around spectators, equally interested in the dooms of all. "The sentence of every man will be pronounced by him who cannot be merciful to those who shall have willingly sold themselves to that abject bondage from which he died to purchase their redemption, who, nevertheless, having felt the power of temptation, knows to pity them that have been tempted; by him on whose mercy contrite frailty may rely, whose anger hardened impenitence must dread. "To heighten the solemnity and terror of the business, the Judge will visibly descend from heaven, the shout of the archangels and the trumpet of the Lord will thunder through the deep, -the dead will awake, the glorified saints will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air; while the wicked will in vain call upon the mountains and the rocks to cover them. "Of the day and hour when these things shall be, knoweth no man; but the day and hour for these things are fixed in the eternal Father's counsels. Our Lord will come, he will come unlooked for, and may come sooner than we think." EXERCISES IN FORCE. The thorough discipline of the voice, for the purposes of public speaking, extends from whispering to shouting, not with a view, in the case of these extremes, to the actual use of them, in the exercise of reading but for the purpose of reaching the natural limits of capability, and securing a perfect command over every degree of force, whether for acquiring organic power, and pliancy of voice, or ensuring command of expression as dependent on any degree of loudness. The following exercises, and the elements, of all three classes, tonic, subtonic, and atonic, should be repeated several times, daily, for months, till their effect is fully felt in strengthening and compacting the sounds of the voice, and rendering the production of any degree of force an casy and agreeable exercise. Diligent cultivation in this department of elocution, for even a few weeks, will impart a stentorian power of vocal effort to persons whose volume of voice was previously insufficient, and whose degree of organic vigor, as well as their expressive power, in actual utterance, was very low. Suppressed Force. (Whisper and half whisper.)* Evening Prayer at a Girls' School.- Mrs. Hemans. "Hush! 'tis a holy hour:- the quiet room Seems like a temple, while yon soft lamp sheds A faint and starry radiance, through the gloom And the sweet stillness, down on young bright heads, With all their clustering locks, untouched by care, And bowed, as flowers are bowed with night,-in prayer. "Gaze on,—'t is lovely!-childhood's lip and cheek, Mantling beneath its earnest brow of thought: Gaze - yet what seest thou in those fair and meek And fragile things, as but for sunshine wrought? Thou seest what grief must nurture for the sky, What death must fashion for eternity!" Subdued Force. (Softened Utterance: "Pure Tone.") This pale and lovely clay! Heard ye the sob of parting breath? *All passages of deep awe, require a degree of suppression, and hence of aspiration," or breathing effect, which always produces more or less impurity of tone, in consequence of the restraining effect of awe upon the organs, and the unavoidable cscape of unvocalized breath, along with the sound of the voice. No;-life so sweetly ceased to be, It lapsed in immortality. "Could tears revive the dead, Rivers should swell cur eyes; We would not quench our sighs, "Bury the dead; - and weep In stillness o'er the loss; Bury the dead; -*[in Christ they sleep, And from the grave their dust shall rise, Moderate Force.t Serenity. [Exemplified in Verse.] "It was a scene of peace; and like a spell And happy living things that trod the bright. And beauteous scene; while far beyond them all, On many a lovely valley, out of sight, [light. Was poured from the blue heavens the same soft golden "I looked, and thought the quiet of the scene The lines within brackets exemplify a change of expression from the subdued voice of pathos to the moderate and cheerful tones of serenity and hope. † The usual degree of force in the unempassioned style of sentiment, And married nations dwell in harmony; When millions crouching in the dust to one, No more shall beg their lives on bended knee, Nor the black stake be dressed, nor in the sun The o'erlabored captive toil, and wish his life were done. "Too long, at clash of arms, amid her bowers, And pools of blood, the earth has stood aghast, The fair earth that should only blush with flowers And ruddy fruits; but not for aye can last The storm, and sweet the sunshine when 't is past. O'er the wide landscape from the embracing sky, If we apply a good intention to all our actions, we make our very existence one continued act of obedience; we turn even our diversions and amusements to our eternal advantage, and are pleasing Him whom we are made to please, in all the circumstances and occurrences of life. "It is this excellent frame of mind, this holy officiousness, (if I may be allowed to call it such,) which is recommended to us by the apostle, in that uncommon precept wherein he directs us to propose to ourselves the glory of our Creator, in all our most indifferent actions, 'whether we eat, or drink, or whatsoever we do.' *The usual style of essays, lectures, expository and practical discourses, and other forms of didactic address. †The ordinary rule of elocution prescribes a diminishing of the force of the voice at the opening of a new paragraph. But when, as in the text, there is a vivid turn of thought introduced, the opposite rule prevails, and the force increases with the momentum of the additional mental impulse. "A person who is possessed with an habitual good intention, enters upon no single circumstance of life, without considering it as well pleasing to the great Author of his being, conformable to the dictates of reason, suitable to human nature in general, or to that particular station in which Providence has placed him. He lives in the perpetual sense of the Divine presence, regards himself as acting, in the whole course of his existence, under the observation and inspection of that Being who is privy to all his emotions and all his thoughts, who knows his 'downsitting and his uprising, who is about his path and about his bed, and spieth out all his ways.' In a word, he remembers that the eye of his Judge is always upon him; and, in every action, he reflects that he is doing. what is commanded or allowed by Him who will hereafter either reward or punish it. This was the character of those holy men of old, who, in the beautiful phrase of Scripture, are said to have 'walked with God."" Declamatory Force.t The Slave Trade.- Webster. "I deem it my duty, on this occasion, to suggest, that the land is not yet wholly free from the contamination of a traffic at which every feeling of humanity must revolt, I mean the African slave trade. Neither public senti * The usual rule of slackening the tension of voice at the opening of a new paragraph, is exemplified here; as, in such cases, the train of thought is either resumed, or commenced anew. The force, therefore, is progressive in the sentence. All well composed sentences are naturally read with the growing force of climax. The same remark applies to paragraphs and larger portions of a discourse. ↑ The word "declamatory" is used, in elocution, as the designation of the full, bold style of oratory, in warm and forcible address. The sense thus attached to the word, it will be perceived, is special and technical, merely, and implies no imputation on the character of the sentiment or the language, as in the rhetorical and popular uses of the term. |