Shall you ride to town to-day?

Yes; why did you think I would not?

In all these Examples it will be seen that there is an opposition or antithesis implied. When the question is asked, 'Shall you ride to town to-day?' the emphatic to-day' is in opposition or contrast to the statement that I shall go to-morrow. Hence this kind of Emphasis is often described as antithetic, in contrast to the absolute Emphasis of Feeling, which distinguishes words without suggesting relation or contrast.

Emphasis of Feeling.

35. Emphasis of feeling is a stress laid upon words, not because the sense intended to be conveyed requires it, but because it is prompted by the force of the speaker's own feelings.

36. This species of Emphasis, used under strong emotion and in vehement or impassioned discourse, is one of the chief instruments of effective speaking. It is an expression of strong feeling in a form that breaks through ordinary rules, and renders the most insignificant particle important. As it distinguishes words without any suggestion of contrast or relation, it is, as already stated, sometimes called general or absolute Emphasis, in contradistinction to antithetic Emphasis, where contrast is always implied. It is not so much regulated by the sense of the author as by the taste and feelings of the reader, and therefore does not admit of any precise rules. Its use will be best illustrated by a few Examples.

Ex. 23.

Examples of the Emphasis of Feeling.

But see! the enemy retire.

Why will ye die? O house of Israel.

To-morrow, didst thou say? To-MORROW?

It is a period nowhere to be found

In all the hoary registers of time.

-What men could do

Is done already; heaven and earth will witness,
If Rome must fall, that we are innocent.

There was a time, my fellow citizens, when the Lacedemonians were sovereign masters by sea and land; when their troops and forts surrounded the entire circuit of Attica; when they possessed Euboea, Tanagra, the whole Boeotian district, Megara, Egina, Cleone, and the other islands; while this state had not one ship, no, not-one-wall.

PAUSE.

37. Pauses are suspensions of the voice in reading and speaking, used to mark various states of feeling, and to give effect to expression. Like emphasis, with which it is closely allied, it may be considered under two heads,-the Logical Pause and the Pause of Feeling.

6

38. The Pause is one of the most effective elements in reading and declamation, and its importance cannot be too strongly impressed on the pupil. The ordinary marks of punctuation, though useful so far as they go, are insufficient for the purposes, not only of expression, but of sense, even when they are (as they are not always) correctly placed; for as Mr. Walker justly observes, Not half the pauses are found in printing which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader or speaker.' The difficulty of laying down absolute rules for the proper use of these pauses, is shown by the arbitrary and perplexing directions on this subject given in most of our current text-books on elocution. In the following Exercises an attempt has been made to place the theory of pauses on its only true basis, the relations developed by the logical analysis of the sentence.

The Logical Pause,

39. This Pause has for its object the separation of the sentence into its logical elements, and indicates the breaks or pauses of the sense formed at each recurring group of words made up of the subject predicate and object, and their extensions. As already explained (§ 14), these must be considered as forming so many oratorical words, indivisible in meaning, however made up of grammatical parts.

40. In the following extract from the Deserted Village' of Goldsmith, the logical relations of the successive sentences and their several parts, and the pauses founded on them, are indicated to the eye by breaks in the proper places. Each sentence is separated into its logical elements, and the distinction between principal and subordinate clauses is indicated by a very simple notation. Principal clauses are distinguished by capital letters, and the clauses subordinate to them by a corresponding small letter, the degree of subordination in each case being indicated by the index figure attached to the letter, as shown in the following scheme:

Principal Clauses A, B, C, D, E, &c.

Subordinate
Clauses

&c.

1st remove a1, 2a,, 3a,; b1, 2b1, 3b1,
2nd remove a2, 2a2, 3a,; b2, 26, 362, &c.
3rd remove a 2a, 3a; b, 2b3, 3b, &c.*

The perpendicular line denotes the Cæsural Pause.

* A full account of the Analysis of Sentences, with an explanation of the notation here employed, will be found in the writer's Elements of English Grammar.'

Ex. 24.

THE VILLAGE PASTOR.

A

b1

B

C; C1

D; d1 E; e

F

G; 91

H; h2

Marked to show the Logical Pauses founded on the Analysis of Sentences. Sweet was the sound,|- when oft, at evening's close, Up yonder hill | the village murmur rose ; *There, as I pass'd | with careless step and slow, The mingled notes | came soften'd from below; The swain responsive] - as the milk-maid sung, The sober herd - that low'd to meet their young; The noisy geese |- that gabbled o'er the pool, The playful children | just let loose from school; The watch-dog's voice] - that bay'd the whispering wind,And the loud laugh] - that spoke the vacant mind: These all in sweet confusion | sought the shade, And fill'd each pause] - the nightingale had made. But now the sounds of population fail, No cheerful murmurs | fluctuate in the gale, No busy steps the grass-grown footway tread, But all the blooming flush | of life is fled : All but yon widow'd, solitary thing, That feebly bends beside the plashy spring; She, wretched matron, | forced, in age, for bread, To strip the brook with mantling cresses spread, To pick her wintry fagot from the thorn, To seek her nightly shed, and weep till morn; She only left of all the harmless train, The sad historian of the pensive plain.

