ants can speak plain:" sometimes she chooses to totter as she walks; - and then they are seized with sudden lameness. According as she appears half-undressed, or veiled from head to foot, her subjects become a procession of nuns, or a troop of Bacchanalian nymphs. I could not help observing, however, that those who stood at the greatest distance from the throne, were the most extravagant in their imitation. EXERCISE XLVIII. end USE OF AN INTERJECTION. Miss Mitford. [An example of graphic humour. This piece should be read with all the vivid effect of expressive tone and playful manner. The voice, in this case, should be indulged in full scope in graphic and dramatic style, in which it is always natural to indulge, when we are excited by humorous expression, and risible situations or deportment. The tone then partakes of the sportive character of the scene, and unconsciously paints the whole by vivid and dramatic variations.] WANDERING about the meadows, one morning in May, absorbed in the pastoral beauty of the season and the scenery, —I was overtaken by a heavy shower, just as I passed old Mrs. Matthews's great farm-house, and forced to run for shelter to her hospitable porch. The sort of bustle which my reception had caused, having subsided, I found great amusement in watching my hospitable hostess, and listening to a dialogue, if so it may be called, between her pretty granddaughter and herself, which at once let me into a little love-secret, and gave me an opportunity of observing one, of whose occasional oddities I had, all my life, heard a great deal. Mrs. Matthews was one of the most remarkable persons in these parts; a capital farmer, a most intelligent parish-officer, and in her domestic government not a little resembling the widow Goe, one of the finest sketches which Mr. Crabbe's graphical pen ever produced. Great power of body and mind was visible in her robust person and massive countenance; and there was both humour and intelligence in her acute smile, and in the keen gray eye that glanced from under her spectacles. All that she said bore the stamp of sense; but, at this time, she was in no talking mood, and, on my begging that I might cause no interruption, resumed her seat and her labours, in silent composure. She sat at a little table, mending a fustian jacket belonging to one of her sons, a sort of masculine job, which suited her much better than a more delicate piece of seamstress-ship would have done. Indeed, the tailor's needle, which she brandished with great skill, the whity-brown thread, tied round her neck, and the huge dull-looking shears, (one can't make up one's mind to call such a huge masculine thing scissors,) which, in company with an enormous pin-cushion, dangled from her apron-string, figuring as the pendant to a most formidable bunch of keys, formed altogether such a working apparatus as shall hardly be matched in these days of polished cutlery and cobwebby cotton thread. On the other side of a little table, sat her pretty granddaughter Patty, — a black-eyed young woman, with a bright complexion, a neat, trim figure, and a general air of gentility, considerably above her station. She was trimming a very smart straw-hat with pink ribands; - trimming and untrimming; for the bows were tied and untied, taken off and put on, and taken off again, with a look of impatience and discontent, not common to a damsel of seventeen, when contemplating a new piece of finery. The poor little lass was evidently out of sorts. She sighed, and quirked, and fidgetted, and seemed ready to cry; whilst her grandmother just glanced at her from under her spectacles, pursed up her mouth, and contrived with some difficulty not to laugh. Patty. Now, grandmother, you will let me go to Chapelrow revel this afternoon, won't you? Mrs. Matthews. Humph! Patty. It hardly rains at all, grandmother! Mrs. M. Humph! [opening the prodigious shears with which she was amputating, so to say, a button, and directing the rounded end significantly towards my wet shawl, whilst the sharp point was reverted towards the dripping honeysuckle.] Humph! Patty. There's no dirt to signify! Mrs. M. Humph! [pointing to the draggled skirt of my white gown.] Patty. At all events, it's going to clear. Mrs. M. Humph! Humph! [points to the clouds, and to the barometer.] Patty. It's only seven miles; and if the horses are wanted, I can walk. Mrs. M. Humph! Patty. My aunt Ellis will be there, and my cousin Mary Mrs. M. Humph! Patty. And if a person is coming here on business, what can I be wanted for, if you are at home, grandmother? Mrs. M. Humph! Patty. What business can any one have with me? Patty. My cousin Mary will be so disappointed! Mrs. M. Humph! Patty. And I half promised my cousin William-poor William! Patty. Poor William! Oh! grandmother, do let me go! And I've got my new hat and all, —just such a hat as William likes! Poor William! You will let me go, grandmother? Mrs. M. Humph! Susan, (Patty's younger sister.) Who is this riding up the meadow, all through the rain? Look! see!