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PART II.

PRINCIPLES AND ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ELE MENTS OF VOCAL EXPRESSION.

FORCE.

As in our analysis of the spirit and sense of each passage, we have always two quite different questions to ask, viz., What is the general spirit, and what the relative importance of the individual ideas? so in our analysis of each one of the elements of vocal expression, we have the same general and individual inquiries to make:

1. What general degree of force will best express the 'general spirit' of the piece?

2. Taking this general force as our 'standard' degree of loudness or softness to be given to the unemphatic words, how much additional force must we give to the emphatic words, in order to bring out, in our reading, the relative importance of the different ideas?

PRINCIPLE FOR STANDARD FORCE.

Determine the standard force' for the unemphatic words by the kind' or general spirit' of the piece. unemotional,' the standard force is

If the kind is

'moderate.'

If the kind is
If the kind is

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bold,' the standard force is 'loud.'

pathetic or subdued,' the standard

PRINCIPLE FOR RELATIVE OR EMPHATIC FORCE.

Taking the standard force' for the unemphatic words, give additional force to the emphatic ideas, according to their relative importance.

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The general spirit' or 'kind' is unemotional.' The 'standard force' is, therefore, moderate.' The words "better" and "wealth" in the first line must have just enough additional force to distinguish them from the unemphatic words "is" and "than." 66 Learning" is more important than wealth," and must have enough more force than "wealth" to express its relative importance. "Culture" is more important than " learning," and must therefore be read with more force. "Wisdom" is still more important than culture," and must be read with still more force, to distinguish it as the most important of all.

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Hence, to read this simple paragraph naturally, that is, to express distinctly the general spirit and the relative importance of the different ideas, we need five distinct degrees of force.

Let us mark the least degree of emphatic force by italics, the second by small capitals, the third by large capitals, the fourth by larger capitals, and express the same in reading.

"LEARNING is better than wealth;

CULTURE is better than LEARNING;

WISDOM is better than CULTURE.”

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'Unemotional' examples for moderate' standard force.

1. "I am charged with ambition.

The charge is true,

Caesar was

and I GLORY in its truth. Who ever achieved anything GREAT in letters, arts, or arms, who was NOT ambitious?

not more ambitious than Cicero. It was but in another way. Let the ambition be a

ALL GREATNESS is born of ambition.
NOBLE one, and who shall blame it?”

2. "The plumage of the mocking-bird, though none of the homeliest, has nothing gaudy or brilliant in it; and had he nothing else to recommend him, would scarcely entitle him to notice; but his figure is well-proportioned, and even HANDSOME. 'The ease, elegance, and rapidity of his movements, the animation of his eye, and the INTELLIGENCE he displays in listening, and laying up lessons from almost every species of the feathered creation within his hearing, are really SURPRISING and mark the peculiarity of his genius."

3. "Three poets, in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy, and England did adorn:

The first in MAJESTY of thought surpassed;
The next in GRACEFULNESS; in BOTH, the last."

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5. "In every period of life, the acquisition of knowledge As one of the most pleasing employments of the human mind. But in youth, there are circumstances which make it produc

* Some examples under Force, Time, and Slides are given without eloGutionary marks, that teachers and pupils may exercise their own judgment and taste in analyzing and reading them according to the principles.

tive of higher enjoyment. It is then, that everything has the charm of novelty; that curiosity and fancy are awake, and that the heart swells with the anticipations of future eminence and utility."

'Bold' examples for 'loud' standard force.

1. "Sir, we have done everything that could be done, to avert the storm which is now coming on. We have petitioned ; we have REMONSTRATED; we have supplicated; we have prostrated ourselves before the throne, and have implored its interposition to ARREST the tyrannical hands of the ministry and parliament. Our petitions have been slighted; our remonstrances have produced ADDITIONAL violence and insult; our supplications have been disregarded; and we have been SPURNED, with contempt, from the foot of the throne!"

The land

2. "My friends, our country must be FREE!
Is never lost, that has a son to right her,
And here are troops of sons, and LOYAL ones!
Strong in her children should a mother be:

Shall ours be HELPLESS, that has sons like us?
God SAVE Our NATIVE land, whoever pays

The ransom that redeems her! Now what wait we?

For Alfred's word to move upon the foe?

UPON him then! Now think ye on the things

You most do love! Husbands and fathers, on

Their WIVES and CHILDREN; lovers on their BELOVED;
And ALL upon their COUNTRY!"

3. "The gentleman, sir, has misconceived the spirit and tendency of Northern institutions. He is ignorant of Northern character. He has forgotten the history of his country. Preach insurrection to the Northern laborers? Who are the Northern laborers? The history of your country is their history. The renown of your country is their renown. brightness of their doings is emblazoned on its every page.

The

Where is Concord, and Lexington, and Princeton, and Trenton, and Saratoga, and Bunker Hill, but in the North? And what, sir, has shed an imperishable renown on the names of those hallowed spots, but the blood, and the struggles, the high daring, and patriotism, and sublime courage of Northern laborers? The whole North is an everlasting monument of the freedom, virtue, intelligence, and indomitable independence of Northern laborers? Go, sir, go preach insurrection to men like these!

4. “Our Fatherland is in danger! Citizens! to arms! to arms! Unless the whole Nation rise up, as one man, to defend itself, all the noble blood already shed is in vain; and, on the ground where the ashes of our ancestors repose, the Russian knout will rule over an enslaved People! We have nothing to rest our hopes upon, but a righteous God, and our own strength. And if we do not put forth that strength, God will also forsake us. Hungary's struggle is no longer our struggle alone. It is the struggle of popular freedom against tyranny. In the wake of our victory, will follow liberty to the Italians, Germans, Poles. With our fall, goes down the star of freedom over all."

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Examples of the subdued or pathetic' kind for 'soft' standard force.

1. “Little Nell was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature FRESH from the hand of GoD, and waiting for the breath of life; not one who HAD lived and suffered DEATH. Her couch was dressed with here and there some winter-berries and green leaves, gathered in a spot she had been used to favor. When I die, put near me something that has loved the LIGHT, and had the SKY above it always.' Those were her words."

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