Chapter 5 - Modulation (Continued)

Time | Inflection | Force

TIME

Time as applied to speech embraces three important elements: Bate, Quantity, and Pausing. The rate at which one speaks may be Medium, Slow, Very Slow, Rapid, or Very Rapid. Quantity is the time given to syllables and individual words. Pausing has reference to time between words and is divided into two kinds: Grammatical and Rhetorical.

RATE

Medium:

1. Bead, not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested; that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in less important argument, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters, flashy things.

Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man; and therefore, if a man write little, he had need have a great memory; if he confer little, he had need have a present wit; and if he read little he had need have much cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. "Essays Of Studies."
BACON.

2. Not eloquence, but truth, is to be sought in the Holy Scriptures, every part of which must be read with the same spirit by which it was written. In these, and all other books, it is improvement in holiness, not pleasure in the subtlety of thought, or the accuracy of expression, that must be principally regarded. We ought to read those parts that are simple and devout, with the same affection and delight as those of high speculation or profound erudition. Whatever book thou readest, suffer not thy mind to be influenced by the character of the writer, whether his literary accomplishments be great or small. Let thy only motive to read be the love of truth; and, instead of inquiring who it is that writes, give all thy attention to the nature of what is written. Man passeth away like the shadows of the morning; but "the word of the Lord endureth forever": and that word, without respect of persons, in ways infinitely various, speaketh unto all. "Reading the Scriptures."

THOMAS A'KEMPIS.

3. Marley was dead, to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. "The Christmas Carol."
DICKENS.

4. We have demonstrations enough, fortunately, to show that truth alone is not sufficient; for truth is the arrow, but man is the bow that sends it home. There be many men who are the light of the pulpit, whose thought is profound, whose learning is universal, but those offices are unspeakably dull. They do make known the truth; but without favor, without grace, without beauty, without inspiration; and discourse upon discourse would fitly be called the funeral of important subjects.
BEECHER.

Slow:

1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.

2. Hear the tolling of the bells-Iron bells! What a world of solemn thought their monody compels! In the silence of the night How we shiver with affright At the melancholy menace of their tone! For every sound that floats From the rust within their throats Is a groan. "The Bells."
Poi.

Very Slow:

1. To be or not to be: that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep; No more; and by a sleep to say we end The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to: 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep; To sleep: perchance to dream! ay, there's the rub; For in that sleep of death what dreams may come When we have shuffled off this mortal coil, Must give us pause: there's the respect That makes calamity of so long life; For who would bear the whips and scorns of time, The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely, The pangs of despised love, the law's delay, The insolence of office and the spurns That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make
With a bare bodkin? who'd these fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscover'd country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry,
And lose the name of action. "Hamlet."
SHAKESPEARE.

2. Sunset and evening star, and one clear call for me!
And may there be no moaning of the bar when I put out to
sea, But such a tide as moving seems asleep, too full for sound
and foam, When that which drew from out the boundless deep turns
again home.

Twilight and evening bell, and after that the dark!
And may there be no sadness of farewell, when I embark;
For tho from out our bourn of time and place the flood
may bear me far,

I hope to see my Pilot face to face when I have crost the bar.
"Crossing the Bar."
TENNYSON.

3. The hours pass slowly by nine, ten, eleven, how solemnly the last stroke of the clock floats out upon the still air. It dies gently away, swells out again in the distance, and seems to be caught up by spirit-voices of departed years, until the air is filled with melancholy strains. It is the requiem of the dying year.

Tenderly, mournfully it lingers upon the ear and sinks into the heart; slowly and softly it dies away. The clock strikes twelve ; the grave opens and closes, and the old year is buried.
BROOKS.

Rapid:

1. Haste, thee, nymph, and bring with thoe

Jest and youthful jollity,
Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles,
Nods, and becks, and wreathed smiles,
Such as hang on Hebe's cheek,
And love to dwell in dimple sleek;
Come, and trip it as ye go,
On the light fantastic toe.
"L'Allegro."
MILTON.

2. We come! we come! and ye feel our might, As we're hastening on in our boundless flight; And over the mountains, and over the deep, Our broad invisible pinions sweep Like the spirit of liberty, wild and free, And ye look on our works, and own 'tis we; Ye call us the Winds; but can ye tell Whither we go, or where we dwell?

Our dwelling is in the Almighty's hand;
We come and we go at his command,
Tho joy or sorrow may mark our track,
His will is our guide, and we look not back;
And if in our wrath, ye would turn us away,
Or win us in gentle airs to play,
Then lift up your hearts to him who binds,
Or frees, as he wills, the obedient Winds!
"The Winds."
H. F. GOULD.

3. Pindarus. Fly further off, my lord, fly further off!
Mark Antony is in your tents, my lord!
Fly, therefore, noble Cassius, fly far off!
Cassius. Titinius, if thou lovs't me,
Mount thou my horse and hide thy spurs in him,
Till he have brought thee up to yonder troops
And here again, that I may rest assur'd
Whether yon troops are friend or enemy.
"Julius Ccesar."
SHAKESPEARE.

4. Back darted Spurius Lartius;
Herminius darted back: And, as they passed, beneath their feet
They felt the timbers crack. But when they turned their faces,
And on the farther shore Saw brave Horatius stand alone,
They would have crossed once more.
"Horatius."
MACAULAY.

Very Rapid

1. I sprang to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
I galloped, Dirck galloped, we galloped all three; "Good speed!" cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew; "Speed!" echoed the wall to us galloping through; Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest, And into the midnight we galloped abreast. "How They Brought the Good News from Ghent."
BROWNING.

2. A hurry of hoofs in a village street, A shape in the moonlight, a bulk in the dark, And beneath, from the pebbles, in passing, a spark, Struck out by a steed flying fearless and fleet. "Paul Revere's Ride."
LONGFELLOW.

3. Now you see the water foaming all around. See how fast you pass that point! Up with the helm! Now turn! Pull hard! quick! quick! quick! pull for your lives! Pull till the blood starts from your nostrils, and the veins stand like whip-chords on your brow! Set the mast in its socket! hoist the sail! Ah! ah! it is too late! Shrieking, cursing, howling, blaspheming; over they go! "Power of Habit."
GOUGH.

4. All the little boys and girls,
With rosy cheeks and flaxen curls,
And sparkling eyes and teeth like pearls,
Tripping and skipping, ran merrily after
The wonderful music, with shouting and laughter.
"The Pied Piper of Hamelin."
BROWNIIG.

5. A cannon which breaks its moorings becomes abruptly Some indescribable, supernatural beast. It is a machine which transforms itself into a monster. This mass runs on its wheels like billiard-balls, inclines with the rolling, plunges with the pitching, goes, comes, stops, seems to meditate, resumes its course, shoots from one end of the ship to the other like an arrow, whirls, steals away, evades, prances, strikes, breaks, kills, exterminates. "The Cannon."
VICTOR HUGO.

6. I just must talk! I must talk all the time! Of course I talk entirely too much no one knows that better than I do yet I can't help it! I know that my continual cackling is dreadful, and I know exactly when it begins to bore people, but somehow I can't stop myself. Aunt Patsey says I am simply fearful, and just like a girl she used to know, who lived down East, a Miss Polly Blanton, who talked all the time; told every thing, every thing she knew, every thing she had ever heard; and then when she could think of nothing else, boldly began on the family secrets. Well, I believe I am just like that girl because I am constantly telling things about our domestic life which is by no means pleasant. Pa and ma lead an awful kind of existence live just like cats and dogs. Now I ought never to tell that, yet somehow it will slip out in spite of myself. "The Buzz-Saw Girl."

DOUGLASS SHERLEY.

QUANTITY

Short Quantity:

1. "Quit the bust above my door!
Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off
my door!"
"The Raven."    POB.

