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tent, without affectation, or injury to the sanctioned pronunciation. This subject will be fully discussed under the head of Quantity.

Abruptness is used to indicate the full and sudden emission of sound, which, in some of its modifications, is heard on the Radical stress. Execution on the trumpet and bassoon, are instances. It constitutes Explosion, and is opposed to a gradual drawing out of the sound.

Pitch, as used in the science of music, indicates the place the voice occupies in the musical scale. We need not disunite the pitch of the singing and speaking voice, in investigating the subject under consideration. Let the bow be drawn across the strings of a violin, and at the same time suffer the finger to move up or down, with a continued pressure, and a "mewing sound" will be heard, varying from gravity to acuteness, in ratio of the length of the string. The shorter the string, the more acute the sound. This movement, or slide, is termed "Concrete." Let a person accused of doing an act, ask with a strong spirit of interrogation, "did you say it was I did it ?"-and the voice will assume on I the movement described.

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Now let the bow be drawn, holding the finger stationary, at certain distances, and there will be breaks in the former concrete slide, which will display the "Discrete" ment. A distinguished writer illustrates the two movements, by a ladder, in which the rails represent the concrete, and the rounds the discrete. The sounds of the piano-forte are discrete; those of the violin may be either; the human voice, also, executes both.

The sounds in the Musical Scale are 7 in number, and discrete in their movement. The space between any two notes, is called an interval; that between the first and second, and second and third, are tones. The interval between the third and fourth, is but half the space of a tone, and is called a semitone. The spaces between the fourth and fifth, fifth and sixth, sixth and seventh, are tones; from seventh to eighth is a semitone; the whole is called the Natural or Diatonic Scale.

Concrete Melody will be used to express the pitch of the slides, either in their ascent or descent; and Discrete Melody the pitch of different words, with reference to each other. Radical Pitch means the place in the scale occupied by the beginning of a syllable or word, in distinction from the place occupied by the vanishing movement.

All speaking is either concrete or discrete, and the regulation of the voice according to these movements, constitutes Intonation.

The Key Note, is that pitch with which we commence a discourse, and regulates the modulation of the voice in all succeeding notes. The pitch with which we should commence, will vary with circumstances. We may consider it under three heads, high, middle, and low. The speaker, in ordinary discourse, should commence with the middle, and reserve the low for cadence, monotone and orotund, and as his subject increases in spirit and energy, the pitch will naturally rise with it. Public speakers and readers are not sufficiently particular in this respect. Gracchus, whose stormy eloquence "arrayed one half of Rome against the other had a slave behind him when he spoke, to give the key note. Although these remarks would seem to commend themselves to the judgment of all, and though it might be presumed that any who make pretensions to public speaking would practise them with a kind of intuitive sagacity, yet it is astonishing what a "falling off" there is, from this very

cause.

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Radical and Vanishing Movement. Let the student sound the vowel a, with prolonged quantity, and it will be found to commence somewhat abruptly on the first part of the element, and then slide concretely through the interval of a tone, into the sound of ee, terminating (with a constantly diminishing volume), with a delicate vanish. The first movement is denominated the Radical, and the second, the Vanishing.

SECTION 2.-ARTICULATION.

1. Articulation is the sanctioned pronunciation of the elements of a language; and the basis of all good reading and speaking.

2. Defective Articulation generally arises from bad habits. It is sometimes, however, the result of mal-organization; a sluggish temperament also imparts a corresponding action to the organs of utterance, and elements are thrown out in a mixed and confused state. Earnestness is often productive of those indistinct, half-formed sounds, we so frequently hear in vehement and angry debate. Delicacy, as well as excess of vivacity, in bashful and diffident persons, is a fruitful source of the practice of hurrying over words, precipitating element upon element, and syllable

upon syllable, until the whole is melted into one confused mass. No one can expect to be listened to with delight, or even tolerated, whose articulation is indistinct. It is sufficient to those who intend to make speaking a profession, to know that, if they would excel, nay, attain even to mediocrity, they must master this first. Without it, all efforts to become eminent, as speakers, will be idle and useless. To the ambitious and indomitable, those worthy of eminence, it is only necessary to say, that all they are required to do, to effect this, can be DONE. In addressing a deaf person, those unacquainted raise the pitch, but the friend aims at being very distinct in his enunciation, bringing out distinctly every element. The suffrage of antiquity is. mighty, and we well know what importance the ancients attached to a Distinct Articulation. Unaided by science, the aspiring Athenian resorted to speaking with pebbles in his mouth, and declamations by the sea-shore. Under all these discouraging circumstances we know his success. Posterity has calmly written his name among the “ few, the immortal names that were not born to die."

3. We have in our language about 130,000 words, (primitive and derivative,) and in correctly enunciating these, only 46 elementary sounds are used, 16 vowel, and the remainder consonants and combinations.

4. The Organs of Speech are the lungs, trachea, larynx, glottis, tongue, palate, lips, teeth and nostrils. These organs are used in giving utterance to the above named 46 elements. The distinct enunciation of every element demands a certain position of some of these organs. Learn, then, to put these instruments of speech into 46 different positions, with rapidity, energy and ease, and the work is done.

5. Observe that the element and name are two distinct things. B-a-d. Let the student, in enunciating this word, pause before he gives the sound of a, and, by pressing the lips together, retracting the tongue and causing a lowing sound to proceed from the throat, he has the element of b. Now let him open his mouth and give the vowel sound of a, then press the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth, forcing the sound from the throat, and he has the elementary sound of d. We give below a table of consonant sounds, for which we are indebted principally to Dr. Barber. The learner is expected to perform each element SEPARATELY at first, endeavoring to give a "concentration

of organic effort," by which good delivery is so much en

hanced.

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6. The Theory of Articulation is simple, but the student may be certain that the price of excellence is practice, indomitable PRACTICE; without this he cannot acquire that nerve and energy which characterize the accomplished speaker. The hasty utterance of colloquial execution must be exchanged, for that deliberate and elegant manner, which delivers the elements from the lips as beautiful coins, newly issued from the mint-deeply and accurately impressed, perfectly finished, neatly struck by the proper organs, distinct, in due succession, and of due weight." The tables of Consonant Sounds, given for practice, will constitute a GYMNASIUM for the voice, which the learner will find the best possible method of developing the powers of Articulation.

7. Table of Consonant Sounds.-Observe the element is separated from the rest of the word by a horizontal line. If the true elementary sound should escape the memory, as given by the teacher, pronounce a word in which the consonant is not silent, giving it some more quantity than is necessary, and the correct sound will be heard.

Bd. bdst.

TABLE OF CONSONANT SOUNDS

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IN COMBINATION.

as in or-b'd, pro-b'd'st.

a-ble, trou-bl'd, trou-bl'd'st, trou-bles, trou-bl'st.

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cli-ffs.

gd. gdst.

gl.gld. glz.glst.

gr.

wa-ft, wa-fts, wa-ft'st.

brag-ged, brag-g'd'st.

gl-ow, hag-gled, man-gles, man-gl'st.

gr-ave.

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