RATE.

Doff it, for shame, and hang

A cälf-skin on those recreant limbs.

45

6. The TremULOUS TONE, or Tremor, consists of a tremulous iteration, or å number of impulses of sound of the least assignable duration. It is used in excessive grief, pity, plaintiveness, and tenderness; in an intense degree of suppressed excitement, or satisfaction; and when the voice is enfeebled by age.

The tremulous tone should not be applied throughout the whole of an extended passage, but only on selected emphatic words, thus avoiding monotony. In the second of the following examples, where the tremor of age is supposed to be joined with that of supplicating distress, the tremulous tone may be applied to ěvèry accented or heavy syllable capable of prolongation, which is the case with all except those of pity and shortest; but even these may receive it in a limited degree.

1. O love, remain! It is not yet near day!
It was the nightingale, and not the lark,
That pierced the fearful hollow of thine ear;
Nightly she sings in yon pomegrănate-tree.
Believe me, love, it was the nightingale.

2. Pity the sorrows of a poor old man.

R

Whose trembling limbs have bōrne him to your door,
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span;
O give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.

ATE

IV.

ᎡᎪᎢᎬ .

REFERS TO MOVEMENT in reading and speaking, and is QUICK, MODERATE, or SLOW.

1 Exercise on Rate.-For a general exercise, select a sentence, and deliver it as slowly as may be possible without drawling. Repeat the sentence with a slight increase of rate, until you shall have reached a rapidity of utterance at which dis

tinct articulation ceases. Having done this, reverse the process, repeating slower and slower. Thus you may acquire the ability to increase and diminish rate at pleasure, which is one of the most important elements of good reading and speaking.

2. QUICK RATE is used to express joy, mirth, confusion, viölent anger, and sudden fear; as,

1. The lake has bûrst! The lake has burst!

Down through the chasms the wild waves flee :
They gallop ålŏng with a rōaring song,
Away to the eager awaiting sea!

2. 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.

3. MODERATE RATE is used in ordinary assertion, narration, and description; in cheerfulness, and the gentler forms of the emotions: as,

When the sun walks upon the blue sea-waters,
Smiling the shadows from yon pûrple hills,
We pace this shōre-I and my brother here,
Good Gerald. We arise with the shrill lark,
And both unbind our brows from sullen dreams;
And then doth my dear brother, who hath wōrn
His cheek all pallid with perpetual thought,

Enrich me with sweet words.

4. SLOW RATE is used to express grandeur, vastness, pathos, solemnity, adoration, and horror; as, 1. O thou Eternal One! whose presence bright All space doth occupy, all motion guide; Unchanged through time's all děv'astating flight ; Thou only God! Thêre is no God beside! 2. The eûrfew tōlls-the knell of parting day; The lowing herd winds slowly ō'er the lea; The plowman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

MON

MONOTONE.

V. MONOTONE.

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ONOTONE consists of a degree of sameness of tone, in a number of successive words or syllables. 2. A PERFECT SAMENESS IS RARELY to be observed in reading any passage or sentence. But very little variety of tone is to be used in reading either prose or verse which contains elevated descriptions, or emotions of solemnity, sublimity, or reverence.

3. MONOTONE USUALLY REQUIRES a low tone of the voice, loud or prolonged fōrce, and a slow rate of utterance. It is this tone only, that can present the conditions of the supernatural and the ghostly.

4. THE SIGN OF MONOTONE is a horizontal or even line over the words to be spoken evenly; as,

I heard a voice saying, Shall mortal man be more just than God! Shall a man be more pure than his Maker!

EXERCISES IN MONOTONE.

1. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting. Thou art God.

2. Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up, so man lieth down, and riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep.

3. The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,

4.

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.

I am thy father's spirit ;

Doomed for a certain term to walk the night,
And, for the day confined to fast in fires,

Till the foul crimes, done in my days of nature,
Are burnt and purged away.

PE

VI. PERSONATION.

ERSONATION consists of those modulations, or changes of the voice, necessary to represent two or more persons as speaking.

2. THIS PRINCIPLE OF EXPRESSION, upon the côrrect application of which much of the beauty and efficiency of delivery depends, is employed in reading dialogues and other pieces of a conversational nature.

3. The student will exercise his discrimination and ingenuity in studying the character of persons and things to be represented, and so modulate his voice as best to personate them.

EXERCISE IN PERSONATION.

He. Dost thou love wandering? Whither wouldst thou go?
Dream'st thou, sweet daughter, of a land mōre fâir?
Dost thou not love these aye-blue streams that flow?
These spicy forests? and this golden âir?

She. Oh, yes, I love the woods, and streams, so gãy;
And more than all, O fäther, I love thee;
Yet would I fain be wandering-far away,

Where such things never were, nor ê'er shall be.
He. Speak, mine own daughter with the sun-bright locks!
To what pale, banished region wouldst thou rōam ?

She. O father, let us find our frozen rocks!

Let's seek that country of all countries-HOME!

He. Seest thou these orange flowers? this pälm that rears
Its head up toward heaven's blue and cloudless dōme?

She. I dream, I dream; mine eyes are hid in tears;

My heart is wandering round our ancient hōme. He. Why, then, we'll go. Fârewell, ye tender skies,

Who sheltered us, when we were forced to rōam !

She. On, on! Let's påss the swallow as he flies !

Farewell, kind land! Now, father, now-FOR HOME!
-The red rose läughs, "She is near, she is near ;
And the white rose weeps, "She is late."

PAUSES

PAUSES.

IV. PAUSES.

I.

DEFINITIONS.

49

AUSES are suspensions of the voice in reading and speaking, used to mark expectation and uncertainty, and to give effect to expression.

2. PAUSES ARE OFTEN mōre eloquent than words. They differ greatly in their frequency and their length. In lively conversation and rapid argument, they are few and short. In serious, dignified, and pathetic speaking, they are mōre numerous, and more prolonged.

3. THE PAUSE IS MARKED thus in the following illustrations and exercises.

THE

II.

RULES FOR PAUSES.

HE SUBJECT OF A SENTENCE, or that of which something is declared, when either emphatic or compound, requires a pause after it; as,

The cause will raise up armies. Sincerity and truth form the basis of ĕvèry virtue.

2. Two NOUNS IN THE SAME CASE, without a connecting word, require a pause between them; as,

I admire Webster ♥ the ŏrator.

។

9

3. ADJECTIVES THAT FOLLOW the words they qualify or limit, require pauses immediately before them; as, He had a mind deep active well-stored with knowledge. 4. BUT, HENCE, and other words that mark a sudden change, when they stand at the beginning of a sentence, require a pause åfter them; as,

But these joys are his. Hence Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom.

5. IN CASES OF ELLIPSIS, a pause is required where one or more words are omitted; as,

He thanked Mary many times Kate but once. ។ man friend, that brother.

Call this