ORDINARY LIVELY TONE.
Bird of the wilderness,

Blithesome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o'er moorland and lea!

Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place-
Oh to abide in the desert with thee!

ORDINARY GRAVE TONE.
What hid'st thou in thy treasure-caves and cells,

Thou hollow-sounding and mysterious main ?
Pale glistening pearls, and rainbow-colour'd shells,

Bright things which gleam unreck'd of, and in vain. Keep, keep thy riches, Melancholy Sea!

We ask not such from thee..

THE High TONE OF DELIGHT. An Orpheus ! an Orpheus ! he works on the crowd, He sways them with harmony merry and loud ; He fills with his power all their hearts to the brim, Was aught ever heard like his fiddle and him ?

THE HIGH TONE OF BRAVERY AND CONFIDENCE.

Then out spake brave Horatius,

The captain of the gate :
“ To every man upon this earth

Death cometh soon or late.
And how can man die better

Than facing fearful odds,
For the ashes of his fathers

And the temples of his gods ?

“Hew down the bridge, Sir Consul,

With all the speed ye may;
I, with two more to help me,

Will hold the foe in play.
In yon strait path a thousand

May well be stopp'd by three.
Now, who will stand on either hand,

And keep the bridge with me?"

The High TONE OF PATRIOTISY. Ye crags and peaks, I'm with you once again! I hold to you the hands you first beheld, To show they still are free. Jethinks 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, do 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 though I could embrace you!

The Low TONE OF SORROW FOR THE DEAD. Not a drum was heard, not a funeral note,

As his corse to the rampart we hurried; Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot

O’er the grave where our hero was buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,

The sods with our bayonets turning,
By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,

And the lantern dimly burning.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down

From the field of his fame, fresh and gory, We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone,

But we left him alone with his glory.

THE LOW TONE OF MYSTERIOUS WARNING. Lochiel ! Lochiel ! beware of the day When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle array! For a field of the dead rushes red on my sight, And the clans of Culloden are scatter'd in fight!

Lochiel ! Lochiel ! beware of the day!
For dark and despairing my sight I may seal,
But man cannot cover what God would reveal:
'Tis the sunset of life gives me mystical lore,
And coming events cast their shadows before.

V. TIME. This head has reference to the slow or rapid utterance with which passages must be pronounced. In the first three verses of 6 Waterloo” we have a sufficiently good illustration of slow, ordinary, and quick time.

EXERCISES.

Slow TIME.
Stop! for thy tread is on an Empire's dust!

An earthquake's spoil is sepulchred below!
Is the spot mark'd with no colossal bust,

Or column trophied for triumphal show?
None; but the moral's truth tells simpler so.

As the ground was before, thus let it be ;-
How that red rain hath made the harvest grow!

And is this all the world has gain'd by thee,
Thou first and last of fields ! King-making victory?

ORDINARY TIME.
There was a sound of revelry by night,

And Belgium's capital had gather'd then
Her beauty and her chivalry; and bright

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men;
A thousand hearts beat happily, and when

Music arose with its voluptuous swell,
Soft eyes look'd love to eyes which spake again,

And all went merry as a marriage bell ;-
But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell !

QUICK TIME.
Did ye not hear it? No; 'twas but the wind,

Or the car rattling o'er the stony street.
On with the dance ! let joy be unconfined !

No sleep till morn, when youth and pleasure meet
To chase the glowing hours with flying feet-

But, hark !-that heavy sound breaks in once more,
As if the clouds its echo would repeat;

And nearer, clearer, deadlier than before !
Arm! arm ! it is-it is—the cannon's opening roar!

VI. PAUSE. The pause is one of the most effective elements in reading and recitation. Its importance cannot be sufficiently impressed upon the pupil. Besides the rest which the voice naturally takes at the marks of punctuation, there are places between these where the pupil should be accustomed to pause. We name some, leaving teachers to fix others as they think proper.

(1.) After introductory conjunctions. (2.) Between the subject and the predicate. (3.) After the subject or object, when followed by an adjective with words dependent on it. (4.) After two or more adjectives preceding a simple subject except the last. (5.) Before and after some prepositional phrases. (6.) Before the relatives. (7.) Before the conjunction that. (8.) Before the infinitive when separated from its governing verb. (9.) At an ellipsis.

POETICAL READINGS AND RECITATIONS.

I

BROWNING.

THE PIED PIPER OF HAMELIN.

(1.) THE RATS. HAMELIN town's in Brunswick, By famous Hanover city;

The river Weser, deep and wide,
Washes its wall on the southern side ;

A pleasanter spot you never spied ;
But, when begins my ditty,

Almost five hundred years ago,
To see the townsfolk suffer so

From vermin was a pity.
Rats!

They fought the dogs, and kill'd the cats,

And bit the babies in the cradles,
And ate the cheeses out of the vats,

And lick'd the soup from the cook's own ladles,
Split open the kegs of salted sprats,
Made nests inside men's Sunday hats,
And even spoil'd the women's chats,

By drowning their speaking

With shrieking and squeaking
In fifty different sharps and flats.