And millions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, have laid them down [From "The Morning Hymn." — Milton.] "These are thy glorious works, Parent of good, Thus wondrous fair- Thyself how wondrous, then! In these thy lowest works." AWE DISMAY – DESPAIR. [From "The Pestilence." -Porteus.] "At dead of night, In sullen, silence stalks forth PESTILENCE: All that they touch, or taste, or breathe, is DEATH!” MELANCHOLY GLOOM. [From "Hamlet."— Shakespeare.] NOTE. The first and second lines require Middle Pitch Ham. (R.) By-and-bye is easily said. [Exit Polonius, R. [Exeunt Rosencrantz & Guild., R. Leave me, friends. 'Tis now the very witching time of night; When church-yards yawn, and hell itself breathes out Would quake to look on. Soft-now to my mother, The soul of Nero enter this firm bosom: Let me be cruel- not unnatural: I will speak daggers to her, but use none. EXERCISES IN PITCH. 1. So much of the speaker's skill in the application of the other elements depends upon his command of every degree of pitch, that the following exercises are added to secure greater compass than is afforded by preceding examples. 2. Pronounce each name in the following list with pure tone, moderate force, radical stress, as you would if calling to the individuals situated at distances indicated by the number of feet opposite his name. Repeat the names in reverse order, and afterward promiscuously, always imagining the distance to which your voice is to be heard: 3. Begin with one and count to ten, starting with your lowest pitch, and ending with your highest. Reverse the order. Maintain a moderate force. the musical scale. 136. MOVEMENT. Avoid 1. Movement is the degree of rapidity or slowness with which words are uttered in continuous discourse. 2. Movement, like other elements of vocal expression, depends upon the nature of the thought to be spoken; and as the moods of mind, like an April sky, are constantly changing, -now buoyant with hope or exhilarated with joy, and anon sobered in serious contemplation or depressed by grief, there is necessarily little uniformity in the rate of human speech. 3. The slow and measured tread, timed in unison with the mournful dirge, suggests gloom and sorrow; while the lively step of the merry dancers in fling or reel, betray the utmost exhilaration of mind and body. "The grave psalm and the song of serious sentiment express, in their measured regularity, the adaptation of gentle and moderate movement to tranquil and sedate feeling." 4. A perfect command of every degree of movement is essential to correct and effective reading or speaking. Ignorance of this element gives the reading and declamation of our pupils that monotonous drawl which renders exercises so insipid and tedious to visitors. 5. Appropriate movement is indispensable in rousing and retaining the attention of an audience; hence, no pains should be spared to adapt the movement of every selection to the sentiment intended to be conveyed. 137. CLASSES OF MOVEMENT. The natural divisons of Movement are, RAPID, MODERATE and SLOW, with the further subdivisions of very rapid and very slow. 138. MODERATE MOVEMENT. 1. Moderate Movement is used in unimpassioned discourse, in the expression of narrative, descriptive and didactic thought. 2. The term "Moderate must not be understood as representing a uniform rate. It includes a rate of movement that is constantly varying with the sentiment between rapid and slow. 139. Examples: NARRATION. 61. ["Trial of Hastings." Macaulay.] On October 13, 1788, the sittings of the court commenced. The place was worthy of such a trial. It was the great hall of William Rufus - the hall which had resounded with the acclamations at the inauguration of thirty kings. Neither military nor civil pomp was wanting. The gray old walls were hung with scarlet. The long galleries were crowded by such an audience as has rarely excited the fears or the emulation of an orator. There were gathered together, from all parts of a great, free, enlightened, and prosperous empire, grace and female loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of every science and of every art. There were seated round the queen the fair-haired young daughters of the house of Brunswick. There the ambassadors of great kings and commonwealths gazed with admiration on a spectacle which no other country in the world could present. There Siddons, in the prime of her majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene surpassing all the imitations of the stage. There the historian of the Roman empire (Gibbon) thought of the days when Cicero plead the cause of Sicily against Verres, and when, before a Senate that still retained some show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the oppressor of Africa. There were seen, side by side, the greatest scholar and the greatest painter of the age. The spectacle had allured Reynolds from that easel which has preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads of so many writers and statesmen, and the sweet smiles of so many noble matrons. It had induced Parr to suspend his labors in that dark and profound mine from which he had extracted a vast treasure of erudition. DESCRIPTION. ["Gibraltar.". - Mark Twain.] We were approaching the famed Pillars of Hercules, and already the African one, "Ape's Hill," a grand old mountain with summit streaked with granite ledges, was in sight. The ancients considered the Pillars of Hercules the head |