keep the voice suspended, avoiding a frequent recurrence of the falling inflection at the close of the line, except where the close of the sense, too, demands it. Otherwise we shall fall into that methodical, alternate, closing rise and fall, which deprives rhythmical Elocution of all variety and grace.

Pope's lines are good practice for melodious reading for he frequently suspends the sense through several successive lines, and, so, affords opportunity for variety of inflection and cadence. I therefore give (marked,) a passage extracted from his Essay on Man.

HAPPINESS.

Oh Happiness! our being's end and aim!

ཡ

Good, pleasure, ease, content! whate'er thy name ·

That something, still which prompts th' eternal sigh,

For which we bear to live, or dare to die;TM-
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,`

O'erlook'd, seen double by the fool and wise;TM-
Plant of celestial seed!" if dropp'd below,

Say in what mortal soil thou deign'st to grow?"_
Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamondsTM in the flaming mine?~~
Twin'd with the wreaths Parnassian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvests of the field?

Where grows? where grows it not? If vain our toil,

We ought to blame the culture, not the soil:

Fix'd to no spot is happiness sincere,

ཡ

"Tis nowhere to be found, or everywhere:

'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

ཝཱ

And fled from monarchs, dwells, my friend, with thee.

It is not within the scope of this work to analyse the different rhythms and metres used in versification: but for the convenience of the reader, the Practice at the end of this Division contains extracts in a variety of rhythm; by exercise on which, in accordance with the preceding rules and directions, he may acquire an elegant and easy style of rhythmical Elocution.

We now proceed to

EXPRESSION,

Expression is the modulating or regulating the organ of the voice to tones of gentleness or force, according to the nature and degree of feeling, or passion expressed in words. Expression is the natural language of emotion. It is, in Elocution, to a certain extent, a vocal imitation of passion. But this must be done without "aggravating the voice" (as Bottom has it). It is a grace which requires the nicest management; and cannot be achieved but with the best cultivation of ear and voice; in order to catch and reecho the tones of the heart to the ears and hearts of others. It depends mainly upon pitch of voice, and the expression of each different feeling has its appropriate pitch.*

* Roger Ascham, tutor to Queen Elizabeth, thus quaintly writes, touching the matter of pitch of voice:

“Where a matter is spoken with an apte voyce for everye affection, the hearers, for the most part, are moved as the

Expression therefore is a refinement on Intonation : they go hand in hand: we cannot think of the one without the other. Intonation gives the voice volume and power; expression uses and adapts it to the feeling of the moment.

Even monotone has its expression.

MONOTONE

is intonation without change of pitch: that is, preserving a fullness of tone, without ascent or descent on the scale.

THE EXPRESSION OF MONOTONE.

It expresses repose of feeling or scene-the calm confidence of power-vastness of thought—veneration—and the over-awing sublimity of grandeur.

But it must not be listless, vapid, soulless monotone; it must be a deep, swelling, crescendo monotone, speaking as it were from the recesses of the heart; as,

Calm -ness sits throned on yon un

mo-ving cloud.

speaker woulde; but when a man is always in one tone, like a humble-bee, or else now in the top of the church, now downe that no man knoweth where to have him ; or piping like a reede, or roaring like a bull, as some lawyers do, which thinke they do best when they crye loudest; these shall never move, as I know many well-learned have done, because theyr voyces were not stayed afore, with learninge to singe. For all voyces, great and small, base and shrill, may be holpen and brought to a good point by learninge to singe.”

H

It requires practice; and the practice of monotone tends essentially to the improvement of intonation.

The sign of monotone is an even line or mark (denoting an even tone of voice) over the words to be spoken without inflection: but mark, the sound must swell and gather volume as it proceeds.

EXERCISE ON MONOTONE.

Our revels now are ended: these our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits, and

Are melted into air, into thin air;

And like the baseless fabric of this vision

The cloud-capp'd towers the gorgeous palaces
The solemn temples the great globe itself

Yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve

And like this unsubstantial pageant faded
Leave not a rack behind.

Shaks.

The following passage from Talfourd's classical tragedy of Ion is also good practice in the Intonation of Monotone.

Commence on a deep, full tone.

Ye eldest Gods,

Who in no statues of exactest form

Are palpable; who shun the azure heights

Of beautiful Olympus, and the sound
Of ever-young Apollo's minstrelsy;
Yet mindful of the empire which ye held

Over dim Chaos, keep revengeful wrath

On falling nations, and on kingly lines
About to sink for ever; ye, who shed
Into the passions of earth's giant broodTM

And their fierce usages the sense of justice;
Who clothe the fated battlements of tyranny
With blackness as a funeral pall, and breathe
Thro' the proud halls of time-emboldened guilt
Portents of ruin, hear me! In your presence,
For now I feel you nigh, I dedicate

This arm to the destruction of the king
And of his race! O keep me pitiless!

Expel all human weakness from my frame,

That this keen weapon shake not when his heart
Should feel its point; and if he has a child

Whose blood is needful to the sacrifice

My country asks, harden my soul to shed it!

PITCH OF VOICE.

Expression, as I have said, depends chiefly upon pitch of voice.

We all know that the tones of the voice vary considerably, according to the affection of mind or passion under which a person speaks. We see this daily in nature-we hear a man give a command in one tone, and make an entreaty or ask a favor in another: his voice grows sharper and shriller in rage, and softer and more liquid in tenderness and affection: the voice