Near yonder copse, where once the garden smiled, -
And still where many a garden-flower grows wild, -
There, where a few torn shrubs | the place disclose,-
The village preacher's modest mansion rose. -
A man he was to all the country dear,

Remote from towns he ran his godly race,

And passing rich with forty pounds a year;

B

Nor e'er had changed, | - nor wish'd to change, his place; - C; D

Unskilful he to fawn, or seek for power

E

F

By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour; -
For other aims his heart had learned to prize,
More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. -
His house was known to all the vagrant train, -

He chid their wanderings, but relieved their pain ; -
The long-remember'd beggar was his guest,-
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast; -
The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud,

Claim'd kindred there, - and had his claims allow'd; -
The broken soldier, kindly bid to stay,

Sat by his fire, - and talk'd the night away;

-༠༤༧མ༤

; H

* A divided sentence, of which there are several other examples in the extract. 'There' belongs to the principal clause B on the next line, from which it is separated by the intervening subordinate clause b1.

Wept o'er his wounds, [or, tales of sorrow done, -
Shoulder'd his crutch,|- and show'd - how fields were won. -
Pleased with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow, -
And quite forgot their vices in their woe; -

I

J; K

A
B

Careless their merits or their faults to scan,

His pity gave - ere charity began.

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,

And even his failings lean'd to virtue's side;

But in his duty prompt at every call,

He watched - and wept, he pray'd - and felt, for all:- C; D; E; F

And, as a bird each fond endearment tries,
To tempt its new-fledged offspring|to the skies, -
He tried each art,] - reproved each dull delay, -
Allured to brighter worlds, and led the way. -
Beside the bed - where parting life was laid, -
And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay'd, -
The reverend champion stood. At his control,
Despair and anguish | fled the struggling soul; -
Comfort came down the trembling wretch to raise, -
And his last faltering accents whisper'd praise. -
At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorned the venerable place; -

Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway, -
And fools, who came to scoff, remain'd to pray.
The service past, around the pious man,

G; H

I; J

2a,

A

A

B

གལ

C

A

B

With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran; -
Even children follow'd, with endearing wile, -

And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile ; -
His ready smile a parent's warmth express'd; ·
Their welfare pleased him, - and their cares distress'd: - E; F
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,

But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.

As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,

Swells from the vale,] - and midway leaves the storm, -
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are spread, -
Eternal sunshine settles on its head. -

Pause of Feeling.

C

41. As in the corresponding part of Emphasis, no precise rules can be laid down for the use of the 'Pause of Feeling,' the right application of which must depend on the nature of the subject, and the taste and judgment of the reader. The following Exercise is given rather with the view of showing how the learner under the direction of his teacher may mark such passages for himself than as an absolute standard of correctness. The varieties of type are an attempt to denote to the eye the degree of stress to be given to each emphatic word. No exact time can be fixed for the length of the pause, which

ought to be made long or short according to the nature and sentiment of the passage which is being read. The voice should have a tone of continuance throughout, which constitutes the difference between a pause and a break.

Ex. 25.

HAMLET'S SOLILOQUY.

Marked for the Pause and Emphasis of Feeling.

TO BE or NOT to be that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing - end them? - To DIE? - TO SLEEP

No more and by a sleep to say we end

The heartach and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wished. To DIE to SLEEP

To SLEEP! Perchance to DREAM! - Ay, there's the rub -
For in THAT sleep of DEATH what dreams may come,

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil

Must give us pause. THERE's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life.

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time
The oppressor's wrong - the proud man's contumely -
The pangs of despis'd love the law's delay -

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes -
When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life

But that the dread of SOMETHING after death
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveller returns - puzzles the will -
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of.

Thus CONSCIENCE does make COWARDS of us all -
And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn away
And lose the name of ACTION.

Ex. 26.

DEATH OF PAUL DOMBEY.

Paul closed his eyes with those words and fell asleep. Then he awoke the sun was high- and the broad day was clear and warm. He lay a little looking at the windows - which were open - and the curtains rustling in the air and waving to and fro. Then he said Floy - is it to-morrow? - is she come?'"

Some one seemed to go in quest of her. The next thing that happened was a noise of footsteps on the stairs - and then - Paul