In order to know what words are to be made emphatic, the speaker or reader must give constant heed to the sense of what he utters; his only sure guide, in this matter, being a just conception of the force and spirit of the sentiment which he is about to pronounce.  He must also guard against the error of multiplying emphatic words too much; for, to overdo in this way, defeats the very purpose for which emphasis is used.  To manage this stress with exact propriety, is therefore one of the surest evidences both of a quick understanding, and of a delicate and just taste.

ARTICLE II.—­OF PAUSES.

Pauses are cessations in utterance, which serve equally to relieve the speaker, and to render language intelligible and pleasing.

Pauses are of three kinds:  first, distinctive or sentential pauses,—­such as form the divisions required by the sense; secondly, emphatic or rhetorical pauses,—­such as particularly call the hearer’s attention to something which has been, or is about to be, uttered; and lastly, poetical or harmonic pauses,—­such as are peculiar to the utterance of metrical compositions.

The duration of the distinctive pauses should be proportionate to the degree of connexion between the parts of the discourse.  The shortest are long enough for the taking of some breath; and it is proper, thus to relieve the voice at every stop, if needful.  This we may do, slightly at a comma, more leisurely at a semicolon, still more so at a colon, and completely at a period.

Pauses, whether in reading or in public discourse, ought always to be formed after the manner in which we naturally form them in ordinary, sensible conversation; and not after the stiff, artificial manner which many acquire at school, by a mere mechanical attention to the common punctuation.

Forced, unintentional pauses, which accidentally divide words that ought to be spoken in close connexion, are always disagreeable; and, whether they arise from exhaustion of breath, from a habit of faltering, or from unacquaintance with the text, they are errors of a kind utterly incompatible with graceful elocution.

Emphatic or rhetorical pauses, the kind least frequently used, may be made immediately before, or immediately after, something which the speaker thinks particularly important, and on which he would fix the attention of his audience.  Their effect is similar to that of a strong emphasis; and, like this, they must not be employed too often.

The harmonic pauses, or those which are peculiar to poetry, are of three kinds:  the final pause, which marks the end of each line; the caesural or divisional pause, which commonly divides the line near the middle; and the minor rests, or demi-caesuras, which often divide it still further.

In the reading of poetry, these pauses ought to be observed, as well as those which have reference to the sense; for, to read verse exactly as if it were prose, will often rob it of what chiefly distinguishes it from prose.  Yet, at the same time, all appearance of singsong, or affected tone, ought to be carefully guarded against.