to be able to preserve that quality of voice in other

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passages in which that tonic sound of o does not prevail; but which, nevertheless, require, and are capable of receiving, on the tonics which they do contain, the full swelling tone of the oro-tund, as in the following

PRACTICE ON OROTUND.

1

And all the clouds that lower'd upon our house,

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

All are but partsTM of one harmonious whole,
Whose body nature is and God the soul!

With woful measures,wan Despair, ཤ

ཡ

Low sullen sounds, his grief beguiled.~

The stars shall fade away, the sun himself

Shaks.

Pope.

Collins.

Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years;
But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth

Unhurt amidst the war of elements

The wreck of matter and the crush of worlds.

Addison.

To Scriptural reading, and prayer, the orotund is most appropriate; for its full swelling tone lends depth and solemnity to the delivery, and is strongly expressive of reverential feeling. The acquisition and command of the orotund, therefore, is essential to the

clergyman, whose voice is required to fill a large building, not only so as to be audible, but with a deep and solemn effect that shall secure the attention, respect and sympathy of his auditors. The figurative and sublime language of the Old Testament must not be uttered, (as it too frequently is,) in the familiar and undignified tone in which we would deliver an ordinary lecture, or make a statement of finance; and even the beautiful simplicity of the New Testament must not be vulgarised and degraded to the familiar tone of common-place conversation or narration. The dignity of his subject, his office, its high aim, the place, the occasion, all demand from the clergyman, dignity of style and manner; and the orotund voice, with its full swelling stream of sound, is the one adapted to that end. It should, therefore, be a great and constant object of the clergyman to educate his voice and utterance upon this point. More than these few hints on Scriptural reading I cannot give here; it is a style of itself, which requires considerable practice, and cultivation of voice, so as to avoid, on the one hand, meanness, and familiarity in aiming at simplicity; and on the other, to escape bombast and turgidity, while aspiring to dignity and power.

READING OF VERSE.

In

The previous observations apply to the general style of poetical Elocution, whether in prose or verse. the reading of verse, we must, moreover, be careful to preserve RHYTHM and MELODY.

G*

1. RHYTHм is musical order of arrangement: it is as pleasing, and indeed necessary to the satisfaction of the ear, as symmetry and regularity of form are to the eye. In music, rhythm governs the leaping or gushing of the sound; in dance, it regulates the beating of the feet; in language, it directs or arranges the pulsations or strokes of the voice upon words or syllables; or, as it is called, in music, the accentuation. I have before observed, that there is a rhythm even in prose; but it is uncertain, irregular and fickle. Verse is the music of language; rhythm is its essential quality; the regularity and perfection of which distinguish it from prose. Verse is addressed to the ear; its music is not received through the eye, (although a regular marginal blank may seem to mark the versification on paper,) and therefore, it is as requisite, in reading verse, to mark the rhythmical accentuation of the line, as that, in playing or singing, we should observe due time. That is, we must regulate the pulsation and movement of sound by the voice, to the regulated metrical accentuation (or rhythm) of the verse.

English verse consists of the arrangement, at regular intervals, of accented and unaccented, or, more properly speaking, of heavy and light syllables.

This regular arrangement, or order, constitutes the rhythm of the verse,-whether that verse be blank or in rhyme ;-rhyme is the coincidence of sound in the closing cadence of one line with that of another ; it has no reference to or influence upon the rhythm, from which it is perfectly distinct, nor is it an essential constituent of English poetry.

Latin and Greek Verse is measured, by prosodians, by certain adjustments of syllables, long and short, called feet of these feet there is a great variety, of which the principal are the

Spondee-two long syllables, as undone,

Trochee—one long and one short syllable, as mērcy,

Iambus—one short and one long, as elate,

Dactyl—one long and two short, as mērciful,

Anapest-two short and one long, as lemonade.

But, of that style of scanning our English verse is quite independent, and indeed incapable. The syllables in our language cannot be classed as long or short, for the same syllables vary in quantity, as they occur in different verses, according to the amount of feeling or force that may be given to them, and other circumstances governing their quantity. English verse is regulated by the arrangement of heavy and light syllables, and depends for its musical effect upon time and accentuation; or, pulsation and remission of sound, on the heavy and light syllables, respectively.

English verse may be divided into common time and triple time: the first being the pace of a man's walk; the second of a horse's canter. The accentuation is, as in music, always on the bar; that is, the accented note, or heavy syllable, must commence the bar, or its place must be supplied by a rest, which counts for it; for rests are as essential to rhythm as the notes themselves.

Thus we can divide or bar for accentuation, all English verse. Take the following three examples, as timed, barred, and accented: the two first are in common time, the third is in triple time:

|~~A | present | deity |~ they | shout a | round ~ |

3

8

Softly | sweet in | Lydian | measures |

Soon he soothed his | soul to | pleasures.

|~ The | prínces applaud with a | fúrious | joy~ |

~ And the | king seized a | flambeau with | zeal to des- [

troy." |

The pulsation of voice, and the classification or division of the syllables as accented and arranged in the preceding couplets, distinctly mark their different rhythm.-To illustrate this further, read the second line of the third couplet, as if it were thus divided and accented:

And the king | seized a flambeau | with zeal | to destroy.

Thus read, the verse becomes prose; for, by false accentuation, its musical movement is lost, and the rhythm is destroyed. This must be clear to every ear.

At the same time be careful not to fall into that sing-song style of reading verse, which is produced by the accentuation of little and insignificant words.

This sing-song style. so common among readers,