ONE HAND VERTICAL-ASCENDING 1. We pray Thee, turn away Thy displeasure. 2. Oh, forbid it, Heaven! 3. An appeal to arms, and to the God of Hosts is all that is left us! 4. And he said: "Fight on! Fight on!" 5. Sir, before God, I believe the hour is come. 6. The wild cataract leaps in glory. 7. Blow on! This is the land of Liberty! 8. Get thee back into the tempest and the night's Plutonian shore! 9. Unreal mockery, hence! BOTH HANDS VERTICAL-ASCENDING 1. Advance, then, ye future generations! 2. O ye loud waves! and O ye forests high! 3. Avert, O God, the awful calamity! 4. Angels and ministers of grace, defend us! 5. O horror, horror, horror! 6. And the battle-thunder broke from them all! 7. Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds. 8. Burst are the prison bars. 9. Victory! Victory! Victory! is the shout! MISCELLANEOUS EXERCISES 1. I defy him! let him come! 2. For Heaven's sake, Hubert, let me not be bound! 3. By this time to-morrow thou shalt have France, or I, thy head! 4. My happy heart with rapture swells. 5. Sail forth into the sea, O ship! 6. Ah! distinctly I remember, it was in the bleak December, And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor. 7. I see the silent ocean of the past. 8. Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance of war, Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and King Henry of Navarre! 9. King Robert crossed both hands upon his breast And meekly answered him: "Thou knowest best." 10. I feel to-day, as if I would give all, provided I through fifty years might reach and kill and bury that half-minute speech. 11. I care not how high his station, how low his character, how contemptible his speech; whether a privy councillor or a parasite, -my answer would be a blow! 12. Read this declaration at the head of the army,—every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor! 13. When a wind from the lands they had ruin'd awoke from sleep, And the water began to heave and the weather to moan, And a wave like the wave that is raised by an earthquake grew, Till it smote on their hulls and their sails and their masts and their flags, And the whole sea plunged and fell on the shot-shatter'd navy of Spain, And the little Revenge herself went down by the island crags, To be lost evermore in the main. 14. I am, sir, sensible—I am, indeed, that, tho I should -want-words-I must proceed; and, for the first time in my life, I think I think-that-no great orator should shrink;and, therefore, Mr. Speaker, I for one will speak out freely. Sir, I've not yet done. Sir, in the name of those enlightened men who sent me here to speak for them-why then, to do my duty as I said before—to my constituency-I'll say no more. 15. Yet out of this mixed, and, as you say, despicable mass, he forged a thunderbolt, and hurled it at what? ness. CHAPTER VIII PAUSING The intelligent use of pausing contributes very materially to artistic and effective speech. It discloses a speaker's method of thinking, and its possibilities are almost as varied as thought itself. Rapid utterance, unless employed specifically to portray hasty action, is usually a sign of shallowThe speaker fails to weigh or measure his thought, and skims over its surface in undue anxiety to express what is in his mind. The school-boy "speaking his piece" on Friday afternoon furnishes a good illustration of meaningless declamation. He rushes through his lines with breathless haste, oftentimes gabbling the last few words while resuming his seat. Correct pausing is the result of clear thinking. As a usual thing long pauses indicate importance and depth of thought. Its basis is that used by a good speaker in conversation. In the discussion or expression of the weighty and important truths of a regular discourse, a trained speaker will generally use a slower movement and appropriately longer pauses. Grammatical punctuation shows the construction, but is not always an accurate guide for the speaker or reader. There are numerous shades of pausing, from the slightest spiritual separation of words to very long intervals of time. These must be determined by the thought, the occasion, and the speaker's intelligence. Nor is a pause merely "an interval of time." A speaker is here occupied as fully as when actually expressing words. His |