A rhetorical grammar: in which the common improprieties in reading and speaking are detected, and the true sources of elegant pronunciation are pointed out

Front matter

Class Book

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Preface

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

The present edition is almost a new work. The praxis of sentences, so arranged as to lead the pupil from the easiest to the most difficult, seemed better calculated for the lower class of pupils in reading than for students in rhetoric ; and therefore this has been omitted. The want of Rules for Composition, so essential in rhetoric, has been supplied from the best source — Blair's Lectures : and what was deficient even in these has been furnished from Professor Ward's Lectures on Oratory : — so that with the original matter on the elegant pronunciation of words, on accent^ emphasis, and inflexion of voice, and the proper pronunciation of the Figures of Rhetoric, it is presumed the present work is the most perfect of its kind in the language.

A powerful motive, indeed, for enlarging the Rhetorical Grammar to its present size, was, to

VI give a complete idea of the two circumflexes of the speaking voice. Ihe two simple inflexions, the rising and falling, had been several times delineated on copper-plates, in Elements of Elocution ; but the two complex inflexions, called circumflexes, though frequently described, had not been marked out to the eye ; and these appeared so inseparable from the human voice, so new, and of such real utility in teaching to read and speak, that I could scarcely think I had discharged my duty to my country, till I had given these modifications of the speaking voice as clear an explanation as I was able.

The sanguine expectations I had once entertained, that this analysis of the human voice would be received by the learned with avidity and applause, are now over. I have almost worn out a long life in laborious exertions ; and, though I have succeeded beyond expectation in forming readers and speakers in the most respectable circles in the three kingdoms, yet I have had the mortification to find few of my pupils listen to any thing but my pronunciation. When I have explained to them the five modifications of the voice, they have assented and admired ; but so difficult did it appear to adopt them, especially to those advanced in life, that I was generally

VII

obliged to follow the old method, (if it may be called so) " read as I read, without any reason for it." — But without pretending to the gift of prophecy, I think I can foresee, that sooner or later these distinctions of the voice must become the vehicle of instruction in reading and speaking. It is not improbable that the active genius of the French, who are so remarkably attentive to their language, may first adopt this vehicle ; and if this should happen, I hope it will be remembered, that an unassisted and unpatronised Englishman was the first who discovered and explained it.

Contents

Page

Introduction 1

Observations on some of the principal Faults in the Pronunciation of the generality of Pupils, with the Methods