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it is to be feared that in many cases it is too deeply rooted to be easily eradicated. The fault lies in the general neglect in childhood or early manhood of the habit of reading aloud, and the almost total absence of any attention to teaching it in a scientific yet natural manner.

Professor Charles John Plumptre, in "A Plea for the Art of Reading Aloud," thus grapples with the subject:

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'What is the cause of this admitted neglect of the art of reading in so many schools and families? Why is it that elocution has been of late years so much disregarded as a part of education, and yet music singing, drawing, and other accomplishments, have all received their due share of attention? One reason is, I believe, to be found in the fact that this very word, elocution, has been made abugbear of, and has frightened away many from its study, through a completely erroneous interpretation of its meaning and character. Do not many persons imagine that the study of elocution must lead to a pompous, bombastic, stilted, or pedantic style-a style in which the artificial reigns predominant over everything that is simple and natural? I can only say, if elocution meant anything of the kind I should be the last man to advocate its adoption in schools or anywhere else. If I am asked to define what I then mean by elocution, I think I should answer-That which is the most effective pronunciation that can be given to words when they are arranged into sentences and form discourse.' In this of course

I include the appropriate inflections and modulations of the voice, the purity of its intonation, the clearness of articulation, and, when suitable to the occasion, the accompaniments of expression of countenance and action. This art of elocution, then, I may further define as that system of instruction which enables us to pronounce written or extemporaneous composition with proper energy, correctness, variety, and personal ease; or, in other words, it is that style of delivery which not only expresses fully the sense and the words so as to be thoroughly understood by the hearer, but at the same time gives the sentence all the power, grace, melody, and beauty of which it is susceptible.

"Is it not strange, let me ask, when we reflect on the marvellous power which spoken language has to excite the deepest feelings of

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our common nature, that the cultivation of the art of speaking which once received so much attention, should afterwards and for so long a time have been almost completely neglected? We know what importance the ancient orators of Greece and Rome attached to the study of rhetoric. The prince of them all, Demosthenes, asserted that Delivery' (under which term is included everything that relates to the effective management of voice, look, and gesture) is the first, the second, and the last element of success in a speaker. And surely this is as true in our own day as it was in his. For even assuming that a youth has no apparent prospect of debating in Parliament, of addressing judges or juries at the Bar, or appealing on the most solemn and important topics of all from the pulpit, does it therefore follow that he need bestow no trouble in learning to speak his native language elegantly and effectively? Will he never have occasion to read aloud in his family circle, or to a company of friends, some leader from the Times or other newspaper, some chapter from a book, or some verses from a poem ? And what a difference will there be in the effect produced upon the reader and upon his audience accordingly as this is done well or ill! We are most of us in the present day accustomed to have our sons and daughters taught dancing, drilling, or calisthenic exercises, that give strength, flexibility, and elegance to the limbs-and very excellent are all such accomplishments in their way. But after all, the limbs are portions of our frames far less noble than the tongue; and yet, while no gentleman who can afford it hesitates about expending time and money in sending his son to the fencing, drilling, or dancing master, how few, comparatively, send as systematically their children to the elocution master, to be taught the full development of that which is the crowning glory of man-the divine gift of speech."

That during the last few years the custom of reading before a public audience has become very general, the platform of the socalled "Penny Readings" bears ample testimony, and many and deep must have been the lamentations of a majority of the readers that they had not in their youth been taught this essential branch of a thorough English education. It is to be feared that this slipshod reading to audiences for the most part incapable of appreciat

ing the style, however much they may have relished the matter, has done but little as yet towards the cultivation of a correct tasteAt the same time it is to be hoped that some results may spring from the fashion we have indicated, and that it will not pass away as a mere whim of the moment, or be superseded by a style of entertainment more objectionable. If it has awakened in the parents and guardians of youth a sense of the importance of their being taught at school to read well, it has done something, and we must wait for the boys who are now being educated for it to bear fruit.

CHAPTER II.

ELOCUTION CONSIDERED AS AN ART.

ORATORY, like poetry, is a gift, and cannot be acquired; the conception of original ideas and the ability to put them rapidly into form is common to both-but as versification is to poetry what elocution is to oratory, both may be improved by study; the versifier become in some sense a poet, and the elocutionist an orator. There must, however, always remain a wide gulf between the two. which no mere theoretical knowledge can bridge over.

