4. Hamelin Town's in Brùnswick, By famous Hanover city: The river Wèser, deep and wide, Almost five hundred years ago, To see the townsfolk suffer so 5. Insects generally must lead a jovial life. Think what it must be to lodge in a lily. Imagine a palace of ivory and pèarl, with pillars of silver and capitals of gòld, and exhaling such a perfume as never arose from human cènser. Fancy again the fun of tucking one's self up for the night in the folds of a ròse, rocked to sleep by the gentle sighs of summer àir, nothing to do when you awake but to wash yourself in a déw-drop, and fall to eating your bedclothes. 6. There's a good time coming, boys, We may not live to see the day, But thought's a weapon stronger; II. Articulation. Having made sure of a pleasant quality of voice, the pupil may next give his attention to cutting out his words with neatness and precision. Open the mouth sufficiently, and put life into the action of the jaw, tongue, and lips. Pupils who have a tendency to mumbling indistinctness-and it is a good exercise for all-should exaggerate the movement of the organs of articulation, working the muscles of the mouth with extreme but elastic motions. The words may be practiced one at a time; then in phrases; then in complete sentences,-slowly at first, afterwards with increasing rapidity. When perfection is attained there will be no excessive movements,-nothing to interfere with a becoming expression of the features. 1. Lovely art thou, O Péace! and lovely are thy children, and lovely are the prints of thy footsteps in the green valleys. 2. Steel clanging sounded on steèl. Hèlmets are cleft on high; blood bursts and smokes around. As the troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; as the last peal of the thunder of heaven; such is the noise of battle. 3. Like leaves on trèes the life of man is found, They fall successive, and successive rìse: So generations in their course decay; So flourish thése, when those have pass'd awày. 4. To an American visiting Europe, the long voyage he has to make is an excellent preparative. From the moment you lose sight of the land you have left, all is vàcancy until you step on the opposite shore, and are launched at once into the bustle and novelties of another world. 5. What wàk'st thou, Spring?-Sweet voices in the woods, And reed-like èchoes, that have long been mùte; Thou bringest back, to fill the solitudes, The lark's clear pipe, the cùckoo's viewless flute, 6. In looking forward to future life, let us recollect that we have not to sustain all its toil, to endure all its sufferings, or encounter all its crosses, at once. One moment comes laden with its own little burden, then flies, and is succeeded by another no heavier than the last: if óne could be sustained, so can another, and another. III. Fullness and Power. Fullness and power of voice are required for many purposes of expressive reading, and are also indispensable when speaking in a large space or addressing persons at a distance. The tone of ordinary conversation lacks the requisite strength and dignity. The following examples are given for practice in a full free tone. Such exercises are very beneficial not only to the voice but to the health, as they bring into action most of the muscles of the trunk and give a wholesome stimulus to the vital organs. Observe the following directions in the order named: 1. Take a good standing position. 2. Inhale a deep breath quietly and promptly through the nostrils. 3. Control the breath by a slight effort of the muscles of the waist and abdomen, somewhat as in lifting. 4. Open the mouth and project the lips. 5. Fix the eye and the mind on some distant point, and aim the tone at that point. 6. Do not spend too much breath. 1. Hò! strike the flag-staff deep, Sir Knight-hò! scatter flowers, fair maids: Hò! gunners, fire a loud salùte-hò! gallants, draw your blades. 2. Awake, Sir King, the gates unspàr! 3. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! 4. And bid your tenant welcome home again! O sacred forms, how proud you look! Ye are the things that tower, that shìne; whose smile Makes glád-whose frown is tèrrible; whose forms, Of awe divine. 5. Again to the battle, Achaians! Our hearts bid the tyrants defìance; Our land—the first garden of Liberty's tree It has been, and shall yèt be, the land of the frèe; The pale, dying crescent is daunted, And we màrch that the footprints of Mahomet's slaves And the sword shall to glòry restore us. 6. It is this accursed American wàr that has led us, step by step, into all our present misfortunes and national disgràces. What was the cause of our wasting forty millions of money, and sixty thousand lives? The American wàr! What was it that produced the French rescript and a French war? The American war! What was it that produced the Spanish manifesto and a Spanish war? The American wàr! What was it that armed forty-two thousand men in Ireland with the arguments carried on the points of forty thousand bayonets? The American wàr. For what are we about to incur an additional debt of twelve or fourteen millions? This accursed, cruel, diabolical American war! III. SLIDES OR INFLECTIONS. N asking a direct question the voice glides from low to high, and in the answer it slides downward. Thus, one asks another at a distance what he wants,-"The báll?" "No! the knife." The movement of the voice on the word "ball" is a rising slide or inflection; that upon "no" and "knife" is falling. The more intense the question and reply, the further up and down would the voice run. In sad or plaintive utterance the slide becomes semitonic or minor. In irony or in double-meaning the voice waves upward and downward on the same sound, producing the circumflex slide, named rising or falling, according as the voice moves up or down at its close. In the expression of awe and sublimity the voice usually has a level movement from note to note, "like the repeated sounds of a deep-toned bell." This intonation in speaking is termed the monotone. Slides occur on the most important words, thus determining the sense; and they also serve to give the proper melody to a sentence. Words contrasted in meaning are contrasted in inflection. I. Falling Inflections. 1. "To àrms! to arms! to àrms!" they cry; 66 Grasp the shield and draw the swòrd; Let us conquer him or die!" 2. If it be Arthur-Hò! what, hò! 3. Who's here so base that would be a bòndman? If any, speak; for him have I offènded. Who's here so rude that would not be a Ròman? If any, speak; for him have I offended. Who's here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak; for hìm have I offended. I pause for a reply. 4. "Hènce! hòme, you idle creatures, get you home. You blocks, you stones, you worse than senseless things! Run to your houses, fall upon your knèes, 5. Where are we? What cìty do we inhabit? Under what government do we live? Hère, hère, Conscript Fathers, mixed and mingled with us àll-in the center of this most grave and venerable assembly-are men sitting, quietly plotting against my life, against all your lives; the life of every virtuous senator and cìtizen. |