first in a slight, soft tone, and then repeat it, gradually increasing in quantity to the full extent of the voice. Also, let him read it first very slowly, and then repeat it gradually increasing the movement. In doing this, he should be careful not to vary the pitch.

In like manner, let him repeat any vowel sound, or all of them, and also inversely. Thus:

REMARK.-Quantity is often mistaken for Pitch. But it should be borne in mind that quantity has reference to loudness or volume of sound, and pitch to the elevation or depression of a tone. The difference may be distinguished by the slight and heavy strokes on a bell-both of which produce sounds alike in pitch; but they differ in quantity or loudness, in proportion as the strokes are light or heavy.

RULES FOR QUANTITY.

1. SOFT, OR SUBDUED TONES, are those which range from a whisper to a complete vocality, and are used to express fear, caution, secrecy, solemnity, and all tender emotions.

2. A MIDDLE TONE, or medium loudness of voice, is employed in reading narrative, descriptive, or didactic sentences.

EXAMPLE.

I love my country's pine-clad hills,
Her thousand bright and gushing rills,
Her sunshine and her storms;

Her rough and rugged rocks that rear
Their hoary heads high in the air,

In wild fantastic forms.

3. A LOUD TONE, or fullness and stress of voice is used in expressing violent passions and vehement emotions.

1.

2.

EXAMPLES.

STAND! the ground's your own, my braves,—
Will ye give it up to slaves?

Will ye look for greener graves?

Hope ye mercy still?

What's the mercy despots feel?
Hear it in that battle-peal,—

Read it on yon bristling steel,—

Ask it-ye who will!

PIERPONT.

"HOLD!" Tyranny cries; but their resolute breath
Sends back the reply: "INDEPENDENCE or DEATH!"

QUALITY.

QUALITY has reference to the kind of sound uttered.

Two sounds may be alike in quantity and pitch, yet differ in quality. The sounds produced on the clarinet and flute, may agree in pitch and quantity, yet be unlike in quality. The same is true in regard to the tones of the voice of two individuals. This difference is occasioned mainly by the different positions of the vocal organs.

The qualities of voice mostly used in reading or speaking, and which should receive the highest degree of culture, are the Pure Tone, the Orotund, the Aspirated, and the Guttural.

RULES FOR QUALITY.

1. THE PURE TONE is a clear, smooth, sonorous flow of sound, usually accompanied with the middle pitch of voice, and is adapted to express emotions of joy, cheerfulness, love, and tranquillity.

EXAMPLE.

Hail! beauteous stranger of the wood,
Attendant on the spring,

Now heaven repairs thy vernal seat,

And woods thy welcome sing.

2. THE OROTUND is a full, deep, round, and pure tone of voice, peculiarly adapted in expressing sublime and pathetic

emotions.

EXAMPLE.

It thunders! Sons of dust, in reverence bow!
Ancient of Days! Thou speakest from above:
Almighty! trembling, like a timid child,

I hear thy awful voice. Alarmed—afraid-
I see the flashes of thy lightning wild,

And in the very grave would hide my head.

3. THE ASPIRATED TONE of voice is not a pure,

vocal sound,

but rather a forcible breathing utterance, and is used to express amazement, fear, terror, anger, revenge, remorse, and fervent emotions.

EXAMPLE.

Oh, coward conscience, how dost thou affright me!
The lights burn blue. It is now dead midnight;
Cold, fearful drops stand on my trembling flesh.

4. THE GUTTURAL QUALITY is a deep, aspirated tone of, voice, used to express aversion, hatred, loathing, and contempt.

EXAMPLE.

Tell me I hate the bowl?

HATE is a feeble word:

I loathe, ABHOR, my very soul

With strong disgust is stirred,
Whene'er I see, or hear, or tell,
Of the dark beverage of hell.

(p.) Soft is the strain when zephyr gently blows,

And the smooth stream in smoother numbers flows; (1.) But when loud surges lash the sounding shore,

The hoarse rough verse should like the torrent roar.

(sl.) When Ajax strives some rock's vast weight to throw, The line, too, labors, and the words move slow;

(~.) Not so, when swift Camilla scours the plain,

Flies o'er the unbending corn, and skims along the main. POPE

Go ring the bells and fire the guns,
And fling the starry banner out;
Shout "FREEDOM" till your lisping ones
Give back the cradle shout.

WHITTIER.

"And now, farewell! 'Tis hard to give thee up,

With death so like a gentle slumber on thee!—
And thy dark sin!-oh! I could drink the cup,
If from this woe its bitterness had won thee.
May God have called thee, like a wanderer, home,
My lost boy, Absalom!"

The sun hath set in folded clouds,

Its twilight rays are gone,

And, gathered in the shades of night,

The storm is rolling on.

Alas! how ill that bursting storm

The fainting spirit braves,

When they, the lovely and the lost,—

Are gone to early graves!

WILLIS.

(°)

(")

On! onward still! o'er the land he sweeps,

With wreck, and ruin, and rush, and roar,
Nor stops to look back

On his dreary track,

But speeds to the spoils before.

MISS J. H. LEWIS.

From every battle-field of the revolution-from Lexington and Bunker Hill-from Saratoga and Yorktown-from the fields of Eutaw—from the cane-brakes that sheltered the men of Marion-the repeated, longprolonged echoes came up-(f.) "THE UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED."

From every valley in our land-from every cabin. on the pleasant mountain sides-from the ships at our wharves-from the tents of the hunter in our westernmost prairies-from the living minds of the living millions of American freemen-from the thickly coming glories of futurity-the shout went up, like the sound of many waters, (f.) “THE UNION: IT MUST BE PRESERVED."

(p.)

Hark!

(sl.) Along the vales and mountains of the earth
There is a deep, portentous murmuring,
Like the swift rush of subterranean streams,
Or like the mingled sounds of earth and air,
When the fierce tempest, with sonorous wing,
Heaves his deep folds upon the rushing winds,
And hurries onward, with his night of clouds,
Against the eternal mountains. 'Tis the voice
Of infant FREEDOM,-and her stirring call
Is heard and answered in a thousand tones
From every hill-top of her western home;

And lo! it breaks across old Ocean's flood,

BANCROFT.

And "FREEDOM! FREEDOM!" is the answering shout

Of nations, starting from the spell of years. G. D. PRENTICE.

The thunders hushed,

The trembling lightning fled away in fear,-
The foam-capt surges sunk to quiet rest,—
The raging winds grew still,-

(0°)

(>)

(p.)

(pp.)

There was a calm.