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.

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It is important that the pupil, at the very outset of vocal study, should have the ability of appreciating purity of tone. Unless he have some distinct perception of it-in other words, unless a model of pure tone has been formed in his own mind-all merely physical effort to acquire it will be likely to fail.

The practice of the scale in swelling tones is chiefly relied upon by teachers of vocal music, for developing the voice, and for acquiring purity, mellowness, flexibility, and an adequate breadth of tone.

In the application, keep in mind the distinction between the speaking voice and singing voice.

OROTUND QUALITY.

This quality of voice may be said to be a highly improved state of the natural voice. It is that pure, ringing, fullness of sound, which is made deep in the throat; the cavity of which is made to approach that of a barrel-not indeed, in size, but in hollowness and roundness; giving to the voice a reverberating sound, as from a hollow cavity.

Dr. Rush has, on the basis of the Latin phrase, constructed the term Orotund as designating that assemblage of eminent qualities which constitute the highest characteristic of the speaking voice. He has further described it to be a full, clear, strong, smooth, and ringing sound, rarely heard in ordinary speech; though occasionally we meet with a person who has an Orotund as his natural voice; but which is never found in its highest excellence, except by careful cultivation. He describes the fine qualities of voice constituting the Orotund, in the following words:

By a fullness of voice is meant that grave or hollow volume which approaches to hoarseness.

By a freedom from nasal murmur and aspiration.

By a satisfactory loudness and audibility.

By smoothness, or a freedom from all reedy or guttural harshness.

By a ringing quality of voice, its resemblance to certain musical instruments.

Persons possessing the Orotund appear to be laboring under a slight degree of hoarseness. The voice is highly agreeable to the ear, and is more musical and flexible than the common voice.

The possession of the power of this voice is greatly dependent on cultivation and management. Experiments have proved that more depends on cul

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tivation than on natural peculiarity.

Therefore encouragement is strongly

held out to those who are desirous of possessing it.

Thus, the frequent exercise of the voice, in reading and declaiming aloud, with the utmost degree of force of which it is susceptible, is a successful and sure method for improving it. Persons in general have no adequate notion of the degree to which the voice may be improved by the daily habit of loud vociferation. As soon as this strong action of the voice can be employed without hoarseness, it ought to be maintained for a considerable length of time, (say half an hour,) and if the exercise is united with a proper observance of measure, and a full supply of air in the lungs, it will be beneficial rather than injurious to health; and especially if prosecuted in the open air, or in a large room.

Voices have been gotten up in a fortnight, by this practice, from compars tive feebleness, into a well marked strength, fullness, and distinctness.

EXAMPLES FOR PRACTICE.

I.

And reckon'st thou thyself with spirits of heaven,
Hell-doomed, and breath'st defiance here and scorn,
Where I reign king? and to enrage thee more
Thy King and Lord! Back to thy punishment,
False fugitive, and to thy speed add wings,
Lest with a whip of scorpions I pursue

Thy lingering, or with one stroke of this dart
Strange horrors seize thee, and pangs unfelt before.

2.

The hoarse, rough voice should like a torrent roar.

3.

Where rests the sword?-where sleep the brave,
Awake! Cecropia's ally save

From the fury of the blast.

Burst the storm on Phocis' walls,

Rise! or Greece forever falls;

Up! or Freedom breathes her last!

4.

Advance your standards, draw your willing swords!
Sound drums and trumpets boldly and cheerfully!
God, and Saint George! Richmond and victory!

5.

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!

6.

Come, brands, ho! fire-brands-To Brutus'! to Cassius'!-burn all! Some to Decius' house, and some to Casca's; some to Ligarius':-away! go!

7.

Hear, O ye nations! hear it, O ye dead!

He rose, he rose, -he burst the bars of death.

The theme, the joy, how then shall men sustain ?

Oh! the burst gates! crushing sting! demolished throne!
Last gasp of vanquished death! Shout, earth and heaven,
That sum of good to man! whose nature then
Took wing, and mounted with him from the tomb.
-Man, all immortal, hail!

