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EXAMPLES.

The pleasures of the imagination, taken in their full extent, are not fo grofs as those of fenfe, nor fo refined as thofe of the understanding. Spectator, N° 411.

In this example we fhall find all writers and printers agree in placing but one paufe between the four contrafted parts, and this point is at fenfe: here, it must be owned, is the principal paufe; but it muft likewife be acknowledged by every judicious ear, that a fhort pause at grofs, and another at refined, convey more forcibly and distinctly every part of the fentence.

Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease ;
Those call it pleasure, and contentment thefe.

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Pope's Effay on Man. In this couplet we never fee a pause after the two words fome in the firft line, nor after the words thofe and contentment in the fecond; and yet nothing can be more evident than that a fhort paufe after thefe words tends greatly to place the fenfe in a clear and diftinct point of view.

In the fame manner, when one object is fucceffively contrafted with another, though thefe objects form the nominative case to the verb, and confift but of a fingle word, it is neceffary to paufe after each, in order to fhow the contraft more diftinctly.

EXAMPLE.

At the fame time that I think difcretion the most useful talent a man can be master of, I look upon cunning to be the accomplishment of little, mean, ungenerous minds. Difcretion points out the nobleft ends to us, and purfues the most proper and laudable methods of attaining them: Cunning has only private selfish aims, and fticks at nothing which may make

them fucceed. Discretion has large and extended views, and, like a well-formed eye, commands a whole horizon: Cunning is a kind of fhort-fightedness, that discovers the minutest ob. jects that are near at hand, but is not able to discern things at a distance. Difcretion, the more it is difcovered, gives a greater authority to the perfon who poffeffes it: Cunning, when it is once detected, lofes its force, and makes a man incapable of bringing about even thofe events which he might have done, had he paffed only for a plain man. Difcretion is the perfection of reafon, and a guide to us in all the duties of life: Cunning is a kind of inftinct, that only looks out after our immediate intereft and welfare. Difcretion is only found in men of strong fenfe and good understandings: Cunning is often to be met with in brutes themselves, and in perfons, who are but the feweft removes from them: in fhort, Cunning is only the mimic of Difcretion, and may pafs upon weak men, in the fame manner as vivacity is often mistaken for wit, and gravity for wisdom. Addifon's Spectator, No 225.

In this paffage, much of the force and precifion of the contraft between difcretion and cunning would be loft without a fenfible paufe after each.

The neceffity of diftinguishing oppofite or contrated parts in a fentence, will fometimes oblige us to feparate words that are the most intimately united.

EXAMPLES.

To fuppofe the zodiac and planets to be efficient of, and antecedent to themselves, would be abfurd. Bentley.

Here the prepofitions of and to are in oppofition to each other, and both connected intimately with the word themselves; but this connection does not preclude the neceffity of a pause after each, to fhow their distinct and specific relation to their governing words, and their equal relation to the common word themselves. Indeed, the words of and to, in this fentence, are emphatical, from that exactnefs and precifion which the argument feems to require.

It is objected by readers of history, that the battles in thofe narrations are scarce ever to be understood. This misfortune is to be afcribed to the ignorance of hiftorians, in the methods of drawing up, changing the forms of battalia, and the enemy retreating from, as well as approaching to, the charge.

Spectator, No 428. The pretexts were, his having invaded and overcome many states that were in alliance with, and under the protection of Rome, Goldsmith's Rom. Hift.

Though a paufe feems admiffible both after from and to in this fentence, yet the oppofition between these prepofitions feems as much marked by emphasis as by reft: and in examples of this kind it seems neceffary to pause a smaller time after the laft prepofition than after the firft.

To fum up the whole in a few words, as those claffes of words which admit of no feparation are very small, and very few, if we do but take the opportunity of paufing where the fense will permit, we shall never be obliged to break in upon the fense when we find ourfelves under a neceffity of paufing; but if we overshoot ourfelves by pronouncing more in a breath than is neceffary, and neglecting those intervals where we may paufe conveniently, we shall often find ourfelves obliged to paufe where the fenfe is not feparable, and, confequently, to weaken and obfcure the compofition. This obfervation, for the fake of the memory, may be conveniently comprized in the following verfes:

In paufing, ever let this rule take place,
Never to feparate words in any cafe
That are lefs feparable than thofe you join:
And, which imports the fame, not to combine
Such words together, as do not relate

So clofely as the words you feparate.

The interrogation, exclamation, and parenthefis, feem rather to be whole fentences than members of a sentence; and as they are diftinguished from others, more by a peculiar inflexion of voice than by paufing, they naturally belong to that part of this effay, which treats of thofe inflexions of voice which are annexed to fentences, and parts of fentences, according to their different ftructure and fignification.

Thus have I attempted, with a trembling hand, to hint a few more rules for pausing than have been hitherto generally adopted; and though but little is accomplished, I flatter myfelf enough is done to fhow how much farther we might go in this fubject, if we would apply ourfelves to it fyftematically, and leave lefs to the tafte and understanding of the reader.

I doubt not but many will be displeased at the number of paufes I have added to thofe already in ufe; but I can with confidence affirm, that not half the pauses are found in printing which are heard in the pronunciation of a good reader, or speaker; and that, if we would read or fpeak well, we must pause, upon an average, at every fifth or fixth word. It must also be observed, that public reading, or fpeaking, requires paufing much oftener, than reading and converfing in private; as the parts of a picture which is to be viewed at a distance, must be more diftinctly and ftrongly marked, than those of an object which are nearer to the eye, and understood at the first inspection.

Introduction to the Theory of the Inflexions of the Voice.

ESIDES the paufes, which indicate a greater or lefs feparation of the parts of a fentence and a conclufion of the whole, there are certain inflexions of voice, accompanying these pauses, which are as neceffary to the fenfe of the fentence as the paufes themselves; for, however exactly we may paufe between thofe parts which are feparable, if we do not paufe with fuch an inflexion of voice as is fuited to the fenfe, the compofition we read will not only want its true meaning, but will have a meaning very different from that intended by the writer. How defirable, therefore, muft any method be, that can convey to us that inflexion of voice which is beft fuited to the fenfe of an author! but this will at firft fight be pronounced impoffible. What! it will be faid, will any one pretend to convey to us, upon paper, all that force, beauty, variety, and harmony, which a good reader throws into compofition, when he enters into the fpirit of his author, and difplays every part of it to advantage? No, it may be answered, this is not attempted: but, because all this cannot be done, is it impoffible to do any part of it? Because the exact time of paufing is not always denoted by the points in ufe, is it useless to have any marks of pausing at all? Because the precife degree of emphatic force is not conveyed by printing fome words in a different character, cannot we fometimes affift the reader, in apprehending the force or feebleness of pronunciation, by printing the emphatical words in Italics? The practice of this in books of in

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