Ira ART oP READING AND WRITING. emphatical word ; for the beauty and propriety of readingde- pends much upon it; and that every reader may fully understand me, I would lay down these four particular rules concerning the emphasis. 1st, Carefullyavoid uniformity of voice, or reading without ony emphasis at all; like a mere ignorant boy, who knows not what he reads, expressing every word with the same tone, and laying a peculiar force of sound no where : for such an one pro- nounces themost pathetic oration, as though he wereconningover a mere catalogue of single words, 2dly. Do not multiply the accents, nor change the tone of your voice so often as to zmztate singing or chanting; for this is another extreme, and as faulty as the former. The reader should not make new emphasis beyond the design of the writer : and therefore, 3dly. Take heed of laying a stress or accent on words where there ought to be none. Some persons have got a very unhappy custom`of placing a strong sound on words, not so much accord- ing to their sense, as according to the length of the sentence, and the capacity of their breath to hold out in pronouncing it : therefore you shall find them strengthen their tone perhaps at the end of every line, or comma ; and others shall do it perhaps only at a colon, or period. Now, tho' towards the end of the sentence the voice should usually suffer an agreeable turn, yet not always grow louder ; for the emphatical word may stand per- haps in the middle of thesentence, where there is no stop at all. But this leads me to the fourth rule. 4thly. I3ave -a care of omitting the accent, or emphasis, where it ought to be placed ; for this will make the sentence lose all its force, andoftentimes conceal the meaning of it from the hearer: Perhaps I have been too tedious here; but if these rules are not observed in reading, the speech of the finest orator, with all the noblest ornaments of eloquence, will become fiat, and dull, and feeble, and have nopower to charm or persuade: CHAP. XVLObservations concerning the .Letters in printed Books, and in Wriang. I. THE twenty four letters are called the alphabet, because alpha, beta, are the names of the two first Greek lettersA and B. Note, that the great letters are called capitals, and the others small: .. 2. The round, full, and upright print, is called the Roman, as Father: The long, narrow and leaning letters, are called Italic, or Italian, as Father, The old black letter is called the lt,nglish, as fftkr; .
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