McGuffey's Fifth Eclectic Reader Part 6

RELATIVE EMPHASIS.

Words are often emphasized in order to exhibit the idea they express as compared or contrasted with some other idea. This is called relative emphasis.

EXAMPLES.

A friend can not be known in prosperity; an enemy can not be hidden in adversity.

It is much better to be injured than to injure.

REMARK.--In many instances one part only of the ant.i.thesis is expressed, the corresponding idea being understood; as,

A friendly eye would never see such faults.

Here the unfriendly eye is understood.

King Henry exclaims, while vainly endeavoring to compose himself to rest,

"How many thousand of my poorest subjects Are at this hour asleep!"

Here the emphatic words thousand, subjects, and asleep are contrasted in idea with their opposites, and if the contrasted ideas were expressed it might be in this way:

While I alone, their sovereign, am doomed to wakefulness.

EMPHATIC PHRASE.

Sometimes several words in succession are emphasized, forming what is called an emphatic phrase.

EXAMPLES.

Shall I, the conqueror of Spain and Gaul, and not only of the Alpine nations but of the Alps themselves--shall I compare myself with this HALF--YEAR--CAPTAIN?

Shall we try argument? Sir, we have been trying that for the LAST TEN YEARS.

And if thou said'st I am not peer To any lord in Scotland here, Lowland or Highland, far or near, Lord Angus-THOU-HAST-LIED!

EMPHATIC PAUSE.

The emphatic expression of a sentence often requires a pause where the grammatical construction authorizes none. This is sometimes called the rhetorical pause. Such pauses occur chiefly before or after an emphatic word or phrase, and sometimes both before and after it.

EXAMPLES.

Rise--fellow-men! our country--yet remains!

By that dread name we wave the sword on high, And swear for her--to live--with her--to die.

But most--by numbers judge the poet's song: And smooth or rough, with them is--right or wrong.

He said; then full before their sight Produced the beast, and lo!--'t was white.

VI. MODULATION.

Modulation includes the variations of the voice. These may be cla.s.sed under the heads of Pitch, Compa.s.s, Quant.i.ty, and Quality.

PITCH AND COMPa.s.s.

If anyone will notice closely a sentence as uttered in private conversation, he will observe that very few successive words are p.r.o.nounced in exactly the same key or with the same force. At the same time, however, there is a certain PITCH or key, which seems, on the whole, to prevail.

This keynote, or governing note, as it may be called, is that upon which the voice most frequently dwells, to which it usually returns when wearied, and upon which a sentence generally commences, and very frequently ends, while, at the same time, there is a considerable play of the voice above and below it.

This key may be high or low. It varies in different individuals, and at different times in the same individual, being governed by the nature of the subject and the emotions of the speaker. It is worthy of notice, however, that most speakers pitch their voices on a key too high.

The range of the voice above and below this note is called its COMPa.s.s.

When the speaker is animated, this range is great; but upon abstract subjects, or with a dull speaker, it is small. If, in reading or speaking, too high a note be chosen, the lungs will soon become wearied; if too low a pitch be selected, there is danger of indistinctness of utterance; and in either case there is less room for compa.s.s or variety of tone than if one be taken between the two extremes.

To secure the proper pitch and the greatest compa.s.s observe the following rule:

RULE XII.--The reader or speaker should choose that pitch in which he can feel himself most at ease, and above and below which he may have most room for variation.

REMARK 1.--Having chosen the proper keynote, he should beware of confining himself to it. This const.i.tutes monotony, one of the greatest faults in elocution. One very important instrument for giving expression and life to thought is thus lost, and the hearer soon becomes wearied and disgusted.

REMARK 2.--There is another fault of nearly equal magnitude, and of very frequent occurrence. This consists in varying the pitch and force without reference to the sense. A sentence is commenced with vehemence and in a high key, and the voice gradually sinks until, the breath being spent, it dies away in a whisper.

NOTE--The power of changing the key at will is difficult to acquire, but of great importance.

REMARK 3.--The habit of singsong, so common in reading poetry, as it is a variation of pitch without reference to the sense, is a species of the fault above mentioned.

REMARK 4.--If the reader or speaker is guided by the sense, and if he gives that emphasis, inflection, and expression required by the meaning, these faults speedily disappear.

REMARK 5.--To improve the voice in these respects, practice is necessary.

Commence, for example, with the lowest pitch the voice can comfortably sound, and repeat whole paragraphs and pages upon that key with gentle force. Then repeat the paragraph with increased force, taking care not to raise the pitch. Then rise one note higher, and practice on that, then another, and so on, until the highest pitch of the voice is reached.

Reverse the process, and repeat as before until the lowest pitch is obtained.

NOTE.--In these and all similar exercises, be very careful not to confound pitch and force.

QUANt.i.tY AND QUALITY.

The tones of the voice should vary also in quant.i.ty, or time required to utter a sound or a syllable, and in quality, or expression, according to the nature of the subject.

REMARK.--We notice a difference between the soft, insinuating tones of persuasion; the full, strong voice of command and decision; the harsh, irregular, and sometimes grating explosion of the sounds of pa.s.sion; the plaintive notes of sorrow and pity; and the equable and unimpa.s.sioned flow of words in argumentative style.

The following direction, therefore, is worthy of attention:

The tones of the voice should always correspond both in quant.i.ty and quality with the nature of the subject.