As down the steep of Snowdon's shaggy side

He wound with toilsome march his long array.-GRAY.

Here the personification is complete, and the language of the bard is strictly dramatic. I will give you one example more. The personification of pride, in Pope's Essay on Man, is complete, and not subordinate to any other passion, and may therefore be allowed a forcible dramatic expression. Ask for what end the heavenly bodies shine', Earth for whose use':

Pride answers', "Tis for mine'.

For me kind Nature wakes her genial power,
Suckles each herb, and spreads out every flower;
Annual for me the grape, the rose, renew
The juice nectareous, and the balmy dew':
For me the mine a thousand treasures brings',
For me health gushes from a thousand springs';
Seas roll to waft me', suns to light me rise',

My footstool earth', my canopy the skies."-POPE.

This passage is essentially dramatic, and admits of a certain splendor in the pronunciation expressive of the ostentation of the speaker, and the riches and grandeur of the objects introduced. But I think we have gone over sufficient ground for one evening. The topics which we have here only briefly adverted to may be considered as merely introductory to the subject of ORATORY, which I trust you will have opportunity to attend to hereafter.*

SIXTH EVENING.

ANALYSIS.-Directions for the cultivation of the voice. Flexibility. Power of voice. The natural pitch of the voice. The middle tone. Practical directions for strengthening this middle tone. Macbeth's address to Banquo's ghost. Exercises for strengthening the low or bass tones. Lady Macbeth's reproach of her husband. Lady Constance reproaching the Duke of Austria. Exercises for strengthening the high tones. Cautions suggested.

Extract from an oration of Demosthenes. The harmonizing of the sense and the sound. To preserve the melody of verse and avoid monotony. Lamentation of Orpheils. Darius. Repetition of a word. When a sing-song tone may be admissible. "The Pauper's Drive." Extensive use of the circumflex or wave. Use of the tremor.

Crito. In our former conversations it appears to have been taken for granted that the reader is able to execute readily all those inflections and modulations of voice that are required in the various kinds of elocutionary reading. But may not some useful directions be given for the cultivation of the voice'?

Bernardo. The cultivation of clearness and distinctness of intonation, together with practice in the inflections and modulations, will give the voice all requisite flexibility; but something more is required to give it power. That requires a different kind of practice-a physical training of the voice, which should be under the guidance of physiological principles.

Crito. But may not judicious exercises be appropriately given for strengthening the voice, even without a knowledge of the principles to which you refer'?

Bernardo. There may, indeed, and to some of them I purpose now to call your attention. You are perhaps aware that every one has a certain natural pitch of voice, in which he is most easy to himself, and most agreeable to others. This is the pitch in which we converse; and this must be the basis of every improvement we acquire from art and exercise. If we would increase our power of voice, we must strengthen this ordinary middle tone; and in order to do this, we must read and speak in this tone as loud as possible, without suffering the voice to rise into a higher key.

* The subject of ORATORY is set apart as one of the divisions of the Seventh, or Academical Reader.

When we attempt this for the first time we find it no easy operation; it is not difficult to be loud in a high tone, but to be loud and forcible without raising the voice into a higher key requires great practice and management. If you wish to strengthen your voice without danger of injuring it by over-exertion, I would advise you to practice reading and speaking some strong, animated passages in a small room, and to persons placed at as small a distance from you as possible; address them with your voice at a natural pitch, and throw into it all the force possible, taking care not to let the voice rise into a higher key. This will tend to swell and strengthen the voice in the middle tone, the tone that is most required in reading and oratory, and the only tone that one can speak in for a long time with comfort to himself or pleasure to others. A good practice on this tone of voice will be such passages as Macbeth's address to Banquo's ghost, or any other language addressed to persons near us.

Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

What man dare I dare:

Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
Take any shape but that', and my firm nerves
Shall never tremble.

Hence, horrible shadow !

Unreal mock'ry, hence!—Macbeth, Act III., Scene 4.

Crito. Such exercises, I perceive, are well fitted to strengthen the ordinary tone; but if one is deficient in the low or bass tones (which I know are sometimes very effective in oratory), what kind of pieces will then be most suitable for practice?

Bernardo. Those, doubtless, which indicate hatred, scorn, or reproach; for such feelings are naturally expressed in a full, audible tone of voice, and in a low key. Such pieces should be read or spoken at first a little below the common pitch; when we can do this with ease we may practice them on a key a little lower, and then lower still, and so on until we get as low as we desire. The following, from Shakspeare, where Lady Macbeth reproaches her husband with want of manliness, will be found a good exercise for this purpose:

O proper stuff' !

