to pauses. So that the child who speaks the words of a sentence distinctly and fluently, and "minds the stops," as it is called, is, without scruple, pronounced a good reader. Hence, among the multitude who consider themselves as good readers, there are so few who give by their voice that just expression of sentiment, which constitutes the spirit and soul of delivery.

1

[ocr errors]

The unseemly tones which are contracted in childhood, are often so deeply fixed, as not easily to yield to the dictates of a manly intellect, and a cultivated taste, in after life. These habits are acquired, almost unavoidably by children, in consequence of their being accustomed to read what they do not understand. The man who should prepare a school-book, containing proper lessons for beginners in the art of reading, with familiar directions. for managing the voice, would probably do a greater service to the interests of elocution, than has yet been done by the most elaborate works on the subject, in the English language.* The tones of the common school are of

* Since this remark was made in my pamphlet on Inflection, several small works, well adapted to the purpose above-mentioned have been published; and one is now in press, entitled Lessons in Declamation, by Mr. Russell of Boston, concerning the utility of which high expectations are justified by the skill of the Author, as a Teacher of Elocution.

« PreviousContinue »