My gay apparel', for an almsman's gown';
My figur'd goblets', for a dish of wood';
My sceptre', for a painter's walking staff`;
My subjects', for a pair of carved saints':
And my large kingdom', for a little grave`:—
A little', little grave'—an obscure grave'.

Repetition requires high rising inflection, acquiring fresh intensity from the iteration, as—

Tell them I grieve not for my death

Grieve!-Ours hath been a race of steel;
Steadfast and stern-yea, fixed in faith,

Though doom'd Power's scourge to feel.

What motive, then, could have such influence in their bosom`? What motive'? That' which Nature, the common parent', plants in the bosom of man`, and which, though it may be less active in the Indian' than in the Englishman', is still congenial with' and makes part of his being'.

Banish'd from Rome? What's banish'd" but set free

From daily contact of the things I loathe?

Circumflex, or wave, is a species of emphasis which combines the rising and falling inflection on the same word. It is used in the tones of mockery and irony, and to mark a peculiar or double meaning.

EXAMPLES.

Yes; they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion', avarice", and pride'.

Queen. Hamlet, you have your father much offended.

Hamlet. Mother, you have my father much offended.

Most courteous tyrants! Romans! rare patterns of humanity!

Monotone. When words are not varied by inflection, they are said to be pronounced in a Monotone. This is used when any thing awful or sublime is to be expressed.

EXAMPLE.

O when he comes',

Rous'd by the cry of wickedness extreme',
To heaven ascending from some guilty land',
Now, ripe for vengeance`; when he comes, array'd
In all the terrors of Almighty wrath',—

Forth from his bosom plucks his lingering arm',
And on the miscreants pours destruction down",
Who can abide his coming? Who can bear

His whole displeasure?

High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth of Ormus, and of Ind,

Or where the gorgeous east, with richest hand,
Showers on her kings barbaric, pearls and gold,
Satan exalted sat!

MODULATION.

MODULATION is the giving to each tone of the voice its appropriate character and expression-so as to produce a grateful melody to the ear.

According to the subject the time of modulation should be regulated. Narration proceeds equally; the pathetic slowly; instruction, authoritatively; determination, with vigor; and passion with rapidity.

The voice is defined as capable of assuming three keys, the low, the high and middle, or conversational key, and to acquire the power of ranging in these with varieties of degrees of loudness, softness, stress, continuity and rapidity-I recommend the practice upon the elementary sounds of LETTERS and SYLLABLES, and the examples afforded under the head of INFLECTION. Instructions in these particulars can only be efficiently carried out, under a capable teacher. The following characteristics of varied modulation will be found useful to the student.

EXAMPLES.

ADORATION, ADMIRATION, SOLEMNITY, SUBLIMITY, are governed by low, loud, slow tones.

Mournfulness, Despondency—by low, soft, tremulous tones.
Fear, without guilt-by low, soft, tremulous tones.

Fear, with guilt-very low, slow tones.

Deep emotion-low, quick and broken tones.

Conversational voice—is light, and of moderate time.

Dignity-loud and slow tones.

Earnestness-loud, middle tone.
Revenge-loud, aspirated.

Courage-high, loud and slow.

In the practice of reading, these varieties of expressive modulation can be better understood, and the attention directed to a more natural management of the tones, than by taking isolated passages for practice. Exaggeration and artificial tones are too frequently acquired, where modulation is practised upon the latter method.

Imitative modulation is a great power in the hands of a skilful speaker or reader. It marks the reader's appreciation of the sense and beauty of a passage. In poetic reading and recitation, this branch of elocutionary art is especially desirable to attain.

Immensity, Sublimity—are expressed by a prolongation and swell of the voice.

Roll on, thou deep and dark blue ocean, roll,

Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain.

Motion and sound, in all their modifications, are, in descriptive reading, more or less imitated.

To glide, to drive, to swell, to flow, to skip, to whirl, to turn, to run, to rattle, etc., all partake of a peculiar modification of the voice, which expresses imitation.

The sound must seem an echo to the sense.

PAUSES.

Pauses are of consequence to a correct rendering of sense. They are of two kinds, first emphatical pauses; and next, such as mark distinctions of sense. An emphatical pause is made after something has been said of peculiar meaning, but the most frequent use of pauses is, to mark the divisions of sense, and to allow the speaker to draw breath. By practising the pupil on the method of suspending the tone on elementary sounds of words, and then to gather the breath sufficiently to carry a long sentence to its final completion would entirely eradicate the vicious habit of dividing words having an intimate relation to each other, by which sense is destroyed, and the force of emphasis is entirely lost by divisions being made in the wrong place.

CLOSING REMARKS.

The foregoing compilation of elementary and strictly essential rules will assist in the formation of a correct, impressive and natural style of reading. Much, however, must depend upon the cultivation of an intellectual and sympathetic appreciation of the sense and beauty of language in all its varieties of sentiment, emotion and passion. It is in these all-important points of elocutionary instruction, that the capable and intelligent Teacher is needed, to develop and quicken the perceptions of the pupil. With such teaching the result would be a much more natural style of reading and speaking than now obtains in schools or in society.