This is the proper painting of your fears:
This is the air-drawn dagger', which you said
Led you to Duncan'. Oh, these flaws and starts
(Impostors to true fear) would well become

A woman's story at a winter's fire,

Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!

Why do you make such faces'? When all's done',

You look but on a stool'.-Macbeth, Act III., Scene 2.

Or where Lady Constance, in King John, reproaches the Duke of Austria with want of courage and spirit:

That bloody spoil. Thou slave! thou wretch! thou coward!
Thou little valiant, great in villainy!

Thou ever strong upon the stronger side!
Thou fortune's' champion, that dost never fight

But when her humorous ladyship is by

To teach thee safety! thou art perjur'd too,
And sooth'st up greatness. What a fool art thon',
A ramping fool; to brag, and stamp', and swear

Upon my party! Thou cold-blooded slave',
Ilast thou not spoke like thunder on my side'?
Been sworn my soldier'? bidding me depend
Upon thy stars, thy fortune, and thy strength'?
a. And dost thou now fall over to my foes'?
b. Thou wear a lion's hide! Doff it for shame,

c. And hang a calf's skin on those recreant limbs.

King John, Act III., Scene 1. Crito. And I suppose that for acquiring strength in a high tone of voice, the very opposite class of pieces should be practiced upon-those which naturally require a high tone.

Bernardo. Certainly. But here one or two cautions are requisite. Care must be taken not to strain the voice by over-exertion; and, in the second place, when the entire-piece read or spoken requires a high pitch, we must avoid the evil of a loud and vociferous beginning. Thus, in the following passage from an oration of Demosthenes, the series of questions ought to rise gradually in force as they proceed, although the pitch should be the same throughout the series. In the closing sentence, however, the voice should

fall to a slow but forcible monotone.

What was the part of a faithful citizen? of a prudent, an active, and honest minister`? Was he not to secure Euboea, as our defense against all attacks by sea'? Was he not to make Boeotia our barrier on the midland side'? the cities bordering on Peloponnesus our bulwark on that quarter'? Was he not to attend with due precaution to the importation of corn, that this trade might be protected through all its progress up to our own harbor'? Was he not to cover those districts which we commanded by reasonable detachments'? to exert himself in the assembly for this purpose', while with equal zeal he labored to gain others to our interest and alliance'? Was he not to cut off the best and most important resources of our enemies, and to supply those in which our country was defective' ?—And all this you gained by my counsels and my administration.

Crito. It has occured to me that, as all possible varieties of emotions and feelings may be expressed in verse, and as the reading of verse requires the observance of certain pauses of melody, the sense and the sound may sometimes fail to harmonize.

Bernardo. That ought seldom to happen; for as a coincidence in the pauses of sense and melody is a capital beauty, a good poet will always strive to attain it. In reading verse, the pronunciation should conform as nearly to the melody as the sense will admit, care being taken to break the monotony by a judicious use of the inflections. You will observe that, in reading the following selections, I preserve the melody of the verse, while the monotony is broken by a judicious varying of the inflections. The first example, which is from Virgil, is the plaintive lamentation of Orpheus for his beloved Eurydice:

Thee', his lov'd wife', along the lonely shores;
Thee', his lov'd' wife', his mournful song deplores;
Thee', when the rising morning gives the light;

Thee', when the world was overspread with night.-VIRGIL.

The next is from Dryden, who thus paints the sad reverse of fortune suffered by Darius :

Déserted at his greatest need

By those his former bounty fed',

He chose a mournful muse,

Soft pity to infuse':

He sung Darius', great and good',
By too severe a fate,

Fallen', fallen, fallen, fallen',

a. These questions gradually increase in elevation of tone and intensity.
b. Here the voice suddenly falls, and takes a tone of the most bitter irony.
c. Spoken with the bitterest scorn.

Fallen' from his high estate,

And weltering in his blood.-DRYDEN.

I will give one more example, in which, also, there is a repetition of a word—a figure of speech which is sometimes used to mark the importance of some emphatical word or phrase.

Happy', happy, happy' pair'
None but the brave,

None but the brave,

None but the brave, deserve the fair.

Crito. I observe in these examples that a sing-song monotony and tameness of expression are avoided by a judicious use of emphasis and inflections. But may not, sometimes, a sing-song tone be required, in order to express the sentiments or the feelings of the writer'?

