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READING AND RECITING.

RULES AND EXERCISES.

(1.) To read or speak effectively is both a science and an art. As a science, it resolves speech into its elementary constituents and examines the qualities of sound. As an art, it constitutes a knowledge as to the best modes of appealing to the understanding and moving the feelings of an auditory. Books and Reflection will supply thoughts, Composition will enable you to put those thoughts into words. Reading and Reciting is the art of expressing those words rightly with power and persuasiveness. To read or recite well demands certain qualifications.

(2.) To read or deliver a speech or recital effectively, the MIND must be cultivated to understand; the FEELINGS regulated to give expression; the VOICE trained to utter correctly; the TASTE instructed to impart tone to the entire exercise; and the STYLE, to be so completely natural that the hearer shall not be able to distinguish the tone in which the reader or speaker gives forth the sentiment of others from that in which he—the speaker—would utter those sentiments if they were his own.

(3.) The foundation of all good Reading is the perfect understanding of what you read. "Learned works," writes Serjeant Cox, "can be understood only by learned men, but there are none who cannot appreciate a pictorial narrative; few who cannot enjoy a sensible reflection, a truthful sentiment, a poetical thought, or a graceful style." Rapidity of perception of an author's meaning is the fruit of patient practice. The readiest method to attain proficiency in this respect is to read silently and slowly daily some two or three pages by some writer of genius, pausing at the end of each sentence to ask yourself what the author designed to say, and test your belief that you understand him by putting his thought into your own words.

(4.) Having attained a clear comprehension of the meaning of your author, you have laid as it were the foundation of reading the piece effectively: but we must remember that the understanding of any piece, is the laying but of the superstructure, all the ornament is to You must read and recite pleasantly and correctly, that your hearers may not only be enabled to understand, but induced to

come.

listen. To gain this end, it is of the first importance to acquire a clear articulation, and to correct indistinctness of utterance.

(5.) Breath is the raw material which the various organs of the mouth weave into shape to produce speech. The elements of spoken language are sounds, of which in the English speech there are usually enumerated forty-three. These consist of Vowels and Consonants. There are seventeen vowel-sounds, which are heard in the following key-words, and which are represented by the vowel letter or letters in those words:

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(6.) Some vowel sounds are not simple but compound. These are called diphthongs.

(7.) To articulate clearly you must study to acquire an accurate knowledge of the vowels, and practise pronouncing each alone.

(8.) The consonants are twenty-six in number, of which fifteen are vocal and eleven are voiceless. The distinction between the two classes will be perceived by trying to pronounce them without a vowel, when it will be found that b for instance produces a slight vocal murmur, but p gives no audible sound. They are heard in the subjoined words, where they are represented by the italic letters :

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(9.) To give strong expression lay the stress on the primal consonant, as in "Fiercely he struck the anvil." To give soft expression dwell long on the vowel, "Love me-love my child."

EXERCISES ON THE VOWELS.

(10.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in fate:-gaol, gauge, steak, vein, halfpenny, complacent, azure, ache, baize, chaise, vagrant, dismay, inveigh, grange, hasten, arraign, aorist, aviary, bravado, dictator, ukase, emigrate, portrait.

(11.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in far:-ardour, clerk, hearty, guardian, parhelion, artifice, hearth, hearken, aunt, can't, draught, laugh, sergeant, alms, balm, malmsey, qualm, salve, almond, artificer, barbaric.

(12.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in fat:-Canaan, banian, tapestry, altitude, balcony, galaxy, album, harangue, wrap, bade, sacrament, pacify, acrid, aloe, baron, atlantean, translate, arid, scandal, value, actual.

(13.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in fall:--broad, awful, avaunt, award, bald, salt, bauble, call, caustic, haughty, fault, gauntlet, gaudy, appal, befall, wrought, stall, water, yawn, caterwaul, quarter.

(14.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in me:- eve, fatigue, minutiæ, aerie, quay, field, aureola, sphere, belief, unique, priest, seizure, agis, amphisbona, ædema, meagre, league, freeze, trustee, ennui, pique, Caesar, demesne, demolish, marine, helix.

(15.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in met:-many, any, bury, said, heifer, leopard, jeopardy, feoff, etiquette, burial, beryl, legend, brethren, bestial, again, against, Michaelmas, connect, superintend, lament, spell, bet, denizen, berry, men, tense, yell.

(16.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in her:-earnest, guerdon, zephyr, martyr, chirp, earth, bird, fertile, merchant, vertex, virtue, myrtle, gherkin, irksome, firm, verge, dirge, early, pearl, sterling, whirlwind, myrrh, prefer, stir, extirpate, flower, hermetical, cur, surly.

(17.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in pine:-height, choir, guide, psychology, hierarch, bias, lyre, cycle, viscount, finite, blithe, gyve, rhyme, bye, awry, thigh, piebald, sliver, aisle, idyl, condign, indict, oblige, satiety, hypochondriacal.

(18.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in pin:-pretty, women, busy, guineas, parliament, miniature, cliff, cynic, dressing, mint, favourite, print, business, vineyard, cygnet, abyss, miracle, vigil, visor, dynasty, tyranny, sieve.

(19.) Pronounce the vowel sound as in note:-rogue, door, four,

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