my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.-Luke i. 46, 47. But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My Lord delayeth his coming, &c.-Matthew xxiv. 48. Order my footsteps by thy word And make my heart sincere ; Let sin have no dominion, Lord, But keep my conscience clear. Sometimes, however, the lightest sound is preferable in sacred poetry, as in the following verse: To-morrow will be time enough To feel your harsh control; 2nd, Before the active participle, as, He might have judged by my not going with him what my sentiments were. In familiar discourse, or when that of which we speak is either a part of ourselves, or something which strictly belongs to us, we should give to my its lightest sound; thus, I shall present my reader with a journal. I turned my steps towards the hill-side, and soon found enough to occupy my attention, in the variety of objects which presented themselves to my view. In the following sentence from the Spectator, the first, and perhaps the second and third-my, should be pronounced like fly; the two last should certainly have the lightest sound: Your paper is part of my tea-equipage, and my servant knows my humour so well, that, calling for my breakfast this morning, (it being past my usual hour,) she answered, the Spectator was not yet come in. The preposition by must never be pronounced like the last syllable of easily, but always like fly. The possessive pronoun your, when not emphatical, should in general have the lightest sound, as if written yur. Your men of business usually have recourse to such instances as are too mean and familiar. Rend your hearts, and not your garments. Let not your heart be troubled. How much more agreeable to the ear is this last sentence, if pronounced as it is here marked, than if it were spoken thus, Let not your heart be troubled. Of the advantage of cadences in triple measure we have a beautiful illustration in the 1st verse of the 136th Psalm: 70 | give thanks unto the Lord; for he is | good, for his mercy en- | dureth for | ever.7 | In the third of these cadences there are four syllables, but they occupy the time only of three. In forming the cadences, the melody which is produced will much depend on the ear of the speaker. He who has a good ear will naturally throw together so many or so few syllables; he will give to them all such a degree of weight, and such quantity, and will insert such pauses, as are best adapted to produce an agreeable rhythm. He who has not a good ear will find more difficulty; but much may be done by study and practice. To improve the ear, it is an excellent plan to read poetry aloud, and in a variety of measures, taking care to mark the heavy syllables very distinctly by a greater stress of voice, and also by beating time with the hand or the foot, at the moment when the heavy syllable is pronounced. This will accustom the ear to mark the pulsations of speech, and will insensibly instruct the voice to fill up even the irregular cadences of prose in melodious manner. CHAPTER VI. THE EMPHASIS OF SENSE. HAVING now finished what was necessary to be said respecting Syllabic and Organic Emphasis, we proceed to the Emphasis of Sense. The Emphasis of Sense is that stress or force which we give to words, which are in contradistinction to other words expressed or understood. This stress consists in making light monosyllables heavy, and in giving additional weight or force to what is commonly called the accented syllable of words of more than one syllable, that is, to that syllable which has the syllabic emphasis. In the following examples the words which have this emphasis are printed in italics. The importance of this emphasis is such, that if it be not laid in the proper place, the sense of the sentence may be completely altered; thus, When the chief priests, therefore, and officers saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Take | ye him and | crucify him; | for | I find no | fault in him.-John xix. 6. The sense of the latter clause, read in this manner, is what the Evangelist meant to convey, namely, that Pilate desired them to do, as their own act, and on their own responsibility, what he himself saw no reason for doing. But if we read it thus, Pilate saith unto them, Take ye him | 7 and crucify him, for I find no | fault in him, the sense will be, that Pilate told them to take Jesus and crucify him, because he was persuaded of his innocence. The following may be taken as another example: Shall you ride to town to-day? This sentence is capable of being taken in four different senses, according as the emphasis is laid. If it be on the word you, Shall you ride to town to- | day? the answer may be, No; I shall send my servant. If on the word ride Shall you | ride to | town to- | day? the answer may be, No; I propose to walk. If on the word town Shall you ride to town to- | day? the answer may be, No; I shall ride into the country. |