are extremely faulty in this particular, producing an odd and half ludicrous peculiarity of inflection, particularly when combined with emphasis. This objectionable turn of voice exists in no other part of this country, or of any other in which the English language is spoken. The fault, (technically described,) is that of substituting the circumflex, or double wave of voice, for the simple inflection or single wave. The effect of this fault, on ears not habituated to the local error, is either that of a sinister or punning accent, or that of an over anxiety about the hearer apprehending the speaker's meaning, as in the tone of a teacher explaining something abstruse to a class of very young pupils. Connected with this association, it gives to New England intonation that over precise and studied character which is peculiar to it, as contrasted with local accent elsewhere, or with the requisitions of good taste in expression.

ers.

The extent to which this unfortunate trait of habit prevails in all classes of society, the educated scarcely less than the uneducated, is such as to require the utmost vigilance of teachHere, again, the attentive instructer will perceive the extent of his obligations to Dr. Rush, whose rigorous analysis of this part of elocution, had his work offered nothing else, would have been an invaluable contribution to the resources of improved instruction. The Philosophy of the Voice defines and designates every form of the wave, single and double, and classes these so distinctly, that the teacher is left without excuse, if he does not eradicate from his own utterance and that of his pupil, every trace of local error in this particular.

The order of tuition leads us next to a highly important branch of the subject, and another on which the author of the Philosophy of the Voice lays claim to the grateful acknowledgments of teachers. I refer to emphasis, a modification of the voice which never had been submitted to analytical investigation, till discussed by Dr. Rush. The value of his labors. here may be briefly indicated by referring to the fact, that his analysis enables the teacher to detect and designate whatever personal fault happens to characterise the emphasis used by a pupil in any instance. Vocal phenomena are so subtle and fugitive, especially in this department, that, without such aid, instruction was imperfect and inefficacious where it now

attains to the utmost clearness of definition and certainty of effect.

Appropriate pausing, as the consequence or the precursor of emphasis, next requires attentive training; since the rapid succession of thought and feeling in the juvenile mind inclines the manner of youthful readers and speakers to a hurried and superficial utterance, and to the consequent omission of those cessations of voice which group or detach words and phrases, according to their connexion in sense.

The appropriate intonation of feeling, is, so far as concerns all those effects of eloquence which appeal to sympathy, the most important part of elocution. It is this which gives life and power to sentiment, and raises utterance from the level of mechanical sound to the dignity of the noblest of human functions. Speech, destitute of the genuine tones of emotion, becomes an unmeaning and vapid succession of noises, which fall dead upon the listless ear, and fail even to arouse the attention and the understanding. Yet how generally is public reading conducted in this manner! Witness sleeping congregations, and yawning classes!

The prevalence of inexpressive tones is owing, principally, to the unfortunate practice, at school, of reading pieces unintelligible or uninteresting to the young mind, in part, to the ennui of school exercise, and to the too general want of interest in this branch of instruction, on the part of teachers. The fault, with adults, is sometimes owing to false reserve of habit, arising, perhaps, from an inactive and too secluded life,

perhaps from an impression that the chief end of public communication is to convey facts to the understanding, or principles to the reason; while the power of feeling and imagination to embody and impress these very facts and principles, is overlooked.

Our early culture and training are extremely deficient, as regards the effects of expression. No adequate provision is made for the nurture or direction of the affections, none for the moulding of imagination. Enough and more than enough of drilling and repetition, is done for the intellect, but comparatively nothing for those powers which give form and character to language. A proper discipline of the young mind, with reference to expression, would embrace all the vivifying and inspiring influences of nature and of art. An eloquent and impressive manner must ever spring from depth and fulness of feeling, embodied by a creative imagination. The action

of the whole soul is implied in all genuine eloquence; and culture, directed to this end, must embrace the adequate exercise of all those faculties which are modified by taste, and consequently the contemplation, and study, and imitation of all objects which exert an influence on taste. The well-springs of the soul, in nature, and the copious fountains of art, must all be put in requisition, to irrigate and freshen and vivify the whole man, and cherish within him the growth of taste, the sense of beauty and the feeling of power.

But my limits forbid the discussion of this topic. It must suffice, for the moment, to say, that the attentive teacher will lose no opportunity of accustoming the ear of his pupil to those delicate perceptions and nice discriminations of tone, which prompt the utterance of strains true to nature and to genuine art, tones to which the human sympathies at once respond in the thrill of heartfelt emotion. It is the neglect of seasonable cultivation only that causes us to fall in this respect, from the vantage ground of childhood, the period in which all tones are true, and full, and vivid. Nothing shows more clearly the disproportion, in general culture, between the head and the heart, than the degree to which the adult is inferior to the child, so far as regards the intonation of the voice. A generous nurture of all the faculties, would impart to the adult an augmented power of utterance, with the increase of years and the advance of the mind.

