and feeble voice, that it is natural to the individual, or that it is difficult for some readers to attain to depth of voice without incurring a false and forced style of utterance. But, in most cases, it is habit, not organization, that has made certain notes natural or unnatural, — in other words, familiar to the ear, or the reverse. The neglect of the lower notes of the scale, and, consequently, of the organic action by which they are produced, may render a deeptoned utterance less easy than it would otherwise be. But most teachers of elocution are, from day to day, witnesses to the fact, that students, from the neglect of muscular action, and from all the other enfeebling causes involved in sedentary habits and intellectual application, sometimes commence a course of practice, with a high-pitched, thin, and feminine voice, which seems at first incapable of expressing a grave or manly sentiment, and, in some instances, appears to forbid the individual from ever attempting the utterance of a solemn thought, lest his treble tone should make the effect ridiculous; but that a few weeks' practice of vocal exercise on bass notes and deep emotions, as imbodied in rightly selected exercises, often enables such readers to acquire a round and deep-toned utterance, adequate to the fullest effects of impressive eloquence.

The exercise of singing bass, if cultivated as an habitual practice, has a great effect in imparting command of deeptoned expression, in reading and speaking. Reading and reciting passages from Milton and from Young, and particularly from the Book of Psalms, or from hymns of a deeply solemn character, are exercises of great value for securing the command of the lower notes of the voice.

The practice of the following examples should be accompanied by copious exercises on the elements, and on words selected for the purpose. These exercises should be repeated till the student can, at any moment, strike the appropriate note of awe or solemnity with as much certainty as the vocalist can execute any note of the scale.

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?
'Tis the Divinity that stirs within us :
'Tis Heaven itself that points out an hereafter,
And intimates Eternity to man.

Eternity! thou pleasing, dreadful thought!
Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass !
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me;
But shadows, clouds, and darkness, rest upon it."

'Awe, Dismay, and Despair.

("Aspirated pectoral Quality":"Suppressed" force: "Median stress.")

"At dead of night,

In sullen silence stalks forth PESTILENCE:
CONTAGION, close behind, taints all her steps
With poisonous dew: no smiting hand is seen;
No sound is heard; but soon her secret path
Is marked with desolation: heaps on heaps
Promiscuous drop. No friend, no refuge, near:
All, all is false and treacherous around,

All that they touch, or taste, or breathe, is Death!"

Amazement and Horror.

("Aspirated pectoral Quality" 'Impassioned" force: "Thor

ough stress.")

"What means that ruinous roar?

why fail

These tottering feet? Earth to its centre feels

The Godhead's power, and, trembling at His touch,

Through all its pillars, and in every pore,

Hurls to the ground, with one convulsive heave,

Precipitating domes, and towns, and towers,—
The work of ages. Crushed beneath the weight
Of general devastation, millions find

One common grave; -not even a widow left
To wail her sons: the house that should protect,
Entombs its master; and the faithless plain,
If there he flies for help, with sudden yawn
Starts from beneath him!"

Melancholy.

("Effusive orotund": "Impassioned" force:

stress.")

"Vanishing

"War, famine, pest, volcano, storm, and fire,
Intestine broils, Oppression, with her heart
Wrapped up in triple brass, besiege mankind.
God's image, disinherited of day,

Here, plunged in mines, forgets a sun was made :
There, beings, deathless as their haughty lord,
Are hammered to the galling oar for life;
And plough the winter's wave, and reap despair.
Want and incurable disease, (fell pair!)
On hopeless multitudes remorseless seize
At once, and make a refuge of the grave!"

Deep Grief.

99 66

("Effusive expulsive orotund: Impassioned" " and "subdued" force: "Vanishing" and "median stress.")

"In every varied posture, place, and hour,
How widowed every thought of every joy!
Thought, busy thought! too busy for my peace!
Through the dark postern of time long elapsed,
Led softly, by the stillness of the night,
Led like a murderer, (and such it proves!)
Strays, (wretched rover!) o'er the pleasing past :
In quest of wretchedness perversely strays,
And finds all desert now!

The analysis of vocal expression, as regards the effect of "pitch," leads us now to the study of those modes of utterance which lie above the middle, or ordinary, level of the voice.

The higher portion of the musical scale is associated with the notes of brisk, gay, and joyous emotions, with the exception of the extremes of pain, grief, and fear, which from their preternaturally exciting power, compress and render rigid the organic parts that produce vocal sound, and cause the peculiarly shrill, convulsive cries and shrieks which express those passions.

Tracing the voice upward, as it ascends from the usual pitch of "serious" or of "animated expression," we observe it obviously rise, when it passes from the "animated," or lively, to the "gay" or brisk style, which implies a positive exhilaration, or vivid excitement of the animal spirits. Cheerfulness will suffice to produce "animation; but joy is requisite to cause "gaiety." The properties of voice, in the utterance of these feelings, are correspondent "Animation to their gradations of sensibility. is expressed by "pure tone," "unimpassioned radical stress," and "middle pitch :" gaiety, by "expulsive orotund," vivid "radical and median stress," and "high pitch."

The command over "pitch," in its application to joyous emotions, is not, it is true, of so much importance to the public speaker, as the power of adopting the appropriate tone of serious, grave, and solemn feeling. It is, however, an indispensable accomplishment in elocution, for the purposes of private and social reading; as much of the pleasure, as well as the true effect, of expression, in the reading. of pieces adapted to the parlor, and the family or the social circle, depends on the vivid utterance and comparatively high pitch which occasionally prevail in the appropriate style of such reading; since it is not unfrequently marked by gay delineation and high-wrought graphic effect of incident, description, and sentiment.

A "pitch" too low for the natural effect of gay and exhilarated feeling, deadens the effect of wit and vivacity, and renders, perhaps, a most expressive strain of composition,

tame and dull, when it should abound in the tones of life and brilliancy.

Juvenile readers, from diffidence, often withhold the true effect of the voice, in the reading of scenes of gaiety and joyousness, by allowing the pitch to remain too low. The gravity and austerity of the student's life, incline him to the same mode of utterance, as a habit, and hence impair that freshness of effect, even in serious communication, which comes from the frequent practice of utterance in strains of joy and gaiety. The proverbial dulness arising from "all work and no play," is felt nowhere more deeply than in the habits of the voice. Long-continued, intense mental application, betrays itself, uniformly, in a tendency to hollow, "pectoral" tone; and the uniform " drowsy bass" of some public speakers, is but the unconscious yielding to this natural effect.

To give the voice suppleness, pliancy, and mobility, much attention must be bestowed on practice for the regulation of pitch. The following examples should be carefully repeated in conjunction with the elements and detached words, till the "high pitch" of joy is perfectly at com

mand.

""
EXAMPLES OF HIGH PITCH.

Gay, or brisk, style.

Joy.

("Expulsive orotund : ""Impassioned" force: "Median stress.")

"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!"