without success: yet the moment an interesting poem was opened his defect completely vanished, from his being led captive by the force of his subject, and the great interest he took in this branch of polite letters."

This affords us one mean, therefore, of remedying the evil before us: the stammerer should learn by heart, and repeat slowly, whatever most arrests his attention. But, at the same time, the will must learn to obtain a control over the muscles of articulation: and for this purpose single words should be uttered for hours at a time deliberately, and when alone; and, perhaps, too, as was the custom with Demosthenes, a practice of haranguing by the sea-shore, or on the brink of some loud waterfall, where the noise and the magnificence of the scenery have a tendency to break in upon the habit and render the conquest the easier, may be often advantageous. It would, at least, stimulate the speaker to strain his voice to the full extent of its power, and thus fit him for public speaking before large bodies of people, where a loud and elevated voice can alone be heard distinctly; which was, probably, the chief object Demosthenes had in view for we are expressly told that his voice was weak, as well as his speech tremulous and hesitating. Adults, who have firmness and perseverance enough for the purpose, may undertake the

task of disciplining themselves; but children should always be put under the care of a judicious tutor, whose best qualifications will be patience and good temper. A very few words only should be marked down at a time for trial, and these should be attempted separately; nor should a second lesson be entered upon till the first has been completely mastered, although the effort should demand many weeks, or even months. An acquisition of one lesson will always facilitate that of another.

our taste.

Another very disagreeable imperfection is the guttural sound of the letter R; an imperfection which was formerly the fashion in France for petitmaîtres to affect, and which they called parler gras. Such an affectation has never, we believe, disgraced The imperfection is best overcome by removing the articulation from the improper seat -the throat, to the proper organs-the tongue and the palate; and by practising to continue the sound of the letter in the proper place, or rather nearer to the teeth. This may be effected by forcing the breath between the palate and the tip of the tongue, and by causing the tongue to vibrate rapidly: although this effort will produce an inarticulate sound, it will be a useful exercise. Words may then be practised in which this letter occurs in various combinations-slowly at first, till the proper method be acquired; and it should be a

principal care to prevent the throat from interfering, or being at all concerned in the articulation. In this, as in every other successful effort of persevering labour, the example of Demosthenes is encouraging, as he completely conquered this defect in his utterance.

In another variety of vitious conversation, the letter L is rendered unduly liquid, or substituted for an R: as when delusive is pronounced deliusive, as though the s possessed the power of the Spanish ll, or the Italian gl; or as when parable is pronounced palable. Alcibiades is said to have laboured under this defect. The Greeks, from the letter lamda, denominated this lamdacismus; the Romans, with more severity, lallatio, or lullabyspeech. This is the result of affectation; sometimes, perhaps, from not having the tongue sufficiently free, as where there is too great a length of the frænum which ties it to the base of the mouth, or too large and oppressive a flow of saliva. As the articulation of R does not enter into some languages, as those of Mexico and China, the S is substituted for it: hence the Jews of the former country, who, from long disuse, have lost the power of pronouncing the R, employ the S in its stead.

In another variety, the harsh letters are vitiously dropped for softer: as in the substitution of anzel

for angel; capidol for capitol; dat for that. This may be the result of a debilitated articulation in children who have been brought up too daintily: but it is more usually the result of affectation, or is founded upon a general principle of softening the rougher or harsher sounds of a language into a smoother and more limpid flow; as is the case with most of the modern dialects of the South of Europe, and particularly those of Italy and Spain, which are well known to be derived from the Latin. Thus, in the former, we have piano for plano; piangere, and still further, piagnere, for plangere; and egli for ille and in the latter, Лamar for clamare; Лlaga for plaga, and hermose for formosa.

It is curious to observe how, in this respect, the most barbarous and the most polished languages agree. It is generally but erroneously conceived, that the former are peculiarly harsh and dissonant ; for savages, in speaking, as in any other exertion, take more pains than are absolutely necessary, and hence content themselves with the soft and simple vowel sounds, or those of the glottis, drawled out, indeed, at too great length; and when they are driven to the use of consonants, select those that give them least trouble to enunciate. On this account, Lord Monboddo is correct in observing, that "the words of barbarous languages are long and full of vowels; not short and full of consonants, as

has been imagined." "And the following remark," says Dr. Good, of Dr. Perceval of Dublin, in the manuscript commentary with which he favoured me on the volume of Nosology, is peculiarly in unison with this statement:-'In a paralytic affection of the organs of articulation, the patient pronounced the word cocoa, toto. The Otaheitans call Cooke, Toote. Their language is beautifully soft and vocal. A sentence recorded in Cooke's Second Voyage is distinguished by the harmonious and expressive collocation of its words: Tootaha taio Toote-mutte Tootaha ; Tootaha, the friend of Cooke-dead is Tootaha."" Man in savage life is fond of ease, and would not move a muscle if he could help it; in the voluptuousness of polished life he loves it equally, and is, if possible, still less disposed to exertion: and hence this extraordinary accordance in the character of their articulation.

In the balbutient variety, we have the labial letters too frequently repeated, or enunciated too harshly, or used instead of other letters. The Welsh are proverbially addicted to this inelegance, by confounding the V with the F, and the B with P; of which Sir Hugh Evans, in the Merry Wives of Windsor, affords a correct and amusing example, "Fery goot," says he, "I will make a prief of it in my not pook!" So impringe is often