'Nothing I'll bear from thee,

But nakedness, thou

detestable town.-'

Timon of Athens, iii. 1.

It occurs naturally in a faltering speech:

'I am sorry to say-but-a-it is-a-necessary—'

And, of course, wherever emotion impedes the utterance of the speaker:

'Nature instantly ebbed again-the film returned to its place-the pulse stopped-went on-throbbed-stopped again-moved-stoppedshall I go on? No.'-STERNE.

And, again, if the emotion is sufficiently strong to break down the grammatical construction :

Here lies the great-false marble! where?
Nothing but sordid dust lies here.'-YOUNG.

If thou beest he-but O, how fallen! how chang'd,
From him, who, in the happy realms of light,
Cloth'd with transcendent brightness, did'st outshine
Myriads though bright!'-Paradise Lost, i.

Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's,
Thy God's, and truth's; then if thou fall'st, O Cromwell,
Thou fall'st a blessed martyr! Serve the king;
And, prithee, lead me in.'-King Henry VIII. iii. 2.

'O, that this too too solid flesh would melt,
Thaw and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! O God! God!
How weary, stale, flat and unprofitable,
Seem to me all the uses of this world!

Fie on't! ah fie! 'tis an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature
Possess it merely. That it should come to this!
But two months dead: nay, not so much, not two:
So excellent a king; that was to this,
Hyperion to a satyr; so loving to my mother,
That he might not beteem the winds of heaven
Visit her face too roughly. Heaven and earth!
Must I remember? why, she would hang on him,
As if increase of appetite had grown

H

By what it fed on: and yet, within a month

Let me not think on't-Frailty, thy name is woman!—
A little month, or ere those shoes were old
With which she follow'd my poor father's body
Like Niobe, all tears :-why she, even she-

O God! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourn'd longer-married with my uncle,
My father's brother, but no more like my father

Than I to Hercules: within a month:

Ere yet the salt of most unrighteous tears

Had left the flushing in her galled eyes,

She married.

It is not nor it cannot come to good:

But break, my heart; for I must hold my tongue.

Hamlet, i. 2.

But on the whole the occasions for the appropriate

use of the emotional pause are rare.

SECTION III.

QUALITY.

To the foregoing sonant properties of Tune and Rhythm must be added some consideration of the speaker's voice.

162. Difference in Individual Voices.-Sounds may be of the same pitch, force, and duration, yet differ in colour or quality. Thus voices are recognised as full, or thin, bright or dull, smooth or rough, &c.

A beautiful voice, like a beautiful face, is a gift of Nature. When Mr. Steele's system was explained to Garrick, among many judicious remarks and queries, he asked this question: Supposing a speech was noted, according to these rules, in the manner he spoke it, whether any other person, by the help of these notes, could pronounce his words in the same tone and manner exactly as he did?' To which he was answered thus: 'Suppose a first-rate musician had written down a piece of music, which he had played exquisitely well on an exceedingly fine-toned violin; another performer with an ordinary fiddle might undoubtedly play every note the same as the great master, though perhaps with less ease and elegance of expression; but notwithstanding his correctness in the tune and manner, nothing could prevent the audience from perceiving that the natural tone of his instrument was execrable: so, though these rules may enable a master to teach a just application of

accent, emphasis, and all the other proper expressions of the voice in speaking, which will go a great way in the improvement of elocution, yet they cannot give a sweet voice where Nature has denied it.'-See Prosodia Rationalis, sec. ed., p. 54.

Under the guidance of a skilful teacher, however, a speaker may correct any tendency towards a guttural, nasal, or other vicious production, and so do much to improve the natural quality of his voice. But the production of the voice cannot be learned from books.

163. In reading comparisons and metaphors the quality of voice must accord with the character of the natural object depicted in the figure. The voice ought to sympathise with the imagination.

And in all emotional utterance, the quality of the voice changes as often as the sentiment, every shade of passion, however slight, affecting the form of the vocal instrument. And this may be observed,' says M. Garcia,

even in simple conversation: for if the intention be to represent anything extensive, hollow, or slender, the voice produces, by a moulding movement, sounds of a corresponding descriptive character.'

CONCLUSION.

'Nature is made better by no mean,
But nature makes that mean; so over that art,
Which you say adds to nature, is an art
That nature makes

The art itself is nature.'-Winter's Tale, iv. 3.

AND now we would point out the necessity of practice. Above all precept must be placed Naturalness. But the mistake is fatal which supposes a speaker who wishes to be natural may dispense with preparatory toil. 'There is,' says Mr. Walker, 'a certain mechanical dexterity to be acquired before the beautiful conceptions we possess can be communicated to others.' Practice and theory, therefore, must go hand in hand. The critic may-the artist dare not-part them. Theory serves fally the purposes of the critic and the teacher, but is inadequate to those of the artist, who, if he strive for the mastery,' must take his stand on the vantage-ground of practice.

We have now finished our exposition of the facts and principles of elocution. It is, as we have seen, both an ear-directed, and a mind-directed, art-ear-directed in our study of it, mind-directed in our exercise of it. His preparatory toil over, the student must now forget himself in his subject; and he may be cautioned to let his voice, henceforth, be prompted not by his ear, however musical and exact it may be, but by his sympathy with the matter. All must now be from within.