lish letter no books are now printed, though it is still much used in Germany. Capital letters are never used among small ones, in the middle or end of words, and only at the beginning of a word, in the cases following. 1. At the beginning of any writing, book, chapter, paragraph, &c. 2. After a period, or any full stop, when a new sentence begins. 3. At the beginning of every line in poetry, and every verse in the Bible. 4. At the beginning of proper names of all sorts, whether of persons, places, ships, and titles and distinctions of men and women. 5. The names of God, as God, Lord, the Eternal, the Almighty; and also the Son of God, the Holy Spirit. When I or O are single words, as I read, O brave! Books are printed in folio, in quarto, in octavo, in twelves, and octo-decimo. In folio, a whole sheet makes but two leaves; in quarto, a sheet makes four leaves; in octavo, eight leaves; in duodecimo, or twelves, twelve leaves, and in octodecimo, eighteen leaves; &c. This book is a duodecimo of twelve leaves, or twenty-four pages to the sheet. The great or small letters and figures that stand under many of the pages, are marks of the printer, chiefly for the use of the book-binder, to arrange the sheets; as, A, B, C, &c. denote the first, second, third sheet, &c. LETTER XXI. The art of Reading. MY DEAR CHIldren, Reading with ease, distinctness, and propriety is so essential a qualification that, although it is the first art which you are called upon to acquire, its perfection is the result of your entire education. To read well implies the due understanding of the subject, and without feeling, and almost thinking with the author, you cannot acquit yourself with propriety; for reading is conversation or speaking with the aid of a book. To be clear, audible, and intelligible, you must, above all things, open your mouth sufficiently, and not mumble or mutter your words, but pronounce every letter of every word which, in the usual pronunciation, is sounded. Singing and tuning also must be avoided, and you should read in the very tone in which you commonly speak. As reading with ease, propriety, and grace, is a qualification of the highest order, equal, at least, to brilliant execution on the piano-forte, and as worthy of being pursued with the same zeal; I have subjoined some formal rules calculated to lead to perfection in this primary accomplishment. If carried to all the excellence of which it is capable, I conceive that the monotony of evening parties, might often be relieved by reading select passages from new books, or new translations; and it would be quite as agreeable to most persons as sitting for hours to hear hackneyed tunes, badly played on instruments generally out of tune. Theatrical display in domestic readings is by no means necessary, and ought in truth to be avoided, for without the dignity of a Siddons or Macauley, the spirit of a Henderson, the pathos of a Walker, or the appropriate energies of a Thelwall, such displays become offensive affectations. Some previous study is doubtless necessary when the reader proposes to gratify a mixed company, at least as much as is bestowed with reference to the similar performance of music. No young lady would be so presumptuous as to play a fine musical composition at sight; and the same impediments to perfection arise from the varied styles, turns of rea soning, and strokes of wit in authors. The one more than the other cannot be felt and comprehended at sight, and one, two, or even three readings are necessary to the effect of gratifying hearers, either in speaking from books, or in singing or playing from written music. The cardinal rules in reading with elegance, propriety, and effect, are as follow: 1. To understand the author yourself; for if you do not understand what you read, the passage will lose its proper emphasis, and the voice will not be so modulated as to impress the hearer either with ideas or pleasure. 2. To read in the natural tone in which you speak, and not pitch your voice in any key or tone, to which it is unaccustomed, and which it therefore cannot maintain with ease throughout the piece. 3. To remember that reading is speaking with the words supplied to the eye; and then, if the subject is understood, the reading will exactly correspond with the tone of your ordinary formal speech. 4. To open your mouth so that you may be heard, and that every letter and syllable may be distinctly and clearly pronounced. 5. To avoid hurry, to keep the stops, and recover your breath by gentle inspirations, and not by convulsive gasping or pumping. Slowness is essential to learners, and in finished readers is far better than that breathless haste which leads the hearer to sympathize with the sufferings of the reader, and gives him no time to collect the sense. 6. All the phrases applied to the time and manner of performing music apply exactly to the reading of different subjects and authors. Thus there ought to be the andante, or moderate time; the adagio, or solemn quiet movement; the allegro, or lively, brisk movement; the cressendo, or gradual rising or falling; the forte, or energetic and loud tone; and the piano, or soft tone; and each in various degrees. The same rules will apply also to both, for the adagio must not sink into wearisome drawling, nor the allegro rise into indistinctness, so that the words cannot be separated, and the whole become unintelligible. 7. It need scarcely be remarked, that to read correctly is as important to the sense of the author and pleasure of the hearer as the playing the right notes on the piano. Nothing will atone for vitiating the text by pronouncing one word for another, or for inaccurate pronunciation or false accent. 8. A fault equal to the vitiation of the text is the introduction of sounds not in the text, as hems→ ohs-and ahs-and continued noises in the throat during a full stop, or while any uncommon word is under consideration. Nevertheless, the faculty of reading is the most imitative of all our faculties, and the very best method of learning to read well is to hear the lesson read well by the teacher. This was always my own practice, and its powerful effects were soon perceived in the rapid improvement of my reading classes. Latterly I employed an elocution master, and his lessons twice a week, with the powerful example of his dignified reading, have been productive of the most striking results. Thelwall has carried this analogy between musical tones and reading closer than any other elocutionist, and I wonder the system has not been reduced to an elementary form, as nearly every term applies. How many passages in authors merit a da capo, or encore, or repeat, or dotted bar? How convenient at times would be the slur? How often Milton and other solemn writers would be improved by the staccato? How necessary it is in reading difficult passages of Paradise Lost, to be affettuoso, dolce, vivace, forte, or pomposo, fortis-simoniano or even pianissimo ? So with other authors, and perhaps there is not a term in Busby, expressive of degrees of movemement, or shade of passion which would not apply to finished reading in prose or verse. I dwell on this analogy because, as you all learn music, you will feel and understand it, and be competent to apply the classifications and practices of one art to the perfection of the other. LETTER XXII. General nature of Poetry. MY ESTEEMED Children, My previous letter considers merely the reading of prose, and though the same rules apply to poetry, yet special considerations are required in reading this species of composition, and to understand them it will be desirable to know something of the general nature and construction of poetry. Poetry is the law of music applied to words; and the laws of music being founded on natural accordances between the affections of the external air and the air contained within the ear, so poetry is the language of nature, and is the mode by which all savage tribes express sentiments which they desire to have remembered. Every line of poetry is in truth a species of tune, and the effect is produced by regular alternations of accent and quantity, which alternations are not respected in prose. Thus the sentiment The aim and object of our being is happiness, is a plain prosaic expression of a truism in the natural succession of the thoughts. The syllables aim, and ob, and be, and hap, are accented, but |