Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

an indispensable means of natural expression and true effect in reading or speaking. The difference between vivid and dull or flat utterance will often turn upon the exactness with which this expressive function of the voice is exerted."- Russell.

"Ye gods, it doth amaze me,

A man of such a feeble temper should
So get the start of the majestic world,

And bear the palm alone."

Cassius to Brutus.- JULIUS CESAR.

"Pile my ship with bars of silver-pack with coins of Spanish gold,
From keel-piece up to deck plank, the roomage of her hold,
By the living God who made me! — I would sooner in your bay
Sink ship and crew and cargo than bear this child away!"

THE BALLAD OF CASSANDRA SOUTWICK.— Whittier.

"Deserted! - Cowards! Traitors! Let me free

But for a moment! I relied on you;

Had I relied upon myself alone,

I had kept them still at bay! I kneel to you

Let me but loose a moment, if 't is only

To rush upon your swords."

Icilius, in VIRGINIUS.- Sheridan Knowles.

Thorough Stress is stress laid upon the concrete sound throughout its whole course.

"This stress, when applied to long syllabic quantity or to continuous speech, is a sign of rudeness and vulgarity. By destroying the natural structure of the vanishing concrete, it banishes this refined spirit, and allpervading grace and delicacy of the human voice."- Rush.

"Thorough Stress is one of the most powerful weapons of oratory, but if indiscriminately used, it becomes ineffective, as savoring of the habit and mannerism of the individual, rather than of just or appropriate energy. Under such circumstances, it becomes rant, and when joined, as it sometimes is, to the habit of mouthing,' it can excite nothing but disgust."

"If I were an American, as I am an Englishman, while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never would lay down my arms! -never! never! never!"- Wm. Pitt.

"What in the world he is

That names me traitor, villain like he lies:
Call by thy trumpet: he that dares approach,
On him, on you,- who not? I will maintain

My truth and honor firmly."- Edmund, in KING Lear.

"Call me their traitor! - Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thine hands clutched as many millions, in
Thy lying tongue both numbers, I would say,
Thou liest, unto thee, with a voice as free
As I do pray the gods."- CORIOLANUS.

"He called so loud, that all the hollow deep
Of Hell resounded. Princes, Potentates,
Warriors, the flow'r of heav'n, once yours, now lost,
Is such astonishment as this can seize

Eternal spirits; or have ye chos'n this place
After the toil of battle to repose

Your wearied virtue, for the ease you find
To slumber here, as in the vales of Heaven?
Or in this abject posture have ye sworn
To adore the conqueror? who now beholds
Cherub and Seraph rolling in the flood
With scatter'd arms and ensigns, till anon
His swift pursuers from heav'n gates discern
Th' advantage, and descending tread us down
Thus drooping, or with linked thunderbolts
Transfix us to the bottom of this gulf.
Awake, arise, or be for ever fall'n."

Satan's Speech to his Legions.—PARADISE LOST.

The following plan, suggested by Prof. Russell, for teachers who are instructing classes, who will find great aid in the use of the blackboard, is for the purpose of visible illustration, in regard to the character and effect of the different species of stress.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Let

represent the radical stress on the sound of a in the word all, in the following example of authoritative command: " Attend ALL!

[ocr errors]

the vanishing stress on the same element of impatience and

3

displeasure: "I said ALL, not one or two."on the same element, in reverence and adoration. tures in His praise!

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

the median stress "Join ALL ye crea

the tremor

the compound stress in astonishment and surprise: "What ALL! did they ALL fail?" — the thorough stress in defiance: "Come one-come ALL! of sorrow: "Oh! I have lost you ALL!" The practice of the examples and the elements should extend to the utmost excitement of emotion and force of voice.

"Ocular references may seem at first sight to have little value in a subject which relates to the ear. But notes and characters, as used in music, serve to show how exactly the ear may be taught through the eye; and even if we admit the comparative indefinite nature of all such relations when transferred to forms of speech, and of reading, the suggestive power of visible forms has a great influence on the faculty of association, and aids clearness and precision of thought, and a corresponding definiteness and exactness in sound."-Russell.

SELECTIONS.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF MEDIAN STRESS.

THANATOPSIS.

William Cullen Bryant.

To him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language; for his gayer hours
She has a voice of gladness, and a smile
And eloquence of beauty, and she glides
Into his darker musings, with a mild
And healing sympathy, that steals away
Their sharpness ere he is aware. When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour come like a blight
Over thy spirit, and sad images

Of the stern agony, and shroud, and pall,
And breathless darkness, and the narrow house,
Make thee to shudder, and grow sick at heart; ·
Go forth, under the open sky, and list

To Nature's teachings, while from all around -
Earth and her waters, and the depths of air,-
Comes a still voice-Yet a few days, and thee
The all-beholding sun shall see no more

In all his course; nor yet in the cold ground,
Where thy pale form was laid with many tears,
Nor in the embrace of ocean, shall exist

Thy image. Earth, that nourished thee, shall claim
Thy growth, to be resolved to earth again,
And, lost each human trace, surrendering up
Thine individual being, shalt thou go

To mix forever with the elements,

To be a brother to the insensible rock

The oak

And to the sluggish clod, which the rude swain
Turns with his share, and treads upon.
Shall send his roots abroad, and pierce thy mould.
Yet not to thine eternal resting-place

Shalt thou retire alone,-nor could'st thou wish
Couch more magnificent. Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings,
The rowerful of the earth-the wise, the good,

Fair forms, and hoary seers of ages past,
All in one mighty sepulchre. The hills
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun; the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods; rivers that move

In majesty, and the complaining brooks

That make the meadows green; and, poured round all,
Old ocean's gray and melancholy waste,-

Are but the solemn decorations all

Of the great tomb of man. The golden sun,
The planets, all the infinite host of heaven,
Are shining on the sad abodes of death,
Through the still lapse of ages. All that tread
The globe are but a handful to the tribes
That slumber in its bosom.-Take the wings
Of morning, traverse Barca's desert sands,
Or lose thyself in the continuous woods
Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound
Save his own dashings-yet-the dead are there:
And millions in those solitudes, since first

The flight of years began, have laid them down
In their last sleep -the dead there reign alone.
So shalt thou rest, and what if thou withdraw
In silence from the living, and no friend
Take note of thy departure? All that breathe
Will share thy destiny. The gay will laugh
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will chase
His favorite phantom; yet all these shall leave
Their mirth and their employments, and shall come,
And make their bed with thee. As the long train
Of ages glide away, the sons of men,

The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes
In the full strength of years, matron, and maid,
And the sweet babe, and the gray-headed man,—
Shall one by one be gathered to thy side,
By those who, in their turn, shall follow them.

So live, that, when thy summons comes to join
The innumerable caravan, that moves
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,

[ocr errors]
« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »