The penultimate slide is not confined to oratorical selections, but occurs in all common reading, though applied in a more subdued form and with a shortened upward stroke. In grand, sublime and reverential styles, its use is indispensable.

The fullest cadential melody is the "Triad of the Cadence, or three successive downward steps on the musical scale, thus: "Doing well makes the current of our peculiar affections

swift

and

deep."

are

In the best manuals of elocution may be found a full discussion of the various forms of complete cadence: the Monad, Duad, Triad, Tetrad and Pentad forms. However, the triad form is recommended for general use as the most pleasing and satisfactory, even if we obliged to use words instead of syllables in executing the successive downward steps, and sometimes are obliged to sacrifice a trifle in strength for the sake of melodious closing effects. If the question is asked, Would you ever use a monad or duad form of cadence? I should answer, Yes; but for general practical use the triad is. preferred for reasons stated. This, like all other ideas in this discussion, is offered as a suggestion rather than as a general law, and for the following reason: in all matters of melody, whether current or closing, the student must be allowed the largest possible liberty consistent with a cultivated musical taste.

EXPRESSION.

By Expression we mean the utterance of words with their accompanying emotions. We do not develop the full thought of an emotional selection by the mere repetition of the words. If we did, the tenderest pathos and the sublimest passion would alike sink to the level of the most common talk. The temper or emotion which is the life of the thought, and which seeks conveyance in the words, must be expressed before the meaning of the author can be made known.

A knowledge, then, of the laws of Expression is necessary to the proper interpretation of thought. The method proposed in this book for the attainment of such knowledge has taken shape in my daily experience as a teacher, and has no greater merit than its practicability. No merely arbitrary rules are of value here. Nature must ever be the great teacher, and he who observes most clearly her best manifestations must be, of necessity, the best fitted to deduce the laws that underlie and control those manifestations.

It is, however, of great importance to the student of Elocution to remember that there is a certain best way to render every emotion, and having mastered one selection of a great class, the power has been acquired to render all selections of that type. By pursuing such a method, the reader will be lifted from the contemplation of a single piece to the class of which it is a specimen, and eventually to a classified knowledge of the laws that develop every sentiment and passion of the human soul.

NARRATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE, AND
DIDACTIC STYLES.

This class of selections includes all that is generally designated as common reading, viz.: conversations, essays, newspaper composition, or any selection which is intended simply to convey information to the mind. So frequent is the use of this style of address that more than twothirds of everything the professional man has to utter falls under this head, and in non-professional life nearly every thing that is spoken. The excellences of common reading may be compassed by observing the following suggestions:

FIRST-Purity of tone.

SECOND-Variety of tone.

THIRD-Distinctness of enunciation.

Purity of tone is of as much importance in common reading as in the rendering of sentiment. Every tone should fall from the lips like the tinkle of a coin upon the table. A clear, musical and crystalline articulation is the highest charm of common reading.

Variety of tone is an element not to be overlooked. An essay can be written out in musical forms as well as an oratorio, and he who makes the best music is, other things being equal, the best reader. A well-modulated voice traversing the musical scale with happy intonations renders common reading not only interesting, but highly artistic and charming. The only caution necessary is that overmuch variety may render the reading fantastic and flippant.

Distinctness of enunciation must always be strictly demanded. As a rule, we enunciate the first parts of our words distinctly, but the last parts are frequently blurred, or left untouched. The only relief in such cases is a thorough drill in the consonantal elements, until firmness, accuracy and force are developed in enunciation. The last syllable in a word should be brought out as distinctly

as the first, and the middle syllables as distinctly as the last.

The question may be raised, are Narrative, Descriptive and Didactic styles all read in the same manner? Narrative and Descriptive Readings, appealing in many instances to feeling and imagination for their chief effects, abound in vivid and varied tones associated with the different moods of sympathy and emotion; while Didactic subjects, being usually directed to the reason and judgment through the understanding, hold a more steady, uniform and regulated course of utterance, adapted to a clear, distinct and pointed conveyance of thought to the intellect.

NARRATIVE, DESCRIPTIVE AND DIDACTIC SELECTIONS.

HAMLET'S INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PLAYERS.

Oh!

Speak the speech I pray you, as I pronounced it to you, -trippingly on the tongue; but if you mouth it, as many of our players do, I had as lief the town-crier spake my lines. Nor do not saw the air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently; for in the very torrent, tempest, and, as I may say, whirlwind of your passion, you must acquire and beget a temperance, that may give it smoothness. it offends me to the soul to hear a robustious periwigpated fellow tear a passion to tatters,—to very rags,—to split the ears of the groundlings; who, for the most part, are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb show and noise. I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing Termagant: it out-herods Herod. Pray you, avoid it.

-

Be not too tame, neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the word; the word to the action; with this special observance that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature: for anything so overdone is from the purpose of playing; whose end, both at the first and now, was, and is, to hold, as 'twere, the mirror up to nature;—to show virtue her own feature; scorn her own image; and the very age and body of the time, his form and pressure. Now this, overdone or come tardy off, though it make the unskillful laugh, can not but make

the judicious grieve; the censure of which one, must, in your allowance, o'erweigh a whole theater of others. Óh! there be players, that I have seen play, and heard others praise, and that highly, not to speak it profanely, that, neither having the accent of Christians, nor the gait of Christian, pagan, or man, have so strutted and bellowed, that I have thought some of nature's journeymen had made men, and not made them well,-they imitated humanity so abominably! William Shakespeare.

BOOKS.

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for ability. Their chief use for delight is in privateness, and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition of business; for expert men can execute, and perhaps judge of particulars, one by one; but the general counsels, and the plots and marshalling of affairs, come best from those that are learned.

To spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a scholar; they perfect nature, and are perfected by experience—for natural abilities are like natural plants, that need pruning by study; and studies themselves do give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded in by experience. Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire them, and wise men use them, for they teach not their own use; but that is a wisdom without them, and above them, won by observation. Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention. Some books also may be read by deputy and extracts made of them by others; but that would be only in the less important arguments, and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books are, like common distilled waters,