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FIGURES

OF

4.1828.

ELOCUTION

EXEMPLIFIED;

OR,

DIRECTIONS FOR READING AND RECITING

SUCH

FIGURES OF SPEECH

AS MOST FREQUENTLY OCCUR

IN THE

BEST WRITINGS,

AND WHICH REQUIRE PARTICULAR

MODULATIONS OF THE VOICE,

FOR THE USE OF SCHOOLS.

BY

CHARLES RICHSON,

Master of the Westminster Bridge Road Academy.

London:

PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR,

AND SOLD BY

SIMPKIN and MARSHALL, Stationer's Court, Ludgate Hill;
J. POYNTON, Knightsbridge; and F. WOOTTON, Mount
Street, Lambeth.

1828.

Price 2s. neatly Bound.

877.

PREFACE.

AS every experienced Instructer of Youth must be aware that the most effectual method of teaching is "Line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little," he must know how to appreciate those works which are calculated to assist him in so arduous a task.

It is presumed, that the "Figures of Elocution Exemplified," will be found a valuable auxiliary, for the Author having used them during the last six months, has been well enabled to judge of their utility. He uses them thus: a certain number of his pupils, being arranged in a class, he first explains the figure about to be read, then reads a few of the examples, and afterwards his pupils read the same, superiority of place rewarding him who best explains the subject of the lesson. Haying been thus employed a convenient time, his pupils proceed to their study of a superior work, such as "The Speaker, English Reader, &c.;" and during their reading or recitation, he reminds them of the figure they have previously studied.

It may be remarked, that the number and lengtth of some examples, appear wholly unnccessary, to which the Author would reply, that they are so arranged for the convenience of plans, for some teachers choose rather that their pupils be confined to one book until they understand the whole of its contents; while others, with himself, prefer the use of a second books as before described.

iv

A few unimportant typographical errors will be discovered in this Work, the principal of which are, sigh instead of sight, (p. 11)—obtion, and in grave, instead of objection, and in the grave, (p. 13;) to live and enjoy, instead of to live and to enjoy (p. 75.)

The following are observations left to be made at the discretion of the teacher.

1. Be neither awkward nor affected,-neither inanimate nor theatrical.

2. Imitate nature, that is, read or recite as you would express your own ideas.

3. Learn to speak slow, all other graces Will follow in their proper places.

4. Accustom yourself at pauses, to draw your breath, and with silence.

5. Do not pronounce unimportant words emphatically.

6. In antitheses, one contrary must generally be read more loudly than the other.

7. Amplification (p. 44) is an emphatic enumeration of particulars.

8. Climax, (p. 50) is a beautiful kind of repetition, wherein the word which concludes the first sentence is made to commence the next, &c.

9. Parentheses must be read in cadence. 10. Emphasis is the raising of the voice, 11. Cadence is the falling of it.

FIGURES OF

ELOCUTION.

COMMUNICATION, OR NARRATION.

Is the usual manner of relating unimportant circumstances and is read without any particular variation of the voice.

EXAMPLES.

Theron and Aspasio took a morning walk into the fields.

As soon as Boerhaave rose in the morning he retired for an hour to private prayer and meditation.

Coriolanus was a distinguished Roman senator and general.

Vice and corruption are sufficient to overset the greatest abilities.

We are told that the Sultan Mahmoud, had filled his dominions with ruin and desolation, and half unpeopled the Persian empire.

It is very certain that a man of sound reason cannot forbear admiring religion upon an impartial examination of it.

B

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