playful, half-laughing style of voice, which naturally belongs to this vivid effusion of blended humor and fancy. The practice of the elements, in the same style, in sounds, and words, will be of the greatest service for imparting the full and free command of the appropriate tone of humor; and even a frequent repetition of the act of laughter will be found highly useful, as a preparative for this style of expression, by suggesting and infusing the perfect purity of tone which naturally belongs to hearty and joyous emotion.

Example.

"Oh! then, I see queen Mab hath been with you. She comes

In shape no bigger than an agate stone,

On the forefinger of an alderman,

Drawn by a team of little atomies

Athwart men's noses, as they lie asleep;
Her wagon-spokes made of long spinners' legs;
The cover, of the wings of grasshoppers;
The traces, of the smallest spider's web,
The collars, of the moonshine's watery beams:
Her whip of cricket's bone; the lash of film;
Her wagoner, a small gray-coated gnat;
Her chariot is an empty hazel-nut,
Made by the joiner squirrel, or old grub,
Time out of mind the fairies' coachmakers.

And in this state she gallops, night by night,
Through lovers' brains, and then they dream of love;
O'er lawyers' fingers, who straight dream on fees;
O'er ladies' lips, who straight on kisses dream:
Sometimes she gallops o'er a courtier's nose,
And then dreams he of smelling out a suit;
And sometimes comes she with a tithe-pig's tail,
Tickling a parson's nose, as 'a lies asleep,
Then dreams he of another benefice :

Sometimes she driveth o'er a soldier's neck,
And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,
Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,
Of healths five fathom deep and then anon
Drums in his ear; at which he starts and wakes;
And, being thus frighted, swears a prayer or two,
And sleeps again.”

A call is the highest and intensest form of "pure tone," and when extended to a vast distance, becomes, it is universally known, similar to music, in the style of its utter

ance.

A high note is required, in order to reach to remote distance, and perfect purity of tone, is also indispensable, as a condition of the easy emission of the prodigious force of voice which calling demands, and which, in continuous effort, it must sustain. It is the "maximum," or highest degree, of vocal force. But if unaccompanied by perfectly pure quality of sound, it pains and injures the organs. Its true mode is a long-sustained and exceedingly powerful singing tone. In this form, its use in strengthening the organs, and giving firmness, compactness, and clearness to the voice, is very great.

The student, in practising the call, as a vocal exercise, must see to it that the utmost purity of tone is kept up; as the exercise will otherwise be injurious. The more attentive he is to sing his words, in such exercises, the more easy is the effort, and the more salutary the result. The style of utterance, in this exercise, is that of vigorous, sustained, and intense "effusion," but should never become abruptly "explosive."

The following example should be practised on the scale indicated, not on the stage, but in historical fact, as when

the herald stood on the plain, at such a distance as to be out of bow-shot, and called out his message, so as to be fully audible and distinctly intelligible to the listeners on the distant city-wall.

The elementary tables of sounds, and words, should be repeatedly practised, in the form of calling, till the student can command a full, clear, ringing, and musical call, or any form of sound which admits of this function of the voice.

Example.

"Rejoice, you men of Angiers! ring your bells: King John, your king and England's, doth approach; Open your gates, and give the victors way!"

'To thee the love of woman hath gone down :

Dark flow thy tides o'er manhood's noble brow,

O'er youth's bright locks, and beauty's flowery crown."

2.

"And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves,

Dewy with Nature's tear-drops, as they pass,

Grieving, if aught inanimate e'er grieves, —

Over the unreturning brave, -alas!

Ere evening, to be trodden like the grass

Which now beneath them, but above shall grow

In its next verdure, when that fiery mass

Of living valor, rolling on the foe,

And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low."

3.

"I wandered on, scarce knowing where I went,
Till I was seated on an infant's grave.
Alas! I knew the little tenant well:
She was one of a lovely family,

That oft had clung around me like a wreath
Of flowers, the fairest of the maiden spring: -
It was a new-made grave, and the green sod
Lay loosely on it; yet affection there

Had reared the stone, her monument of fame.
I read the name I loved to hear her lisp :
"T was not alone; but every name was there,
That lately echoed through that happy dome.
I had been three weeks absent : in that time
The merciless destroyer was at work,

And spared not one of all the infant group.
The last of all I read the grandsire's name,
On whose white locks I oft had seen her cheek,
Like a bright sunbeam on a fleecy cloud,
Rekindling in his eye the fading lustre,
Breathing into his heart the glow of youth.
He died, at eighty, of a broken heart,
Bereft of all for whom he wished to live."

4.

-

["I acknowledge the splendor of the scene of Thermopylæ in all its aspects. I admit its morality, too, and its useful influence on every Grecian heart, in that greatest crisis of Greece,]

"And yet, do you not think, that whoso could, by ade quate description, bring before you that winter of the Pil grims, its brief sunshine, the nights of storm slow waning; the damp and icy breath, felt to the pillow of the dying; its destitutions, its contrasts with all their former expe rience in life; its insulation and loneliness; its death-bed and burials; its memories; its apprehensions; its hopes;.

the consultations of the prudent; the prayers of the pious; the occasional cheerful hymn, in which the strong heart threw off its burthen, and, asserting its unvanquished nature, went up like a bird of dawn, to the skies; — do ye not think that whoso could describe them calmly waiting in that defile, lonelier and darker than Thermopylæ, for a morning that might never dawn, or might show them, when it did, a mightier arm than the Persian, raised as in act to strike,' would sketch a scene of more difficult and rarer heroism?"

"Thou breathest ;

Thou speakest ;

II. Solemnity.

Exercise 1.

and the obedient storm is still:
silent the submissive wave:

Man's shattered ship the rushing waters fill;
And the hushed billows roll across his grave.
Sourceless and endless God! compared with Thee,
Life is a shadowy momentary dream;

And time, when viewed through Thy eternity,

Less than the mote of morning's golden beam."

2.

"I am now alone in my chamber. The family have long since retired. I have heard their steps die away, and the doors clap to after them. The murmur of voices, and the peal of remote laughter, no longer reach the ear. The clock from the church in which so many of the former inhabitants of this house lie buried, has chimed the awful hour of midnight.

"I have sat by the window, and mused upon the dusky landscape, watching the lights disappearing, one by one, from the distant village; and the moon rising in her silent majesty, and leading up all the silver pomp of heaven. As I have gazed upon these quiet groves and shadowing lawns,