The Art of Elocution As an Essential Part of Rhetoric (4th Edition)

This 1867 volume transports the reader back to a time when how one spoke was one of the most important ways in which people's wealth and education could be determined. The book covers the basics of speech, including enunciation, articulation, pitch and meter. Each chapter includes exercises for the student to practice and the book ends with dramatic, poetical, oratorical, and prosodic pieces for more extensive practice. The introduction promises that a student who practices "disciplining his ear, his action, and his voice, -- he may hope to attain a style of oratory clear, manly, forcible, and elegant." At first glance, the author's insistence on practicing the minutest aspects of speech and accompanying gesture seem quaint -- with a large dose of tedium thrown in. But the more one reads, the more complex the lessons become and the more deeply the reader is lead to realize how much has changed in American society since the end of the Civil War.