ADVANCED COURSE FIRST LESSON PART 1. DRILL 1. Physical Culture, Deep Breathing, and Voice Exercise. Review the exercises of Lesson One of the first term, page 3. 2. Articulation. Repeat distinctly and rapidly: 3. Pronunciation. Drill in words for the sound of a, as in mate (see page 211). PART 2. EXPRESSION THOUGHT VALUES The vitality of speech depends principally upon emphasis and feeling. The thought back of the word determines its value, hence your first object in reading should be to ascertain the author's meaning. When you clearly see the relation of one thought to another, you will know which words are to be emphasized, and which to be subordinated. Good reading, therefore, has its basis in correct thinking. It is impossible to read intelligently to another what you yourself do not understand. If you are in doubt about the word to emphasize, ask questions of the author-who? which why? where ?-or transpose the passage, or, better still, try to express the thought in your own words. Once you have the thought, the proper emphasis will follow as a matter of course. EXAMPLES FOR PRACTISE 1. There is first the literature of knowledge; and secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is to teach; the function of the second is-to move. The first is a rudder, the second an oar or a sail. The first speaks to the mere discursive understanding; the second speaks ultimately, it may happen, to the higher understanding or reason, but always through affections of pleasure and sympathy. "Essays on the Poets." THOMAS DE QUINCEY. 2. Blest are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blest are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted. Blest are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth. Blest are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled. Blest are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. Blest are the pure in heart: for they shall see God. Blest are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. Blest are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. "St. Matthew, 5:3-10." THE BIBLE. 3. Talent is something, but tact is everything. Talent is serious, sober, grave, and respectable; tact is all that, and more, too. It is not a sixth sense, but it is the life of all the five. It is the open eye, the quick ear, the judging taste, the keen smell, and the lively touch; it is the interpreter of all riddles, the surmounter of all difficulties, the remover of all obstacles. It is useful in all places, and at all times; it is useful in solitude, for it shows a man his way into the world; it is useful in society, for it shows him his way through the world. "Tact and Talent." ANONYMOUS. 4. It was in the mid-splendor of the reign of the Emperor Commodus. The rumor was abroad in Rome that a most startling scene would be enacted at the circus, and the vast building was crowded at an early hour. Commodus sat on a high, richly cushioned throne about midway one side of the vast enclosure. Soon a young man and young woman, their hands bound together behind them, were led forth upon the sand of the arena and forced to walk around the entire circumference of the place. They were left standing on the sand, distant about one hundred and twenty feet from the emperor, who arose, and in a loud voice said: "Behold the condemned Claudius, and Cynthia whom he lately took for wife! The crime for which they are to die is a great one. Claudius has proclaimed that he is a better archer than I, Commodus, am. I am the emperor and the incomparable archer of Rome! Whoever disputes it dies, and his wife dies with him! It is decreed!" "The Doom of Claudius and Cynthia." MAURICE THOMPSON. 5. It is of vital importance to our success and pleasure in reading that the books which we read should be well written. It is also a prime necessity that our ideal of what good writing is should be just and elevated. Next to bad morals in writing should be ranked bad manners in dictions, or an infelicitous style. Awkwardness may be excused, and even accepted as an excellence, when it betokens sincerity and directness of aim; but vulgarity, affectation, vituperation, and bullyism, as well as "great swelling words of vanity," and lofty airs of pompous declamation, whether of the Asiatic and Oriental, or the American and Occidental type; whether heard in the harangue from the hustings, in the sermon from the pulpit, or in the speech to the universe in the legislature; whether written in the newspaper or the essay-are more nearly akin to moral defects than |