2. A speck, a mist, a shape, I wist! And still it neared and neared: As if it dodged a water-sprite
It plunged, and tacked, and veered.
d. Singing through the forest;
Rattling over ridges; Shooting under arches,
Rumbling over bridges; Whizzing through the mountains;
Buzzing o'er the vale, Bless me, this is pleasant,
Riding on the rail.
"Railroad Rhyme."
SAXB.

Long Quantity:

1. O the long and dreary Winter!
O the cold and cruel Winter!
Ever thicker, thicker, thicker
Froze the ice on lake and river;
Ever deeper, deeper, deeper
Fell the snow o'er all the landscape,
Fell the covering snow, and drifted
Through the forest, round the village.
"Hiawatha."
LONGFELLOW.

2. O Thou! whose balance does the mountains weigh, Whose will the wild tumultuous seas obey, Whose breath can turn those watery worlds to flame, That flame to tempest, and that tempest tame.

3. The curfew tolls the knell of parting day;

The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.
"Elegy in a Country Churchyard."
GRAY.

PAUSING

Pausing is of two kinds: Grammatical and Rhetorical. The grammatical pause indicates the synthetical structure of a sentence. The rhetorical pause gives greater clearness and expression to spoken language, by dividing words more particularly into groups.

1. How often, oh, how often,
In the days that had gone by, I had
stood on that bridge at midnight And
gazed on that wave and sky!

How often, oh, how often, I had
wished that the ebbing tide
Would bear me away on its bosom
O'er the ocean wild and wide!
"The Bridge."
LONGFELLOW,

2. Blow, blow, thou winter wind,
Thou art not so unkind
As man's ingratitude; Thy tooth is not so keen,
Because thou art not seen,
Altho thy breath be rude.

Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky,
That dost not bite so nigh
As benefits forgot: Tho
thou the waters warp, Thy
sting is not so sharp,
As friend remembered not.
"As You Like It."
SHAKESPEARE.

3. Nothing is more natural than to imitate (by the sound of the voice) the quality of the sound (or noise) which any external object makes, and to form its name accordingly. A certain bird is termed the Cuckoo, from the sound which it emits. When one sort of wind is said to WHISTLE, and another to ROAR; when a serpent is said to HISS, a fly to BUZZ, and falling timber to CRASH; when a stream is said to FLOW, and hail to RATTLE; the analogy between the word and the thing signified is plainly discernible. BLAIR.

4. The atrocious crime of being a young man, which, with so much spirit and decency, the honorable gentleman has charged upon me, I shall neither attempt to palliate nor deny. PITT.

5. Forth march'd the chief, and, distant from the crowd, High on the rampart raised his voice aloud.

As the loud trumpet's brazen mouth from far,
With shrilling clangor sounds th' alarm of war;
So high his dreadful voice the hero reared;
Hosts dropped their arms, and trembled as they heard.
"The Iliad."
HOMER.

6. Caesar entered upon ms head a helmet upon his left arm a shield upon his brow a cloud in his right hand his trusty sword in his eye fire!

7. There is a tide in the affairs of men
Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune.
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves
Or lose our ventures.
"Julius Caesar."
SHAKESPEARE.

8. "Make way for liberty!" he cried, Then ran with arms extended wide, As if his dearest friend to clasp; Ten spears he swept within his grasp. "Make way for liberty!" he cried; Their keen points met from side to side; He bowed amongst them like a tree, And thus made way for liberty.
"Arnold Winkelried."
MONTGOMERY.

9. And I think, in the lives of most women and men, There's a moment when all would go smooth and even, If only the dead could find out when To come back and be forgiven. "Aux Italiens."
BULWER-LYTTON.

INFLECTION

Inflections are glides of the voice from one pitch to another, and may be Rising, Falling or Circumflex.

Rising inflection indicates suspension of sense, and is used in contingent and negative clauses, in interrogative clauses answered by "yes" or "no," in statements generally accepted as true, in language of entreaty and in parentheses. It is frequently used in expressions of love, tenderness and kindred feeling.

Falling inflection denotes completion of sense and is used in positive clauses, in interrogative clauses not answered by "yes" or "no," and in emphatic language.

