tors.

The greatest orators he has ever heard, are the most NATURAL speakers.

The same remark may likewise be extended to singers. There is a wide difference between cultivating the native powers, and perverting them, although the latter often passes currently for the former. If these observations are correct, a hint may be drawn from them, worthy the attention, not only of the player, but also of the preacher, the lawyer, the legislator, and all others who wish to improve their oratorical or their vocal powers.

In delivering his own sentiments, a speaker may justly be more vivid and animated than in uttering the sentiments of others. Hence, a greater degree of delicacy and moderation is necessary in reading than in speaking. Care should be taken, however, that this consideration do not lead the reader into the fatal errour of becoming too tame. A lifeless, indifferent, or cold, formal manner, should be assiduously avoided. The animation, the earnestness, of the reader, ought nearly to equal that of the publick speaker.

TONES-GENERAL RULE.

The following rule for the management of those tones that indicate the stronger passions and emotions, is deemed worthy the attention of every disciple in elocution: "In reading, let your tones of expression be borrowed from those of common speech, but, in some degree, more faintly characterized. Let those tones which denote any disagreeable passion of the mind, be still more faint than those which indicate agreeable emotions: and, on all occasions, preserve yourself from being so far affected with the subject, as to be unable to proceed through it, in that easy and masterly manner which has its good effects in this, as well as in every other art."

MODULATION.

The great redeeming quality with some readers and speakers whose articulation is, by no means, remarkable for distinct

ness, and whose enunciation is, in many other respects, faulty, consists in the agreeable variety and beautiful modulation of the tones of their voice. Indeed, many a speaker passes with the multitude for an orator, whose sole dependence for popularity and favour in his art, rests on the power and melody of his tones and modulations; for he well knows, that the great majority of hearers, are better judges of pleasing sounds, than they are of profound sentiments, and that they are willing to forego the advantages of the latter, for the gratifying indulgence of the former. But those who wish to persuade, to move-to convince the understanding and to affect the heart, will aim at something higher than merely the dealing out of harmonious sounds. However these may gratify the ear, yet on them alone the mind would starve. Harmonious and agreeable sounds, therefore, should be held by the reader or speaker in the subordinate rank which a judicious taste assigns to ornaments in dress—as the mere appendages, not the body, of the garment.

An agreeable modulation and a pleasing variety of intonation, are, however, by no means to be regarded as unworthy of attention. Their importance has already been illustrated, by showing, that with some, they are the very quintessence of what passes for oratory. This being the case, then, we may readily conceive their happy effects when employed even by readers and speakers who are otherwise liberally endowed with the higher qualities of eloquence.

The best general rule that can be given for a skilful management and modulation of the tones of the voice, is to cultivate and adopt an agreeable variety, such as we know to be pleasing to others.

The author is aware that this rule is of too general a character to be of much utility to those whose taste in elocution is but a little cultivated, or whose apprehension of what is elegant or excellent, and of what is otherwise, is not very quick; but in the subsequent pages of this work, many definite principles will be developed, which have a direct bearing upon this subject.

EXERCISES.

The great variety of elevation and depression of tone in which it is proper to pronounce different kinds of composition, depends mainly on the sentiments expressed: and there are few whose conception and taște are so obtuse as not to be regulated, in their enunciation, in some good degree, by this governing principle.

The following example from Byron, presents a great variety of elevation and depression of tone:

But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell!

Did ye not hear it?-No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street:

On with the dance! let joy be unconfined;

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet-
But hark! That heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before!

Arm! Arm! it is-it is-the cannons' opening roar!

No one can be at a loss to perceive that the commencing words of this passage, "hush! hark!" should be pronounced in a low tone approaching a whisper; and the residue of the same line, in a deep, low tone of earnestness, a little higher than the preceding, but not quite so elevated as the interrogatory which follows it. The line and a half which answers the question, requires a light, joyous tone, considerably elevated above that in which the interrogation is expressed. In the phrase, "On with the dance!" the voice breaks forth with a sudden abruptness, and in quite an elevated tone; but falls a little again, on the two and a half lines which follow. And again the voice falls very low at "hark!" and rises very greatly again, and successively, on each of the words "nearer, clearer, deadlier;" until, as it approaches the word "Arm!" it breaks forth in its most energetick, impassioned, and highest strain.

In general, the tones and modulations of the voice, except when influenced by the principles of inflection and emphasis,

are to be regulated by an exercise of good taste, which may ordinarily be acquired by an attentive observance of the manner adopted by those who excel in elocution, and by private application.

The following marginal directions may be of some service to the unpractised student.

EXAMPLES.

Low Tone-Hark! heard you not those hoofs of dreadful note?
Sounds not the clang of conflict on the heath?

High-The fires of death-the bale-fires flash on high:
Death rides upon the sulphury Sirock;

Red battle stamps his foot, and nations feel the shock.

Low-Lochiel! Lochiel! beware of the day

When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! Middle-For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight,

And the clans of Culloden are scattered in fight. High-False wizard, avaunt! I have marshalled my clan:

Their swords are a thousand, their bosoms are one;
Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their gore,
Like ocean-weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore,
They are true to the last of their blood and their breath,
And like reapers descend to the harvest of death.
Down! soothless insulter; I trust not the tale.
Plaintive-Come, Anthony, and young Octavius, come,
Revenge yourselves alone on Cassius;
For Cassius is a weary of the world.

Poor child of danger, nursling of the storm,
Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form!
Rocks, waves, and winds, the shattered bark delay;
Thy heart is sad, thy home is far away.

Errours in regard to Pitch and Tones.

High Pitch. As it regards the tones of the voice, there is not, perhaps, a more common or unbecoming fault to which publick readers and speakers are liable, than that of commencing in a loud and vociferous manner. This abrupt and boisterous beginning is always displeasing, and not unfrequently disgusting, to the auditory. It wears the aspect of immodesty in

a speaker, and appears, in general, to proceed from his overweening confidence in his own abilities; and moreover, to a judicious hearer, it is a fair index, put out to forewarn him, that he may expect, in what is to follow, neither a display of good taste nor talents.

Although the pitch and tone of the voice at the opening of a discourse, are, in some measure, to be governed by the occasion, or the circumstances under which a reader or a speaker's oratorical powers are called forth, yet seldom will circumstances require him to depart from the general direction given him in regard to pitch, on page 63, namely, to adopt that pitch of voice which he generally employs in ordinary conversation. As this pitch will be found most convenient and easy to himself, so will it appear the most natural and agreeable to his hearers a point by no means to be overlooked. In this pitch, also, will his tones and inflections of voice be the most natural, and thus enable him to give them the greatest and most grateful variety of swell and melody.

As a speaker advances in his discourse, especially if it be somewhat impassioned, and increases in energy and earnestness, a higher and louder tone will naturally steal upon him, and sometimes he may even change his radical pitch; and in such cases it may require no little address to keep his voice within proper bounds. This may easily be done, however, by occasionally recalling it, as it were, from the extremities of its adventurous flight, and by directing it to those who are near him.

Low Pitch.-An errour more frequent than that last pointed out, though perhaps not so fatal, occurs with those speakers who take their key-note or pitch in too low a tone to be distinctly heard. At the commencement of his discourse, a speaker may presume much upon the indulgence of his hearers; but this is no good reason why he should speak so low as to compel them to listen, with the greatest attention, in order to understand what is delivered. What is worth being uttered at all, is worth being spoken in a proper manner; but can any thing be more improper, than to utter our sentiments in so indistinct a manner, or in so low a tone, as to render it impossible for any one clearly to understand what is said?