Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

tributors to his renown. 66 The battles, sieges, | fòrtunes that he has passed," | ought to have come back upon him. He ought to have remembered that, qu from the earliest achievement | in which he displayed that military genius | which has placed him foremost | in the annals of modern warfare, | down to that last st and surpassing combat | which has made his name | im☞ périshable, | —from ASSAYE | to WATERLOO,-the Irish ' f soldiers, with whom your armies are filled, | were the inseparable auxiliaries to the glóry with which his unparalleled successes | have been crowned. | Whose | were the arms that drove your bayonets at Vimièra | ♬ through the phalanxes | that never reeled in the shock of f war | befòre? || What | dèsperate | vàlor | climbed | the steeps and filled the moats | at Badajòs? All || his qu victories should have rushed and crowded back | upon his memory, |—Vimièra, | Badajòs, | Salamanca, | Albusi èra, | Toulouse, | and, LAST of ALL, the GREATEST

D TELL ME for you were there, I appeal to the galplant soldier before me | (Sir Henry Hardinge), from whose

opinions I differ, | but who béars, ' I knów, | a génerfous heart in an intrepid bréast, | TELL me, for | you must needs remémber, |-on that day | when the qu destinies of mankind were trembling in the balance, | while death fell in showers, when the artillery of Fránce was leveled with a precision of the most | deadly science when her légions, incited by the voice and inspired by the example of their mighty | leader, | rushed again | and ágain | to the onset -TÈLL meif, for an instant, when to hesitate for an instant ' was to be lost, | the "aliens" ||| BLÊNCHED ? And s when, at length, | the moment for the last and decided '

f movement had arrived, | and the valor | which had so

qulong been wisely

morn

chécked | was, at last, | let loose,when, with words famíliar, but immórtal, the great] captain | commanded the great | assault,― TÈLL ME | if ☞ CATHOLIC | IRELAND with less | heroic | valor | than s the natives of this your own glòrious country preƒ cipitated herself | upon the fòe? The blood | of England, | p Scotland and of Ireland | flowed in the same || strèam, | pp and drenched the same || field. | When the chill ing dawned, their dead | lay cold and stark | togèther; in the same deep | pit | their bodies were deposited: | | the green corn of spring is now breaking from their commingled | dùst; the dew falls from heaven | upon their union | in the grave. Partákers in évery' péril, | in the GLORY | shall we not be permitted to participate; | and shall we be told, | as a reqúital, that we are estrănged from the noble country | for whose ' salvation|| our life-blood was poured out?

(See, also, §§ 211-225: 7, 12, 14, 15, 25, 34, 35, 36, 46, 48, 52, 53.)

MASSING OR GROUPING.

152. We have learned (§ 21) that words, or series of words, associated with each other, either by being in apposition or by having similar grammatical relationships or general characteristics, are similarly emphasized. This principle, especially in long and involved sentences, leads to the massing or grouping together of words or clauses, important or unimportant, so that the ear shall readily detect the connection between them.

153. The Emphatic Tye is used to connect together important ideas that are separated by unimportant clauses.

a. It results when two words separated by intervening ones are similarly emphasized; i. e. are uttered in similar time (preceded and followed by pauses of the same length), and usually, too, at a similar pitch, with similar inflections and force.

b. Unemphatic ideas in clauses that separate important words, are similarly slighted; i. e. are uttered with a similar rapidity of general movement, and usually with a similar abatement in the height of pitch and degree of force.

c. In the following the words in italics are to be emphasized with the emphatic tye.

As men from men

Do, in the constitution of their souls,
Differ by mysteries not to be explained;
And as we fall by various ways, and sink
Through manifold degrees to guilt and shame;
So manifold and various are the ways

Of restoration.

When Babel was confounded, and the great
Confederacy of projectors, wild and vain,
Was split into diversity of tongues;
Then, as a shepherd separates his flock,-
These to the upland, to the valley those,-
God drave asunder, and assigned their lot
To all the nations.

Consulting what I feel within,

In times when most Existence with herself
Is satisfied, I cannot but believe

That, far as kindly Nature hath free scope,
And Reason's sway predominates, even so far,
Country, society, and even time itself,
That saps the individual's bodily frame,
And lays the generations low in dust,

Do, by the Almighty Ruler's grace, partake
Of one maternal spirit.

All night the dreadless angel, unpursued,

Through heaven's wide champaign held his way till morn,

Waked by the circling hours, with rosy hánd,

Unbarred the gates of light.

(See, also, selections in §§ 211-226: 1, 7, 12, 25, 51, 53.)

DRIFT.

154. By Drift is meant a mode of delivery in which pauses, inflections (if upward, starting low; if downward,

starting high) and stress of a similar kind are constantly recurring at regular intervals. The following can be spoken with drift:

We consecrate our work to the spirit of national independence, and we wish that the light of peace may rest upon it forever. We rear a memorial of our conviction of that unmeasured benefit which has been conferred on our own land, and of the happy influences which have been produced, by the same events, on the general interests of mankind. We come, as Americans, to mark a spot which must forever be dear to us and our posterity. We wish that whosoever, in all coming time, shall turn his eye hither, may behold that the place is not undistinguished, where the first great battle of the Revolution was fought. We wish that this structure may proclaim the magnitude and importance of that event to every class and every age. We wish that infancy may learn the purpose of its erection from maternal lips, and that weary and withered age may behold it, and be solaced by the recollections which it suggests. We wish that labor may look up here, and be proud, in the midst of its toil. We wish that, in those days of disaster which, as they come on all nations, must be expected to come on us also, desponding patriotism may turn its eyes hitherward, and be assured that the foundations of our national power still stand strong. We wish that this column, rising toward heaven among the pointed spires of so many temples dedicated to God, may contribute also to produce in all minds a pious feeling of dependence and gratitude. We wish, finally, that the last object on the sight of him who leaves his native shore, and the first to gladden his who revisits it, may be something which shall remind him of the liberty and the glory of his country. Let it rise, till it meet the sun in his coming; let the earliest light of the morning gild it, and parting day linger and play on its summit.

(See, also, selections in §§ 214, 215, 218, 219; also § 76: a.) a. The possibility of applying drift to delivery depends largely on the rhetorical construction of sentences. An oration should always be written with direct reference to the requirements of speaking.

CLIMAX.

This is fully explained in §§ 83-85, and illustrated in selections in § 215.

GESTICULATION.

155. By this is meant the art of representing thought through the movements of the body. There is a negative and a positive side to the subject. The first has to do with the different members of the body when one is not gesticulating; the second, when one is gesticulating.

POSITIONS AND MOVEMENTS OF THE BODY WHEN NOT

GESTICULATING.

156. a. The Head and Trunk. Face what is before you, and yet hold the chin down; - down, i. e. in distinction from up or out, as if the chin were pointing forward. This is a simple rule which, if observed in standing or walking, usually causes an erect position and graceful bearing. If carried out, it will throw the shoulders and back into an erect position, with the least possible danger of causing it to seem to be a stiff one.

b. Avoid holding the head, trunk or shoulders too much

I. Thrown back or up. People do not like to have one seem to look above them. It suggests self-conceit or arrogance, § 200.

II. Hung down. For an opposite reason, this suggests humility. bashfulness, shame.

III. Inclined to one side. This suggests languor.

IV. Too stiffly in any position. This suggests an unyielding temperament or an uncultivated bearing.

157. a. The Hands and Arms may hang at the sides, with palms toward the body and fingers bent; or

b. They may both be placed low down in front with the elbows slightly bent, and the fingers together, clasped or unclasped; or

c. One hand may hang at the side, and the other be held on the waist, as if preparing to gesture. In this hand the thumb may rest in the watch chain, or the finger be poirting down, or all fingers be folded together.

d. Avoid having one or both hands

I. Out of sight behind the back, suggesting backwardness, awkwardness.

« ZurückWeiter »