STEFT E AND CHURCH ELOCUTION. [To the Editor of the
SPECTATOR.] Sra,—It is both exhilarating and instructive to dip into the volumes of the old Spectator and read the letters of Addison and Steele ; they show how frequently history repeats itself, and that many of the troubles and anxieties of the eighteenth century are repeated in the twentieth.
Just now there is a growing feeling that the laxity of some of our clergy in reading the beautiful Lessons in the Church of England Service is detrimental to that Church's best interests ; and, on Saturday, August 18th, 1711, there appeared in the Spectator a letter from Steele which might have been written to-day—in which he severely criticizes the manner in which the Church Service was then read. The following are only a few extracts from a long letter. Steele refers to the " little care that is taken of the boys' reading
when at school " . . . " without any due observations made to them of the proper accent and manner of reading " ; . . "that by this means they have acquired such ill habits as will not easily be removed " ; he is pleased at hearing the service read at St. James's, Garlickhithe, " so distinctly, so emphatic- ally, and so fervently, that it was next to an impossibility to be inattentive " ; . . . " My eyes and my thoughts could not wander as usual, but were confined to my prayers." . . . He hopes that " those that are afraid of stretching their mouths, and spoiling their soft voices, will learn to read with clearness, loudness,. and strength" ; . . . that " those who read so fast as if impatient of their work may learn to speak deliber- ately " ; that some " pronounce five or six words with great deliberation, and the five or six subsequent ones with as great celerity ; the first part of a sentence with a very exalted voice, and the latter part with a submissive one ; sometimes again with one sort of a tone, and immediately after with a very different one." And so on.
Is it too much, Sir, to ask our clergy to read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest this criticism of Steele ?—I am, Sir, &c.,
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