Bernardo. I am very glad you have asked the question, for it recalls to my mind an English ballad of great power and beauty, in one portion of which this very sing-song tone of reading is required, to harmonize with the sense and the scene represented. It is the "Pauper's Drive," written by Thomas Noel. As we read the dirge which the driver sings, we can scarcely refrain from singing it too, and with a kind of careless sadness, which, in the closing of the fourth verse, changes to a plaintive and impressive re proof.

THE PAUPER'S DRIVE.

There's a grim one-horse hearse, in a jolly round trot;
To the church-yard a pauper is going, I wot;

The road it is rough, and the hearse has no springs,
And hark to the dirge which the sad driver sings:
Rattle his bones over the stones;

He's only a pauper whom nobody owns.

Oh where are the mourners'? alas! there are none;
He has left not a gap in the world now he's gone;
Not a tear in the eye of child, woman, or man:·
To the grave with his carcass as fast as you can.
Rattle his bones over the stones;

He's only a pauper whom nobody owns.

What a jolting, and creaking, and splashing, and din!
The whip how it cracks, and the wheels how they spin!
How the dirt right and left o'er the hedges is hurled!
The pâuper at length makes a noise in the world!
Rattle his bones over the stones;

He's only a pauper whom nobody owns.

Poor pauper defunct! he has made some approach
To gentility', now that he's stretched in a coach';
He's taking a drive in his carriage at last,

But it will not be long if he goes on so fast:
Rattle his bones over the stones;

He's only a pauper whom nobody owns.

But a truce to this strain', for my soul it is sad,"
To think that a heart, in humanity clad,

Should make, like. the brutes, such a desolate end',
And depart from the light without leaving a friend.
Bear softly his bones over the stones:

Though a pauper, he's one whom his Mäker yet owns.
THOMAS NOEL.

Crito. The reading of this last line leads me to ask if the intonation denoted by the circumflex or wave is not frequently employed to express tender and pathetic feelings?

Bernardo. It is; and the "gentle rising inflection" which is mentioned in Rule IX. as the proper intonation for tender emotion is in reality the

circumflex that terminates with the rising slide. Thus, in the example there given-"Is your father well', the old man' of whom ye spake'? Is he' yet alive'?"-the rising inflection, as marked, is really the ending of the circumflex. This kind of circumflex, it may be remarked, is the proper intonation of prayer, and of all serious appeal, and even of narrative into which tender emotion enters. Thus, if the following, which has no emphatic words, be read with tender feeling, every syllable will have a gentle circumflex or wave, ending with the upward slide:

"Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,
Each in his narrow cell forever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."—Gray.

In the following example, however, it is only the emphatic words which receive the circumflex, which is a little more conspicuous here than when it is given to every syllable.

"And is this all your store'? and a share of this do you offer to one you know not'? Then never saw I charity before'.'

I have one more remark to make on this subject of expression. You have doubtless noticed that in very effective reading or speaking, into which emotion enters, a kind of tremor of the voice may often be observed. It is not confined to any one kind of emotion, but, when skillfully used, gives additional force to expressions of joy, rapture, triumph, scorn, and contempt, and also to those of great grief and anguish. Its two extremes tend toward laughter on the one hand, and crying on the other. We have an example of the former from Shakspeare, in Shylock's exultation at the decision of the learned judge, seemingly in his favor:

"A Daniel come to judgment! yea, a Daniel'!

O wise young judge', how I do honor thee!"

but still better in Gratiano's exultation at the discomfiture of the Jew: "O upright judge !-mark Jew;-O learned judge!"

and of the latter we have a good example in Shylock's grief, which shows itself in the tremulous tones of a broken-hearted old man:

"I pray you give me leave to go from hence:

I am not well; send the deed after me,

And I will sign it."

It is impossible, however, to appreciate the spirit of these extracts, and read them appropriately, without a knowledge of the whole play. The following, which almost every one would naturally read in a monotone, and with a slight tremor, will be better appreciated :

"The tear,

The groan, the knell, the pall, the bier,

And all we know, or dream, or fear

Of agony, are thine."-HALLECK.

That old but truly beautiful piece, "The Beggar's Petition," loses all its pathos if not read with the tremor which we should expect from one whose condition is there represented. I will pronounce the first verse only:

"Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;

Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your store."

It requires an accomplished rhetorician to read such pieces well.