3.- Solemnity and Sublimity.

[From the Hymn to Mont Blanc.] Coleridge. "Hast thou a charm to stay the morning star

In his steep course? so long he seems to pause
On thy bald, awful head, O sovereign Blanc !
The Arve* and Arveiron at thy base

Rave ceaselessly; but thou, most awful form!
Risest from forth thy silent sea of pines,
How silently! around thee and above

Deep is the air and dark, substantial black, —
An ebon mass; methinks thou piercest it
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thine own calm home, thy crystal shrine,

Thy habitation from eternity!

O dread and silent mount! I gazed upon thee,

Till thou, still present to the bodily sense,

Didst vanish from my thought: entranced in prayer,
I worshipped the Invisible alone."

4.- Repose, Solemnity, and Sublimity, exemplified in Prose Composition.

[Sound of Sabbath Bells, in the City.] Willis.

"I know few things more impressive than to walk the streets of a city, when the peal of the early bells is just beginning. The deserted pavements, the closed windows of the places of business, the decent gravity of the solitary passenger, and, over all, the feeling in your own bosom, that the fear of God is brooding, like a great shadow, over the thousand human beings who are sitting still in their dwellings around you, were enough, if there were no other circumstance, to hush the heart into a religious fear. But when the bells peal out suddenly with a summons to the temple of God, and their echoes roll on through the desolate streets, and are unanswered by the sound of any human voice, or the din of any human occupation, the effect has sometimes seemed to me more solemn than the near thunder."

* The letter e when sounded in final syllables, is distinguished by a dot, instead of the acute or the grave accent, to avoid confusion, in the notation of elocution

Voice of sweet song! awake, my heart, awake!
Green vales and icy cliffs all join my hymn!

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

[Results from the Sufferings of the Pilgrims.] Everett.

"Student of history, compare for me the baffled projects, the deserted settlements, the abandoned adventures of other times, and find the parallel of this. Was it the winter's storm, beating upon the houseless heads of women and children, - was it hard labour and was it disease, spare meals, was it the tomahawk, - was it the deep malady of a blighted hope, a ruined enterprise, and a broken

-

* In this mode of voice, the sound is not merely suffered to escape in a delicate and gentle current, as in "pure tone," nor emitted, in a full but soft stream, as in "effusive orotund:" it is expelled, though not violently, by a special force of the will, acting upon the organs, and producing a partial "swell," or slightly perceptible increase and diminution of volume, on accented and emphatic syllables.

+ The term "impassioned" is employed, in elocution, in its poetic sense of high-wrought feeling, transcending all limits of ordinary emotion, but has no reference to violence or ungoverned excess. It designates the ecstasy of poetic inspiration. The "expression" of malignant emotion, though sometimes comprehended under the word "impassioned," is not necessarily implied by it.

The word "declamatory" is here used as a technical term of elocution It designates the full-toned utterance of eloquent public speaking.

heart, aching in its last moments, at the recollection of the loved and left beyond the sea;— was it some or all of these united,—that hurried this forsaken company to their melancholy fate?

“And is it possible that not one of these causes, that not all combined, were able to blast this bud of hope? Is it possible that from a beginning so feeble, so frail, so worthy, not so much of admiration as of pity, there has gone forth a progress so steady, a growth so wonderful, an expansion so ample, a reality so important, a promise yet to be fulfilled, so glorious?”

[From the Ode on Immortality.] Wordsworth.
"Then sing, ye birds, sing, sing a joyous song!
And let the young lambs bound

As to the tabor's sound!"

III. EXPLOSIVE" UTTERANCE.

Alarm.

[The Eve of Waterloo.] Byron.

"And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed,
The mustering squadron, and the clattering car,
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed,
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war;
While the deep thunder, peal on peal, afar,
And near, the beat of the alarming drum,

Roused up the soldier ere the morning star;
While thronged the citizens, with terror dumb,

Or whispering, with white lips, 'The foe! they come, — they come!''

"Aspirated" Utterance.

When the intensity of emotion is such that the organs of speech are, as it were, partially paralyzed, for the moment, and unable to

* The voice, in this style of expression, bursts forth with the force of abrupt and instantaneous explosion. This is the usual mode of utterance, in the highest moods of excitement arising from emotions which have a sudden and startling effect, as anger, alarm, fear, &c.

produce "pure" or "expressive" vocal sound, one of the following effects, according to the degree of feeling, is produced on the voice 1st, an absolute whisper, as in extreme fear; 2d, a partial or half whisper, as in extreme earnestness; 3d, an "aspirated" or partially hoarse utterance accompanying the "orotund quality," and occasionally, in the tones of impassioned emphasis, transcending it, so as to leave the harsh effect of the breath predominating on the ear. This form of voice belongs to the characteristic utterance of anger revenge, fear, awe, and similar emotions.

EXERCISES IN "ASPIRATED " UTTERANCE.

I.WHISPERING.

Fear.

[Caliban approaching the Cave of Prospero.] Shakspeare.
"Pray you, tread softly, -that the blind mole may not

Hear a foot fall:

Speak softly!

All's hushed as midnight yet."

II. HALF-WHISPER.

Extreme Earnestness.

[From a Fragment.] Margaret Davidson.

"I see her seraph form, her flowing hair,
Her brow and cheek so exquisitely fair,
Her smiling lips, her dark eye's radiant beam!
A dream? This is not, cannot be a dream!"

[From the Hymn of the Sea.] Bryant.

"But who shall bide Thy tempest? who shall face
The blast that wakes the fury of the sea?

O God! Thy justice makes the world turn pale,
When on the armed fleet that royally
Bears down the surges, carrying war, to smite
Some city, or invade some thoughtless realm,

Descends the fierce tornado. The vast hulks

--

Are hurled like chaff upon the waves; the sails
Fly, rent like waves of gossamer; the masts
Are snapped asunder; downward from the decks, —
Downward are slung, into the fathomless gulf,
Their cruel engines; and their hosts, arrayed
In trappings of the battle-field, are whelmed
By whirlpools, or dashed dead upon the rocks.
Then stand the nations still with awe, and pause,
A moment, from the bloody work of war."

"Impassioned" Force.— Anger and Scorn.

[Helen M'Gregor to Morris.] Scott.

"But you wretch! you could live and enjoy yourself, while the noble-minded are betrayed, — while nameless and birthless villains tread on the neck of the brave and long-descended, — you could enjoy yourself, like a butcher's dog in the shambles, battening on garbage, while the slaughter of the brave went on around you! This enjoyment you shall not live to partake of: you shall die, base dog! and that before yon cloud has passed over the sun."

THE force of the voice is usually in the ratio of feeling. The intensity of emotion, -- except in cases which exemplify the force of passion as overcoming the power of utterance, is indicated by the comparative force of the voice, on emphatic and expressive sounds, through all stages, from whispering to shouting. The exercises prescribed under the head of "quality," comprise all these gradations of force. But a distinct perception of the nature and effect of force, as an element of "expression," will be much aided by reviewing these exercises for the special purpose of watching the result of the various stages of force implied in the examples of "quality" arranged as follows:

1. Whispering.—2. The half-whisper.-3. The successive examples of “Pure Tone," under Subdued and Moderate Force.—4. The examples of "Effusive, Expulsive, and Explosive Orotund ;" reserving for the last stage, the example of "Sustained Force of Pure Tone,” in Calling, and the example of "Expulsive Orotund," in Shouting. Passages, such as the example of "Expulsive Orotund" in Declam