INTRODUCTION. THE subject of Elocution, so far as it is deemed applicable to a work of this kind, will be considered under the following heads, viz: 1. ARTICULATION. 2. INFLECTION. 3. ACCENT AND EMPHASIS. 4. READING VERSE. 5. THE VOICE. 6. GESTURE. I. ARTICULATION. Articulation is the utterance of the elementary sounds of a language, and of their combinations. As words consist of one or more elementary sounds, the first object of the student should be to acquire the power of uttering those sounds with distinctness, smoothness, and force. This result can be secured only by careful practice, which must be persevered in until the learner has acquired a perfect control of his organs of speech. |