Young readers, in particular, are often deficient in this most striking and impressive of all the effects of appropriate reading and recitation. It becomes, therefore, a matter of great moment, in practice, to cultivate the habit of watching the effect of full and long pauses, introduced at appropriate places. Without these the most solemn passages of Scripture, and the poetry of Milton and of Young, produce no effect, comparatively, on the mind; while reading aided by their "expressive silence," seems to be inspired with an unlimited power over the sympathies of the soul.

It will be useful, here, to review, once, on purpose, the examples prescribed for practice on long "quantities" and "indefinite" syllables, so as to trace the inseparable connection between the effect of these and of long pauses. The repetition of columns of words from the chapter on enunciation, will also be of great service, if the practice is varied occasionally, so as to produce the pauses of various moods of emotion, from the ordinary rate of "expression" to the most solemn and impressive.

[The ball at Brussels, on the eve of Waterloo.]

"And all went merry as a marriage bell:

But hush! || || hark! || || a deep sound || strikes like a rising knell !"

2.- Awe, and Terror.

[Shipwreck.]

"Many ports will exult at the gleam of her mast: Hush! || hush! || thou vain dreamer ! || this hour || || is her last. || || Her keel hath struck on a hidden rock; /*

And her planks are torn asunder; |

And down come her masts with a reeling shock,

And a hideous crash || like thunder ! "

*Agitating emotions, such as those of alarm, hurry, terror, and confusion, reduce the usual pauses to the shortest possible duration; so as to correspond to the rapid and breathless utterance inseparable from such feelings.

[Bernardo del Carpio, discovering that king Alphonso has led him forth to salute, not the living person, but the lifeless body, of his father.]

"A lowly knee to earth he bent, - his father's hand he took- || ||

What was there in its touch, that all his fiery spirit shook? || ||

That hand was cold !|||| a frozen thing: - it dropped from his like lead !|||| He looked up to the face above the face was of the dead: || ||

A plume waved o'er the noble brow -
He met, at last, his father's eyes -

that brow was fixed and white : || || but in them was no sight! || ||

Up from the ground he sprang, and gazed- |||| but who could paint that

gaze? ||

They hushed their very hearts, || that saw its horror and amaze."

[Night, from the "Night Thoughts."]

"Creation sleeps: || || 't is as the general pulse of life | stood still || And nature made a pause, || an awful pause, || ||

Prophetic of her end!”

5. Solemnity, and Triumph.

[Cato, exulting in the contemplation of the immortality of

"The stars | shall fade

the soul.]

away, || the sun himself | Grow dim with age, || and Nature | sink in years; But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, || Unhurt amidst the war of elements, ||

The wreck of matter, || and the crush of worlds."

6.- Grief.

[Adam's lamentation over the fall of Eve.]

"O fairest of creation! || last and best |
Of all God's works, || creature in whom excelled
Whatever can to sight or thought be formed,
Holy, divine, good, | amiable, or sweet! ||
How art thou lost, || || how on a sudden lost, ||
Defaced, deflowered, || and how to death | devote!"

Thy hatred for this misery befallen,

On me already lost, me || than thyself

More miserable! || || both | have sinned, || but thou,
Against God only, I || against God | and thee ; ||
And to the place of judgment will return, ||
There with my cries importune heaven, that all
The sentence from thy head removed, may light
On me, || sole cause to thee of all this woe, ||
Me, || me only, || just object of His ire!"

8. Remorse, and Despair.

[Satan recalling the boast with which he arrayed his legions, in rebellion.]

"Ay me! they little know I

How dearly I abide that boast so vain, |

Under what torments | inwardly I groan, ||

While they adore me on the throne of hell! || ||
With diadem and sceptre high advanced |

The lower still I fall, || only supreme

In misery! || || Such joy | ambition finds."

[Burke's description of the desolation effected by Hyder Ali and his son.]

"So completely did these masters in their art, Hyder Ali, and his more ferocious son, absolve themselves of their impious vow, that when the British armies traversed, as they did, the Carnatic, for hundreds of miles, in all directions, through the whole line of their march, they did not see one man, not one woman, || not one child, || || not one four-footed beast || of any description whatever. One | dead | uniform | silence || reigned over the whole region."

[Brutus's harangue to the people, after the assassination of Cæsar.]

"Who's here so base that would be a bondman ? || .If any, speak; || for him have I offended. || || Who's here so rude, that would not be a Roman ?|| If any, speak ; || for him have I offended. || || Who's here so vile, that will not love his country? — || If any, speak; || for him have I offended. — || || I pause for a reply.”

These are of great practical utility in reading; as, besides prescribing the indispensable long pauses at heads of discourse and paragraphs, they direct the voice to many cessations of utterance, which are not indicated by the usual punctuation of sentences. Their chief use is to supply the deficiency arising from the inadequacy of points, or grammatical punctuation, to mark all the places at which a pause necessarily occurs in reading.

The "rhetorical" pauses often coincide with the usual points; but they apply, also, in many cases in which no point is used. The common grammatical punctuation, (indicated by the comma, semicolon, colon, and period,) coincides, in most instances, with the cessations of voice which meaning requires. But this is not always the case; as they sometimes occur where the syntax of a sentence is interrupted or terminated, for the time, but where the sense requires no pause. "Rhetorical" pauses regard the sense of a sentence, and are intended for the car: grammatical punctuation refers to the syntactical structure of a sentence, and is addressed to the The "rhetorical" pauses are eye. of indefinite length, and always vary, as to their duration, with the sentiment and the utterance, as brisk and animated, or slow and grave. Grammatical pauses have a fixed and uniform value, as representing the component parts of a sentence as such, and, in reading aloud, can seldom be appropriately used, as sometimes directed, by a

process of counting,

one, at a comma; two, at a semicolon;" &c. since the feelings which are expressed by the sentence, may, in one part of it, be lively and rapid, and in another solemn and slow; as in the following instance.

"Your house is finished, sir, at last;

A narrower house, || || a house of clay."

"Rhetorical" pauses may be briefly classed in the manner before exemplified, in application to long and compound sentences, as dividing the whole, first, into two main parts, or compound clauses, then, these into two minor portions, or simple clauses, these again into phrases, — last of all, these phrases into words.

It is not meant that in every compound sentence all these divisions or subdivisions are invariably found, or that there may not be several successive principal and subordinate parts in one sentence. But in most compound sentences, and in many simple sentences, several of them will be found, and particularly the last two, the rhetorical pause between clauses and words, as in the following instances: "In a few days the country was overrun." "They fled in haste." "The enemy approached."

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The careful observance of the "rhetorical" pause, is one of the chief means of distinctness in the expression of thought. In narration and description, and in plain didactic style, it is equally important that the successive sounds of the voice should be relieved from each other, in portions best adapted to present the component parts of the whole in a clear, distinct, impressive manner, according to their comparative length and importance. The thought or sentiment which is thus communicated, falls on the ear with a definite and satisfactory succession of sounds, which the mind easily receives and appreciates. The parts being thus exactly given, each makes its own due impression, and, at the same time, enhances the effect of the whole. The result is that the communication is fully understood and makes its just impression.

But young readers, especially, are apt to hasten on, in the act of reading, till they come to a full stop; and even then to slight the due pause. This hurried mode of reading, renders it impossible to give a sentiment force or