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3. "Such was Grace Darling, || one of the HEROINES ||| of humanity, whose name is destined to live || as long as the sympathies || and affections || of HUMANITY ||| endure. || Such calm | HEROISM ||| as hers, || as hers, so generously || exerted for

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the good of others, is one of the NOBLEST ||| attributes of the soul || of man. | It had no alloy of blind | animal || passion, | like the bravery of the soldier || on the field of battle, || but it was spiritual, || CELESTIAL, ||| and we may reverently add, | GODLIKE.” ||||

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Examples of the animated or joyous' kind, for 'fast' standard time, and 'short' standard pauses.

"THE VOICE OF SPRING.

1. "I come! || I come! | ye have called me | 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, |
By the primrose stars || in the shadowy grass, ||
By the green leaves | opening || as I pass. ||

"From the streams and founts I have loosed the chain,
They are sweeping on to the silvery main,

They are flashing down from the mountain brows,
They are flinging spray o'er the forest boughs,
They are bursting fresh from their sparry caves;
And the earth resounds with the joy of waves!"

2. "Then Fancy, I her magical | pinions | spread wide, || And bade the young dreamer | in ecstasy || rise ; || Now, far, far behind him, || the green waters || glide,

And the cot of his forefathers || blesses || his eyes. |

"The jessamine || clambers in flower | o'er the thatch, | And the swallow || sings sweet || from her nest | in the wall; |

All trembling with transport, || he raises the latch, |
And the voices of loved ones || reply to his call." ||

every

3. "Every one is doubtful what course to take, one | but Cæsar! || He || causes the banner || to be erected, || the charge | to be sounded, | the soldiers at a distance | to be recalled,--|| all in a moment. He runs from place to place; || his whole frame ! is in action; || his words, || his looks, || his motions, || his gestures, || exhort his men | to remember their former valor. He draws them up, and causes the signal all in a moment. He seizes a buckler | from one of the private men, puts himself || at the head of his broken troops, || darts into the thick || of the battle, —|| rescues || his legions, || and overthrows ||| the enemy!" ||

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'Grave' examples for 'slow' standard time.

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1. "But where, || thought I, | is the crew? || Their struggle | has long been over; they have gone down | amidst the roar of the tempest ; - || their bones lie whitening | in the caverns of the deep. || Silence- ||| oblivion-|||| like the waves, || have closed over them; || and no one can tell || the story of their end. |||

"What sighs || have been wafted after that ship!|| What prayers || offered up at the deserted fireside of home! || How often has the mistress, || the wife, and the mother || pored over the daily news, || to catch some casual intelligence | of this rover of the deep!|| How has expectation || darkened | into anxiety, anxiety | into dread, and dread || into despair! Alas! || not one | memento | shall ever return¦ for love to cherish. || All that shall ever be known, | is, that she sailed from her port, || and was never || heard of || more."

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'Grave' example for very 'slow time' and very 'long pauses.'

2. "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? ||||
'T is the Divinity ||| that stirs | within us: ||

'T is Heaven || itself ||| that points out an hereafter, ||
And intimates | Eternity ||| to man. []

Eternity! thou pleasing,-|| dreadful thought!" ||||

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'Pathetic' example for 'slow' standard time.

3. "Alas!|| my noble boy! ||| that thou | shouldst die ! |||
Thou, || who wert made | so beautifully fair! |||
That death || should settle | in thy glorious eye, |||
And leave his || stillness ||| in thy clustering hair! |||
How could he || mark thee |||| for the silent tomb, |||
My proud | boy, || Absalom!" |||

SLIDES.

In perfectly natural speech, the voice rises or falls on each. unemphatic syllable through the interval of one tone only, but on the accented syllable of an emphatic word it rises or falls

MORE THAN ONE TONE.

This last is called the inflection or 'slide' of the voice. The 'slides' are thus a part of emphasis, and as they give the right direction and limit to 'force' and 'time,' they are the crowning part of perfect emphasis.

When contrasted ideas, of equal importance, are coupled, nothing but the contrasted slides can give the proper distinctive emphasis. The slides also furnish to elocution its most ample and varied lights and shades of emotional expression.

These slides are 'rising,' marked thus ('); or 'falling,' marked thus (); or both of these blended, in the 'rising'

circumflex, and the 'falling' circumflex, marked respectively thus (V) and thus (^).

The 'rising' and 'falling' slides separate the great mass of ideas into two distinct classes; the first comprising all the subordinate, or incomplete, or, as we prefer to name them, the negative ideas; the second comprising all the principal, or complete, or, as we shall call them, the positive ideas.

The most important parts of what is spoken or written are those which affirm something positively, such as the facts and truths asserted, the principles, sentiments, and actions enjoined, with the illustrations, and reasons, and appeals which enforce them.

All these may properly be grouped into one class, because they all should have the same kind of slide in reading.

This class we call 'POSITIVE ideas.'

So all the other ideas which do not affirm or enjoin anything positively, which are circumstantial and incomplete, or in open contrast with the positive, all these ideas may be properly grouped into another single class, because they all should have the same kind of slide.

This class we call 'NEGATIVE ideas.'

Grant to the words 'positive' and 'negative' the comprehensive meaning here given to them, and let the distinction between the two classes be clearly made in the preparatory analysis, and it will be vastly easier to understand and teach this most complicated and difficult part of elocution, the right use of the rising and falling slides.

For, then, the one simple principle which follows will take the place, and preclude the use of, all the usual perplexing rules, with their many suicidal exceptions.

PRINCIPLES FOR RISING OR FALLING SLIDES.

POSITIVE ideas should have the 'falling' slide; NEGATIVE ideas should have the rising' slide.

Examples for the rising and falling slides.

"The war must go on. We must fight it through. And if the war must go on, why put off longer the declaration of

independence? That measure will strengthen us.

us character abroad.

It will give

"The cause will raise up àrmies; the cause will create nàvies. The people, the people, if we are true to them, will carry ús, and will carry themselves, gloriously through this struggle. Sir, the declaration will inspire the people with increased courage. Instead of a long and bloody war for restoration of privileges, for redréss of grievances, for chartered immúnities, held under a British king, set before them the glorious object of entire independence, and it will breathe into them anèw the breath of life.

"Through the thick glóom of the présent, I see the brightness of the future, as the sùn in heaven. We shall make this a glòrious, an immòrtal day. When we are in our gráves, our chìldren will honor it. They will cèlebrate it with thanksgiving, with festivity, with bonfires, and illuminations. On its annual return, they will shed tears, còpious, gushing tears, not of subjéction and slávery, not of agony and distress, but of exultation, of gratitude, and of joy."

QUESTIONS.

Questions, like other ideas, are negative, or positive, or com pound, having one negative and one positive idea.

DIRECT QUESTIONS.

The direct question for information affirms nothing. Hence it is read with the rising slide, not because it may be answered by yes or no, but because it is in its nature negative.

The answer is positive, and, for that reason, is read with the falling slide.

"Do you see that beautiful stár?” "Yes."

"Isn't it splèndid?"

The speaker is positive, in the last question, that his friend will agree with him. This, and all such, must be read, therefore, with the falling slide.

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