ARTICULATION.
With pleasant quality you will make listeners; but you will soon weary them, unless you make them understand by clear articulation. You have made the organs of articulation elastic by practice of elementary sounds separately and in combination. In combinations you have made syllables, and these syllables make words, words make phrases, phrases make sentences, sentences make up a discourse, address, oration, &c.
Syllables.—Every syllable contains a vowel, or its equivalent; as in the following word, which is separated by hyphens into syllables,—in-com-pre-hen-si-ble: you will hear a vowel-sound in each, the last syllable having the sound of l as an equivalent.
Words.—A word may have one or more syllables; and, when it has two or more, one of them will receive slightly more force than the others, as in the word "common." Pronounce it, and you will give more force to "com" than "mon." This force applied is called accent.
Accent.—In pronouncing words, you will notice that in the longest words, even while you make each syllable distinct, there is no perceptible pause until the word is finished. In words of two or three syllables you will find accent as above; but words of four or more syllables have one accented, and perhaps two syllables besides, that receive less force than the accented, but more than the others. Pronounce incomprehensibility. Properly done, you will hear that you give "bil" the strongest accent, and "com" and "hen" slight accent, but more than the remaining syllables, "in," "pre," "si," "i," "ty." The accent on "bil" is primary accent; and on the "com" and "hen" secondary accent.
Phrases.—Two or more words make a phrase; and a phrase gives you an idea, perhaps, needing a number of phrases to make complete sense. You should speak phrases just as you would a long word, without perceptible pause, and with more force on prominent words than others. Here is a sentence composed of two phrases: "Fear the Lord, and depart from evil." A poor reading of this would be, "Fear (pause) the Lord, (pause) and depart (pause) from evil." A good reading would be, "Fear the Lord, (pause) and depart from evil."
Emphasis.—As in words you have primary and secondary accent, so in phrases you have what is known as emphasis. In the sentence just given, the words that had most force were "Lord" and "evil;" and less force, "fear" and "depart;" and little or no force, "the," "and," and "from." You may call this primary and secondary emphasis, the primary having, as in accent, most force.
Sentences.—These phrases, or groups of words somewhat connected in idea, make sentences; and a sentence gives complete sense. As syllables make words, and in words you have an accented syllable; as words make phrases, and in phrases you have an emphatic word: so, in sentences composed of phrases, you have an important phrase; and this important phrase must be impressed upon the mind of the listener more strongly than any other. This is done by slightly added force and a trifle higher pitch; and, as you will readily see, the emphatic word of the important phrase is the emphatic word of the whole sentence. Thus you have the structure of sentences; and, if you proportion your force well, you will not fail to give the meaning correctly. In the following sentence, the phrases are separated by commas; the emphatic words are in SMALL CAPITALS; the secondarily emphatic words are in Italics. First understand what the sentence means, then speak it as you would in earnest conversation, and you will be likely to give it correctly.
"We ALL of us, in a great measure, create our own HAPPINESS, which is not half so much dependent upon SCENES and CIRCUMSTANCES as most people are apt to IMAGINE."
In this sentence the important phrase is, "create our own happiness;" and the other phrases must be and are, by a good reader, subordinated to this one. This subordination of phrases to the principal one is made by lowering the pitch slightly, and lessening the force slightly on the subordinate phrases. It is naturally done if you'll talk the sentence understandingly.
In the following sentences,—
1st, Sound each element of a word separately.
2d, Pronounce each word separately, with proper accent, being careful to give each element correctly.
3d, Read in phrases, remembering that each phrase should be pronounced as a long word, without pause, and with emphasis.
4th, Read in sentences, subordinating all other phrases to the principal phrase.
1. When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.
2. There's such divinity doth hedge a king,
That treason can but keep to what it would,
Act little of his will.
3. Grandfather is old. His back, also, is bent. In the street he sees crowds of men looking dreadfully young, and walking dreadfully swift. He wonders where all the old folks are. Once, when a boy, he could not find people young enough for him, and sidled up to any young stranger he met on Sundays, wondering why God made the world so old. Now he goes to Commencement to see his grandsons take their degree, and is astonished at the youth of the audience. "This is new," he says: "it did not use to be so fifty years before."
4. Press on! surmount the rocky steeps;
Climb boldly o'er the torrent's arch:
He fails alone who feebly creeps;
He wins who dares the hero's march.
5. Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,
Throttle their practised accent in their fears,
And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome, trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence yet I picked a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty
I read as much as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
6. Be not lulled, my countrymen, with vain imaginations or idle fancies. To hope for the protection of Heaven, without doing our duty, and exerting ourselves as becomes men, is to mock the Deity. Wherefore had man his reason, if it were not to direct him? wherefore his strength, if it be not his protection? To banish folly and luxury, correct vice and immorality, and stand immovable in the freedom in which we are free indeed, is eminently the duty of each individual at this day. When this is done, we may rationally hope for an answer to our prayers—for the whole counsel of God, and the invincible armor of the Almighty.
7. The quality of mercy is not strained:
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath. It is twice blessed,—
It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown:
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings.
But mercy is above this sceptred sway:
It is enthroned in the hearts of kings;
It is an attribute to God himself;
And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.