INTRODUCTION. LOCUTION, in the modern fense of the word, seems to fignify that pronunciation which is given to words when they are arranged into fentences and form difcourfe. Pronunciation, in its largest sense, may fignify the utterance of words, either taken feparately, or in connection with each other; but the pronunciation of words, connected into a sentence, seems very properly specified by elocution. Elocution, therefore, according to this definition of it, may have elements or principles diftinct from those of pronunciation in its most limited fenfe; and we may confider the elements of elocution, not as those principles which conftitute the utterance of fingle words, but as those which form the just enunciation of words in dependence on each other for fense: at this point the present work commences. The delivery of words formed into fentences, and these fentences formed into difcourfe, is the object of it; and as reading is a correct and beautiful picture of speaking; fpeaking, it is prefumed, cannot be more fuccefsfully taught, than by referring us to fuch rules as inftruct us in the art of reading. B The art of reading is that system of rules, which teaches us to pronounce written compofition with juftnefs, energy, variety, and ease. Agreeably to this definition, reading may be confidered as that fpecies of delivery, which not only expreffes the fenfe of an author, fo as barely to be understood, but which, at the fame time, gives it all that force, beauty, and variety, of which it is fufceptible: the first of thefe confiderations belongs to grammar, and the laft to rhetoric. The fenfe of an author being the first object of reading, it will be neceffary to inquire into thofe divifions and fubdivifions of a sentence which are employed to fix and afcertain its meaning this leads us to a confideration of the doctrine of punctuation. Punctuation may be confidered in two different lights; first, as it clears and preferves the fense of a sentence, by combining those words together which are united in sense, and feparating those that are diftinct; and fecondly, as it directs to fuch pauses, elevations, and depreffions of the voice, as not only mark the fenfe of the sentence more precifely, but give it a variety and beauty which recommend it to the ear; for in fpeaking, as in other arts, the useful and the agreeable are almost always found to coincide; and every real embellishment promotes and perfects the principal defign. In order, therefore, to have as clear an idea of punctuation as poffible, it will be neceffary to confider it as related to grammar and rhetoric diftinctly. It will not be eafy to fay any thing new on punctuation, as it relates to grammar; but it will not be difficult to fhow, what per plexity it is involved in when reduced to enunciation; and how neceffary it is to understand distinctly the rhetorical as well as grammatical divifion of a fentence, if we would wish to arrive at precision and accuracy in reading and fpeaking this will fo evidently appear in the courfe of this effay, as to make it needlefs to infift farther on it here; and as the bafis of rhetoric and oratory is grammar, it will be abfolutely neceffary to confider punctuation as it relates precifely to the fenfe, before it is viewed as it relates to the force, beauty and harmony of language. But the bufinefs of this effay is not fo much to conftruct a new fyftem of punctuation, as to endeavour to make the best use of that which is already established; an attempt to reduce the whole doctrine of rhetorical punctuation to a few plain fimple principles, which may enable the reader, in fome measure, to point for himfelf: for this purpose, it will, in the first place, be neceffary to exhibit a general idea of the punctuation in ufe, that we may be better enabled to fee how far it will affift us in the practice of pronunciation, and where we must have recourfe to principles more permanent and fyfte matical. A general idea of the common doctrine of SOME grammarians define punctuation to be the art of marking in writing the feveral pauses, or rests, between fentences, and the parts of fentences, according to their proper quantity or proportion, as they are expreffed in a juft and accurate pronunciation. Others, as Sir James Burrow and Dr. Bowles, befides confidering the points as marks of reft and paufes, fuppose them to be hints for a different modulation of voice, or rules for regulating the accent of the voice, in reading; but whether this modulation of the voice relates to all the points, or to the interrogation, exclamation and parenthefis only, we are not informed. Grammarians are pretty generally agreed in diftinguishing the pauses into The period The femicolon marked thus The comma and those pauses which are accompanied with an alteration in the tone of the voice, into The interrogation marked thus { () The period is fuppofed to be a pause double the time of the colon; the colon, double the femicolon; and the femicolon, double that of the comma, or smallest paufe: the interrogation and exclamation points are said to be in definite as to their quantity of time, and to mark an elevation of voice; and the parenthesis, to mark a moderate depreffion of the voice, with a pause greater than a comma. A fimple fentence, that is, a sentence having but one fubject, or nominative, and one finite verb, admits of no paufe. Thus in the following fentence: The paffion for praise produces excellent effects in women of fenfe. The pallion for praife is the fubject, or nominative cafe to the verb produces; and excellent effects in women of fenfe, is the object or accufative cafe, with its concomitant circumstances or adjuncts of fpecification, as Dr. Lowth very properly terms them; and this fentence, says the learned bishop, admits of no paufe between any of its parts; but when a new verb is added to the fentence, as in the following: The passion for praise, which is fo very vehement in the fair fex, produces excellent effects in women of fenfe. Here a new verb is introduced, accompanied with adjuncts of its own, and the subject is repeated by the relative pronoun which: it now becomes a compounded fentence, made up of two fimple fentences, one of which is inferted in the middle of the other; it muft, therefore, be distinguished into its component parts by a point placed on each fide of the additional fentence. In every sentence, therefore, as many subjects, or as many finite verbs, as there are, either expreffed or implied, fo many diftinctions there may be: as, My hopes, fears, joys, pains, all center in you. The cafe is the fame when several adjuncts affect the fubject of the verb: as, A good, wife, learned man is an ornament to the commonwealth; or, when feveral adverbs, or ad |