68 ART OF READING AND WRITING. Iars to read some oration, some affectionate sermon, some 'poe- try, some news-paper, some familiar dialogues, to show them how to pronounce different sorts of writing, by correcting their mistakes. Though I would advise young persons to read aloud even sometimes in private, in order to obtain a graceful pronuncia- tion ; yet I would not have them trust only to their private read- ing, for this purpose, lest they fall into some foolish and self - pleasing tones, of which their own cars are not sufficient judges, and thereby settle themselves in an ill habit, which they may carry with them even to old age, and beyond all possibility of cure. CHAP XV. Of the .Emphasis, or Accent which belongs to some special Word or Words in. a Sentence. IT has been said already, that as that force of the voice which is placed on the proper syllable in each word, is called the accent: se thatstress or force of sound that is laid on a parti- cular word in a sentence, is called the emphasis. The word on which the stress is laid, is called the emplia- tical word, because it gives force, and spirit, or beauty, to the wholesentence; as in Nehem. vi. H. Should such a man as I As? The little word I is the most emphatical, and requires the accent. To place an emphasis upon any word, is only to pronounce that word with .a peculiar strength of voice above the rest. But if the word be.of two syllables, then the accented syllable of the emphatical word must be pronounced stronger than otherwise it would be, and not any new or different accent placed upon that word. As in this question, Did you travel to London, or to York, last week ? The first syllable in London, and the word York, must both be pronounced with a strong sound, because the emphasis lies on those two words. And upon this consideration it is, that we use the words accent or emphasis indifferently, to signify the stress that must be laid on any word in a sentence, because both are usually placed on the same syllable. Yet if it happen that there be a plain opposition between two words in a sentence, whereof one differs from the oilier but in part, as righteous and unrighteous ; form and reform, or con- form ; proper and improper; just and unjust ; then the accent is often removed from its common place, and fixed on that first syllable in which these words differ ; as, If I would firm my manners well, I must not conform to Ike world, but rather refórm it. The just must die as well as the unjust. Whereas if these words unjust or conform stood by themselves in a sentence,
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