4. "Is all prepared? speak soft and low."
"All ready! We have sent the men,

As you appointed, to the place."

5. And the bride-maidens whispered, "'T were better, by far,

To have matched our fair cousin with young Lochinvar."

Fear.

1. Hush! Keep still! Don't breathe a loud word! They little suspect where we are. How eagerly they seek to find us!

2. "Simpson, go below and see what's the matter."

Simpson came up with his face pale as ashes, and said, "Captain, the ship is on fire."

1. I scorn forgiveness, haughty man!
You've injured me before the clan;
And naught but blood shall wipe away
The shame I have endured this day.

2. "Clarence is come — false, fleeting, perjured Clarence,--
That stabbed me in the field by Tewksbury!

Seize on him, furies! take him to your torments!"

FALSETTO TONE.

Falsetto is generally produced above the natural tone, and is used in the imitation of high female voices, in the voices of children, and in affectation, terror, etc.

Though rudely blows the wintry blast,
And sifting snows fall white and fast,
Mark Haley drives along the street,
Perched high upon his wagon-seat;
His somber face the storm defies,
And thus from morn till eve he cries,-
"Charco'! charco'!"

Hark, O! hark, O!"

"Charco' !"

'Hark, O!" Such cheery sounds

Attend him on his daily rounds.

LESSON VII.

MODULATION.

""Tis not enough the voice be sound and clear

'Tis modulation that must charm the ear."

Modulation consists in the adaptation of speech to the sentiment it is designed to convey. The ordinary changes or modulations are pitch, compass, force, rate, stress, and inflections.

QUALITY.-Quality refers to kind of voice and its relation to the kind or quality of sentiment. It properly belongs to modulation.

PITCH.

Pitch is the elevation or depression of voice in expressing thought.

There are three general kinds of pitch: low, middle, and high. Every person, in reading or speaking, assumes a certain pitch, which may be either high or low, according to circumstances, and which has a governing influence on the variations of the voice, above and below it. This degree of elevation is usually called the KEY-NOTE.

EXERCISES IN PITCH.

Let some one of the class skilled in music give the following exercise first, then all read; then three or four may read together, each in a different pitch, using first, third, fifth, and eighth tones.

NOTE.-Voices of males are usually keyed an octave below the voices of females, and this may be shown in the above exercise by one skilled in music. Call attention to the difference in pitch of the voices of children on the play-ground and in the school-room. Have pupils read a selection in any of the degrees of pitch represented above.

Low pitch is used in expressing solemn, sublime or pathetic thought.

EXAMPLES.
Solemn.

1. Little Nell was dead. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature FRESH from the hand of GOD, and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived and suffered DEATH. Her couch was dressed with here and there some winter berries and green leaves, gathered in a spot she had been used to favor. “When I die, put near me something that has loved the LIGHT, and had the SKY above it always." Those were her words.

2. Your sorrows, O people, are his peace! Your bells and bands and muffled drums sound triumph in his ear. Wail and weep here! Pass on!

3. So live, that when thy summons comes to join

The innumerable caravan which moves

To that mysterious realm where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,

Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night,
Scourged to his dungeon, but, sustained and soothed
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him and lies down to pleasant dreams.

Sublime Thought.

1. Eternity! thou pleasing,- dreadful thought!

2.

Through what variety of untried being,

Through what new scenes and changes must we pass!
The wide, the unbounded prospect lies before me;

But shadows, clouds and darkness rest upon it.

Father! Thy hand

Hath reared these venerable columns. Thou

Didst weave this verdant roof. Thou didst look down
Upon the naked earth; and forthwith rose

All these fair ranks of trees. They in Thy sun
Budded, and shook their green leaves in Thy breeze,
And shot towards heaven. The century-living crow,
Whose birth was in their tops, grew old and died
Among their branches, till at last they stood,
As now they stand, massy, and tall, and dark-
Fit shrine for humble worshipper to hold
Communion with his Maker!

Pathetic Thought.

Middle pitch is used in common conversation and in expressing unimpassioned thought and moderate emotion.

EXAMPLES.

1. When the sun rises or sets in the heavens, when spring paints the earth, when summer shines in its glory, when autumn pours forth its

fruits, or winter returns in its awful forms, we view the Creator manifesting himself in his works.

2. Grass is the forgiveness of nature - her constant benediction. Fields trampled with battle, saturated with blood, torn with the ruts of cannon, grow green again with grass, and carnage is forgotten. Streets abandoned by traffic become grass-grown like rural lanes, and are obliterated. Forests decay, harvests perish, flowers vanish, but grass is immortal. Banished from the thoroughfare and the field, it bides its time to return, and when vigilance is relaxed, or the dynasty has perished, it silently resumes the throne from which it has been expelled, but which it never abdicates. It bears no blazonry of bloom to charm the senses with fragrance or splendor, but its homely hue is more enchanting than the lily or the rose. It yields no fruit in earth or air, and yet should its harvest fail for a single year, famine would depopulate the world.

3. We must educate! We must educate! or we must perish by our own prosperity. If we do not, short from the cradle to the grave will be

our race.

High pitch is used in expressing gay, joyous or animated thought; also in giving commands.

Gay.

1. Robert of Lincoln is gaily dressed,

Wearing a bright black wedding-coat;

White are his shoulders, and white his crest.
Hear him call in his merry note:

"Bob-o-link, bob-o-link,

Spink, spank, spink,

Look what a nice new coat is mine;

66

Sure, there was never a bird so fine.

Chee, chee, chee."

Joyous or Animated.

1. 'The slogan's ceased but hark! din ye na hear

The Campbells' pibroch swell upon the breeze!

They're coming, hark!" then falling on her knees,-
"We're saved," she cries, "we're saved."

2. Go ring the bells and fire the guns,

And fling the starry banner out;
Shout"FREEDOM!" till your lisping ones
Give back their cradle-shout.