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which produce conviction. True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech. It can not be brought from far. It must exist in the man, in the subject, and in the occasion.” (From "True Eloquence," by Daniel Webster.)

Analysis.-Webster has been speaking of the great eloquence of John Adams, and, to justify this praise, he gives his own ideas of true eloquence in this famous passage, a part of which we quote.

Look, then, for the points of difference between this highest eloquence and that which is ordinary. First, the circumstances. It is on "momentous" (not ordinary) occasions, when "great" (not small) interests are at stake, and "strong" passions (not weak ones) are excited. These, then, are distinctive points, and must be emphasized as the important conditions of the positive assertion that follows.

And what is the distinctive part of this assertion? Not that "nothing is valuable in speech," or even that "nothing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with high endowments": for all eloquence depends on high endowments of some kind. On ordinary occasions, the high endowments of the scholar or the actor may be valuable in speech; but on momentous occasions, when such great interests as independence and nationality are at stake, then the speaker, like Adams, must have the intellectual power to see what is right and best, and the moral courage to contend for it at all hazards; then nothing is valuable in speech farther than it is connected with "high INTELLECTUAL and MORAL' endowments."

To make sure of not emphasizing the common idea in the last word "endowments," and of giving the positive falling slide to the distinctive words "intellectual"

and "moral," supply the differential words, and read the full contrast thus:

"Not high scholarly' or oratorical' endowments, but 'high INTELLECTUAL and MORAL' endowments.'

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Next are stated "the qualities which produce conviction," and each quality is a distinct, positive idea, and must have its own falling slide to individuate it; as, "Clearness, force', and earnestness are the qualities which produce conviction."

If pupils persist in running these three ideas together without letting the voice fall on each, the best way to secure the right reading is to ask a separate question for each; as, "What is the first quality?" "Clearness." "The second?" "Force." "The third?" "Earnestness"

"True eloquence, indeed, does not consist in speech'. It can not be brought from far'." "True" is here distinguished from false eloquence, and "speech" and "far" are emphatic negative ideas (to be read with the rising slide), made distinctive in the strongest way by contrast with the positive ideas (to be read with the falling slide) that follow, in which true eloquence must exist, viz., in the "man," in the "subject," and in the "occasion."

The analysis should be studied until the selection can be read correctly without the aid of elocutionary marks. Pupils will thus acquire a better discipline for independent reading, than if aided too much by the mechanical signs of emphasis and expression.

DIRECTIONS TO PUPILS.

This work of analysis (studying the meaning and reading of the separate parts) is to perfect synthesis (the rendering of the whole).

First, then, read the selection to be analyzed. Second, read and study the analysis of the same. Third, re-read the selection as a whole, in accordance with the analysis.

This process should be repeated until the pupils master the double lesson of reasoning and reading.

XV. THE BATTLE OF HASTINGS.

1. Harold was crowned king of England on the very day of the Confessor's funeral. He had good need to be quick about it. When the news reached Norman William, hunting in his park at Rouen, he dropped his bow, returned to his palace, called his nobles to council, and presently sent ambassadors to Harold, calling on him to keep his oath and resign the crown. Harold would do no such thing. The barons of France leagued together round Duke William for the invasion of England. Duke William promised freely to distribute English wealth and English lands among them. Some writers tell us that Edward the Confessor had made a will, appointing Duke William of Normandy his successor. It is not unlikely, as William was his kinsman, being the grandson of that Richard of Normandy, the Confessor's uncle, who had received long ago, with such kindness, his nephews and their mother, when they fled from England to escape the cruel Danes.

2. King Harold had a rebel brother in Flanders, who was a vassal of Harold Hardrada, king of Norway. This brother and this Norwegian king, joining their forces against England, with Duke William's help, won a fight, in which the English were commanded by two nobles, and then besieged York. Harold, who was wait

ing for the Normans on the coast at Hastings, with his army, marched to Stamford Bridge, upon the river Derwent, to give them instant battle.

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3. He found them drawn up in a hollow circle, marked out by their shining spears. Riding round this circle at a distance, to survey it, he saw a brave figure on horseback, in a blue mantle and a bright helmet, whose horse suddenly stumbled and threw him.

4. "Who is that man who has fallen?" Harold asked of one of his captains.

"The king of Norway," he replied.

"He is a tall and stately king," said Harold; "but his end is near."

5. He added, in a little while, "Go yonder to my brother, and tell him if he withdraw his troops he shall be earl of Northumberland, and rich and powerful in England."

The captain rode away and gave the message.

6. "What will he give to my friend, the king of Norway?" asked the brother.

tain.

"Seven feet of earth for a grave," replied the cap

"No more?" returned the brother, with a smile.

"The king of Norway being a tall man, perhaps a little more," replied the captain.

"Ride back," said the brother, "and tell King Harold to make ready for the fight."

7. He did so very soon. And such a fight King Harold led against that force, that his brother, the Norwegian king, and every chief of note in all their host, except the Norwegian king's son Olave, to whom he gave honorable dismissal, were left dead upon the field.

The victorious army marched to York. As King Harold sat there at the feast, in the midst of all his company, a stir was heard at the doors, and messengers, all covered with mire from riding far and fast through broken ground, came hurrying in to report that the Normans had landed in England.

8. The intelligence was true. They had been tossed about by contrary winds, and some of their ships had been wrecked. A part of their own shore, to which they had been driven back, was strewn with Norman bodies. But they had once more made sail, led by the duke's own galley, a present from his wife, upon the prow whereof the figure of a golden boy stood pointing toward England. By day, the banner of the three lions of Normandy, the divers-colored sails, the gilded vanes, the many decorations of this gorgeous ship, had glittered in the sun and sunny water; by night, a light had sparkled like a star at her masthead; and now, encamped near Hastings, with their leader lying in the old Roman castle of Pevensey, the English retiring in all directions, the land for miles around scorched and smoking, fired and pillaged, was the whole Norman power, hopeful and strong on English ground.

9. Harold broke up the feast and hurried to London. Within a week his army was ready. He sent out spies to ascertain the Norman strength.

William took them, caused them to be led through his whole camp, and then dismissed.

"The Normans," said these spies to Harold, "are not bearded on the upper lip as we English are, but are shorn. They are priests."

"My men,” replied Harold, with a laugh," will find those priests good soldiers."

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