they are more or less immediately connected with each other in thought and construction; hence follows as a GENERAL RULE. Branches of sentences having immediate reference to each other, can be divided only by the short pause; while they must be separated from other branches with which they are less connected, by the middle pause. ༄ EXAMPLE. These are the men, to whom,~ arrayed in all the terrors of government, I would say, you shall not degrade us into brutes. If, in this sentence, we make a short pause only after to whom, the next branch of the sentence, arrayed in all the terrors of government, would appear to refer to the men to whom ; whereas, being separated, as it is, from those words, by the middle pause, it is assigned to the pronoun I, to which it really belongs. The middle pause is also frequently used in place of the grammatical period or full stop, between two sentences, which are closely allied to each other in relation to the sense which they bear out, as will be presently shown. 3. THE REST, or FULL PAUSE Marks the perfection of the sense, that is, the climax of its force; as, the close of a proposition. The full-stop, which is used in grammatical punctuation to mark the close of a sentence or period, is not a sufficiently distinct guide; for it frequently closes a sentence which is intimately allied, by the connection of the sense, with the next, and perhaps with several succeeding periods. In such cases, the punctum or full-stop which marks the grammatical close of a sentence, should be rejected in reading; the middle pause should be used in its stead; and the rest or full pause should not be introduced till the actual winding up of all the sentences which have a close relation to each other in continuing or carrying out the sense to its climax or perfect close. Take the following sentences, with their grammatical punctuation as an EXAMPLE. Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of mankind can never feel an interest in them. They must have images. Now here the second short sentence is intimately connected with, and in its relation to the sense, forms part of the first; in fact, it completes and closes the proposition which the first sentence opened and began. Yet it is divided from that first sentence, (with which, in its relation to the sense, it is so intimately connected) by the grammatical full-stop or period; and yet, the close of the whole proposition contained in these two sentences admits, in grammatical punctuation, of no greater division from what may follow, in support and illustration of that proposition, than the same period or full-stop, which has been already used to separate the two parts of the whole proposition. This is illogical. The two sentences should thus be relatively marked and read with rhetorical pause: Logicians may reason about abstractions, but the great mass of mankind◄ can never feel an interest in them They must have images. For further illustration, I give the following sentences, mark ed both grammatically and rhetorically, by which it will be seen that the period or full-stop is frequently used when the middle pause is sufficient, and indeed absolutely necessary, to keep up the connection of the sense; and that, at the full close of the relation between the sentences so divided by the middle pause, and not till then,-the full pause should have place. EXAMPLES. Soon after Christianity achieved its triumph, the principles that had assisted it began to corrupt. It became a new paganism. Patron saints assumed the offices of household gods. – St. George took the place of Mars. St. Elmo consoled the mariner for the loss of Castor and Pollux. The Virgin Mother and Cecilia succeeded to Venus and the Muses. The fascination of sex and loveliness was again joined to that of celestial dignity; and the homage of chivalry was blinded with that of religion. ■ Now all these sentences are intimately allied to each other; they form parts of the same proposition, and serve only to complete and carry it out. They cannot therefore logically admit of a greater separation by pause than that which I have marked above: their final close alone can be marked with the full pause. 4. LONG PAUSE I (bar-rest) Marks the close of a subject, or of an important division of it. It precedes The change from one division of a discourse to another; A return from a digression, or from excited declamation to calm statement and logical discussion. This pause affords an opportunity to correct the tone or pitch of voice, which may have reached a high range in the excitement of earnest argument or intense feeling. In this latter regard the long pause is of great use and assistance to the reader and the orator. Its application must be illustrated and acquired by practical exercise. The system of Rhetorical Pause deserves the student's best attention; for its proper application will contribute greatly to the clearness, flow, and effect of his discourse, as well as to his own ease and delivery. Let him now read aloud the following marked EXERCISE ON PAUSE. SENSE TASTE AND GENIUS. USHER. The human genius with the best assistance breaks forth but slowly and the greatest men have but gradually acquired a just taste and chaste simple conceptions of beauty- At an immature ageTM the sense of beauty is weak and confused and requires an excess of coloring to catch the attentionTMIt then prefers extravagance and rant to justness a gross false wit to the engaging light of nature and the shewy rich and glaring to the fine and amiable- This is the childhood of taste but as the human genius strengthens and grows to maturity- if it be assisted by a happy education the sense of universal beauty awakes it begins to be disgusted with the false and mis-shapen deceptionsTM that pleased before and rests with delight" on ele gant simplicity" on pictures of easy beauty and unaffected grandeur | The progress of the fine arts in the human mind may be fixed at three remarkable degrees from their foundation to the loftiest height- The basis is a sense of beauty and of the sublime the second step" we may call taste and the last genius | A sense of the beautiful and of the great is universal which appears from the uniformity thereof in the most distant ages and nations- What was engaging and sublime in ancient Greece and Rome is so at this day and as I observed before there is not the least necessity of improvement or science to discover the charms of a graceful or noble deportment There is a fine but an ineffectual light in the breast of manAfter nightfall we have admired the planet Venus the beau ty and vivacity of her lustre -the immense distance from which we judged her beams issued and the silence of the night all concurred to strike us with an agreeable amazement But she shone in distinguished beauty without giving sufficient light to direct our steps or show us the objects around- Thus in unimproved nature the light of the mind is bright and useless- In utter barbarity our prospect of it is still less fixed it appears and then again seems wholly to vanish in the savage breast like the same planet Venus-when she has but just raised her orient beams to mariners above the waves and is now descried now lost through the swelling billows | |