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voice, loud or prolonged force, and a slow rate of utterance. It is this tone only, that can present the conditions of the supernatural and the ghostly.

The sign of monotone is a horizontal or even line over the words to be spoken evenly, or without inflection; 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. Then the earth shook and trèmbled; the foundations, also, of the hills moved, and were sháken, because he was wròth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured. He bowed the heavens, also, and came down, and darkness was under his feet; and he rode upon a cherub, and did fly'; yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wìnd.

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

4. High on a throne of royal state, which far

5.

Outshone the wealth of Ormus or of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous East, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and góld,
Satan exalted sat!

How reverend is the face of this tall pile,
Whose ancient pillars rear their marble heads,
To bear aloft its arched and ponderous roof,

By its own weight made steadfast and immovable,
Looking tranquillity! It strikes an awe
And terror on my aching sight: the tombs
And monumental caves of death look cold,
And shoot a chillness to my trembling heart.

6.

7.

Our revels are now 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 itsèlf—
Yea, all which it inhèrit, shall dissolve,

And, like this unsubstantial pageant, fáded—
Léave not a ràck behìnd.

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. But that I am forbid
To tell the secrets of my prison-house,

I could a tale unfold, whose lightest word

Would harrow up thy soul; freeze thy young blood;
Make thy two eyes, like stars, start from their sphères ;
Thy knotted and combined locks to part,

And each particular hair to stand on énd,
Like quills upon the fretful porcupine:
But this eternal blazon must not be

To ears of flesh and blood:-Lìst,-líst,-O list!—
If thou didst ever thy dear father love,
Revenge his foul and most unnatural murder.

PERS

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 correct 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 should exercise his discrimination and

ingenuity in studying the character of persons to be represented,―fully informing himself with regard to their temperament and peculiarities, as well as their condition and feelings at the time,-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 more fair?
Dost thou not love these aye-blue streams that flow?
These spicy forests? and this golden air?

She. Oh, yes, I love the woods, and streams, so gay;
And more than all, O father, I love thee;

Yet would I fain be wandering-far away,

Where such things never were, nor e'er shall be.
He. Speak, mine own daughter with the sun-bright locks!
To what pale, banished region wouldst thou roam?
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 palm that rears
Its head up toward heaven's blue and cloudless dome?
She. I dream, I dream; mine eyes are hid in tears;

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

Who sheltered us, when we were forced to roam! She. On, on! Let's pass the swallow as he flies!

Farewell, kind land! Now, father, now-FOR HOME!

PAU

VII. PAUSES.

I.

DEFINITIONS.

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

Pauses are often more eloquent than words. They differ greatly in their frequency and their length. In lively con

versation and rapid argument, they are comparatively few and short. In serious, dignified, and pathetic speaking, they are far more numerous, and more prolonged. The pause is marked thus, in the following illustrations and exercises.

NO

II.

RULES FOR PAUSES.

OMINATIVES.-A pause is required after a compound nominative, in all cases; and after a nominative consisting of a single word, when it is either emphatic, or is the leading subject of discourse; as,

Joy and sorrow move him not. No people can claim him. No country can appropriate him.

2. WORDS IN APPOSITION.-A pause is required after words which are in apposition with, or opposition to, each other; as, Solomon the son of David was king of Israel. False delicacy is affectation not politeness.

3. A TRANSITION.-A pause is required after but, hence, and other words denoting a marked transition, when they stand at the beginning of a sentence; as,

But it was reserved for Arnold to blend all these bad qualities into one. Hence Solomon calls the fear of the Lord the beginning of wisdom.

4. CONJUNCTIONS AND RELATIVES.-A pause is required before that, when a conjunction or relative, and the relatives who, which, what; together with when, whence, and other adverbs of time and place, which involve the idea of a relative; as,

He went to school that he might become wise. This is the man that loves me. We were present when La Fayette embarked at Havre for New York.

5. THE INFINITIVE.-A pause is required before the infinitive mood, when governed by another verb, or separated by an intervening clause from the word which governs it; as,

He has gone to convey the news. He smote me with a rod to please my enemy.

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

So goes the world: if wealthy, you may call this friend, that brother.

7. QUALIFYING CLAUSES.-Pauses are used to set off qualifying clauses by themselves; to separate qualifying terms from each other, when a number of them refer to the same word; and when an adjective follows its noun; as,

The rivulet sends forth glad sounds, and tripping o'er its bed of pebbly sands, or leaping down the rocks seems with continuous laughter to rejoice in its own being. He had a mind deep activewell stored with knowledge.

These rules, though important, if properly applied, are by no means complete; nor can any be invented which shall meet all the cases that arise in the complicated relations of thought.

A good reader or speaker pauses, on an average, at every fifth or sixth word, and in many cases much more frequently. His only guide, in many instances, is a discriminating taste in grouping ideas, and separating by pauses those which are less intimately allied. In doing this, he will often use what may be called suspensive quantity.

III.

SUSPENSIVE QUANTITY.

SUSPENSIVE QUANTITY means prolonging the end

of a word, without an actual pause; and thus suspending, without wholly interrupting, the progress of sound. The prolongation on the last syllable of a word, or suspensive quantity, is indicated thus, in the following examples. It is used chiefly for three purposes:

1st. To prevent too frequent a recurrence of pauses; as,

Her lover sinks-she sheds no ill-timed tear;

Her chief is slain--she fills his fatal post;
Her fellows flee-she checks their base career;
The foe retires-she heads the rallying host.

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