make it particularly loved of the good, and to make the bad ashamed of their neglect of it. To do what is right, argues superior taste as well as morals; and those whose practice is evil, feel an inferiority of intellectual power and enjoyment, even where they take no concern for a principle.

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Doing well has something more in it than the fulfilling of a duty. It is the cause of a just sense of elevation of character; it clears and strengthens the spirits; it gives higher reaches of thought; it widens our benevolence, and makes the current of our peculiar affections swift and deep."

3.-"Animated," or Lively, Style.

This mode of voice differs, in three respects, from the "serious" it has more force, a higher pitch, and a quicker movement; and the comparatively greater force renders the purity of the tone still more conspicuous.

The common fault, as regards this style, is a dull or deadened tone, instead of that of animation. The dulness of the objectionable tone, arises from keeping the pitch as low, perhaps, as that of the "serious" tone, from withholding the due force of animated utterance, and from allowing the voice to move too slowly. Along with these faults usually goes an impure, husky quality of voice, instead of the clear resonant sound which belongs to animation of manner.

It is unnecessary to expatiate on the effects of a style so obviously bad as that of dulness and monotony. In consequence of indulging this habit, the school-boy reads with the tone of apparent reluctance, indifference, or stupor, and the man speaks as if his intention were to lull his audience to sleep. The origin of this false tone is to be found in the fact that elementary teachers too generally permit reading to be dull work, and that reading-books abound in dull or unintelligible lessons. The tones of life and interest, are not cultivated and cherished at the period when the style of the voice is forming; and neglected habit is attended, here, as elsewhere, with every evil: the voice is killed; the spirits are quenched; and the reader or speaker has apparently neither will nor power to awaken his own soul to perception and feeling, nor to arouse the hearts of others.

The following example should be attentively practised with reference to lively and spirited effect.

The exercise in "animated" utterance should be extended, as a matter of practice, to the elementary sounds, and to the repetition of the tables of words as far, and as often, as individuals or classes may seem to require.

Example.

ANIMAL HAPPINESS. - Paley.

"The air, the earth, the water, teem with delighted exist ence. In a spring noon, or a summer evening, on whichever side we turn our eyes, myriads of happy beings crowd upon our view. The insect youth are on the wing.' Swarms of new-born flies are trying their pinions in the air. Their sportive motions, their gratuitous activity, their continual change of place, without use or purpose, testify their joy, and the exultation which they feel in their lately discovered faculties."

4.-"Gay," or Brisk, Style.

This mode of utterance has all the characteristics of the "animated" style, carried to a greater extent. The tone to which we now refer, being that of exhilarated feeling, its pitch is higher, its force is greater, and its "movement" quicker than that of an utterance, which, as in the preceding instance, does not go beyond the style of animation or liveliness, merely.

Gaiety and vividness of expression, are, in their proper sphere, as important to appropriate effect in reading, as any of the opposite qualities of seriousness and gravity are in theirs. We can never, without these properties of voice, give natural expression to many of the most pleasing forms of composition,- to such, in particular, as derive their power over sympathy, from their presenting to us what the poet has termed "the gayest, happiest attitude of things," or from the glowing and exhilarating colors in which language sometimes delights to invest the forms of thought. Dramatic scenes, sketches of life and manners, vivid delineations of character, all demand the utterance of exhilarated emotion. Unaided by the effect of such expression, the finest compositions fall flat and dead upon the ear, and leave our feelings unmoved or disappointed.

The lifeless routine of school habit, is too generally the early cause of the formation of such tones; and the chief expedient for removing them, is to enter, with full life and spirit. into the sentiments and emotions which we utter in reading.

The practice of the following and similar examples, should be carefully watched, with a view to this end; and the exercise of brisk and exhilarated utterance, should be repeatedly practised on the elements, syllables, and words contained in the tables, as a means of fixing definitely and permanently in the ear the requisite properties of voice.

The learner is imperfect in practice, as long as there

remains perceptible in his utterance, the least approach to the partial impurity of tone arising from the languid drawling usually connected with "nasal and guttural qualities," the feeble thinness of a mere "oral" tone, or the hollow murmur of the " pectoral style. A clear and perfectly pure, ringing voice, corresponding to what the musician terms "head tone," is the standard of practice in this branch of elocution.

Example.

RURAL HOLIDAY.— Milton.

Sometimes, with secure delight,
The upland hamlets will invite,
When the merry bells ring round,
And the jocund rebecs sound,

To many a youth and many a maid,
Dancing in the checkered shade,

When young and old come forth to play,
On a sunshine holiday,

Till the livelong daylight fail."

5.-" Humorous," or Playful, Style.

Perfect purity of tone is indispensable to the utterance of fanciful and humorous emotion, unless in the few instances in which, for mimetic or enhanced effect, a peculiar and characteristic voice is assumed, on purpose. Humor, in its genuine expression, not only enlivens and kindles tone, but seems as it were to melt it, and make it flow into the ear and the heart, as the full, clear, sparkling stream gushes into the reservoir. The playful and the mirthful style of utterance, seems to be voice let loose from all restraints which would impose upon it any rigidness, dryness, or hardness of sound.

Humor goes beyond mere gaiety or exhilaration, in the unbounded scope which it gives to the voice: its tones are higher, louder, and quicker in " movement."

Humor excels even gaiety, in effusive purity of tone, which seems to come ringing and full from the heart, with all the resonance of head and chest combined," flooding," as the poet says of the skylark, "the very air with sound."

Destitute of such utterance, the reading of some of the finest passages of Shakspeare, of Scott, or of Irving, becomes cold and torpid, or excites only aversion and disgust. The lighter strains of Cowper, and innumerable passages in all the truest and best of our poets, demand this highest form of mirthful utterance.

The faults usually exemplified in regard to this tone, are similar to those which were mentioned. in speaking of the gay and brisk style

of expression, and are owing principally to the causes then indicated. The remedy must also be of the same description with that which was then suggested. Humor demands, however, not a mere fulness but an actual exuberance and overflow of feeling, in order to give it expression. An approach to the style of laughter, should be percep tible in the quality with which it inspires the voice.

The following exercises should be practised with all the 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 entire 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.

MERCUTIO'S DESCRIPTION OF QUEEN MAB.- Shakspeare.
"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."

III. "SUSTAINED" FORCE.

Calling.

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 utterance.

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 "explo

sive."

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.