Hail heaven, all lavish of strange gifts to man!
Thine all the glory! man's the boundless bliss!

8.

False wizard, avaunt! I have marshaled my clan :
Their swords are a thousand,-their bosoms are one!
They are true to the last of their blood and their breath,
And like reapers descend to the harvest of death.
Then welcome be Cumberland's steed to the shock!
Let him dash his proud foam like a wave on the rock.
But woe to his kindred and woe to his cause,
When Albyn her claymore indignantly draws;
When her bonneted chieftains to victory crowd,
Clan Ranald the dauntless, and Moray the proud;
All plaided and plumed in their tartan array !

9.

Ye ice-falls! ye that from the mountain's brow
Adown enormous ravines slope amain,-
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty voice,
And stopped at once amid their maddest plunge!
Motionless torrents! silent cataracts!

Who made you glorious as the gates of heaven
Beneath the keen, full moon? Who bade the sun
Clothe you with rainbows? Who, with living flowers
Of loveliest blue, spread garlands at your feet!—
God! let the torrents, like a shout of nations,
Answer! and let the ice-plaines echo, God !—
And they, too, have a voice,-yon piles of snow,
And in their perilous fall shall thunder, God!

IO.

Ye living flowers that skirt the eternal frost!
Ye wild goats sporting round the eagle's nest!
Ye eagle's playmates of the mountain storm!
Ye lightnings, the dread arrows of the clouds!
Ye signs and wonders of the elements !
Utter forth God, and fili the hills with praise !

Pathetic, tranquil, and solemn emotions always pass from pure tone" to "orotund quality," when force or sublimity in any degree marks the language in which these emotions are uttered.

12.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day;
The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea;
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds;

Save that, from yonder ivy-mantled tower,
The moping owl does to the moon complain
Of such as, wandering near her secret bower,
Molest her ancient, solitary reign.

Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade,
Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap,-
Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,-

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

For them no more the blazing hearth shall burn,
Or busy housewife ply her evening care;

No children run to lisp their sire's return,
Or climb his knees, the envied kiss to share.

13.

Hail! holy light,—offspring of Heaven, first-born,
Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed? since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity,-dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright Essence incarnate!
Or hearest thou, rather, pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell?-Before the sun,
Before the heavens thou wert, and, at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest
The rising world of waters, dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.

GUTTURAL QUALITY.

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The emotions which are naturally expressed by the strongest form of Gut, tural quality may be denominated malignant, in contrast with others which may be termed genial. The former includes hatred, aversion, horror, anger, etc.; and the latter love, joy, serenity, pity, etc.

EXAMPLES OF GUTTURAL QUALITY.

I.

Avaunt! and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold:

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

Hence, horrible shadow !

Unreal mockery, hence !

2.

Call me their traitor!—Thou injurious tribune!
Within thine eyes sat twenty thousand deaths,
In thine hands clutched as many MILLIONS, in
Thy lying tongue BOTH numbers. I would say,
Thou LIEST.

3.

You souls of geese,

That bear the shapes of MEN! how have you run
From slaves that apes would beat! PLUTO and HELL!
All hurt behind! Backs red and faces pale,

With flight and agued fear! MEND, and CHARGE HOME!
Or, by the fires of heaven! I'll leave the FOE,

And make my wars on YOU! Look to't! COME ON!

4.

Poison be their drink!

Gall-worse than gall-the daintiest that they taste!
Their sweetest shade, a grove of cypress trees!
Their chiefest prospect, murthering basilisks!
Their softest touch, as smart as lizard's stings!

5.

Thou standt's at length before me undisguised—
Of all earth's groveling crew, the most accursed.
Thou worm! thou viper!-to thy native earth
Return! Away! Thou art too base for man
To tread upon! Thou scum! thou reptile!

6.

Be, then, his love accursed !-since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe;—