But whatever may be our fate, be assúred-be assured that this declaration will stand. It may cost treasure, and it may cost blood; but it will stand, and it will richly compensate for both. Through the thick gloom of the présent, I see the brightness of the future, as the sùn in heaven. We shall make this a glòrious, an immòrtal day. When we are in our gràves, our children will honor it. They will celebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, còpious, gushing tèars; not of subjection and slavery, not of ágony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of jòy. My judgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off as I began, that, live or die, survive or pèrish, I am for the declaration. 11. UNCLE TOBY. WEBSTER. "In a fortnight or three weeks," said my uncle Toby, smiling, "he might màrch." "He will never march, an' please your honor, in this world," said the corporal. "He will march," said my uncle Tóby, rising up with one shoe óff. "An' please your honor," said the corporal, "he will never march but to his grave." "He shall march," cried my uncle Toby; "he shall march to his régiment." "He can not stand it," said the corporal. "He shall be supported," said my uncle Toby. "Ah, well-a-day, do what we can for him," said Trim, maintaining his point, "the poor soul will die." "He shall not," shouted my uncle Toby, with an oath. The Accusing Spirit which flew up to heaven's chancery, blushed as he gave it in, and the Recording Angel, as he wrote it down, dropped a tear upon the word and blotted it out forever. STERNE SECTION II. PAUSES. 1. The pauses made in reading or speaking may be classed as grammatical, rhetorical, and emphatic or emotional. 2. Grammatical pauses are those indicated by punctuation; rhetorical pauses are those required by the structure of the sentence, or by emphasis; and emphatic pauses, those expressive of deep feeling or passion. 3. These pauses may be relatively long, moderate, or short, according to the general style of expression appropriate to what is read; but without due attention to them, it is impossible properly to emphasize prose, or to express the melody of verse. 4. Concerning pauses, Prof. Russell says: "The cessation of the voice at proper intervals has the same effect, nearly, on clauses and sentences with that of articulation on syllables, or of pronunciation on words: it serves to gather up the sounds of the voice into relative portions, and aids in preserving clearness and distinction among them. But what those elementary and organic efforts do for syllables and words the minor portions of speech-pausing does for clauses, sentences, and entire discourses. 5. "The great use of pauses is to divide thought into its constituent portions, and to leave the mind opportunity of contemplating each distinctly, so as fully to comprehend and appreciate it, and, at the same time, to perceive its relation to the whole. Appropriate pauses are of vast importance, therefore, to a correct and impressive style of delivery; and without them, indeed, speech cannot be intelligible. 6. "Pausing has, further, a distinct office to perform in regard to the effect of feeling as conveyed by utterance. Awe and solemnity are expressed by long cessa tions of the voice; and grief, when it is deep, and at the same time suppressed, requires frequent and long pauses. 7 "The general effect, however, of correct and welltimed pauses, is what most requires attention. The manner of a good reader or speaker is distinguished, in this particular, by clearness, impressiveness, and dignity arising from the full conception of meaning, and the deliberate and distinct expression of it; while nothing is so indicative of want of attention and of self-command, and nothing is so unhappy in its effect, as haste and confusion." I. GRAMMATICAL PAUSES. Grammatical pauses, or the pauses indicated by punctuation, have no fixed length. They depend, to some extent, on the character of the piece to be read. When the general movement or rate is slow, the pauses are relatively long; when the movement is fast, the pauses are relatively short. The general principles that govern grammatical pauses may be stated as follows: 1. In general, a slight pause at a comma; a longer pause at a semicolon; and a still longer pause at a period. 42. A full pause, longer than at a period, is required at the end of a paragraph of prose, or of a stanza of poetry. This pause is made to enable the hearer to note the subdivisions of a piece, and to afford the reader time for a slight rest. II. RHETORICAL PAUSES. 1. Rhetorical pauses are pauses not indicated by punctuation, but which ́ are made in reading, generally for the purpose of emphasis or expression. Attention to these pauses is absolutely essential to good reading. 2. The general tendency of pupils to read too fast is owing, in no small degree, to a neglect of the pauses necessary to effective utterance. Both the hearer and the reader must have time to think. These pauses, too, afford the reader time to renew the breath, and thus keep the lungs well supplied with air. 3. A continuous stream of rapid utterance soon wearies the hearer, because the speaker neither takes time to think, nor allows his hearers, time to do so. The trained extemporaneous speaker talks with deliberation, and the trained reader reads in the same manner. 4. We read words by groups, not by disconnected units. The beginner laboriously calls out each word of a sentence independently, with a pause after each word, thus: "The black cat | caught | a | big | rat | in the | barn." A good reader will read this sentence in groups, as indicated by the hyphenized words, thus: "The-black-cat | caught-a-big-rat | in-the-barn.” 5. Pupils, whose attention is directed to the manner in which they run words together in speaking and reading, with pauses between the groups, will notice that adjectives are grouped with the nouns which they modify adverbs, with verbs or adjectives or other adverbs; prepositions, with their objects; pronouns, with the words they modify; and auxiliaries, with their principal verbs -in other words, that we speak in phrases and clauses. 6. They will notice, further, that when the subject of a verb is a noun, or when it is modified by a phrase or a clause, there is a rhetorical pause between the subject and the predicate. A COMMON FAULT. 7. "The common fault in regard to pauses," says Prof. Russell, "is that they are made too short for clear and distinct expression. 8. "Feeble utterance and defective emphasis, along with rapid articulation, usually combine to produce this fault in young readers and speakers. For, whatever force of utterance or energy of emphasis, or whatever rate of articulation we accustom ourselves to use, our pauses are always in proportion to it. shor 9. "Undue brevity in pausing has a like bad effect with too rapid articulation: it produces obscurity and confusion in speech, or imparts sentiment in a manner which is deficient and unimpressive, and prevents the proper effect both of thought and language. 10. "To be fully convinced how much of the clearness, force, and dignity of style depends on due pauses, we have only to revert for a moment to the effect of rapid reading on a passage of Milton, and observe what an utter subversion of the characteristic sublimity of the author seems to take place. This instance is, no doubt, a strong and peculiar one. But a similar result, though less striking, may be traced in the hurried reading of any piece of composition characterized by force of thought or dignity of expression. 11. "When habitual rapidity of voice, and omission of pauses, are difficult to correct, the learner may be required to accompany the teacher's voice in the practice. of sentences. This simultaneous reading, if sufficiently long continued, will probably prove effectual for the cure of habitual faults. A second stage of progress may be entered on, when the learner's improvement will warrant it; and he may be permitted to read after the teacher. 12. "Pupils who possess an ear for music, may be taught to observe that there is in reading and speaking a 'time,' as distinct and perceptible, and as important, as in singing, or in performing on any instrument; and that pauses are uniformly measured with reference to this time." |