It climbs New England's rocky steeps,
As victor mounts a throne;
Niagara knows and greets the voice
Still mightier than its own.

It spreads where winter piles deep snows
On bleak Canadian plains,
And where, on Essequibo's banks,
Eternal summer reigns;

It glads Arcadia's misty coasts,
Jamaica's glowing isle,

And bides where, gay with early flowers,
Green Texan prairies smile.

It tracks the loud, swift Oregon,

Through sunset valleys rolled;
And soars where Californian brooks
Wash down their sands of gold.
It sounds in Borneo's camphor groves,
On seas of fierce Malay,

In fields that curb old Ganges' flood,
And towers of proud Bombay.

It wakes up Aden's flashing eyes,
Dusk brows, and swarthy limbs-
The dark Siberian soothes her child
With English cradle hymns!
Tasmania's maids are wooed and won
In gentle Saxon speech;
Australian boys read Crusoe's life
By Sydney's sheltered beach.

It dwells where Afric's southmost capes
Meet oceans broad and blue,
And Nieuveld's rugged mountains gird
The wide and waste Karoo.
It kindles realms so far apart,

That, while its praise you sing,
These may be clad with autumn's fruits,
And those with flowers of spring.

It quickens lands whose meteor lights
Flame in an arctic sky,

And lands for which the Southern Cross
Hangs its orbed fires on high.

It goes with all that prophets told,
And righteous king desired-
With all that great apostles taught,
And glorious Greeks admired.

Ex. 75.

With Shakspeare's deep and wondrous verse,
And Milton's loftier mind,

With Alfred's laws, and Newton's lore,
To cheer and bless mankind.

Mark, as it spreads, how deserts bloom,
And error flies away,

As vanishes the mist of night
Before the star of day!

But grand as are the victories

Whose monuments we see,

These are but as the dawn which speaks
Of noontide yet to be.

Take heed, then, heirs of Saxon fame!
Take heed! nor once disgrace,
With deadly pen or spoiling sword,
Our noble tongue and race.
Go forth prepared in every clime
To love and help each other,
And judge that they who counsel strife
Would bid you smite-a brother.
Go forth, and jointly speed the time,
By good men prayed for long,

When Christian states, grown just and wise,
Will scorn revenge and wrong-

When Earth's oppressed and savage tribes
Shall cease to pine or roam,

All taught to prize these English words

Faith, Freedom, Heaven, and Home!—J. G. Lyon.

England.

Not yet enslaved, not wholly vile,
O Albion! O my mother isle!
Thy valleys, fair as Eden's bowers,
Glitter green with sunny showers;
Thy grassy uplands' gentle swells
Echo to the bleat of flocks-
Those grassy hills, those glittering dells
Proudly rainparted with rocks-
And Ocean, 'mid his uproar wild,
Speaks safely to his island-child!
Hence, for many a fearless age
Has social Quiet loved thy shore
Nor ever proud invader's rage

Or sacked thy towers, or stained thy fields with gore.

Coleridge.

89

PART III.

GESTURE.

43. A foundation of good reading having been laid, by the practice of the foregoing Rules and Exercises, the student may proceed to the third and final stage of the art of elocution-Gesture--which regulates the attitudes and movements appropriate to certain passions and emotions in speaking.

44 Under gesture the action and position of all parts of the body are comprehended. But for the purposes of description, and to allow of more definite and precise instructions under each head, it is usual to divide the human frame into the following principal parts:

1. The Feet and Lower Limbs.

2. The Hands and Fingers.

3. The Arms.

4. The Head and Countenance. 5. The Trunk and Shoulders.

45. Action, as is well known, was, according to the high authority of the greatest orator of whom history bears record, the first,' 'second,' and 'third' qualification of an orator. Oratorical action

is, however, in a great degree, a thing of impulse, differing necessarily in character in different individuals, and scarcely possible, therefore, to reduce to regular rules. So strong is this conviction, and the feeling in some minds arising from it against the use of any formal precepts for gesture, that not a few are found contending that the whole matter should be left entirely to the promptings of nature and the taste of the individual. The difficulty of suggesting the proper attitudes, or even describing them if they could in all cases be accurately prescribed, must be obvious to everyone; and if we were never to give any instructions but such as should completely, realise our wishes, this difficulty would be a good reason for not attempting it. But, as Mr. Walker has justly observed on this subject, there are many degrees between conveying a precise idea of a thing and no idea at all.' Besides, there is in this part of delivery the important adjunct of the eye to which instruction may be addressed. This vehicle is largely employed in the following exercises, where sketches representing the proper attitudes are introduced wherever practicable, which it is hoped will enable the pupil to follow the directions more readily. The figures are designed not to furnish faultless delineations of oratorical position or movement, but to invite attention to what has in general been found pleasing and impressive, and what may, if duly observed, prove serviceable in helping one to acquire a grace, or escape a fault.

H

THE FEET AND LOWER LIMBS.

46. Upon the proper stability and firmness of the feet and lower limbs depend, in a great degree, the grace and freedom of action, and the easy transition of gesture from one attitude to another.

47. The test of the gracefulness of any attitude is the ease and security with which it can be executed, and the facility with which it can be varied. In the standing figure the posture is graceful, when the weight of the body is principally supported on one limb, whilst the other is so placed as to be ready to relieve it promptly and without effort. Except in the preparatory position, or in comic or grotesque action, the weight of the body should never be permitted, as a rule, to fall on both feet at once. Neither must one position be preserved too long, nor transitions be made too frequently; but there should be a pleasing variety, suited to the accompanying gesture of the hands and the character of the subject.

48. The positions of the feet, from which arise the principal varieties of attitude, dependent on the weight of the body being thrown on one foot or the other, are represented in the annexed figures

FIG. 1.

FIG. 2.

FIG. 3.

Fig. 1, represents the upright or preparatory position, to be taken by the speaker before commencing his speech, or in bowing or making his salutation to the audience. The heels are to be kept together, the toes well out, the body erect, and the chest expanded, so as to afford the best possible position for the free and unimpeded exercise of the vocal powers. It corresponds to the position of attention' of the military drill.

Fig. 2, is the right-body forward' position, formed by advancing the right foot, and throwing the weight of the body upon it.

It may be varied by the 'right-body back '-the same position, with the body drawn back, and the weight resting on the left foot.

Fig. 3, shows the 'left-body forward' and 'left-body back' positions, formed by advancing the left foot, and inclining the body forward or backward as before.

The pupil should be thoroughly drilled in practising these positions as well as those of the hands and other portions of the figure which follow, until he can produce them promptly at the word of command, without referring to the book.

THE HANDS AND FINGERS.

49. The position and movements of the hands and fingers constitute the chief part of gesture. The number and variety of these are, however, so great as almost to exceed description. "The action of the other parts of the body,' remarks Quintilian, assists the speaker, but the hands, I might almost say, speak for themselves. By them do we not demand, promise, call, dismiss, threaten, supplicate, express abhorrence and terror, question and deny? Do we not by them express joy and sorrow, doubt, confession, repentance, measure, quantity, number and time? Do they not also encourage, supplicate, restrain, convict, admire, respect? And in pointing out places and persons, do they not discharge the office of adverbs and pronouns? So that in the great diversity of languages which obtains among all kingdoms and nations, this appears to me the universal language of mankind.'

50. The following figures represent a few out of the almost