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2. 'Tis the star-spangled banner! O, long may .t wave O'er the land of the free, and the home of the brave!

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O Conspiracy!

Sham'st thou to show thy dangerous brow by night,

When evils are most free? O, then, by day,

Where wilt thou find a cavern, dark enough

To mask thy monstrous visage? Seek none, Conspiracy!
Hide it in smiles and affability;

For if thou put thy native semblance on,

Not Erebus itself were dim enough

To hide thee from prevention.

QUALITY.

1. QUALITY has reference to the kind of sound ex• pressed.

2. Sounds may differ as essentially in quality as in pitch or quantity. The sounds produced on the clarinet and flute, may accord in pitch and quantity, yet it is easy to discover a difference between them. This difference consists in the quality of the respective sounds.

3. Quality in the voice, is distinguished by the terms harsh, smooth, nasal, guttural, rough, hard, shrill, round, &c.

4. The voice is susceptible of as great an improvement in quality, as in other respects. Though naturally some voices are more melodious in quality than others, yet all may be improved by proper discipline'; and harsh, uncouth tones may be rendered smooth and musical.

5. WHISPERING is a quality of voice, which consists merely of a gentle effusion of the breath. It is unlike a tone, or vocal emission of the voice, from the fact that it is hardly susceptible of any variation in pitch, though it is in quantity-being soft or loud according to circumstances. Frequently the whispering quality of voice, may render the enunciation of a sentiment, peculiarly forcible and impressive. The following are among the numerous passages which require the whispering

voice.

What is meant by Quality? By what terms is the quality in voice distinguished? What is said of the whispering quality of voice?

EXAMPLES.

1. Peace, break thee off-look, where it comes again. 2. He sinks-while scarce his struggling breath

Hath power to falter-This is death!'

3. To-morrow! Some ere now have slept and dreamt
Of morrows which ne'er dawned,-
-or ne'er for them,
So silently their deep and still repose

Hath melted into death!

LESSON VIII.

EXPRESSION.

1. THE peculiar modulations of the voice necessary to express the various passions and emotions of the mind, constitute EXPRESSION.

2. To express any emotion, requires its own peculiar modification of voice. When properly expressed, it begets its like in the minds of the auditors; kindness, feelings of kindness; sorrow, those of sorrow; anger, of anger. Though it may be difficult fully to entertain any emotion to be expressed, yet if it is uttered in the peculiar style which nature dictates, even though it be by imitation, the expression will not fail to excite like emotion in the minds of the hearers.

3. To determine the peculiarities of the voice, in expressing any emotion, it is necessary to understand those which the passion, really felt, dictates. For instance, all have observed that sorrow, or excessive grief, expresses itself in short, broken, and elevated effusions of the voice; while anger speaks in a low, firm tone. This observation of natural expressions, is the only method of determining the peculiarity of voice, which is adapted to express any emotion.

4. For practice, several examples are here subjoined, designed to express some of the passions or emotions of the mind; and some of the modulations to be adopted in the voice, are designated by the following

What is Expression? What is requisite in expressing emotions of the mind?

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1. (sl.) The sun hath set in folded clouds,---

Its twilight rays are gone;

And, (o) gathered in the shades of night,

(00) The storm is rolling on.

(pl.) Alas! how ill that bursting storm

(>) The fainting spirit braves,

(p.) When they,-the lovely and the lost,-
Are gone to early grāves!

(pl.)

SADNESS.

2. (p.) My life is like the summer rose
That opens to the morning sky,
(opl.) But ere the shades of evening close,

Is scattered on the ground-(>) to die'!

(p.) My life is like the autumn leaf

.

That trembles in the moon's pale råy;
('') Its hold is frail,-its date is brief,-

Restless,-(o) and soon to pass away!
My life is like the prints which feet

Have left on Tampa's desert strand;--
(o) Soon as the rising tide shall beat,--
(o>) All trace will vanish from the sand!

ANIMATION.

