When you have gained a perfect knowledge of the sounds of the
letters, never guess at a word on sight, lest you get a habit of
reading falsely. Pronounce every word distinctly. Let the tone of
your voice be the same in reading as in speaking. Never read in a
hurry, lest you learn to stammer. Read no louder than to be heard
by those 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.