LESSON 23.

ON SOUNDING r BEFORE th AND S IN THE SAME

SYLLABLE.

SUCH words as burst, durst, are often pronounced by careless readers as if written bust, dust. This suppression of the r, often accompanied by an unwarrantable pronunciation, gives a coarse, vulgar tone to the reading, and must be carefully avoided. The r, though soft, must be distinctly

heard.

EXERCISE 23.

Little inmate, full of mirth
Chirping on my kitchen hearth,
Wheresoe'er be thine abode,
Always harbinger of good,

Pay me for thy warm retreat,
With a song more soft and sweet;

In return thou shalt receive,

Such a strain as I can give.

Cowper.

How dark the veil that intercepts the blaze,
Of Heaven's mysterious purposes and ways!
God stood not, though he seemed to stand, aloof;
And at this hour the conqueror feels the proof;
The wealth he won drew down an instant curse,
The fretting plague is in the public purse,
The cankered spoil corrodes the pining state,
Starved by that indolence their mines create.

Cowper.

O, answer me!

Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements!

LESSON 24.

ON THE SOUND OF LONG i BEFORE mM AND n.

A FAULT very prevalent among young readers, and from which many grown persons are not exempt, is that of giving a drawling, nasal sound to the letter i, before m and n in the same syllable. It has been explained, in the second chapter, that the long sound of this vowel is compound, and it is therefore produced by two different positions of the organs; but in practice the transition should always be sufficiently rapid to convey the impression of a single impulse. The fault committed in this instance consists in dwelling too long on the first division of the vocal element, and expelling the breath through the nose, either before the lips are closed, as in sounding the word time, or before the point of the tongue has come in contact with the fore part of the palate, as in sounding the word mind. The words in italics are to be pronounced in a smart, brisk manner, closing the organs rapidly and firmly.

EXERCISE 24.

Spirit! who sweepest the wild harp of time,

It is most hard with an untroubled ear

Thy dark inwoven harmonies to hear!

Yet mine eye fixed on Heaven's unchanging clime,
Long had I listened, free from mortal fear,
With inward stillness and a bowèd mind,
When lo far onwards, waving on the wind,
I saw the skirts of the departing year!
Starting from my silent sadness,

Then, with no unholy madness,

I raised the impetuous song, and solemnized
His flight.

Sad was thy lot on mortal stage!

Coleridge.

The captive thrush may brook his cage !
The prisoned eagle dies for rage.

Brave spirit, do not scorn my strain !
And when its notes awake again,

ད

E'en she so long beloved in vain
Shall with my harp her voice combine,
And mix her woe and tears with mine
To wail clan Alpine's honoured pine.

If every polished gem we find,
Illuminating heart and mind,

Provoke to imitation :

No wonder friendship does the same,

That jewel of the purest flame,

Or rather constellation.

Scott.

Cowper.

LESSON 25.

ON SOUNDING THE FLAT MUTES.

DIRECTIONS are given in Lesson 5, for sounding all the final consonants, whether flat or sharp, firmly. But besides this, a proper distinction is to be made between them. Many readers enunciate the former so feebly, for want of a sufficiently forcible expression of the guttural murmur, as to give them the sound of sharp mutes. "The Welsh," says Horne Tooke, never use this compression of the larynx." Instead of "I vow Jenkins is a wizard," they say, "I fow Shenkins iss a wissart. This impropriety very much impairs the boldness of tone essential to a correct elocution.

66

In the following exercise, care must be taken to sound the flat consonants (except those that are silent) as directed in the third chapter, giving them the sharp sound only when they immediately follow a sharp consonant in the same syllable, as in the word locked, where the d in the monosyllable is sounded like t. It is to be noticed also that s following a flat consonant in the same syllable is sounded like z, as herds (herdz); ƒ is also sounded flat in the word of.

F

EXERCISE 25.

Slow sinks, more lovely ere his race be run,
Along Morea's hills, the setting sun;
Not as in Northern climes, obscurely bright,
But one unclouded blaze of living light!

O'er the hushed deep the yellow beam he throws,
Gilds the green wave that trembles as it glows;
On old Ægina's rock, and Idra's isle,

The god of gladness sheds his parting smile;
O'er his own regions lingering, loves to shine,
Though there his altars are no more divine.
Descending fast, the mountain shadows kiss
Thy glorious gulf, unconquer'd Salamis !
Their azure arches through the long expanse
More deeply purpled meet his mellowing glance;
And tenderest tints along their summits driven,
Mark his gay course and own the hues of Heaven;
Till darkly shaded from the land and deep,
Behind his Delphian cliff he sinks to sleep.

Byron.