Circumflex inflection is used in language of double meaning, irony, insinuation, etc.

Monotone, a single unvaried sound, may be used very effectively to express awe, reverence, dignity and power. It is particularly useful where a maximum amount of carrying power is desired, as in speaking in large buildings.

RISING INFLECTION

1. When you Athenians become a helpless rabble, without conduct, without property, without arms, without order, without unanimity; when neither general nor any other person hath the least respect for your decrees, when no man dares to inform you of this your condition, to urge the necessary reformation, much less to exert his influence to effect it: then is your constitution sub verted. DEMOSTHENES.

2. If every ducat in six thousand ducats Were in six parts, and every part a ducat, I would not draw them: I would have my bond. "Merchant of Venice." SHAKESPEARE.

3. Tho he who excels in the graces of writing might have been, with opportunities and application, equally successful in those of conversation; yet, as many please by extemporary talk, tho utterly unacquainted with the more accurate method, and more labored beauties, which composition requires, so it is very possible that men wholly accustomed to works of study, may be without that readiness of conception, and affluence of language, always necessary to colloquial entertainment.

4. If a cool determined courage, that no apparently hopeless struggle could lessen or subdue, if a dauntless resolution, that shone the brightest in the midst of the greatest difficulties and dangers, if a heart ever open to the tenderest affections of our nature and the purest pleasures of social intercourse, if an almost child-like simplicity of character, that, while incapable of craft or dissimulation in itself, yet seemed to have an intuitive power of seeing and defeating the insidious designs and treacheries of others, if characteristics such as these constitute their possessor a hero, then, I say, foremost in the rank of heroes shines the deathless name of Washington!

5. They tell us, sir, that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs, and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemy shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak, if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature hath placed in our power.

PATRICK HENRY.

6. Has our Maker furnished us with desires which have no correspondent objects, and raised expectations in our breasts with no other view than to disappoint them? Are we to be forever in search of happiness without arriving at it, either in this world or in the next? Are we formed with a passionate longing for immortality, and yet destined to perish after this short period of existence? Are we prompted to the noblest actions, and supported through life under the severest hardships and most trying temptations, by hopes of a reward which is visionary and chimerical? by the expectation of praises which we are never to realize and enjoy?

7. Oh, save me, Hubert, save me! For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound. Nay, hear me, Hubert, drive these men away, And I will sit as quiet as a lamb. Oh, spare mine eyes, Tho to no use but still to look upon you.
"King John." SHAKESPEAR

8. If you have wit (which I am not sure that I wish you, unless you have at the same time at least an equal portion of judgment to keep it in good order), wear it like your sword, in the scabbard, and do not brandish it to the terror of the whole company.

CHESTERFIELD.

9 Touch. How old are you, friend? Will.
Five and twenty, sir.
Touch. A ripe age. Is thy name William ?

Will. William, sir.
Touch. A fair name. Wast born i' the forest here?
Will Ay, sir, I thank God.
Touch. Thank God! a good answer. Art rich?
Will Faith, sir, so so.
Touch. So so is good, very good, very excellent good: and
yet it is not; it is but so so.
SHAKESPEARE.

10. And now, as I close my task, subduing my desire to linger yet, these faces fade away. But one face, shining on me like a heavenly light, by which I see all other objects, is above them and beyond them all. And that remains. I turn my head and see it in its beautiful serenity beside me. My lamp burns low, and I have written far into the night; but the dear presence without which I were nothing bears me company. Agnes, O my soul, so may thy face be by me when I close my life indeed; so may I, when realities are melting from me, like the shadows which I now dismiss, still find thee near me, pointing upward!
"David Copperfield."     DICKENS.

FALLING INFLECTION

1. Sir, I know the uncertainty of human affairs, but I see, I see clearly, through this day's business. You and I indeed may rue it. We may not live to the time when this Declaration shall be made good. We may die; die colonists; die slaves; die, it may be, ignominiously and on the scaffold. Be it so. Be it so. If it be the pleasure of Heaven that my country shall require the poor offering of my life, the victim shall be ready at the appointed hour of sacrifice, come when that hour may. But while I do live, let me have a country, or at least the hope of a country, and that a free country.
DANIEL WEBSTER.

