WOR 19 FEB 36 PREFACE ΤΟ THE THIRD EDITION THIS HIS Work on Elocution has had an extensive probation as a Text-Book of practice, both in England and America; and is now reprinted in compliance with a very general and long-expressed demand made by teachers of public reading and speaking, as well as by private individuals. The instructions given in it are the result of much study and consideration, as well as of the large practice of the Author, as a teacher, as a speaker in the lecture-room, and as a public reader of Shakspeare, the orators, and poets. Scriptural reading has formed an important branch of the Author's practice; and this work contains much matter, and some illustrations · of scriptural and liturgical reading, which, he thinks, may be found of use to clerical candidates, and readers at the altar and in the pulpit: for special instruction on these heads, they are, however, referred to his work on CLERICAL ELOCUTION. 11 Orchard Street, Portman Square, W. ART OF ELOCUTION. INTRODUCTION. The value of ELOCUTION; particularly to the Orator - Elocution a necessary part of Oratory-"Can Elocution be taught?"—Answer to the Right Reverend Dr. Whately's (Archbishop of Dublin) objections to a System of Elocution-the arguments in his Elements of Rhetoric combated by his arguments in his Elements of Logic—Advice to the Student. ELOCUTION, as its derivation (eloquor) indicates, is the art of speaking, or delivering language; and it embraces every principle and constituent of utterance, from the articulation of the simplest elementary sounds of language, up to the highest expression of which the human voice is capable in speech. It has for object to give clearness and force to the meaning of what may be spoken, and full expression to the feelings under which it may be spoken. Perspicuity and energy are as essential to Elocution as they are to Rhetoric; of which Elocution is a part. For "in its primary signification Rhetoric had reference to public speaking alone, as its etymology implies." Elocution therefore is a most essential element of Rhetoric. Whately's Elements of Rhetoric-Introduction. B Of the importance, if not the necessity, of such an art to a perfect system of education, one would think there could not be two opinions. We must all speak; it must therefore be desirable to speak with propriety and force; as much so as regards the utterance of our language as its grammatical accuracy. And though any language, however meagre and however mean, and any utterance, however imperfect and inelegant, so that it be barely intelligible, may be sufficient for the commonest purposes of speech, yet something more refined is surely necessary even to the ordinary conversation of the gentleman and the man of education. Most of us are called upon occasionally in public, even though we may not belong to any of the learned professions, to express our opinions, to state our views, to offer our advice, or to justify some course we may have pursued in relation to affairs in which others besides ourselves are interested; and on such occasions the advantage of a natural, elegant, and easy delivery cannot but have its effect in securing the ready attention and favour of the audience. Let me add, that a good Elocution will make itself felt in the reading aloud of even a paragraph from a newspaper; and will lend a charm to the tone of voice, and a polished ease to the common utterance of the man who has cultivated the art merely as a gentlemanly accomplishment. But to him who desires to make a figure in the Pulpit, in the Senate, or at the Bar, a good delivery, |