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study is almost unpardonable in an individual above the lowest grade; but certainly so, that it should be nearly excluded from our seminaries of learning.

The Grammar of the art properly belongs to private instruction, though some of its leading features may be noticed in this introduction.

Next, then, to a clear enunciation in conversation, a good and distinct utterance in reading claims attention. To read well requires, also, a proper modulation of the voice. This latter quality, it is true, pre-supposes much judgment and study, as it includes emphases, pauses, and tones, with a suitable degree of loudness, and a careful attention to the examples of the best readers.

If school-teachers were, in general, good readers, it might be recommended that, when a class is round them, they, also, should take their turn in the lesson; as children would soon adopt the style of their instructors, instead of the monotonous and sing-song tones they usually fall into, if not taught better.

From inattention in early life to reading and reciting, how few of our public speakers can be termed really eloquent, though in other respects fluent in language, and rich in all the tropes and figures of oratory! or be said to possess the power of a Demosthenes, a Cicero, or a Garrick, in swaying the feelings and passions of their audience, and, as it were, taking them captive!

Recitations, also, may be made of great service in initiating youth, while at school, in all the principles of eloquence. Our language abounds with rich examples for such a practice, both in prose and poetry. Where they have a competent instructor in the art, it must be of lasting advantage to them; called, as many of them will be, in after-life, to put in practice what they have been taught. And if, in most instances, it only enabled the greater part of them to speak with distinctness and propriety, it were an art worth cultivating: but it would do much more than this; it would add the ornaments of elocution to the solid weight of their logical reasoning.

The grace of action, on which Demosthenes laid such stress, and which he considered the chief requisite of an orator, would, more or less, accompany and enforce their arguments; while, in a man of more than average talent and genius, it would impart a charm to his language that might enable him to rival the far-famed orators of Greece and Rome.

In many of our pulpit displays we should be thankful, indeed, if the preacher would only speak distinctly; so that the whole sentence might be heard, instead of, as frequently happens, a part of it only. The weight and subject of such discourses are, in general, too important and too serious to be lost for the want of a little attention to elocution on the part of the sacred orator.

Not that we call that elocution, but ranting, which in some places of worship is so rife. A man of education rarely adopts such a style. But neither should he be too tame. The most refined audience will not object to considerable animation, and even warmth, in the preacher whom they have delegated, or chosen, to be their guide and instructor in the momentous concerns of religion.

In the senate, if any where, are certainly to be found speakers that may be termed eloquent. Yet even there speeches are often delivered at variance with the tones and emphases that nature herself would dictate; resembling theses rather, made and spoken by boys of the higher forms at schools, than the impassioned language of a Canning, a Pitt, or a Fox.

As regards tragedians, it is not to be wondered at that good ones are so rare, when we consider that few highlyeducated men adopt the stage as a profession; but, on the contrary, very young men, and that, too, either before they have finished their education, or, perhaps more commonly, without any.

Where, however, the contrary has happened, and a diligent study of elocution has been accompanied with a genius for acting, the result has been, fame to themselves, and pleasure to their audience. So courted, indeed, and

so well received, are good actors, in the highest circles, that, were it not for the slur cast on the profession in the statute-book, their influence would be perhaps too predominant; which shows the vast sway the graces of elocution have over the minds of all classes.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES.

To aid youth in their first efforts in recitation, the artist has done more, in the way of pictorial illustration, than could have been effected by a long discourse on the manner in which the position of the body, the countenance, and the hands are to be employed in expressing the various passions.

The pupil would do well, also, to notice in what manner the several emotions of the mind are expressed in real life; as, for instance, among his mates in the playground. A boy that has been wantonly struck, or who thinks he has been cheated at play, naturally throws himself into a different position from the composed state he previously was in, when every thing seemed to be going on pleasantly the voice, the countenance, also, suddenly become altered; and anger, unhappily, takes the place of cheerfulness and hilarity.

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The milder passions might also be noted: for instance, the bland effect of friendship on the countenance of two inseparables, or classfellows, with their arms wreathed round each other's neck, talking, while slowly sauntering along, of home, sweet home.

PLATE 1. Figures 1 & 2, show the proper positions when two come on in the same scene. The right-hand figure represents the attitude in which a boy should place himself when he begins to speak. The arms of the other, who is supposed to be listening, should hang in their natural places by his side.

PLATE 2. Figure 3.-The soliloquizing figure is well and gracefully depicted. We may suppose him to be enacting Hamlet, and repeating,

"O that this 'oo, too solid flesh would melt,

Thaw, and resolve itself into a dew!

Or that the Everlasting had not fix'd

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter!"

Figure 4.-The comic character here represented would seem to inherit the natural humour of Matthews, and to act his part to the life. He might be thought to represent "a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy,"— '-one that, like "poor Yorick," would, with his flashes of merriment, "set the table on a roar."

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