A solitary shriek, the bubbling cry

Of some strong swimmer in his agony.

45. Racked with whirlwinds.

46. Thou chuckled'st over thy gains too soon.

47. He was hedged in on every side.

48. False sounds sunk near him.

49. Thirty-three thousand things.

50. But he was to be stretched upon the bed of Procrustes. 51. Percival's acts and extracts.

52. Thou liv'st-liv'st, did I say? appear'st in the senate. 53. The magistrates ought to prove

it.

54. Have you a copy of Smith's Thucydides?

55. He truckles to power.

56. He twists the texts to suit the several sects.

57. The one extremity was pointed, the other bulbed. 58. This meteorous vapor is called Will o' the wisp. 59. Foreign travel enlarges and liberalizes the mind. 60. He sawed six sleek slim saplings.

61. The bulbs should be immersed in rain water.

62. The policy of this prince was to mulct the rich Jews. 63. Thou stumbl'st on amidst the mists.

64. His attempts were fruitless.

65. The sounds of horses' hoofs were heard at a distance. 66. Your healths, gentlemen.

67. He thrusts his fists against the posts.

68. He mulcts his subjects.

69. He holds his trust from the people.

70. Overwhelmed with whirlwinds and tempestuous fire. 71. When a twister, a twisting, will twist him a twist, For twisting his twist he three twines doth intwist; But if one of the twines of the twist doth untwist, The twine that untwisteth, untwisteth the twist.

72. His kindness overwhelms me.

73. They were wrenched by the hand of violence from a congenial soil.

74. He barbed the dart by which he fell.

75. Thou openest thine hand, and satisfiest the desire of every living thing.

76. Whose mouth speaketh vanity.

77. The culprit was hurled from the Tarpeian rock. 78. Are the goods wharfed?

79. The heights, depths, and breadths of the subject. 80. Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow.

81. Thrice he walked by their oppressed and fear-surprised

eyes.

82. A sudden day of joy, that thou expect'st not, nor I look'd not for.

83. Think'st thou we shall ever meet again?

84. I heard thee say

but now,

"Thou lik'dst not that."

85. The lordly lion leaves his lonely lair.

86. He was long, lean, and lank, and laughed loudly. 87. How-sweetly slow the liquid lay

In holy hallelujahs rose.

88. Ruin seize thee, ruthless king.

89. Around the hearth the crackling faggots blaze. 90. Approach thou, like the rugged Russian bear, The armed rhinoceros, the Hyrcan tiger.

91. The master current of her mind

Ran permanent and free.

92. Round and round the rugged rocks

The ragged rascal ran.

Examples not unlike the foregoing can be found on every page of many books. The teacher should not fail

1

to direct the special attention of the learner to their execution, whenever they occur in his reading exercises. A vicious articulation is sometimes more apparent in the current of discourse, than in the pronunciation of single syllables or words. This is not unfrequently induced by the animal and intellectual temperament; and the habit, if it has been otherwise formed, is always rendered more inveterate where there is a sluggish action of the mind, or an excess either of vivacity or of sensibility. In the one case, the sounds proceed from the organs of speech half-formed, and indicate to every one that the reader or speaker is too slothful to make the necessary effort for distinct enunciation; while in the others the confusion arises from too much haste. In either of these cases, after all the practice recommended in this and in succeeding sections, additional exercises may be found necessary; and these may consist simply in reading aloud an hour each day, in a slow and distinct manner, and in the presence of some one who will notice and correct the slightest tendency to let fall a consonant or a syllable from the organs of speech unfinished, or to hasten the rate of utterance beyond that of the utmost deliberation. An attention to this whole matter is the more important, as our language furnishes none of those expedients for preventing difficult collisions of sound, or for facilitating their articulation, which the Greek afforded and in which several of the modern languages abound.

SECTION III.

OF THE TIME OF THE VOICE.

TIME means the same with quantity; and syllables are considered as long or short, according to the time given

them in utterance. When, however, time is spoken of with reference to the utterance of a sentence or of a discourse, it is designated as slow or quick. The power to prolong the sound of syllables capable of quantity is of infinite importance to the effect of delivery, at the same time that it may be considered an elegant accomplishment in the speaker.

In music there are terms to express the nicest shades of quantity, from the demi-semiquaver to the semibreve. In elocution, the same phenomena exist, though we have no terms to express them. Every elementary sound however, or every syllable, is not equally capable of protraction. The short vowels, for example, cannot be prolonged like the long vowels; and when one of these standing alone is followed by a mute, the syllable is of the shortest kind. Thus ak, ap, at, ac-count, ap-point, at-tic. These are called Immutable syllables. If however, even in this situation, the short vowel is preceded by a tonic consonant, it is lengthened somewhat. Thus trap, des-truc-tion, gratitude. These, with syllables ending in b, d and g, as also those ending in the aspirates, are called Mutable syllables. But if the syllable terminates with a long vowel, or with any tonic consonant except b, d or g, it may be prolonged, or shortened, to any desired extent; and hence they are called Indefinite syllables.

Quantity, although most obviously a distinct element, and deserving of this separate consideration, yet can never be represented free from combination with other elements. Hence we shall not present any exercises for practice under this head; but having now obtained a distinct idea of its nature, without delaying at this point to set forth its useful

applications, shall pass to consider another of the attributes of good delivery.*

**

SECTION IV.

OF STRESS.

EVERY Sound capable of prolongation, uttered without excitement, and in a natural manner, commences full and somewhat abrupt, and gradually decreases in fulness, till it becomes a mere breathing. Though this movement of the voice may be varied almost at pleasure, yet it has suggested the designation of the Radical movement as applicable to the first part of the sound; while the last part-the gradual decrease and final termination of the sound-has been called the Vanishing movement of the voice. And these designations continue the same, on whatever part of the sound the principal force of the voice is laid. This force of voice however is called STRESS; and, when given at the opening of the sound, is called Radical stress, because given on the radical part of the vocal movement. The stress may be given so as to fall on the middle of the movement, when it is called the Median stress; or it may fall at the vanish, that is, at the close of the sound, in which case it is called the Vanishing stress. A command of the several functions here described, is of the utmost importance. to the speaker, since they each have their peculiar significancy, and since, with few exceptions, some one of them must enter into the pronunciation of every syllable forcibly uttered. We shall therefore propose some exercises which,

*The exercises proposed in the next section on Stress are equally well adapted to the improvement of the voice, as regards Quantity.