It may be divided into very slow rate, slow rate, medium rate, rapid rate, and very rapid rate.

Very slow rate is appropriately used is expressing awe, deep solemnity, and profound reverence.

Slow rate is the proper movement for language expressive of grief, dignity, gravity, and sublimity.

Medium rate is that which is employed in unimpassioned narration and description.

Rapid rate is appropriate in earnest declamation and eager argument, and in the expression of gay, sprightly, and joyful emotions.

Very rapid rate is that which is employed in uttering language expressive of rage, sudden fear, haste, and tumult.

Very Rapid Rate.
Rapid Rate.

RATE Medium Rate.

Slow Rate.

Very Slow Rate.

The different degrees of rate may be indicated as follows:—very slow rate by (r1), slow rate by (r2), medium rate by (r), rapid rate by (r4), very rapid rate by (5.)

DIRECTIONS FOR EXERCISE ON RATE.

Select a line, and deliver it successively in every degree of rate, observing the same order in the repetitions as in the exercises on pitch and force. In practicing on the least degree do not let the utterance be too much prolonged; but let it be so regulated that there will be no difficulty in making three distinct degrees of

movement between very slow rate and very rapid rate. This exercise should be practiced upon every pitch and with every degree o force.

EXAMPLES.

(75) Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
(4) Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
(3) Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
(r2) Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.
(r1) Just as the twig is bent, the tree's inclined.

EXAMPLES OF APPROPRIATE PASSAGES FOR EACH DEGREE OF RATE.

(r1) Night, sable goddess, from her ebon throne,
In rayless majesty now stretches forth

Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
Silence how dead! and darkness how profound!
Nor eye nor listening ear an object finds:
Creation sleeps. "Tis as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and Nature made a pause;
An awful pause! prophetic of her end!

(2) Oh, from these sterner aspects of thy face
Spare me and mine, nor let us need the wrath
Of the mad, unchain'd elements to teach
Who rules them. Be it ours to meditate
In these calm shades thy milder majesty,
And to the beautiful order of thy works
Learn to conform the order of our lives.

(3) An old clock, that had stood for fifty years in a farmer's kit, nen without giving its owner any cause of complaint, early one summer's morning, before the family was stirring, suddenly stopped.

(4) And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,

And swiftly forming in the ranks of war.

(75) More rapid than eagles his coursers they came,

And he whistled, and shouted, and call'd them by name :"Now Dasher! now Dancer! now Prancer! now Vixen!

On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Dunder and Blitzen!
To the top of the porch, to the top of the wall!

Now, dash away, dash away, dash away all!"

NOTE. When the foregoing examples in pitch, force, and rate can be uttered as indicated by the notation at the left, let appropriate passages of greater length be selected and delivered in the same way. Exercise upon pitch will give compass to the voice; exercise on force will give strength and fullness to it; exercise on rate will improve the organs of articulation; and all combined will secure to the pupil that controlling influence over his voice which is indispensable to a good reader.

QUALITY OF VOICE.

Under this head will be considered the kinds of voice which are generally employed in reading and speaking. They are the pure voice, the orotund, the aspirated, the guttural, and the tremor.

QUALITY OF VOICE

Pure Voice.

Orotund Voice.

Aspirated Voice.

Guttural Voice.
Tremor Voice.

Joyous Tremor.
Plaintive Tremor.

The pure voice is distinguished for the clearness and smoothness of its tones; and is appropriately used in ordinary declamation, in calm reasoning, in common and didactic discourse, in reading simple narration or description, and in uttering language denoting joy, cheerfulness, sorrow, and other gentle emotions.

Let appropriate passages be selected and delivered with special reference to the cultivation of a pure voice. In such practice, let no harsh, nasal, or other impure qualities be heard, but let the sounds come forth, clear, smooth, and perfect.

EXAMPLES.

1. Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,
But we left him alone in his glory.

2. Bird of the broad and sweeping wing,
Thy home is high in heaven,

Where wide the storms their banners fling,

And the tempest-clouds are driven.

Thy throne is on the mountain-top;
Thy fields, the boundless air;
And hoary peaks, that proudly prop
The skies, thy dwellings are.

3. King David's limbs were weary. He had fled
From far Jerusalem; and now he stood,
With his faint people, for a little rest,
Upon the shore of Jordan. The light wind
Of morn was stirring, and he bared his brow
To its refreshing breath; for he had worn
The mourner's covering, and he had not felt
That he could see his people until now.

They gather'd round him on the fresh green bank
And spoke their kindly words; and, as the sun

Rose up in heaven, he knelt among them there,
And bow'd his head upon his hands to pray.

The orotund voice is smooth, clear, full, deep, round, strong, and musical; and may be effectively employed in earnest declamation, and in expressing sentiments of sublimity, grandeur, dignity, solemnity, and rever

ence.

The orotund possesses all the qualities of the pure voice intensified, and is a powerful auxiliary in almost every description of public speaking. It is rarely a gift of nature; and he who would possess it must generally acquire it by practice. It therefore seems necessary to adopt such a course of exercises in our primary instruction as will be most likely to develop this kind of voice. Dr. Rush, an eminent writer on the human voice, recommends continued practice on the vocals as one of the best preliminary steps to secure this desirable result; and experience confirms the wisdom of his recommendation. Exercises on vocals, however, need not be introduced in this place, for they occur on preceding pages, under the head of articulation. When the following example can be read in the orotund voice, let other appropriate pieces be selected and read in the same manner.

EXAMPLES.

1. Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form
Glasses itself in tempests; in all time,

Calm or convulsed, in breeze, or gale, or storm,

Icing the pole, or in the torrid clime

Dark heaving; boundless, endless, and sublime;

The image of eternity; the throne

Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime

The monsters of the deep are made; each zone

Obeys thee; thou goest forth, dread, fathomless, alone.

2. O thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! Whence are thy beams, O sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest