A Museum for Young Gentlemen and Ladies | Page 3

about you. Observe
to make your pauses regular, and make not any where the sense will
admit of none. Suit your voice to the subject. Be attentive to those who
read well, and remember to imitate their pronunciation. Read often
before good judges, and thank them for correcting you. Consider well
the place of emphasis, and pronounce it accordingly: For the stress of
voice is the same with regard to sentences as in words. The emphasis or
force of voice is for the most part laid upon the accented syllable; but if
there is a particular opposition between two words in a sentence, one
whereof differs from the other in parts, the accent must be removed
from its place: for instance, The sun shines upon the just and upon the
unjust. Here the emphasis is laid upon the first syllable in unjust,
because it is opposed to just in the same sentence, without which
opposition it would lie in its proper place, that is, on the last syllable, as
we must not imitate the unjust practices of others.
The general rule for knowing which is the emphatical word in a
sentence, is, to consider the design of the whole; for particular
directions cannot be easily given, excepting only where words
evidently oppose one another in a sentence, and those are always
emphatical. So frequently is the word that asks a question, as, who,
what, when, &c. but not always. Nor must the emphasis be always laid
upon the same words in the same sentence, but varied according to the
principal meaning of the speaker. Thus, suppose I enquire, Did my
father walk abroad yesterday? If I lay the emphasis on the word father,
it is evident I want to know whether it was he, or somebody else. If I
lay it upon walk, the person I speak to will know, that I want to be
informed whether he went on foot or rode on horseback. If I put the
emphasis upon yesterday, it denotes, that I am satisfied that my father
went abroad, and on foot, though I want to be informed whether it was
yesterday, or some time before.
RULES TO READ VERSE.

There are two ways of writing on a subject, namely, in prose and verse.
Prose is the common way of writing, without being confined to a
certain number of syllables, or having the trouble of disposing of the
words in any particular form. Verse requires words to be ranged so, as
the accents may naturally fall on particular syllables, and make a sort of
harmony to the ear: This is termed metre or measure, to which rhyme is
generally added, that is, to make two or more verses, near to each other,
and with the same sound; but this practice is not absolutely necessary;
for that which has no rhyme is called blank verse.
In metre the words must be so disposed, as that the accent may fall on
every second, fourth, and sixth syllable, and also on the eighth, tenth,
and twelfth, if the lines run to that length. The following verse of ten
syllables may serve for an example:
The mónarch spóke, and stráit a múrmur róse.
But English poetry allows of frequent variations from this rule,
especially in the first and second syllables in the line, as in the verse
which rhymes with the former, where the accent is laid upon the first
syllable.
Lóud as the súrges, whén the témpest blóws.
But there are two sorts of metre, which vary from this rule; one of
which is when the verse contains but seven syllables, and the accent
lies upon the first, third, fifth, and seventh, as below:
Cóuld we, whích we néver cán, Strétch our líves beyónd their spán;
Beáuty líke a shádow flíes, Ánd our yóuth befóre us díes.
The other sort has a hasty sound, and requires an accent upon every
third syllable; as,
'Tis the vóice of the slúggard, I heár him compláin, You have wák'd me
too soón, I must slúmber agáin.
You must always observe to pronounce a verse as you do prose, giving

each word and syllable its natural accent, with these two restrictions:
First, If there is no point at the end of the line, make a short pause
before you begin the next. Secondly, If any word in a line has two
sounds, give it that which agrees best with the rhyme and metre; for
example the word glittering must sometimes be pronounced as of three
syllables, and sometimes glitt'ring, as of two.
The USE of CAPITALS, and the different LETTERS used in
PRINTING.
The names of the letters made use of in printed books are distinguished
thus: The round, full, and upright, are called Roman; the long, leaning,
narrow letters are called Italic; and the