"The descriptive part of this allegory is likewise very strong, and full of sublime ideas: the figure of death the regal crown upon his head: his menace of Satan: his advancing to the combat: the outcry at his birth, are circumstances too noble to be passed over in silence, and extremely suitable to this king of terrors." This last manner of reading the sentence, Mr. Walker thinks is unquestionably the true one, as it throws a kind of emphasis on each member, which forms a beautiful climax, entirely lost in the common mode of pronouncing them.

Should the reader, from this description of the inflexions of the voice, be so far able to understand them, as to be sensible of the great difference there is between suspending the voice at every comma in the first example, and giving it a forcible downward direction at every colon in the two last examples, it is presumed he will sufficiently conceive, that this distinction of the two leading inflexions of the voice may be applied to the most useful purposes in the art of reading.

OBJECTIONS TO MR. WALKER'S SYSTEM.

This system, which is evidently founded on the national tones of this country, rather than upon nature, has been, like most other artificial systems, very much abused and productive of more injury in many cases than of benefit. The reason is, that in order to teach it thoroughly, and impress it upon the pupil, the inflexions must be caricatured, and made more distinct and strong than they are in natural, elegant, and easy pronunciation. The falling slide must be carried several notes downwards, and the rising slide several notes upwards, instead of a single note or half note, as it ought to be. The pupil being in this manner taught the elements of the system in a caricatured artificial manner, has his ear and his taste so corrupted, that he carries the same caricature into his finished manner of delivery, and renders himself ridiculous and disgusting, as it is uniformly set down by the hearers to affectation, the very worst fault which a speaker can be guilty of. It would be better to have the unstudied manner of every-day life in public speaking, however ungainly, than this system of caricatured elocution so much in fashion among professional students.

One argument which we think unanswerable upon this point is, that not one of our great public speakers in any one of the professions adopts this artificial system of inflexions, nor appears to have studied it. Indeed, it would appear finical in the last degree in Mr. Canning, Mr. Brougham, or Dr. Chalmers, to mar their great efforts of oratory by such petty rules of slides and inflexions of the voice. We do not mean to say that they do not employ them; for they are more or less employed by all who speak the English language: but we are certain they do not caricature them as every pupil of teachers of elocution we have ever heard, infallibly does, because he has not art enough to conceal his art, and makes the inflexions so distinct, that they are as offensive to the ear as glaring colours in a painting are to the eye.

We hesitate not to conclude, therefore, that though Mr. Walker has made a most ingenious analysis of the inflexions of the voice, we cannot help thinking, that it is calculated, when brought into actual practice by rule, to produce stiffness, affectation, and a monotonous sing-song manner of speaking the very reverse of what he intended, and what is expected by those who devote themselves to the artificial study of elocution.

V.

TONE AND PITCH OF THE VOICE.

IN the enumeration of the varying qualities of the voice, in a preceding page, many of them, it may be observed, depend on what is called the tone, which is a very vague and indefinite term, but as we have no better to substitute for it, we must explain it in the best way we can. Mr. Bacon has very justly said, that, perhaps the most insurmountable difficulty to writers on the vocal art, lies in the deficiency of both language and characters to convey any precise idea of Tone. To say that a tone is loud or soft, full or thin, sweet or brilliant, rich, smooth or harsh, conveys no notion which can be interpreted by all men in the same sense: nor is there any standard to which we can refer; for no two voices are alike, and no voice bears any near resemblance to the tone of any instrument. Voices, also, may be altogether unlike, and yet be equally agreeable; because it is requisite, in order to mark different shades of emotion and passion, to have great diversity in the volume, and even in the quality of the tone. Accordingly, it is by no means uncommon to find that a speaker or singer, with but a moderate share of voice, can affect the hearer infinitely more than one whose mere tone is in itself much more pleasing; while,

on the contrary, there are very illustrious instances of individuals, whose powers of expression are exceedingly limited, and whose powers of attraction lie simply in tone and facility. But though these circumstances make it impossible to determine absolutely the nature and effects of tone, yet it is clear that all expression, purely vocal, depends upon this agent, because tone is the vehicle both of elocution and of execution, and the success of the speaker or the singer varies according to the manner in which the hearer is affected by the modifications of tone. There must be one pervading quality perceptible throughout; and although art may deviate into very wide extremes from this basis, yet these distances are never so remote as wholly to quit the ground-work of an original distinction.

PURITY OF TONE.

Certain national vitiations of tone may, perhaps be traced to the prevalence of peculiar states of the vocal organs in the usual pronunciation of particular languages. The French, for example, have a nasal, the Germans a guttural, and the English a sibilant tone, because these are the characteristics of the several languages; while the Italians, whose smooth and gliding syllables are lubricated by the constant succession of vowels, evince, in the uni