2. The charge is utterly, totally and meanly false! "Invective against Corry."         GRATTAN.

3. How far, O Catiline! wilt thou abuse our patience? How long shalt thou baffle justice in thy mad career? To what extreme wilt thou carry thy audacity? Art thou nothing daunted by the nightly watch posted to secure the Palatium? Nothing, by the city guards ? Nothing, by the rally of all good citizens ? Nothing, by the assembling of the Senate in this fortified place? Nothing, by the averted looks of all here present?
CICERO.

CIRCUMFLEX

1. O Rome! Rome! thou hast been a tender nurse to me. Ay! thou hast given to that poor, gentle, timid shepherd-lad, who never knew a harsher tone than a flute-note, muscles of iron and a heart of flint; taught him to drive the sword through plaited mail and links of rugged brass, and warm it in the marrow of his foe: to gaze into the glaring eye-balls of the fierce Numidian lion even as a boy upon a laughing girl!

2. And this man
Is now become a god; and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body,
If CaBsar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And, when the fit was on him, I did mark
How be did shake: 'tis true, this god did shake:
His coward lips did from their color fly;
And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lose its luster.
"Julius Caesar."
SHAKESPEARE.

3. None dared withstand him to his face, But one sly maiden spake aside: "The little witch is evil eyed! Her mother only killed a cow, Or witched a churn or dairy-pan; But she, forsooth, must charm a man!"

4. It is vastly easy for you, Mistress Dial, who have always, as everybody knows, set yourself up above me, it is vastly easy for you, I say, to accuse other people of laziness.

5. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Antony, there were an Antony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of CaBsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.
"Julius Ccesar."
SHAKESPEARE.

6. Do you think to frighten me? you I Do you think to turn me from any purpose that I have, or any course I am resolved upon, by reminding me of the solitude of this place and there being no help near? Me, who am here alone designedly? If I had feared you, should I not have avoided you ? If I feared you, should I be here in the dead of night, telling you to your face what I am going to tell? But I tell you nothing until you go back to that chair except this once again. Do not dare to come near me not a step nearer. I have something lying here that is no love trinket; and sooner than endure your touch once more, I would use it on you and you know it while I speak with less reluctance than I would on any other creeping thing that lives.

MONOTONE

1. Holy! holy! holy! Lord God of Sabaoth!

2. ... In all time,
Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm, Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime Dark heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime,
The image of Eternity, the throne Of the Invisible; . . . . thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone

3. Methought I heard a voice cry "Sleep no more,
Macbeth doth murder sleep the innocent sleep:
Sleep that knits up the ravelled sleeve of care,
The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
Balm of hurt minds, great Nature's second course,
Chief nourisher in Life's feast."
Still it cried "Sleep no more!" to all the house:
"Glamis hath murdered Sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more! Macbeth shall sleep no more!"
"Macbeth."
SHAKESPEARE.

4. King John.    ... If the midnight bell Did with his iron tongue and brazen mouth, Sound on into the drowsy race of night; If this same were a churchyard where we stand, And thou possessed with a thousand wrongs; Or if that surly spirit, Melancholy, Had baked thy blood, and made it heavy, thick, (Which else runs tickling up and down the veins, Making that idiot, Laughter, keep men's eyes,

And strain their cheeks to idle merriment,
A passion hateful to my purposes),
Or if that thou could'st see me without eyes,
Hear me without thine ears, and make reply
Without a tongue, using conceit alone,
"Without eyes, ears, and harmful sound of words,
Then, in despite of brooding, watchful day,
I would into thy bosom pour my thoughts.
"King John."
SHAKESPEARE

FORCE

Force has reference to the degree of strength of the voice. It should be carefully distinguished from Pitch. For practising purposes it is divided into Gentle, Moderate* Loud and Very Loud Force.