3. () The summer is come; she hath said, (°) "Rejoice!" The woods thrill to her merry voice;

Her sweet breath is wandering around.—on high;

(0) Sing, sing through the echoing sky!

* This Notation in part is the same as that employed in Porter's Rhetorical works

(

) There is joy in the mountain-the bright waves leap,
Like the bounding stag when he breaks from sleep;

('') · Mirthfully, wildly, they flash along—

Let the heavens ring with song!

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5.

(0°) Arm! thou leader of the north!

(0°) Make ready for the charge!

They come-they come !-On to the field!
The word is VENGEANCE!

CAUTION.

6. (pp.) Hush! lightly tread! still tranquilly she sleeps;-I've watched, suspending e'en my breath, in fear

To break the heavenly spell. Move silently!

SUBLIMITY.

7. (o) O thou vast Ocean!-ever sounding sea! Thou symbol of a dread immensity!

8.

(oo) Thy voice is like the thunder (op.) and thy sleep Is as a giant's slumber, loud and deep.

I love to wander on thy pebbled beach,

Marking the sunlight at the evening hour,

And hearken to the thoughts thy waters teach

(oo) "Eternity, eternity, and power.”

FEAR.

Cicero. Why are you breathless?—and why stare you so?
Casca.- Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth

(=) Shakes, like a thing unfirm? O Cicero !

I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds Have riv'd the knotty oaks; and I have seen (o=) The ambitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam, To be exalted with the threatening clouds; But never till to-night, never till now, (>) Did I go through tempests dropping fire.

IMPATIENCE,-DETERMINATION,-MILDNESS. 9. ('') Ah! when shall mad ambition cease to rage

Ah! when shall war his demon-wrath assuage? When, WHEN, supplanting discord's iron reign, (sl.) Shall Mercy wave her olive-wand again? (o) Not till the despot's dread career is closed, And might restrained, and tyranny deposed!

10.

(p.) Return, sweet Peace, ethereal form benign!
Fair blue-eyed seraph! balmy power divine!
Descend once more! thy hallowed blessings bring,
Wave thy bright locks, and spread thy downy wing!
Luxuriant Plenty laughing in thy train,

Shall crown with glowing stores the desert-plain;
Young smiling Hope, attendant on thy way,
Shall gild thy path with mild celestial ray.
Descend once more, thou daughter of the sky!
(=) Cheer every heart, and brighten every eye;

Descend once more! to bid the world rejoice-
Let nations hail thee with exulting voice;
Around thy shrine with purest incense throng,
Weave the fresh palm, and swell the choral song!
Then shall the shepherd's flute, the woodland reed,
(。) The martial clarion and the drum succeed;
(p.) Again shall bloom Arcadia's fairest flowers,
And music warble in Idalian bowers.

(o) Where war and carnage blew the blast of death,
(pp.) The gale shall whisper with Favonian breath;
And golden Ceres bless the festive swain,

('') Where the wild combat reddened o'er the plain.
These are thy blessings, fair benignant maid!
Return, return, in vest of light arrayed!
Let angel-forms and floating sylphides bear
Thy car of sapphire through the realms of air,
(pp.) With accents milder than Æolian lays,

When o'er the harp the fanning zephyr plays;
Be thine to charm the raging world to rest,
Diffusing round the heaven-that glows within thy breast

DEFIANCE.

Canst thou, supreme Destroy'er! hope to bind,

(。) In chains of adamant, the noble mind?
(<) Go, bid the rolling orbs thy mandate hear,
Go, stay the lightning in its winged career!
(<) No, tyrant! no, thy utmost force is vain,
The patriot-arm of freedom to restrain.

NOTE. Although, to a limited extent, a notation may some times prove advantageous, yet the reader should be governed, in the modulation of his voice, primarily by the sense. By a strict regard to notation instead of sentiment or emotion, the style of reading is rendered arbitrary, measured, and mechanical—a style above all others to be avoided.

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