ESSENTIALS OF READING,

BY

PROF. MARK BAILEY, A. M.,

Instructor of Elocution in Yale College.

PART I.

PREPARATORY STUDY.

ESSENTIALS of good reading are

I. Distinct Enunciation, to be heard. II. Right Emphasis, to be understood. III. Right Expression, to be felt.

first essential, Clear Enunciation, as well as the correct ciation of words, we do not discuss in these lessons ding ideas. What is needed on these points is not heory, but constant correction of faults as they occur -chool work, till the habit of good usage is formed. liscussing the second point, Right Emphasis, we ask What is the general character of the selection? that we ave a rational basis for the degree of emphasis in rendere sense. "Read the emphatic words louder," says the r. Louder than what? "Louder than the unemphatic But how loud are they, the unemphatic words? question must be answered first, or we have no standard by; and the answer to this question is determined alby the general spirit of the piece. If that is unemothe standard force required is moderate; if earnest, the ard force is loud; if subdued or pathetic, the standard s soft.

[Copyright, 1883, by MARK BAILEY.]

the ideas.

In the nature of things, thought and ex tified, the relations of sense and sound when ideas are classified by this sympa name of the class suggests the kind of ideas should have, as may be seen in t

CLASSIFICATION OF IDEAS FO

1. UNEMOTIONAL, including all matter sioned ideas.

2. EARNEST, including all ideas that ar the unemotional, and yet not marked by

3. SUBDUED, comprising the gentle, te ideas naturally expressed by the "still, sn 4. IMPASSIONED, including all intense sionate ideas.

5. Joyous, including all pleasing, beau ing, happy ideas.

6. PATHETIC, including all ideas of sa tender pity, contrition, etc.

7. GRAVE, comprising all impressive despair, and awe, of dread and horror.

8. NOBLE, embracing all great and heroic, glorious, sublime, and divine ide 9. HUMOROUS, including pleasantry, j lery, and good-natured wit and mimicry.

10. SARCASTIC, including ill-natured ation, and taunt, scorn, irony, mockery, et

When selections are of a mixed charact "matter-of-fact,' some earnest,' some 'no question, What is the general character must be asked as often as there is a m

LOGICAL ANALYSIS AND GROUPING.

we hear a word spoken, as "hand," we do not the separate sounds of h, a, n, d, but of the mono their union makes. When we hear a longer word, pendence," we do not mind the syllables separately, - pend- ence, but their union, the one word. So, e hear a group of words spoken that express a as, "The sun is the source of light," we do not the seven words individually, but of the meaning, of thought.

eader would read as well as he talks, he must learn nd read, not separate words, but groups of words, as inits; and he must speak all the words in one group, › impulse of mind and voice, just as he speaks all the in one long word. In short, he must learn to see 1 ideas. ́

most important ideas are the two essential to a and a thought; viz. the subject, or thing about omething is said, and the predicate, or what is said. These are emphatic when first introduced in the read.

tory is a useful study. History is also an interesting as a useful study."

e first sentence the subject is new, and what is said t is also new, and both are therefore emphatic. In ond sentence neither history' nor useful' is new, only the new predicate, interesting,' is emphatic. n, the subject may not be general history, but some part of history, as ancient history, or modern; or a ly of modern history, as American history, or history United States of America, or the yet more definite part , as 'The Colonial history of the United States of ca'; and each idea is in turn new and emphatic, and ard understood and unemphatic, so that in the last and group only Colonial' is new and distinctive.

too, the predicate may be no longer the general idea story is interesting,' but some more definite one; as treats of our forefathers, or the still more definite one trials and sufferings of our forefathers; or even this e yet more definite, and the distinctive point be of their ngs from the Indians. In any case, the new and most