To be able to speak and read well-that is, with a graceful and elegant enunciation of our native tongue-must certainly rank amongst the foremost accomplishments; and the truth of this proposition appears to be very generally admitted, and attested by the pleasure that is so universally derived from a just, appropriate, and harmonious delivery; for as language is the medium through which we communicate our thoughts, feelings, and impressions, so the force and power it exerts over us must naturally be considerably modified by the manner in which it is conveyed to us.

To the cultivation of this power the Art of Elocution addresses itself, and is defined to be, the just and graceful management of the Voice, Countenance, and Gesture.

The importance of this art has been felt and acknowledged in all countries wherein civilization and learning have attained their highest state of perfection. Even from the earliest times it has ever been esteemed an indispensable branch of education; nor can

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its too common neglect with us be justified when we reflect upon its nature, and its almost paramount necessity, not alone as regards those who aspire to distinguish themselves in Parliament, at the Bar, or in the Pulpit, but even as to its influence in the transactions of commercial life and the management of large public societies. Nor is it possible to deny the grace and charm with which it invests the conversation of the scholar and the gentleman; for, as Cicero has justly observed, “A cultivated address and a knowledge of its principles are highly ornamental and useful even in private life." And surely the truth of this observation must, at some time or other, have been apparent to most of us when we have witnessed the efforts of some unfortunate youth who has unexpectedly been called upon to entertain a family circle, by reading a selection from the works of a favourite author; or, on the contrary, have been charmed by the correct and pure enunciation-the just and natural harmony-with which, it may be, some other friend has, on a similar occasion, entranced the attention and elicited the applause and delight of all around him.

Nor are the disadvantages from the neglect of this very essential branch of a perfect and polite education in oratory-that is, the extemporaneous expression of our own thoughts and sentimentsless apparent. How many instances may be cited where awkwardness of address, and a stammering and confused style of delivery, have imperilled a good cause, whose advocate, defective only in this respect, has been compelled to succumb before mere fluency of speech and confident volubility. And yet, strange as it may appear, there are those who either deny the possibility of teaching this art cr ignore the benefits derived from its cultivation, affirming it to be altogether inutile, and that nature, unassisted, is alone sufficient as a guide, whether in speaking or reading-many men, as they assert, being able to do both the one and the other, not only correctly but gracefully, who are totally unacquainted with the rules and principles of elocution. But if we accept thoroughly the deductions they would have us derive from arguments like these, we must assume that there are no bad readers or speakers

*Cic. de Orat. lib. i.

at all, though our observation and constant experience unfortunately prove to the contrary; and does it therefore follow that because isolated instances exist, where from a happy combination of circumstances the gifts of nature may be displayed in their perfection by unassisted genius, that there is no utility in art or culture as regards those who are less fortunate?

In fact, it is from such native powers and instinctive efforts that the whole principles of elocution are deduced.

As an art, it is, like others, entirely imitative: Nature in her most graceful and harmonious expressions of the intentions, sentiments, and emotions of the mind, being the model; and the rules of that art teach us to reproduce in our utterance of the thoughts of others, the same tones, inflections, and pauses with which Nature has invested our own.

It is not indeed pretended that by the study and application of those rules excellence can be insured, or an equal proficiency attained by all; that of course must depend on natural powers and capacity; but few who have deeply considered the subject will be disposed to deny the great advantages that might accrue from a systematic instruction in this art in early life, when the vocal organs are pliable and ductile, the observation keen, and the ear quick and sensible of modulation, for it is precisely at this period much of the evil from its neglect arises. It is by the neglect of all study that either a drawling kind of monotony, a uniform rehearsing tone, by which a dull, unvarying sound, unbroken by inflection or pause, is acquired, producing a wearying effect on the ear, or that a no less disagreeable sensation is inflicted from a diametrically opposite cause, viz., a constant rising and falling of the voice totally regardless of the nature or feeling of the subject delivered, and this careless unanimated whining manner, uncorrected, becomes a habit not easily eradicated.

Now, we have to consider what are the principles and rules for a just and appropriate delivery in reading as laid down by the art of elocution as opposed to this, and they consist, first, in a distinct articulation modified by tone to the emotions of the mind, next in the judicious observance of pause, inflection, and emphasis, as governed by the sense, and lastly, the key or pitch,

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