MODERATE

1. Now, a living force that brings to itself all the resources of imagination, all the inspirations of feeling, all that is influential in body, in voice, in eye, in gesture, in posture, in the whole animated man, is in strict analogy with the divine thought and the divine arrangement; and there is no misconstruction more utterly untrue and fatal than this: that oratory is an artificial thing, which deals with baubles and trifles, for the sake of making bubbles of pleasure for transient effect on mercurial audiences. So far from that, it is the consecration of the whole man to the noblest purposes to which one can address himself-the education and inspiration of his fellow men by all that there is in learning, by all that there is in thought, by all that there is in feeling, by all that there is in all of them, sent home through the channels of taste and beauty. And so regarded, oratory should take its place among the highest departments of education.

BEECHER.

2. Once or twice in a lifetime we are permitted to enjoy the charm of noble manners, in the presence of a man or woman who have no bar in their nature, but whose character emanates freely in their word and gesture. A beautiful form is better than a beautiful face; a beautiful behavior is better than a beautiful form: it gives a higher pleasure than statues or pictures,—it is the finest of the fine arts. A man is but a little thing in the midst of the objects of nature, yet, by the moral quality radiating from his countenance, he may abolish all considerations of magnitude, and in his manners equal the majesty of the world. I have seen an individual, whose manners, tho wholly within the conventions of elegant society, were never learned there, but were original and commanding, and held out protection and prosperity; one who did not need the aid of a court-suit, but carried the holiday in his eye; who exhilarated the fancy by flinging wide the doors of new modes of existence; who shook off the captivity of etiquette, with happy spirited bearing, good-natured and free as Robin Hood; yet with the port of an emperor, if need be, calm, serious, and fit to stand the gaze of millions.

"Manners."

EMERSON.

3. Is there not an amusement, having an affinity with the drama, which might be usefully introduced among us? I mean, Recitation.

A work of genius, recited by a man of fine taste, enthusiasm, and powers of elocution, is a very pure and high gratification. Were this art cultivated and encouraged, great numbers, now insensible to the most beautiful compositions, might be waked up to their excellence and power.

It is not easy to conceive of a more effectual way of spreading a refined taste through a community. The drama undoubtedly appeals more strongly to the passions than recitation; but the latter brings out the meaning of the author more. Shakespeare, worthily recited, would be better understood than on the stage. Recitation, sufficiently varied, so as to include pieces of chaste wit, as well as of pathos, beauty, and sublimity, is adapted to our present intellectual progress. CHANNING.

LOUD

1. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again!
I hold to you the hands you first beheld,

To show they are still free. Methinks I hear
A spirit in your echoes answer me,
And bid your tenant welcome to his home
Again! O sacred forms, how proud you look!
How high you lift your heads into the sky!
How huge you are! how mighty and how free!
Ye are the things that tower, that shine,-whose smile
Makes glad, whose frown is terrible, whose forms,
Robed or unrobed, dɔ all the impress wear

Of awe divine. Ye guards of liberty,
I'm with you once again! I call to you

With all my voice! I hold my hands to you,

To show they still are free. I rush to you,

As tho I could embrace you.

"Tell on His Native Hills."

J. S. KNOWLES.

2. King Henry. Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once

more;

Or close the wall up with our English dead!

In peace there's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility:

But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favor'd rage;
Then lend the eye a terrible aspect;

Let it pry through the portage of the head,
Like the brass cannon

Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostril wide;
Hold hard the breath, and bend up every spirit
To his full height!-On, on, ye noblest English,
Whose blood is fet from fathers of war-proof!
Fathers, that, like so many Alexanders,

Have in these parts from morn till even fought,
And sheath'd their swords for lack of argument.
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit; and, upon this charge,
Cry-God for Harry! England! and Saint George!
"Henry V."

SHAKESPEARE.

3. Our fathers raised their flag against a power to which, for purposes of foreign conquest and subjugation, Rome, in the height of her glory, is not to be compared,-a power which has dotted the surface of the whole globe with her possessions and military posts; whose morning drumbeat, following the sun in its course and keeping pace with the hours, circles the earth with one continuous and unbroken strain of the martial airs of England. WEBSTER.

VERY LOUD

1. From every hill, by every sea,

In shouts proclaim the great decree,

"All chains are burst, all men are free!"
Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah!

2. "Victoria!" sounds the trumpet,
"Victoria!" all around;
"Victoria!" like loud thunder
It runs along the ground.

3. "Forward, the light brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death

Rode the six hundred.

"The Charge of the Light Brigade."

TENNYSON.

CHAPTER VI

MODULATION (Continued)

STRESS

Force applied to syllables or words is called Stress, and may be Initial, Median, Terminal, Compound, Thorough or Intermittent.

INITIAL

1. Go ring the bells and fire the guns,
And fling the starry banners out;
Shout "Freedom!" till your lisping ones
Give back their cradle shout.

2. But it can not, shall not be; this great woe to our beloved country, this catastrophe for the cause of national freedom, this grievous calamity for the whole civilized world, it can not be, it shall not be. No, by the glorious Nineteenth of April, 1775; no, by the precious blood of Bunker Hill, of Princeton, of Saratoga, of King's Mountain, of Yorktown; no, by the dear immortal memory of Washington, that sorrow and shame shall never be. EVERETT.

3. "Now upon the rebels, charge!" shouts the red-coat officer. They spring forward at the same bound. Look! their bayonets almost touch the muzzles of their rifles. At this moment the voice of the unknown rider was heard: "Now let them have it! Fire!" CHARLES SHEPPARD.

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