mphasis, in the utterance of
sentences. If no emphasis be used, discourse becomes vapid and inane; if no
accent, words can hardly be recognized as English.

"Emphasis, besides its other offices, is the great regulator of quantity.
Though the quantity of our syllable is fixed, in words separately
pronounced, yet it is mutable, when [the] words are [ar]ranged in[to]
sentences; the long being changed into short, the short into long,
according to the importance of the words with regard to meaning: and, as it
is by emphasis only, that the meaning can be pointed out, emphasis must be
the regulator of the quantity."--_L. Murray's Gram._, p. 246.[474]
"Emphasis changes, not only the quantity of words and syllables, but also,
in particular cases, the sent of the accent. This is demonstrable from the
following examples: 'He shall _in_crease, but I shall _de_crease.' 'There
is a difference between giving and _for_giving.' 'In this species of
composition, _plaus_ibility is much more essential than _prob_ability.' In
these examples, the emphasis requires the accent to be placed on syllables
to which it does not commonly belong."--_Ib._, p. 247.

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; a