Strongly emphasizing a single word has a tendency to suggest its antithesis.  Notice how the meaning changes by merely putting the emphasis on different words in the following sentence.  The parenthetical expressions would really not be needed to supplement the emphatic words.

    I intended to buy a house this Spring (even if you did not).

    I INTENDED to buy a house this Spring (but something
    prevented).

    I intended to BUY a house this Spring (instead of renting as
    heretofore).

    I intended to buy a HOUSE this Spring (and not an automobile).

    I intended to buy a house THIS Spring (instead of next
    Spring).

    I intended to buy a house this SPRING (instead of in the
    Autumn).

When a great battle is reported in the papers, they do not keep emphasizing the same facts over and over again.  They try to get new information, or a “new slant.”  The news that takes an important place in the morning edition will be relegated to a small space in the late afternoon edition.  We are interested in new ideas and new facts.  This principle has a very important bearing in determining your emphasis.  Do not emphasize the same idea over and over again unless you desire to lay extra stress on it; Senator Thurston desired to put the maximum amount of emphasis on “force” in his speech on page 50.  Note how force is emphasized repeatedly.  As a general rule, however, the new idea, the “new slant,” whether in a newspaper report of a battle or a speaker’s enunciation of his ideas, is emphatic.

In the following selection, “larger” is emphatic, for it is the new idea.  All men have eyes, but this man asks for a LARGER eye.

This man with the larger eye says he will discover, not rivers or safety appliances for aeroplanes, but NEW STARS and SUNS.  “New stars and suns” are hardly as emphatic as the word “larger.”  Why?  Because we expect an astronomer to discover heavenly bodies rather than cooking recipes.  The words, “Republic needs” in the next sentence, are emphatic; they introduce a new and important idea.  Republics have always needed men, but the author says they need NEW men.  “New” is emphatic because it introduces a new idea.  In like manner, “soil,” “grain,” “tools,” are also emphatic.

The most emphatic words are italicized in this selection.  Are there any others you would emphasize?  Why?

The old astronomer said, “Give me a larger eye, and I will discover new stars and suns.”  That is what the republic needs today—­new men—­men who are wise toward the soil, toward the grains, toward the tools.  If God would only raise up for the people two or three men like Watt, Fulton and McCormick, they would be worth more to the State than that treasure box