Wailings around and overhead, 50. Brave spirits stupified or dead, And madness and despair. Now is the ocean's bosom bare, The ship hath melted quite away, But the new-risen sun and the sunny sky. Though the night-shades are gone, yet a vapour dull Bedims the waves so beautiful; 60. While a low and melancholy moan Mourns for the glory that hath flown. The principal changes of tone, in the reading or reciting of this piece, are the following.-The commencing strain is that of admiration caused by sublimity and strength. The tone therefore is deep, and forcible, and somewhat slow. This tone pervades the first three lines;--its peculiar qualities all increasing in degree till the close of the third. The first change takes place in passing to the style of calm and beautiful description, in the fourth and fifth lines; the tone becoming soft, and passing into the middle pitch and moderate rate. The tone of admiration is resumed in the sixth line, and is strengthened by the addition of that of exultation, approaching to that of vaunting or boasting. The change of voice is to low but loud and rather rapid utterance, increasing gradually in the seventh and eighth lines. In the ninth line, there is a sudden transition to the language of solemn rebuke. The voice passes to a very low pitch, slow utterance, and suppressed force. At the middle of the same line, there is a perceptible change produced by the manner of solemn and emphatic assertion; the tone becoming more energetic and more slow, and falling still lower. The commencing strain of the tenth line, is in the manner of solemn and emphatic description. The tone accordingly differs from that of the closing part of the preceding line only in raising the pitch; the force and slowness of utterance remaining nearly as before. At the phrase, "in one instant of dread," there is a sudden change to rapidity, from the nature of the event introduced, and to low and forcible utterance from the same cause; the tone indicating the highest degree of vehement excitement, arising from the abrupt introduction of circumstances of terror and agitation. This tone continues throughout the next line, but is greatly heightened in all its characteristic qualities, by the emotion of terror, caused by the rapid consummation of the catastrophe described. The tone of the twelfth line, is that of grief and regret. The voice, therefore, becomes slow, rises to a higher pitch than before, and is moderate in the force of utterance. The manner of emphatic description is added to this general tone in the next line; the pitch accordingly falls, and the force is much increased. The fourteenth line introduces particular and vivid description, which is gradually heightened in the next three lines. The tone of agitation returns to some extent; and the voice deepens, and becomes more and more rapid and forcible, as it proceeds. In the eighteenth line, the pathetic manner begins to mingle with the description; and the rate of voice becomes slow, rises to a higher strain, and has its force very much subdued. The pathetic qualities of the tone increase in the next line, and still more in the twentieth. The deeper tone and still slower utterance, but greater force, of regret, prevail in the twenty first line. The pathetic tone returns in the twenty-second line, and brings back the voice to a strain rather higher in its notes, gentler in its force, and more languid in its movement. The poetic beauty of style in the next three lines, gives occasion for a still more pathetic tone, as the description expands. The twenty-sixth line introduces a circumstance of awe in the description; and the voice sinks to a lower note, and the utterance acquires force. The poetic beauty of the description, blending with the tone of awe in the next line, produces a slower and gentler strain of expression. The manner of deep grief, pervades the twentyeighth line; and the change of voice is to low and slow, yet forcible expression. The same general style characterizes the next three lines. In the thirty-second line, the language commences a strain of poetic and beautiful description, associated with circumstances of pathos. Force is repressed in the tone; the voice rises to the middle pitch; and the rate of utterance is still slow. This style continues till the close of the thirty-seventh line. Joy, mingling with pathos, is the succeeding class of emotions. The tone increases in force, and takes a livelier and quicker utterance. In the thirty-ninth and fortieth lines, however, the tone of tenderness predominates; diminishing the vivacity, and consequently reducing the force, but raising the note, and rendering the movement more slow. Through the next three lines, the same tones prevail, but marked still more strikingly by the characteristics of tenderness, on the one hand, and joy on the other. The forty-fourth line commences with a sudden and abrupt change to the tone of terror,-producing the deepest notes, and the most forcible and rapid utterance combined. The tone of horror succeeds in the next line, which is comparatively slow, but deep and energetic. The tone of amazement follows, which runs on higher notes, and a quicker rate, and rather less forcible utterance. The high and hurried tone of agitation and confusion, pervades the forty-seventh line. The tone becomes somewhat slower in the next line, and falls a few notes; as the previous agitation is displaced, for a moment, by the tone of sublimity and awe, arising from the contemplation of the pending catastrophe, as connected with the number of victims. The In the forty-ninth line, the tone changes to that of deep grief in strong expression :-the utterance is on middle notes, but loud and slow. In the next line, the tone of amazement and confusion, is introduced. utterance assumes a quicker rate, a more abrupt force, and a lower note. The tone of utter horror succeeds, in the next line; and the voice falls to its lowest notes, but acquires the utmost force with a rate much slower. The language of the piece returns, in the fiftysecond line, to the style of calm description, but blended with the tone of awe, from the nature of the circumstances that have preceded. The voice rises to the middle pitch nearly; the degree of force is slight; and the rate of utterance is very slow. The same general tone pervades the three succeeding lines; becoming somewhat slower, lower, and more forcible, as the description advances to circumstances of awe. The slow and distinct manner of solemnity, prevails in the fifty-sixth and fifty-seventh lines. The mood of gloom and melancholy commences in the fifty-eighth line, and runs through the fifty-ninth, but moderated by the tone of beautiful description. The voice sinks to a low and slow strain, but sustained by a moderate force. In the sixtieth line, the preceding tone becomes very deep, and peculiarly slow; the force diminishing as the emotions of gloom and melancholy are deepened by those of awe and grief; the poetic beauty of description, however, still softening, to some extent, the whole character of the tone, and preventing any approach to harshness or abruptness. To cultivate rightly the powers of expression in young learners, exercises in the above manner of explanatory analysis, should be practised, with the aid of the teacher, on every piece which is read as a lesson on tones. Nor will this prove a difficult task to pupils of the age supposed to have been attained by those who make use of this volume, if the exercise is never attempted on pieces not adapted to the taste and feelings of youth. Generally, however, it would be advisable that the teacher should allow his pupils the benefit of full illustration, by his performing this exercise frequently, in the way of example, before it is made a regular lesson for classes or individuals. * The limits prescribed to an elementary book, render it impossible to extend the analysis to further examples. The specimen, however, which has been given, may perhaps be sufficient to suggest the kind of exercise intended. The great object of such practice is to draw the attention of learners to the various states of mind, or moods of feeling, which produce modulation and other changes of tone; that these mental circumstances may, on any occasion, be readily and distinctly recognised; and that their appropriate tones may be inseparably associated with them. Reading may thus be made a matter of understanding and true feeling, instead of being, as it now too generally is, a matter of mere mechanical routine; and elocution may become what it should be,-an intellectual accomplishment, and not an artificial acquirement. 1 CADENCE. General Observations, The completion of a thought is expressed, not only by the long pause which takes place at the end of a sentence, but, usually, by a falling of the voice, on the closing words, to a lower pitch. than that which prevailed in the body of the sentence. This closing descent in the tone, is termed cadence. Its use is to prevent the abruptness and irregularity of sound which would be produced by continuing the prevailing pitch to the close of the sentence,—a tone which would have the effect of exciting expectation of farther expression, and would therefore be at variance both with harmony and sense. The cadence, when appropriately used, produces to the ear the effect of the full formation or completion of sentiment. It is among the chief sources of harmony and variety in speech, and forms a true and chaste ornament in reading. The absence of it, in circumstances where it is required, gives an indefinite and wandering tone to the termination of a sentence; while, on the other hand, a uniform and mechanical use of it, gives to reading that unmeaning, formal, and tedious style, which distinguishes its tones from the natural, animated, and varied expression of the voice in conversation, |