in the relative movement of the voice throughout the whole compass of the intervals. This governing note may, and often does, vary in different individuals, according to circumstances; but still it will be found sufficiently exact for all purposes.

4. The voice should be vigorously exercised on all the intervals, both above and below this "key-note;" and, cost what it may, the pupil must persevere, till he can give full and distinct utterance, in well-defined stress and in gracefullyextended time, to sentiments on any of the intervals, either high or low, or he never can read well. This, then, is an elementary condition in good reading; it is that upon which other excellences may be engrafted; nay, the whole of the other excellences of the voice combined will not be a substitute sufficient to remedy this defect.

5. It often happens that the sentiments vary in such a manner, that the voice must rise or fall through two or more consecutive intervals; and this movement is denominated the

concrete pitch.” On the other hand, the sentiments may vary to such a degree, that the voice must skip suddenly from one interval to a remote one; and when this takes place, the movement is denominated the “discrete pitch.” This movement will be more fully and properly considered under a subsequent head, when the principles of transition will be explained and illustrated.

6. Spirited declamation, brisk, animated, lively sentiments, and exciting narrative, beautiful poetic description, and all the tender and pathetic emotions, are appropriately uttered on the higher intervals ; but sentiments expressive of the sterner emotions, together with those of dignity, force, reverence, solemnity, awe, terror, consternation, and others of a kindred nature, are appropriately uttered on the lower intervals.

7. All these must, of course, require a certain degree of force and stress, and a gracefully-extended quantity, in connection with other vocal elements, by which the speaker is enabled to set forth the exquisite fineness of emotion and the intricate subtilties of thought.

8. The following diagram is designed to show on what intervals the above-named sentiments and emotions are uttered. The intervals on which the voice gives utterance to sentiments and intensity to the thoughts, except those of grief, are the third, fifth, and the octave above and below the “ keynote.”

EXERCISES ON THE DIFFERENT INTERVALS IN THE ABOVE

DIAGRAM.

Spirited Declamation.

9. “He woke to hear his sentry's shriek —

• To arms! They come! The Greek! the Greek.'

10. “Strike - till the last armed foe expires;

Strike — for your altars and your fires;
Strike — for the green graves of your sires,

God, and your rative land."

11

On, then, hussars! Now give themi rein and heel !

Think of the orphan child, the murdered sire. Earth cries for blood. In thunder on them wheel' This hour to Europe's fate shall set the triumph seal

Gay, Brisk, and Humorous Description.

14 “Last came Joy's ecstatic trial.

He, with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand addressed;
But soon he saw the brisk, awakening viol,

Whose sweet, entrancing sound he loved the best 15. “I come, I come ! - Ye have called ine long.

I come o'er the mountains with light and song.
Ye may trace my step o'er the wakening earth,

By the winds which tell of the violet's birth.” 16 “ 'Then I see Queen Mab hath been with you.

She comes,
In shape no bigger than an agate stone
On the forefinger of an alderman,
Drawn by a team of little atomies
Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web;
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams,
Her whip, of cricket's bone; the lash, of film;
Her wagoner, a small, gray-coated gnat.
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers.
And in this state she gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love ;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O’er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream.
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit ;
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose, as he lies asleep;
Then dreams he of another benefice.
Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck;
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throata,

Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep; and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts and wakes,
And, being thus frighted, mutters a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.”

Ordinary Declamation.

17. “I deem it my duty, on this occasion, to suggest, that the land is not yet wholly free from the contamination of a traffic at which every feeling of humanity must revolt.”

18. “Let the consequences be what they may, I am determined to proceed. The only principles of public conduct which are worthy of a man, are to sacrifice estate, health, ease, applause, even life, at the sacred call of his country."

Unimpassioned Narrative.

19. “ There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was perfect and upright, and one that feared God and eschewed evil.”

Dignified Sentiments.

20. “Sir, in the most express terms, I deny the competency of parliament to do this act. I warn you, do not dare to lay your hand on the constitutions. I tell you, that if, circumstanced as you are, you pass this act, it will be a nullity, and no man in Ireland will be bound to obey it. I make the assertion deliberately. I repeat it, and call on any man who hears me to take down my words. You bave not been elected for this purpose. You are appointed to make aws, not legislatures."

Solemn and Impressive Thoughts.

21. “It must be so ;— Plato, thou reasonest well.

Else whence this pleasing hope, this fond desire,
This longing after immortality ?
Or whence this secret dread, and inward horror,
Of falling into nought? Why shrinks the soul
Back on herself, and startles at destruction ?

Tis the divinity that stirs within us ,
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates eternity to man.
Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought !
Through what variety of untried being,
Through what new scenes and changes, must we pass!
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me ;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness rest upon it."

22. “ Night, — sable goddess, — from her ebon throne,

In rayless majesty, now stretches forth
Her leaden sceptre o'er a slumbering world.
Silence how dead! and darkness how profound'
Nor eye, nor listening ear, an object finds.
Creation sleeps. 'Tis as the general pulse
Of life stood still, and nature made a pause
An awful pause, prophetic of her end!”

23. “A sense of duty pursues us ever. It is omnipresent like the Deity. If we take to ourselves the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, duty performed or duty violated is still with us, for our happiness or our misery. If we say the darkness shall cover us, in the darkness as in the light our obligations are yet with us. We cannot escape their power, nor fly from their presence. They are with us in life, will be with us at its close; and in that scene of inconceivable solemnity, which lies yet farther onward, we shall find ourselves surrounded by the consciousness of duty to pain us wherever it has been violated, and to console us so far as God may have given us grace to perform it.”

Deep Solemnity, Awe, Consternation.