learning to open their minds, and keep them within the bounds of truth and modesty. And as the fashion of the last and present age, with the fame so justly attributed to our great Newton, have placed the mathematical sciences so much higher than they used to be in the scale of literature, students who excel in them are under a temptation, incident to us all, to over-rate themselves and their knowledge. Thus they fall into vanity, pedantry, narrow-mindedness, and scepticism; neglecting and even despising all other learning, which is equally, and, in some respects more valuable, for improving the heart and rectifying the judgment: ignorant of things, with which they are most intimately concerned; and placing all their pride in a sort of learning, to the exercise of which perhaps, they will never be called, when they come forth into the business of life.

One thing I would whisper in the ear of scepticism before I quit the present subject, which is this; that the more a man knows, the farther he sees into truth: as he sees farther into truth, the objects of his belief will be continually increasing: and therefore Doubt ing, as such, is not a sign of wisdom: as he advances in knowledge, he will find by experi ence that he doubted from ignorance.

LETTER

LETTER VII.

On Reading and Pronunciation.

YOU are sensible we have taken some pains, and with good reason, in the practice of reading with propriety. It is a matter of the last importance in education, though too generally neglected in public schools it is seldom thought of. Several years are spent in charging the memory with words, while few days are employed in forming the voice and judgment to utter them in a powerful and agreeable manner.

A scholar may be such in theory, when his head is stored with languages, and he can interpret the writings of the Greeks and Romans; but he is no scholar in practice till he can express his own sentiments in a good style, and speak them in a proper manner. A mathematician understands the rationale.of musical sounds; but the musician, who charms the ear, and touches the passions, is he who can combine sounds agreeably, according to the rules of art in composition, and perform them well upon an instrument. The dead philosophy of

music in the head of a mathematician is like the learning of a Greek and Latin scholar, who can neither write nor read; and there are many such to be found.

There are two great faults in reading which people fall into naturally; and there is another fault which is the work of art, as bad, in my opinion, as either of the former: it is common with those who are untaught, or ill taught, or have a bad ear, to read in a lifeless insipid tone, without any of those artificial turnings of the voice which give force and grace to what is delivered. When a boy takes a book into his hand he quits his natural speech, and either falls into a whining canting tone, or assumes a stiff and formal manner, which has neither life nor meaning. Observe the same boy when he is at play with his companions, disputing, reasoning, accusing, or applauding, and you will hear him utter all his words with the flexures which are proper to the occasion, as nature and passion, and the matter dictates. Why does he not read as forcibly as he speaks? This he would soon do, if he were to consider, that reading is but another sort of talking. He that reads, talks out of a book; and he that talks, reads without book; this is all the difference: therefore let a boy consider with himself, how

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he would talk what he is reading, and then he will drop the formal tone he had assumed, and pronounce easily and naturally.

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The sense of a passage depends so much on the emphasis with which it is uttered, that if you read without emphasis, the matter is dead and unaffecting: if you lay it on the wrong word, you alter the sense. Trite examples have been given of sentences which have as many meanings as words when the emphasis is differently placed. Thus, if the question were asked, Do you ride to London to-day? Place the accent on the first word, the sense is, Do 2 Or do you not? If you place it on the second, it means, Do you go yourself; or does somebody else go for you? Lay it on the third, it means, Do you go on horseback, or on foot, &c.? On the fourth, it asks, whether you go so far as London, or only part of the way? On the fifth, it is, do you ride to London, or to some other place? If you lay it on the two last, it asks, whether you go there to-day, or at some other time?

This example is sufficient to shew, that you must understand the meaning of a sentence before you can pronounce it right; and that if you pronounce it wrong the meaning cannot be understood by another person. To hear any

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one reading in a single unvaried note or monotone, without expressing the sense, is like looking upon a right line which has no variety of flexure to entertain the eye: and if he reads with a false emphasis, he makes the sense absurd and ridiculous. Many instances have been reported to illustrate this absurdity. They tell us of a reader, who in delivering that passage of scripture from the reading desk, "He said unto them, saddle the ass, and they saddled him," unfortunately laid the accent on the last word; by which the sentence was made to signify, that the man was saddled instead of his beast.

The want of art and skill, especially in a matter where it is of real consequence, is unpardonable in a person of a liberal education: but it is equally offensive to read with too much art. Ne quid nimis, is to be observed here as in other cases. Affectation is disgusting wherever it is to be found; it betrays a want of judg ment in the speaker, and none ever admire it but the illiterate, who are not prepared to make proper distinctions. We are never more justly offended, than when an attempt is made to surprise us with unreasonable rant, with grimace and distortion, and such other emotions as are not justified by the matter delivered, and de

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