In this, as in the other departments of elocution, the teacher derives an inexpressible benefit from the assistance furnished by the work of Dr. Rush, in which tones are rigorously analysed, and reduced to their component elements. The discriminating and classifying of tones, is thus rendered easy to the student; and their acquisition becomes a matter of exactness and certainty.

My remarks on our present subject have already extended so far, that I have hardly space left, in which to say a single word on the question as to the propriety of introducing declamation, as an exercise in schools. Too much cannot be said against the introduction of such declamation as is of a character barely political, or that which is conversant only, with abstract ideas. Exercises of this nature are either not sufficiently intelligible or not sufficiently interesting to youth. But many of the most interesting addresses ever spoken, are perfectly adapted to the apprehension and the sympathies of the young mind. To the use of such pieces there can be no

well grounded objection. They serve, on the contrary, to enkindle the spirit of genuine eloquence in the juvenile speaker, and favor the best ends of early culture in general, by quickening the emotions and inspiring the imagination. They summon forth the activity of all the powers, in the unity of a noble impersonation.

The sweeping objections of Archbishop Whately, to the practice of declamation at school, require qualification. Their spirit is excellent; but the extent to which they are carried, is a matter of question. Literally understood, they go to abolish all training, a result which, if brought about in all other departments of human culture, leads us infallibly backward to the bliss' of unpractised ignorance.' This state of things might gratify the wishes of the opponents of education, but surely can never commend itself to the judgment of those whose office it is to instruct and to inform.

The importance of early practice in speaking, is evinced by every consideration which is advanced in favor of early training in reading. It is urged irresistibly on all who are preparing for professions involving public duties. But it should always be regarded in its connexion with a liberal discipline of the human faculties, for whatever sphere of action individuals may be destined. Speech gives expression and effect to the silent images of thought. It inspires and enlarges the whole mind, and invigorates all its active powers. It constitutes man the benefactor of his fellow-man. The cultivation of speech is the cultivation of the soul. A generous plan of education would impart the essential benefits of this department to all men. Culture in this branch should commence in childhood. It is then that the whole nature is plastic and expansive; and it is only then that habit can be seasonably directed.

In no respect is this fact more important than in regard to the visible part of address, attitude and action. The ungainly and ignoble mien which is so often exhibited by public speakers, the embarrassed and frigid air with which even a glowing composition is delivered, are wholly owing to the niggard character of early discipline. We endow colleges and assign laborious years for acquirement; but we do nothing for the living man. He issues from our halls of learning, a caricature, not a representative of humanity, so far as regards practice in speech. But I must not, at present, enlarge on defects.

I hasten to submit a few suggestions on this branch of education, leaving its details to be traced more at length in a work designed to discuss the elements of the subject. The manual to which I refer, comprises the substance of Austin's Chironomia, with the addition of such practical rules and directions as experience seemed to require.*

One important reason for early cultivation in declamation, recitation, and the other forms of speaking, exists in the fact, that, in New England still more than in old England, a false reserve of manner is so current, particularly in persons of sedentary habit. It may be true that the natives of France and of Italy are characterised by a redundancy of gesture. But it is no less certain that New England frigidity is just as far removed from truth and nature. If we look at man, everywhere, while yet the stamp of his divine origin is freshest upon him, we find him abounding in action. Man is not an automaton, gifted with only a movable tongue. The unity of his nature, if not infracted, prompts him to throw the expression of his whole being, soul and body alike, into whatever moves and excites him. There is no provision in his constitution for his thinking without feeling, or feeling without expression. Speech is most emphatically a moral process. It is the function of the whole living man. The office of the teacher in elocution is to reinstate his pupils in the privileges of their birthright, to restore to them the power of living communication.

The teacher, therefore, will find much of his duty to lie in efforts to re-awaken dormant feeling and diffuse its expression throughout the frame of the young speaker. He will bring his pupil in contact with all the sources of inspiration in nature and in art. He will cultivate in him an imaginative and expressive tendency of soul. He will refer him to sculpture as a school for the discipline of taste and habit; and, especially, he will lead him to the effusions of poetry, as the great source of inspiration in the ideal. He will resort occasionally to the powerful aid of impersonation as the means of imparting life and freedom to speech, and preserving the pliancy and elasticity of imagination. Eloquence is rare, not because it is not natural, on adequate occasions, to all men; but because little or no provision is made for the acquisition of it as a habit. The recipient and passive powers of the intellect we cultivate

* Rudiments of Gesture. By William Russell. Boston, C. J. Hendee.