Observing this, and also the rules of pause and inflection on Series, let the reader practise himself on the following

EXERCISE ON INTONATION.

1. In times, when the whole habitable earth is in a state of change and fluctuation

when deserts are starting up into civilized empires around you,

and when men, no longer the slaves of particular countries, much less of particular governments,

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enlist themselves, like the citizens of an enlightened world, into whatever communities where their civil liberties may be best protected,

prove

it never can be for the advantage of this country to

that the strict letter of the laws is no security to its

inhabitants.

2. The following exordium of Brutus' speech to the populace, also affords an excellent exercise for the

concussion of non-elastic bodies; whereas musical sound is a pure harmonious effect emanating from a simple elastic body, as the tone of a bell. It is a curious fact, that musical sounds fly farther, and are heard at a greater distance, than those which are more loud and noisy. If we go on the outside of a town during a fair, at the distance of a mile, we hear the musical instruments; but the din of the multitude, which is overpowering in the place, can scarcely be heard, the noise dying upon the spot.-Gardiner's Music of Nature.

student; who will remember that Brutus is supposed to be addressing a large and turbulent popular assembly in the open air; and therefore requires a powerful intonation, in order to obtain even a hearing.

Romans countrymen and lovers! Hear me for my cause and be silent that you may hear. Believe me for mine

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honor and have respect to mine honor that you may believe. Censure me in your wisdom and awake your senses that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly

any dear friend of Cæsar"- to him I say that Brutus' love for Cæsar was no less than his. If then that friend demand why Brutus rose against Cæsar- this is my answer Not that I loved Cæsar less but that I loved Rome more!

If the pupil will exercise himself in this last passage aloud, commencing on a low tone-inspiring on the pauses (so as to keep his lungs filled with breath)— and increasing the volume of his voice on the crescendo, he will make considerable advance in the practice of Intonation. As he proceeds, he will find that his voice will ascend and take a higher pitch. The use of the long pause (as at the word "judge,”) will serve to resume the tone on which he commenced. (See PAUSE-Long Pause. SECOND DIV. Part I.)

INTONATION OF POETRY.

We have hitherto confined our exercises to Prose readings;-on the principle that we must learn to

walk before we run. But Intonation is so connected with, and necessary to the reading and delivery of verse and poetic language, that it is now a proper time and place to introduce some observations on

POETICAL ELOCUTION.

It is first to be observed, that the general style of reading or reciting verse and poetic language, should be higher and more exalted than that of prose: for poetry is a more exalted style of composition than prose; and the elocution must keep pace with the subject or matter. The voice must flow more softly; must undulate gently, and not jump or jerk on the inflections; so that the verse may run smoothly and without jar upon the ear. Intonation must be particularly attended to in poetical delivery; so that the music of the voice being fully brought out, it may aid and give echo to the music of the language.

This style I call the imaginative style of Elocution : because it is the style to be adopted in the delivery of all imaginative composition, whether in prose or verse. For, I need not remark that there is poetical prose, which must be delivered in the imaginative or poetical style; and we all painfully know that there is poetry-or rather verse-so irredeemably prosaic, that no reading or Elocution could possibly invest it with the attributes of poetry: the best way is not to read it at all.

As an example of poetic prose, take the following

EXTRACT FROM OSSIAN.

As Autumn's dark storms pour from two echoing hills, so to

ward each other approached the heroes. As two dark streams from high rocks meet and mix, and roar on the plain; loud, rough and dark, in battle met Lochlin and Innisfail ; chief mixed his strokes with chief, and man with man. Steel clanging sounded on steel. Helmets are cleft on high; blood bursts and smokes around. As the troubled noise of the ocean when roll the waves on high; as the last peal of the thunder of heaven; such is the noise of battle. The groan of the people spreads over the hills. It was like the thunder of night when the cloud bursts on Cona, and a thousand ghosts shriek at once on the hollow wind.

Such language as this must not be delivered as common prose; but the speaker's Elocution must be swelling, exalted, dignified; in fine, elevated to the level of the composition. In the same manner, in the delivery of any figurative passage in an ordinary discourse or oration,-where the orator, borne aloft on the wings of his imagination, quits the common track of language and soars in the regions of fancy,-the Elocution must also rise, and sustain a flight equal in loftiness and ambition to the elevation of the orator's diction and style. As in the following

EXTRACT FROM BURKE.*

In the course of all this proceeding, your lordships will not fail to observe, he is never corrupt but he is cruel: he never dines with comfort, but where he is sure to create a famine. He never robs from the loose superfluity of standing greatness; he devours the fallen, the indigent, the necessitous. His extortion is not like the generous rapacity of the princely eagle, who snatches away the living, struggling prey; he is a vulture who feeds upon the prostrate, the dying and the dead. As his cru

* Impeachment of Warren Hastings.

elty is more shocking than his corruption, so his hypocrisy has something more frightful than his cruelty. For whilst his bloody and rapacious hand signs proscriptions, and sweeps away the food of the widow and the orphan, his eyes overflow with tears; and he converts the healing balm, that bleeds from wounded humanity, into a rancorous and deadly poison to the race of

man.

Every one feels how much this passage rises above the ordinary diction of prose,—that it is, in fact, a flight of oratory. The Elocution must keep pace with it; that is, the imaginative style must be adopted.

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One of the main characteristics of this lofty style is what is called the orotund voice; that is, that full and swelling tone which is produced by the same organic form and action of the mouth as are necessary perfectly to enunciate the tonic o, as in o-ld, c-o-l-d, &c. To utter this tonic perfectly, the mouth is kept in a rotund form, and the tone produced is called orotund (ore rotundo.) By carefully reading the following lines, with particular attention to the enunciation of the tonic o, and swelling the voice upon it, the pupil will attain a clear perception of the orotund voice.

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Oh holy Hope that flows thro' all my soul!

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From pole to pole the deep-toned thunders roll.

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Low hollow moans proclaim his deep-souled woe.

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Now, the form of the mouth in uttering these lines, must, from the prevalence of the tonic o, be rotund; and the quality of voice must be orotund. The art is