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Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical Delivery
Analysis of the Principles of Rhetorical Delivery Author:Ebenezer Porter Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: point out, at the moment, the fault to be corrected. For some time the rate of utterance should be slower than usual, and directed to the single point of distinc... more »tness, dismissing all regard to the sense of words, lest this lead him to forget the object. To make sure of this end, if he cart- not do it otherwise, he may pronounce the words of a common vocabulary. At any rate, let him make a list of such words and combinations as he has found most difficult to his organs, and repeat them as a set exercise. If he has been accustomed to say omnip-e-tent, pop-e-lous, pr-mole, pr-vent, let him learn to speak the unaccented vowels properly. IMPEDIMENTS. As directly connected with articulation, a few remarks on impediments seem to be necessary. Stammering may doubtless exist from such causes, and to such degree as to be insurmountable ; though in most cases, a complete remedy is attainable by the early use of proper means. They who have given most attention to this defect, suppose that it should generally be ascribed to some infelicity of nervous temperament. When this is the cause, eagerness of emotion, fear of strangers, surprise, anxiety, —any thing that produces a sudden rush of spirits, will communicate a spasmodic action to the organs of speech. The process of cure in such a case, must begin with such attention to bodily health, as will give firmness to the nervous system, and produce a calm, clear, and regular action of the mind. aubject of curiosity. Tlie judge explained it by saying, that his vocal powers, which were orgmally quite imperfect, had acquired clearness and strength by the long continued habit of reading aloud, for about half an hour, every day. With this preparation, it is best not to put the stammerer at first to the hardest task of his organs, but to beg...« less