7. A cheerful man is pre-eminently a useful man. He knows that there is much misery, but that misery is not the rule of life. He sees that in every state people may be cheerful; the lambs skip, birds sing and fly joyously, puppies play, kittens are full of joyance, the whole air is full of careering and rejoicing insects; that everywhere the good outbalances the bad, and that every evil that there is has its compensating balm.
For other selections, see Baker's "Reading Club."
| No. | Page. | Verse. |
| 1 | 12 | 1 |
| 1 | 82 | all |
| 2 | 15 | 6 |
| 2 | 62 | 1 |
| 2 | 72 | 1 |
| 2 | 78 | all |
| 3 | 11 | all |
| 3 | 35 | all |
| 3 | 49 | all |
| 4 | 26 | 6 |
| 4 | 36 | all |
| 4 | 92 | 1 |
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.