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And thou, Rochèlle, our own Rochelle, proud city of the

wáters,

Again let rapture light the eyes of all thy mourning daughters;

As thou wert constant in our ills, be joyous in our joy, For cold and stiff and still are they who wrought thy walls annoy.

Hurrah! hurrah! a single field hath turned the chance

of wàr.

Hurrah! hurrah! for Ivry and King Henry of Navarre!

MACAULAY.

2. RICHMOND TO HIS TROOPS.

Fight, gentlemen of England! fight, bold yèomen!
Draw, archers, draw your arrows to the head:
Spur your proud horses hard, and ride in blood;
Amaze the wèlkin with your broken stàves.
A thousand hearts are great within my bòsom:
Advance our standards, set upon our foes!
Our ancient word of courage, fair St. George,
Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons!
Upon them! Victory sits on our hèlms.

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SHAKESPEARE.

The great bell swung as ne'er before:
It seemed as it would never cease;

And every word its ardor flung
From off its jubilant iron tongue
Was, "War! WAR! WAR!"

4. INDEPENDENCE.

READ.

Sír, before God, I believe the hour is còme! My júdgment approves this measure, and my whole heart is in it. All that I have, and all that I am, and all that I hope, in this life, I am now ready here to stake upon it; and I leave off, as I began, that, live or die, survive or

pèrish, I am for the declaration! It is my living sentiment, and, by the blessing of God, it shall be my dying sentiment-Independence now, and independence | forêver!

WEBSTER.

EXPLOSIVE AND EXPULSIVE OROTUND.

These two forms of the orotund are often combined in the same piece, and it is not easy to draw a marked line of division. In impassioned declamation the utterance changes from one to the other, according to the degree of feeling or passion. The following extract affords an illustration:

1. WEBSTER'S TRIBUTE TO MASSACHUSETTS.

Mr. Président, I shall enter on no encomium upon Massachusetts; she needs none. There she ís; behòld her, and judge for yourselves. There is her history; the world knows it by heart. The past, at least, is secùre. There is Boston, and Concord, and Lexington, and Bunker Hill; and there they will remain forèver. bones of her sóns, fallen in the great struggle for Indepéndence, now lie mingled with the soil of every State, from New England to Geòrgia; and there they will lie forever.

The

And, sir, where American Liberty raised its first voice, and where its youth was nurtured and sustained, there it still lives, in the strength of its manhood, and full of its original spirit. If discord and disunion shall wound it; if party strife and blind ambition shall hawk at and téar it; if folly and madness, if uneasiness under salutary and necessary restraint, shall succeed in separating it from that Union by which alóne its existence is made súre-it will stand, in the end, by the side of that cradle in which its infancy was rocked; it will stretch forth its árm, with whatever of vigor it may still retáin, over the friends who gather round it; and it will fall at last, if

fall it must, amid the proudest monuments of its own glóry, and on the very spot of its òrigin.

III. ASPIRATED QUALITY.

Aspirated quality means, in general, a combination of tone with whisper, causing the huskiness and harshness produced by a superabundance of breath under the influence of powerful emotions, such as anger, rage, terror, and horror. The whisper represents the extreme of aspirated quality.

THE WHISPER.

The pure whisper lies half way between breathing and vocality. The half-whisper is a combination of tone and whisper. The forcible whisper is a most valuable vocal exercise. It requires full, deep, and frequent breathing, and the vigorous use of the lips, tongue, and other vocal organs. The degrees of force in the whisper are indicated by the terms effusive, expulsive, and explosive.

The pure whisper is rarely used in reading, the effect being generally suggested by the half-whisper, or by aspirated quality. The following exercises and examples are given for the purposes of vocal training.

TABLE OF ASPIRATES.

[First whisper the words, then the aspirates, and then give the phonic spelling of each word in a forcible whisper.]

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WHISPER DRILL.

Practice each exercise with three degrees of force: (1) Effusive, or soft. (2) Expulsive, or forcible. (3) Explosive, or intense.

1. With effusive force, repeat as many times as possible without taking breath: ā-ē-ī-ō-ū.

2. To ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, join ƒ, and repeat as above; join t; join h.

3. Count, in a whisper, from one to ten, with one breath; from one to twenty; one to thirty, or more.

EXAMPLES OF EFFUSIVE WHISPER.

1. Step softly, and speak low.

2. Whisper! she is going to her final rest. Whisper! life is growing dim within her breast.

3. Hark! hist! around I list.

The bounds of space all trace efface
Of sound.

4. And his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand:
"Isn't God upon the water,

Just the same as on the land?"

5. And again to the child I whispered:
"The snow that husheth all,

Darling, the merciful Father

Alone can make it fall!"

6. And the bridemaidens whispered: "Twere better by far, To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."

7. The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;" And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"

The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"

And the lily whispers, "I wait."

EXAMPLES OF EXPULSIVE WHISPER.

1. Or whispering with white lips, "The foe! they come! they come!"

2. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come, come, come, give me your hand.

3. Soldiers! You are now within a few steps of the enemy's outposts. Let every man keep the strictest silence, under pain of instant death.

EXAMPLES OF EXPLOSIVE WHISPER.

1. Hark! I hear the bugles of the enemy. For the boats! Forward! Forward!

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3. Art thou some gód, some angel, or some devil, That mak'st my blood run cold and my hair to stand!

WHISPER AND TONE.

In some of the following illustrations of aspirated quality, the whisper predominates over tone; in others, the aspiration only affects the tone with a marked roughness, huskiness, or aspirated harshness. The extent to which aspirated quality may be applied is often a matter of taste on the part of the reader.

EXAMPLES.

1. But hush! hark! a deep sound strikes like a rising knell.

2. THE CURFEW BELL.

"Sexton," Bessie's white lips faltered, pointing to the

prison old,

With its walls so dark and gloomy-walls so dark, and damp, and cold—

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