things, whose new courage, sprung from the earth with the deep color of heaven upon it, is starting up in strength of goodly spire; and whose purity, washed from the dust, is opening bud by bud, inte the flowers of promise and still they turn to you, and for you, "The Larkspur listens - I hear, I hear! And the Lily whispers — I wait." Did you notice that I missed two lines when I read you that first stanza; and think that I had forgotten them? Hear them now: "Come into the garden, Maud, For the black bat, night, has flown; I am here at the gate, alone." Who is it, think you, who stands at the gate of this sweeter garden, alone, waiting for you? Did you ever hear, not of a Maude, but a Madeleine, who went down to her garden in the dawn, and found One waiting at the gate, whom she supposed to be the gardener? Have you not sought him often; - sought Him in vain through the night; sought Him in vain at the gate of that old garden where the fiery sword is set? He is never there; but at the gate of this garden He is waiting always-waiting to take your hand-ready to go down to see the fruits of the valley, to see whether the vine has flourished, and the pomegranate budded. There you shall see with Him the little tendrils of the vines that His hand is guiding,there you shall see the pomegranate springing where His hand cast the sanguine seed; more, you shall see the troops of the angelkeepers, that, with their wings, wave away the hungry birds from the pathsides where He has sown, and call to each other between the vineyard rows. "Take we the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes." Oh, you queens you queens! among the hills and happy greenwood of this land of yours, shall the foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; and, in your cities, shall the stones cry out against you, that they are the only pil ows where the Son of Man can lay His head? MODULATION. PITCH, TONES, ETC. Pitch is the degree of the elevation of sound. The word Tones, in its most comprehensive sense, denotes the whole range of perfect sounds, which are produced either by man, the inferior animals, or musical instruments; but, in elocution, Tones consist in the various sounds of the voice, in its ascent from a low to a high pitch, or in its descent from a high to a low one. Modulation denotes the variations of the tones in their ascending and descending progression from one note to another. Tones express emotions considered singly; Modulation is the variation of the voice in successive tones. The different degrees of pitch in music are denoted by what is called the Scale. The distance between any two points or places in the scale is called an Interval. A Note consists in a sound produced at any point or place in the scale, considered without reference either to its rise or fall. A Tone consists in the rise or fall of the voice from one point in the scale to another, except the spaces between the third and fourth, and seventh and eighth places, which are occupied by semitones. A Semitone consists in the rise or fall of the voice through a space in the scale half as great as that taken up by a tone. The succession of the seven sounds of any one series, to which the octave, or eighth sound, is generally added, is called the Natural or Diatonic Scale. It consists of five tones and two semitones, the latter being the intervals between its third and fourth, and its seventh and eighth degrees. The scale then contains these several kinds of intervals, — a semitone, a second or whole tone, a third, a fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and an octave. The first, third, and fifth notes of the diatonic scale, to which the octave, as a kind of according repetition of the first, is usually added, differ from the rest in being more agreeable to the ear when heard in combination and immediate succession. The voice may move concretely through the different intervals, or notes may be made at these degrees by the omission of the conThe former of these conditions are called concrete, and the latter, discrete intervals; one being, figuratively, a rising or falling stream of voice, and the other a voiceless space. crete. The first sound of the scale, relative to its rising series, is called the Key note. The pitch, on which a syllable or word begins, in comparison with the pitch where it terminates, or of other succeeding syllables, is called the Radical Pitch, in order to distinguish it from the place or pitch at which the voice arrives by its respective concrete or discrete movements; this last-named point in the scale being denominated relatively, either its Concrete or Discrete Pitch. MELODY OF SPEECH. Melody is a series of simple sounds, emanating from the voice, or an instrument, so varied in pitch as to produce a pleasing effect upon the ear. The series of graphic notes by which these sounds are represented is also called melody. Melody (applied to speech in the same general sense as in the technical language of music) is a term used to designate the effect produced on the ear, by the successive notes of the voice.. Melody is distinguished from harmony by not necessarily including a combination of parts. Harmony, in music, signifies a union of melodies, a succession of combined sounds, moving at consonant intervals, according to the laws of modulation. Intonation is the act of sounding the notes of a melody. When each note is produced in its proper degree of pitch, the intonation is true. "One of the most important means of expressive intonation consists in the extended time of syllabic utterance" (i. e., long quantity). — Dr. Rush. Illustrations of Long Quantity in the Expression of Didactic Thought. "In a valiant suffering for others, not in a slothful making others suffer for us, did nobleness ever lie. The chief of men is he who stands in the van of men; fronting the peril which frightens back all others; which, if it be not vanquished, will devour the others. Every noble crown is, and on Earth forever will be, a crown of thorns. . . . In modern, as in ancient and all societies, the Aristoc racy, they that assume the functions of an Aristocracy, doing them or not, have taken the post of honor, which is the post of difficulty, the post of danger of death."—Carlyle. "The graves of the best of men, of the noblest martyrs, are like the graves of the Herrnhuters (the Moravian brethren) - level, and undistinguishable from the universal earth; and, if the earth could give up her secrets, our whole globe would appear a Westminster Abbey laid flat. Ah! what a multitude of tears, what myriads of bloody drops have been shed in secrecy about the three corner-trees of earth-the tree of life, the tree of knowledge, and the tree of freedom, - shed, but never reckoned! It is only great periods of calamity that reveal to us our great men, as comets are revealed by total eclipses of the sun. Not merely upon the field of battle, but also upon the consecrated soil of virtue, and upon the classic ground of truth, thousand of nameless heroes must fall and struggle to build up the footstool from which history surveys the one hero, whose name is embalmed, bleeding-conquering—and resplendent." — Richter. "Think not the distant stars are cold; say not the forces of the universe are against thee; believe not that the course of things below is a relentless fate; for thou canst see the stars, thou canst use the forces; in right, thy will is unconquerable, and by it thou art the maker and the lord of destiny. In thy living consciousness the universe itself has living being, and thou in that art greater than the universe. Anoint thine eyes with holy thought, that the gross and fleshly scales may fall from off them. Then like Gehazi shalt behold that in the mountain, at the prayer of Elijah, thou Power for thy good is round about thee; thou shalt discern that thou art embosomed in Protection- - that thou art compassed by the fiery energies of Heaven, that thou art girded and guarded by the Presence and Majesty of God."—Giles. "This spirit shall return to Him Who gave its heavenly spark; No! it shall live again, and shine In bliss unknown to beams of thine, By Him recalled to breath, Who captive led captivity, Who robbed the grave of Victory, And took the sting from Death! Go, Sun, while Mercy holds me up To drink this last and bitter cup Of grief that man shall taste – The darkening universe defy To quench his Immortality, Or shake his trust in God!" THE LAST MAN. — Campbell. "Our thoughts are boundless, though our frames are frail, This is the mark we tend to, for the soul Can take no lower flight, and seek no meaner goal." PROMETHEUS. -Percival. "Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, As the swift seasons roll! Leave thy low-vaulted past! Let each new temple, nobler than the last, Till thou at length art free, Leaving thy outgrown shell by life's unresting sea!" THE CHAMBERED NAUTILUS.-Holmes. "All grows sweet in Thee, Since Thou didst gather us in One, and bring This fading flower of our humanity To perfect blossoming. All comes to bloom! this wild Green outward world of ours, that still must wear THE RECONCILER. - Miss Greenwell. |