masses of crime and sorrow; you could live and enjoy yourself, while the noble-minded are betrayed, while nameless and birthless villains tread on the neck of the brave and long-descended: - you could enjoy yourself, like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while the slaughter of the brave went on around you! This enjoyment you shall not live to partake of: you shall die, base dog! — and that before yon cloud has passed over the sun!"

To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look
To see them live, torn from your arms, distained,
Dishonored; and, if ye dare call for justice,
Be answered by the lash. Yet, this is Rome,
That sat on her seven hills, and from her throne
Of beauty ruled the world! Yet, we are Romans.
Why, in that elder day, to be a Roman
Was greater than a king!
Hear me, ye walls that echoed to the tread
Of either Brutus ! Once again, I swear,
'The eternal city shall be free! her sons
Shall walk with princes!'

And once again, –

The knell of tyranny, - the mighty voice
That to the city and the plain, to earth

And listening heaven, proclaims the glorious tale
Of Rome re-born, and freedom!"

VII. Shouting and Calling.

("Expulsive orotund," "pure tone," intense "sustained" force.) "Awake! awake!

Ring the alarum-bell:- Murder and treason!
Banquo, and Donalbain! Malcolm! awake!"

DEGREES OF FORCE.

The perfect command of every degree of force, and an exact discrimination of its stages, as classified by degree and character of emotion, are indispensable to correct and impressive elocution. Extensive and varied practice on force, in all its gradations, becomes, therefore, an important point, in the vocal culture connected with elocution. Nor is it less valuable as the chief means of imparting power of voice and vigor of organ, as was formerly intimated. The student's attention is again directed to the importance of this element, for the purpose of securing a patient and persevering practice on elementary sounds, with an exclusive view, at present, to the mechanical exertion of the organs in the successive stages of mere loudness of voice.

After having completed the practice on force, as prescribed in the preceding exercises, in which its degrees are indicated by the feeling expressed in each example, the various component elements of the language, the "tonics," "subtonics," and "atonics," and examples of their combination in syllables and words, may be repeated successively, (1.) in forms corresponding to the style of each exercise; (2.) in the musical gradations of " pianissimo," "piano," mezzo piano," mezzo," mezzo forte," "forte," and "fortissimo;" (3.) in successive stages, commencing with the slightest and most delicate sound that can be uttered in " pure tone," and extending to the most vehement force of shouting and calling in the open air, and with all the power that the voice can yield.

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Persons who practise such exercises several times a day,*

*It may not be improper to remark, here, that vocal exercise should be practised at a point of time as nearly as may be INTERMEDIATE to the hours assigned for meal-times; as the organs are then in their best condition,

for ten or fifteen minutes at a time, will find a daily gain in vocal power and organic vigor to be the invariable result: every day will enable them to add a degree to their scale of force. To young persons whose organs are yet fully susceptible of the benefits of training, to students and sedentary individuals, in general, whose mode of life is deficient in muscular exercise, and consequently in power of voice, and to professional men whose exercises in public speaking are at comparatively distant intervals, (in which case, the organs need the aid of invigorating daily practice more than in any other,) the mechanical practice of graduated force, is the most effective aid that can be found.

The kind of exercise now recommended, if presented in a form addressed to the eye, might be marked thus:

Each dot represents, in this scale, one and the same sound, or word, repeated with a gradually increasing force. The repetition of the same sound, for at least a dozen times, is preferred to a change of elements, because, by repetition, the ear becomes, as it were, a more exact judge of the successive degrees of force, when not distracted by attention to anything else than the one point of mere loudness.

This exercise can never injure, but will always strengthen, even weak organs, if the gradation of voice be duly observed, and the note of the scale kept rigorously the same, throughout, and not pitched, at first, either very high or very low on the scale.

neither embarrassed nor exhausted, as regards the state of the circulation. The rule of the Italian vocal training, which prescribes powerful and continued exertion of voice, before breakfast, with a view to deepen the "register," implies a state of organs already inured to fatigue; and the stereotype direction of the old physicians, to declaim after dinner, with a view to promote digestion, implies either a meal in the poet's style of spare fast, that oft with gods doth diet," or a strength of the digestive organ, that can render it callous to the powerful shocks which energetic declamation always imparts, by impassioned emotion, to that chief “local habitation" of the "sympathetic " nerve.

CHAPTER VI.

"STRESS."

FORCE, as a property of voice, may be regarded either as it exists in consecutive or in single sounds. Thus, the force of utterance, in a sentence or a clause, may be on one phrase, or even on a single word. In the pronunciation of a word, it may be exclusively on one syllable. In the enunciation of a syllable, the organic force may lie chiefly on a single letter. In the sound of a letter, the force of the voice may lie conspicuously on the first, or on the last part of the sound, on the middle, or on both extremes; or it may be distributed, with an approach to equalizing force, over all parts of the sound.

The term "stress," as used by Dr. Rush, is applied to the mode in which force is rendered perceptible or impressive, in single sounds. Stress includes two elements of vocal effect:-1st, mere force of sound; 2d, the time which it occupies. To these may be added, not improperly, a third element, which is the result of the union or combination of the other two, viz., abrupt or gradual emission.

The classification of the forms of stress is as follows: 1st, "Radical stress," or that in which the force of utterance is, usually, more or less "explosive," and falls on the "radical," (initial, or first) part of a sound.

2d, Median stress," that in which the force is “ expulsive" or effusive," ," and swells out, whether slowly or rapidly, at the middle of a sound.

3d, "Vanishing stress," or that which withholds the "expulsive" or "explosive" force till the "vanish," or last moment of the sound.

4th, "Compound stress," or that in which the voice, with more or less of" explosive" force, touches forcefully and distinctly on both the initial and the final points of a sound, but passes slightly and almost imperceptibly over the middle part..

5th, "Thorough stress," in which the initial, middle, and final portions of a sound, are all, distinctively and impressively marked by special "expulsive force" of voice. 6th," Tremor," tremulous, or intermittent "stress."

I. 66 RADICAL STRESS.

This form of vocal force is exemplified in the mechanical act of abrupt coughing. In speech, its highest form exists in the utterance of all sounds which embody startling and abrupt emotions; as fear, anger, &c. It exists, also, although in a reduced form, in the tones of determined will, earnest argument, emphatic and distinct or exact communication, and other unimpassioned modes of expression.

In the latter shape, "radical" stress does little more than impart to speech an additional degree of that clear, distinct, and energetic character of utterance, which is marked by the decision of its "radical movement," the phrase, (it will be recollected,) by which Dr. Rush has designated the opening, or initial part, of articulate sounds. But, even in this reduced degree, it forms one of the most valuable accomplishments of elocution; for, although it does not, in this mode, aim at a sympathetic effect on passion or imagination, it subserves the substantially useful purpose of addressing, in clear, distinct style, the ear and the understanding. The definiteness and decision of the speaker's intention, the clear conviction of his judgment, the dis

"There are so few speakers able to give a radical stress to syllabic utterance, with this momentary burst, which I here mean to describe, that I must draw an illustration from the effort of coughing. It will be perceived that a single impulse of coughing, is not, in all points, exactly like the abrupt voice on syllables: for that single impulse is a forcing out of almost all the breath; yet if the tonic element a-we' be employed as the vocality of coughing, its abrupt opening will truly represent the function of radical stress when used in discourse.

"The clear and forcible radical stress can take place only after an interruption of the voice. It would seem as if there is some momentary occlusion in the larynx, by which the breath is barred and accumulated for the purpose of a full and sudden discharge. This occlusion is most under command, and the explosion is most powerful, on syllables beginning with a tonic element, or with an abrupt one preceding a tonic; for, in this last case, an obstruction in the organs of articulation, is combined with the function of the larynx, above supposed." Dr. Rush.