-I do think, no, it can't be,-yes, it is-it is certainly, my cousin William Ellis! Look grandmother! Mrs. M. Humph! Susan. What can cousin William be coming for? Susan. Oh! I know! - I know! [clapping her hands,] I know! I know! Patty. For shame, Susan! Pray don't, grandmother! Susan. For shame! Why, I did not say he was coming to court sister Patty! Did I, grandmother? Mrs. M. And I take this good lady to witness, that I have said nothing of any sort. Get along with you, Patty! you have spoiled your pink trimming. But I think you are likely to want white ribands next; and, if you put me in mind, I'll buy them for you! EXERCISE XLIX. DEATH OF THE PRINCESS CHARLOTTE OF ENGLAND. Robert Hall. 66 [The predominating characteristics of this extract, are solemnity, sublimity, and pathos. The union of these qualities requires “ orotund” utterance, with perfectly "pure tone" and "median stress,” — the latter strongly marked, in exclamatory and strong expressions. The prevailing note of the voice is low; —- the force varies with the emotion, as sublime and forcible, or soft, solemn, and pathetic; the “movement,” throughout, is slow, — sometimes very slow; and the pauses are, in the latter case, unusually long.] BORN to inherit the most illustrious monarchy in the world, and united at an early period to the object of her choice, whose virtues amply justified her preference, the princess enjoyed the highest connubial felicity, and had the prospect of combining all the tranquil enjoyments of private life, with the splendour of a royal station. Placed on the summit of society, to her every eye was turned; in her every hope was centred; and nothing was wanting to complete her felicity, — except perpetuity. To a grandeur of mind suited to her illustrious birth, and lofty destination, she joined an exquisite taste for the beauties of nature, and the charms of retirement; where, far from the gaze of the multitude, and the frivolous agitations of fashionable life, she employed her hours in visiting, with her illustrious consort, the cottages of the poor, in improving her virtues, in perfecting her reason, and acquiring the knowledge best adapted to qualify her for the possession of power, and the cares of empire. It is no reflection on this amiable princess to suppose, that in her early dawn of life, with the "dew of her youth" so fresh upon her, she anticipated a long series of years, and expected to be led through successive scenes of enchantment, rising above each other in fascination and beauty. It is natural to suppose that she identified herself with this great nation, which she was born to govern; and that, while she contemplated its preeminent lustre in arts and in arms, its commerce encircling the globe, its colonies diffused through both hemispheres, and the beneficial effects of its institutions, extend ing to the whole earth; she considered them as so many com ponent parts of her own grandeur. Her heart, we may well conceive, would often be ruffled with emo ions of trembling ecstasy, when she reflected, that it was her province to live entirely for others; to compose the felicity of a great people; to move in a sphere which would afford scope for the exercise of philanthropy, the most enlarged, of wisdom, the most enlightened; and that, while others are doomed to pass through the world in obscurity, she was to supply the materials of history, and to impart that impulse to society, which was to decide the destiny of future generations. Fired with the ambition of equalling, or surpassing, the most distinguished of her predecessors, she probably did not despair of reviving the remembrance of the brightest parts of their story, and of once more attaching the epoch of British glory to the annals of a female reign. It is needless to add that the nation went with her, and probably outstripped her in these delightful anticipations. We fondly hoped that a life so inestimable, would be protracted to a distant period, and that, after diffusing the blessings of a just and enlightened administration, and being surrounded by a numerous progeny, she would gradually, in a good old age, sink under the horizon, amidst the embraces of her family, and the benedictions of her country. But, alas! these delightful visions are fled; and what do we behold in their room, but the funeral pall and shroud, a palace in mourning, a nation in tears, and the shadow of death settled over both like a cloud? Oh! the unspeakable vanity of human hopes! the incurable blindness of man to futurity! ever doomed to grasp at shadows, to seize with avidity what turns to dust and ashes in his hand, "to sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind! ace, Without the slightest warning, without the opportunity of a moment's immediate preparation,—in the midst of the deep est tranquillity, at midnight, a voice was heard in the palnot of singing men, and singing women, not of revelry and mirth, but the cry, "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh!" The mother in the bloom of youth, spared just long enough to hear the tidings of her infant's death, almost immediately, as if summoned by his spirit,-follows him into eternity! "It is a night much to be remembered." Who foretold this event?- who conjectured it?— who detected, at a distance, the faintest presage of its approach, which, when it arrived, mocked the efforts of human skill, as much by their incapaci |