GENTLE

1. O hark, O hear! how thin and clear,
And thinner, clearer, farther going;
O sweet and far, from cliff and scar,
The horns of Elf land faintly blowing!
"Bugle Song."
TENNYSON.

2. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. As for man, his days are as grass; as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth: for the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.

3. O sweet and strange it seems to me, that ere this day is done,
The voice that now is speaking, may be beyond the sun.
Forever and forever, all in a blessed home,
And there to wait a little while, till you and Effie come.
To lie within the light of God, as I lie upon your breast,
And the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest.
"The May Queen."
TENNYSON.

MODERATE

1. Now, a living force that brings to itself all the resources of imagination, all the inspirations of feeling, all that is influential in body, in voice, in eye, in gesture, in posture, in the whole animated man, is in strict analogy with the divine thought and the divine arrangement; and there is no misconstruction more utterly untrue and fatal than this: that oratory is an artificial thing, which deals with baubles and trifles, for the sake of making bubbles of pleasure for transient effect on mercurial audiences. So far from that, it is the consecration of the whole man to the noblest purposes to which one can address himself the education and inspiration of his fellow men by all that there is in learning, by all that there is in thought, by all that there is in feeling, by all that there is in all of them, sent home through the channels of taste and beauty. And so regarded, oratory should take its place among the highest departments of education.
BEECHER.

2. Once or twice in a lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm of noble manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely in their word and gesture. A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; a beautiful behavior is better than a beautiful form: it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures, it is the finest of the fine arts. A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world. I have seen an individual, whose manners, tho wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were never learned there, but were original and commanding, and held out protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiquette, with happy spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port of an emperor, if need be, calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze of millions. "Manners."
EMERSON.

3. Is there not an amusement, having an affinity with the drama, which might be usefully introduced among us? I mean, Recitation.

A work of genius, recited by a man of fine taste, enthusiasm, and powers of elocution, is a very pure and high gratification.

Were this art cultivated and encouraged, great numbers, now insensible to the most beautiful compositions, might be waked up to their excellence and power.

It is not easy to conceive of a more effectual way of spreading a refined taste through a community. The drama undoubtedly appeals more strongly to the passions than recitation; but the latter brings out the meaning of the author more. Shakespeare, worthily recited, would be better understood than on the stage.

Recitation, sufficiently varied, so as to include pieces of chaste wit, as well as of pathos, beauty, and sublimity, is adapted to our present intellectual progress. CHANNING.

LOUD

1. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! I hold to you the hands you first beheld, To show they are still free. Methinks I hear A spirit in your echoes answer me, And bid your tenant welcome to his home Again! O sacred forms, how proud you look! How high you lift your heads into the sky! How huge you are! how mighty and how free! Ye are the things that tower, that shine, whose smile Makes glad, whose frown is terrible, whose forms, Robed or unrobed, d3 all the impress wear Of awe divine. Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again! I call to you With all my voice! I hold my hands to you, To show they still are free. I rush to you, As tho I could embrace you. "Tell on His Native Hills."

J. S. KNOWLES

2. King Henry. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once
more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead! In peace there's nothing so becomes a man As modest stillness and humility: But when the blast of war blows in our ears, Then imitate the action of the tiger; Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage; Then lend the eye a terrible aspect; Let it pry through the portage of the head,

Like the brass cannon  
Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height! On, on, ye noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,
Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument. . ., m
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge,
Cry God for Harry! England! and Saint George!
"Henry V." SHAKESPEARE.

3. Our fathers raised their flag against a power to which, for
purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the
height of her glory, is not to be compared, a power which has
dotted the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and
military posts; whose morning drumbeat, following the sun in
its course and keeping pace with the hours, circles the earth with
one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of Eng
land. WEBSTER.

VERY LOUD

1. From every hill, by every sea, In shouts proclaim the great decree, "All chains are burst, all men are free " Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

2. "Victoria!" sounds the trumpet, "Victoria!" all around; "Victoria!" like loud thunder It runs along the ground.

3. "Forward, the light brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
Rode the six hundred.
"The Charge of the Light Brigade,"
TENNYSON

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