3. 4. Cry out against them. But this very day, An honest man, my neighbor, there he stands, Full of gentleness, of calmest hope, Of sweet and quiet joy-there was the look How I lov'd That sat on her seven hills, Yet this is Rome, and, from her throne Of beauty, ruled the world! Yet we are Romans! Was greater than a king! And once again,— Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread The eternal city shall be free. The above address was written by Miss Mary Russel Mitford, and it is a most admirable piece for an elocutionary exercise. It requires sudden transitions of voice; in other words, the high, low, and middle keys of the voice are all heard in it. The talent displayed in the composition of the address, exhibits evidence of the high intellectual endowments of the writer. It shows, moreover, that ladies may wield as powerful a pen as men. 17. ADDRESS TO THE OCEAN.-Byron. 1. Oh! that the desert were my dwelling place, 2. There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, 3. Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean-roll! 4. Thou glorious mirror, where the Almighty's form Calm or convulsed-in breeze, or gale, or storm, Dark heaving;-boundless, endless, and sublime— Of the Invisible; even from out thy slime The monsters of the deep are made; each zone 5. And I have lov'd thee, Ocean! and my joy 6. My task is done-my song hath ceased-my theme The spell should break of this protracted dream. Which in my spirit dwelt, is fluttering, faint, and low George Gordon Byron, a nobleman of England, was born at Londo January 23, 1788, and died at Missilonghi, in Greece, April 20, 1824. His poetry relates to a great variety of subjects, and is of the highest literary order. At the early age of thirty-six, Lord Byron fell a martyr in the cause of freedom, while assisting the Greeks, in their virtuous struggle to throw off the shackles of despotism. It is a matter of regret, that his moral habits were not, in all respects, correct, and that some of his writings are apparently hostile to the pure principles of christianity. His address to the ocean is from "Childe Harold." It should be given on a middle key, with slow time, and long quantity. Elocution requires that it be so read or recited as to call up all the internal feelings which animated the author at the time he wrote it, in the minds of both reader and hearer. 18. SPEECH OF HENRY V. TO HIS TROOPS, BEFORE THE GATES OF HARFLEUR.-Shakspeare. 1. 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, But when the blast of war blows in our ears, O'erhang and jutty his confounded base, 2. Now set the teeth, and stretch the nostrils wide; 3. And teach them how to war! And you, good yeomen, That you are worth your breeding, which I doubt not; In the third line of the second verse of King Henry's speech, a rhetorical pause should be made, after uttering the word, "full,” thus: "To its full height." Rhetorical pauses should generally be short,-the quaver rest in music, is about their duration of time. They should however be longer or shorter, according to their sense. The object of the king was to stimulate his subjects to fight in his behalf; and his speech, excepting the third and fourth lines, requires a quick rate of utterance, and a very high key. 1 19. THE GRAVE.-James Montgomery. 1. There is a calm for those who weep, 2. The storm that wrecks the wintry sky, That shuts the rose 3. I long to lay this painful head 4. For misery stole me at my birth, Take home thy child. These elegant lines from Montgomery's beautiful poem, should be read or recited, on a very low key, with slow time, and long quantity. Rhetorical pauses should be made in the last line of each verse, after uttering the words, "low," "shuts," "all," and "home." 20. EXTRACT FROM A DISCOURSE ON THE GENIUS AND CHARACTER OF THE REV. HORACE HOLLEY.-Dr. Caldwell. 1. He sickened during the darkness and roar of a tempest, as fierce as the delirium by which his great intellect was destined to be shattered; and which shook, for a time, surrounding nature with a tumult as appalling, as the fearful convulsions amidst which he expired. 2. And he died after a short illness at sea, in the meridian of life, remote from medical aid, and from all connections and intimate friends, that might have soothed his sufferings and ministered to his wants; was attended in his sickness only by strangers, who were destitute alike of skill and means to |