292 Music of Speech. (July, 
elocution, before the time of Mr. Steele, recommended the 
accurate accentuation of words, and a stri@ attention to 
their separation at the proper places for pausing. And 
although Mr. Sheridan has given particular cases of nota- 
tion for rhetorical emphasis and for pause, he has proposed 
no broad rule to direct a pupil on these points, as Mr. Steele 
has done, in his simple divisions by bars placed before the 
heavy accent. The importance of the subject in our early 
schools may be learned from the manner in which children 
begin to read ; for their hesitating utterance, and their close 
attention to the single word, lead them to lay an equal 
Stress on every syllable, or at least on every word. ‘This 
habit continues a long time after the eye has acquired a 
facility in following up discourse, and in some cases infects 
pronunciation throughout subsequent life; as it is not 
till the tongue goes tripping, or rather halting, with its firm 
and tender step on words, that the ear becomes sensible 
of the use and beauty of accent. 
Dionysius, of Halicarnasus, in a summary of the consti- 
tuents of an elegant elocution, describes rhythmus, as sup- 
porting or ‘‘ sustaining the voice ;” and it must be admitted 
that a well-marked arrangement of the varying stress and 
quantity of syllables does sustain the voice, by keeping 
it from that careless staggering of speech, that running 
of words against each other, which by crossing and arresting 
the easy step of language, confuses and thwarts the expec- 
tation of both the ear and the mind. ‘‘ From the pen of a 
person of fine rhythmic perception,” continues Dr. Rush, 
“even a letter of business, with its enumeration of particulars, 
may flow with graceful variety, and terminate with decisive 
satisfaction to the ear; for the Greek idea of rhythmus 
sustaining the voice in discourse, applies not more to main- 
taining a rhetorical dignity, than to preserving common 
language from a loose and unmeasured rudeness.” 
Of the power of rhythm to confer freedom of speech none 
are perhaps more aware than those who undertake to cure 
stammering and stuttering, it being the corner-stone of 
their systems: the defined beat of a well-marked line can 
be made to coincide with the pulsation of the stutterer. 
When talking toa stutterer one will find occasionally very 
difficult combinations of letters uttered with perfect freedom, 
simply because the rhythm has not been interrupted. Very 
few who stutter in speech do so when singing. 
The further details of the subject of rhythmus must 
be left to the rhetorician. We have said enough to show 
that, in the words of the great Vandenhoff, ‘‘ The human 
