ther read aloud, or speak in public, that do not tranfgrefs this law of accent, by dwelling equally upon different fyllables in the fame word; fuch as, fór-túne, nátúre, in'croachment', con'-jec'-túre, pátien'ce, &c. But this is not uttering words but fyllables, which with us are always tied together by an accent; as, fórtune, náture, encroachment, conjec'ture, pátience. Any habit of this fort, gives an unnatural constrained air to fpeech, and should therefore be carefully avoided by all who deliver themselves in public.

Having done with words I fhall now proceed to confider fentences; the most important article in which, is that of emphafis.

* Emphasis, discharges in fentences, the fame kind of office, that accent does in words. As accent is the link which

* Lecture 4th on Elocution.

• ties

'ties fyllables together, and forms them ⚫ into words; fo emphasis unites words together, and forms them into fentences, ' or members of fentences. As accent dig• nifies the fyllable on which it is laid, and

makes it more diftinguished by the ear 'than the rest; fo emphafis ennobles the 'word to which it belongs, and presents it

in a stronger light to the understanding. 'Accent is the mark which distinguishes • words from each other, as fimple types of our ideas, without reference to the • mutual relation in which they stand to ⚫ each other. Emphasis is the mark which 'points out their feveral degrees of relationship, in their various combinations, ' and the rank which they hold in the 'mind. Were there no accents, words 'would be refolved into their original fyllables: Were there no emphasis, sentences would be refolved into their origi• nal

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*nal words; and, in this case, the hearer must be at the pains himself, first, of making out the words, and afterwards their meaning. Whereas, by the use of accent and emphafis, words, and their meaning, being pointed out by certain marks, at the fame time they are uttered, the hearer has all trouble faved, but that of liftening; and can accompany the fpeaker at the fame pace that he goes, ⚫ with as clear a comprehenfion of the matter offered to his confideration, as the fpeaker himself has, if he delivers himfelf well.'

From this account it might appear, that emphasis is only a more forcible accent than ordinary laid upon the word to which it belongs, and that it is exactly of the fame nature, differing only in degree of force; an opinion, which, to the great prejudice' of elocution, has too generally prevailed.'

But

But there is an abfolute and conftitutional difference, between accent and emphasis, as certainly there ought to be, which confifts in this; that every emphatic fyllable, befides a greater ftrefs, is marked also by a change of note in the voice. To fhew the neceffity of this, we need only obferve, that the mind, in communicating its ideas, is in a continual ftate of activity, emotion, or agitation, from the different effects which thofe ideas produce on the mind of the speaker. Now, as the end of such communication is not merely to lay open the ideas, but also all the different feelings. which they excite in him who utters them, there must be fome other marks, befide words, to manifest these; as words uttered in a monotonous ftate, can only represent a fimilar state of mind, perfectly free from all activity or emotion. As the communication of these internal feelings was a

matter of much more confequence in our focial intercourfe, than the mere conveying of ideas; fo the Author of our being did not leave the invention of this language, as in the other cafe, to man, but ftamped it himself upon our nature, in the fame manner as he has done with regard to the reft of the animal world, who all exprefs their various feelings, by various tones. Only our's, from the fuperiour rank that we hold, is infinitely more comprehenfive; as there is not an act of the mind, an exertion of the fancy, or an emotion of the heart, which have not their peculiar tone, or note of the voice, by which they are to be expreffed, all fuited in the exactest proportion, to the feveral degrees of internal feeling. It is in the proper ufe of these tones chiefly that the life, fpirit, grace, and harmony of delivery confift; and the reafon that this is a talent fo rarely to be found,

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