LESSONS ON ELOCUTION,

AND EXERCISES.

ON GOOD READING.

IT has often been observed, and certainly not without reason, that very few persons. read well. Το read simply and naturally, with animation and expression, is, unfortunately, a somewhat rare attainment. What is generally called good reading, is, in fact, the very worst kind of reading; namely, that which calls the attention of the hearer from the subject of the discourse to the supposed taste and skill of the person who is pronouncing it.

Still it must be remembered that with most persons reading is an art. Sometimes very bad advice is given on this subject in terms like these:-"Do not trouble yourself about rules: read naturally, and you will read well." Now, the misfortune is (and it is this which makes the advice bad), very few do naturally read well.

As a rule, the best readers are those who have most diligently studied their art; studied it so well, that you do not perceive they have ever studied it at all. You so thoroughly understand, and so sensibly feel the

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ON GOOD READING.

force of what they say, that you never think for a moment how they are saying it, and you never know the extent of your obligation to the care and labour of the elocutionist.

The general rules necessary to be kept in mind in order to read well are but few. Three may be mentioned:

1. Take care that you have a correct general idea of the meaning of the passage you are about to read. I say general idea, because it is frequently impossible to discover the finer shades of thought and feeling expressed by an author, until you have studied as well as read his observations. I am supposing a

book to be taken up perhaps for the first time in your life,-one about which you previously know nothing; and in relation to such a book I say, that in order to read it to another well, or even intelligibly, it is absolutely necessary that you should have some idea of the drift of each paragraph, before you pronounce the words of which it is composed.

In order to obtain this, it is necessary to cultivate quickness of perception, and to allow the eye in reading always to go before the voice. You will not find it difficult, with a little practice, by this means to see a line or two forward, which will be sufficient to prepare you for pronouncing, with ease and intelligence, each paragraph as it in turn presents itself to be read. Without this prior comprehension of the thought, it is impossible adequately to express the language in which it may be clothed.

ON GOOD READING.

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2. The tones and emphases which are used in earnest conversation are those which form the basis of good reading. As a rule, therefore, read as you talk. How often do you find people describing with ease and vivacity events which, if read by them in the very same terms from a book, would be insufferably dull and uninteresting.

3. Learn to read without slavish adherence to the stops which you may find in a book. The placing of commas and semicolons in a book is often a very arbitrary process. Some authors point their books,— that is, place commas or other marks,-in a most inexplicable manner, multiplying them almost without limit; while others insert so few that it would be impossible to read sentences under their direction.

The fact is, a good reader, with a quick eye, pays very little attention to these signs, excepting so far as they may enable him to discern, at a glance, where a sentence begins or ends, and what portions of it are parenthetical. If needful, he can pause, or rather suspend his voice every three or four words, and a skilful public speaker or reader often does this without his hearers being at all aware what he is about. All this, however, implies care, culture, and taste; and in order to attain such power over words, it is needful to understand what are usually termed the principles of elocution, so far as they bear upon pause or suspension of the voice, upon its inflection, upon tones or upon emphases.

THERE is a land, of every land the pride,
Belov'd by heaven, o'er all the world beside;
Where brighter suns dispense serener light,
And milder moons emparadise the night;
A land of beauty, virtue, valour, truth,
Time-tutor❜d age, and love-exalted youth;
The wandering mariner, whose eye explores
The wealthiest isles, the most enchanting shores,
Views not a realm so bountiful and fair,
Nor breathes the spirit of a purer air.

In every clime the magnet of his soul,
Touch'd by remembrance, trembles to that pole;
For in this land of heaven's peculiar grace,
The heritage of nature's noblest race,
There is a spot of earth, supremely blest,
A dearer, sweeter spot than all the rest,
Where man, creation's tyrant, casts aside
His sword and sceptre, pageantry and pride,
While in his soften'd looks benignly blend,
The sire, the son, the husband, brother, friend.
Here woman reigns; the mother, daughter, wife,
Strews with fresh flowers the narrow path of life;
Around her knees domestic duties meet,
And fire-side pleasures gambol at her feet.

Where shall that land, that spot of earth, be found?
Art thou a man? a patriot? look around;
Oh, thou shalt find, howe'er thy footsteps roam,
That land thy country, and that spot thy home.

James Montgomery.