NINTH LESSON

PART 1. DRILL

1. Physical Culture, Deep Breathing, and Voice Exercise. Review the exercises of Lesson Nine of the first term, page 40.

2. Articulation. Repeat distinctly and rapidly:

3. Pronunciation. Drill in words for the sounds of e and i, as in ever and ice (see page 217).

PART 2. EXPRESSION

THOUGHT DIRECTIONS (Continued)

It is well to bear in mind that if you have a clear idea of what you are expressing, the inflections of your voice are likely to be correct. You must learn to connect the thought of an extract properly in your mind, so that you will not allow your voice to fall where it should rise. Until you carefully analyze a passage to note the relation

of one sentence to another, you can not know for a certainty what to do with your voice. Each of the extracts hereunder should be studied with great care, and only after you feel reasonably sure that you have grasped the connected thought of the passage should you attempt to read it aloud.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTISE

1. For what purpose did the infinite Creator give existence to this majestic monument of His almighty power? For what purpose did He create the earth and the heavens, with all their unnumbered hosts? Was it not evidently that He might communicate happiness; and does not this design appear conspicuous on the open face of nature? What is the plain and unequivocal indication of all those marks of infinite wisdom and skilful contrivance in the general dispositions, and in all parts of surrounding nature? Is it not that the Creator of all things is infinitely good? Is there not a display of infinite goodness in the regular and harmonious disposition of the heavenly orbs? Instead of this beautiful order, why was there not the most horrible confusion? Instead of this benignant harmony of the spheres, why was there not a perpetual jar and the most disastrous concussion? Is there not a display of infinite goodness in the grandeur and beauty of the creation, so favorably adapted to elevate, to inspire with admiration, and fill with the purest pleasure the devout and contemplative mind? Why was not the whole creation so formed as only to excite amazement, terror and despair? Is there not a display of infinite goodness in the beautiful scenery of our globe-so agreeably diversified with continents and seas, islands and lakes, mountains and plains, hills and valleys, adapted to various beneficial purposes, and abounding with productions, in endless variety, for the convenience, the support, and the happiness of its diversified inhabitants?

"The Goodness of God."

WORCESTER.

2. I would not slight this wondrous world. I love its day and night. Its flowers and its fruits are dear to me. I would not wilfully lose sight of a departing cloud. Every year opens new beauty in a star, or in a purple gentian fringed with loveliness. The laws, too, of matter seem more wonderful the more I study them, in the whirling eddies of the dust, in the curious shells of former life buried by thousands in a grain of chalk, or in the shining diagrams of light above my head. Even the ugly becomes beautiful when truly seen. I see the jewel in the bunchy toad. The more I live, the more I love this lovely world; feel more its Author in each little thing-in all that's great. But yet I feel my immortality the more. In childhood the consciousness of immortal life buds forth feeble, tho full of promise. In the man it unfolds its fragrant petals, his most celestial flower, to mature its seed throughout eternity. The prospect of that everlasting life, the perfect justice yet to come, the infinite progress before us, cheer and comfort the heart. Sad and disappointed, full of self-reproach, we shall not be so forever. The light of heaven breaks upon the night of trial, sorrow, sin; the somber clouds which overhang the east, grown purple now, tell us the dawn of heaven is coming on. Our faces, gleamed on by that, smile in the new-born glow. We are beguiled of our sadness before we are aware. "Immortality."

THEODORE PARKER.

3. Among the legends of our late Civil War, there is a story of a dinner-party, given by the Americans residing in Paris, at which were propounded sundry toasts, concerning not so much the past and present as the expected glories of the great American nation. In the general character of these toasts, geographical considerations were very prominent, and the principal fact which seemed to occupy the minds of the speakers was the unprecedented bigness of our country.

"Here's to the United States!" said the first speaker, "bounded on the north by British America, on the south by the Gulf of Mexico, on the east by the Atlantic, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean!"

"But," said the second speaker, "this is far too limited a

view of the subject, and, in assigning our boundaries, we must look to the great and glorious future which is prescribed for us by the manifest destiny of the Anglo-Saxon race. Here's to the United States! bounded on the north by the North Pole, on the south by the South Pole, on the east by the rising, and on the west by the setting, sun!"

Emphatic applause greeted the aspiring prophecy. But here arose the third speaker, a very serious gentleman, from the far West. "If we are going," said this truly patriotic American, "to lessen the historic past and present, and take our manifest destiny into account, why restrict ourselves within the narrow limits assigned by our fellow countryman, who has just sat down? I give you the United States! bounded on the north by the Aurora Borealis, on the south by the procession of the equinoxes, on the east by the primeval chaos, and on the west by the Day of Judgment!"

"Bounding the United States."

JOHN FISKE.

4. Romans, countrymen, and lovers! hear me for my cause, and be silent, that you may hear: Believe me for mine honor, and have respect to mine honor, that you may believe; censure me in your wisdom, and awake your senses, that you may the better judge. If there be any in this assembly, any dear friend of Cæsar's, to him I say, that Brutus's love to Cæsar was no less than his. If, then, that friend demand why Brutus rose against Cæsar, this is my answer: not that I loved Cæsar less, but that I loved Rome more. Had you rather Cæsar were living, and die all slaves, than that Cæsar were dead, to live all freemen? As Cæsar loved me, I weep for him; as he was fortunate, I rejoice at it; as he was valiant, I honor him; but as he was ambitious, I slew him. There is tears for his love; joy for his fortune; honor for his valor, and death for his ambition. Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? If any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so rude that would not be a Roman? If any, speak, for him have I offended. Who is here so vile that will not love his country? If any, speak, for him have I offended. I pause for a reply. (All: None, Brutus, none!) Then none have I offended. I have done no more to

Cæsar than you shall do to Brutus. The question of his death is enrolled in the Capitol; his glory not extenuated, wherein he was worthy; nor his offenses enforced, for which he suffered death. (Enter Antony and others, with Cæsar's body.) Here comes his body, mourned by Mark Antony, who, tho he had no hand in his death, shall receive the benefit of his dying, a place in the commonwealth-as which of you shall not? With this I depart-that, as I slew my best lover for the good of Rome, I have the same dagger for myself, when it shall please my country to need my death.

"Julius Cæsar." Act III. Sc. 2.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE.