quity which proceeds from the tongue. In this asylum thy safety dwells. To thy holy retreat, an impure guest dares not approach. Enjoying the blessed calm and serenity of thy own mind, thou hearest the tempest raging around thee, and spending its strength; the objects of sense being removed, the appetites which they excited, depart along with them. The scene being shifted, and the actors gone, the passions which they raised, die away.'

'Expression' as before, but deepened by the mood of Contemplation.

Evening-Alison.

'There is an even-tide in the day,-an hour when the sun retires, and the shadows fall, and when nature assumes the appearance of soberness and silence. It is an hour from which everywhere the thoughtless fly, as peopled only in their imagination with images of gloom :-it is the hour, on the other hand, which, in every age, the wise have loved, as bringing with it sentiments and affections more valuable than all the splendours of the day.

'Its first impression is to still all the turbulence of thought or passion which the day may have brought forth. We follow, with our eye, the descending sun,-we listen to the decaying sounds of labour and of toil,—and, when all the fields are silent around us, we feel a kindred stillness to breathe upon our souls, and to calm them from the agitations of society. From this first impression, there is a second which naturally follows it ;-in the day we are living with men,-in the eventide we begin to live with nature; we see the world withdrawn from us,―—the shades of night darken over the habitations of men; and we feel ourselves alone. It is an hour fitted, as it would seem, by Him who made us, to still, but with gentle hand, the throb of every unruly passion, and the ardour of every impure desire; and while it veils for a time the world that misleads us, to awaken in our hearts those legitimate affections which the heat of the day may have dissolved. There is yet a farther scene it presents to us:-While the world

withdraws from us, and while the shades of the evening darken upon our dwellings, the splendours of the firmament come forward to our view. In the moments when earth is overshadowed, heaven opens to our eyes the radiance of a sublimer Being; our hearts follow the successive splendours of the scene; and while we forget, for a time, the obscurity of earthly concerns, we feel that there are "yet greater things than these."

'Expression' as before, but enlivened by Cheerfulness.

A Cheerful Mind.-Addison.

'I cannot but look upon a cheerful state of mind as a constant habitual gratitude to the great Author of nature. An inward cheerfulness is an implicit praise and thanksgiving to Providence, under all its dispensations. It is a kind of acquiescence in the state wherein we are placed, and a secret approbation of the Divine will in his conduct towards man.

'A man who uses his best endeavours to live according to the dictates of virtue and right reason, has two perpetual sources of cheerfulness, in the consideration of his own nature, and of that Being on whom he has a dependence. If he looks into himself, he cannot but rejoice in that existence, which is so lately bestowed upon him, and which, after millions of ages, will be still new, and still in its beginning. How many selfcongratulations naturally arise on the mind, when it reflects on this its entrance into eternity, when it takes a view of those improvable faculties, which in a few years, and even at its first setting out, have made so considerable a progress, and which will be still receiving an increase of perfection, and consequently an increase of happiness! The consciousness of such a being spreads a perpetual diffusion of joy through the soul of a virtuous man, and makes him look upon himself, every moment, as more happy than he knows how to conceive.

'The second source of cheerfulness to a good mind, is, its consideration of that Being on whom we have our dependence, and on whom, though we behold him as yet but in the first faint discoveries of his perfections, we see everything that we

can imagine as great, glorious, or amiable. We find ourselves everywhere upheld by his goodness, and surrounded with an immensity of love and mercy. In short, we depend upon a Being, whose power qualifies him to make us happy by an infinity of means, whose goodness and truth engage him to make those happy who desire it of him, and whose unchangeableness will secure us in this happiness to all eternity.

'Such considerations, which every one should perpetually cherish in his thoughts, will banish from us all that secret heaviness of heart which unthinking men are subject to when they lie under no real affliction,—all that anguish which we may feel from any evil that actually oppresses us, to which I may likewise add those little cracklings of mirth and folly, that are apter to betray virtue than support it; and establish in us such an even and cheerful temper, as makes us pleasing to ourselves, to those with whom we converse, and to Him whom we are made to please.'

EXERCISES IN VARIATION.'

The term 'variation,' in its relations to elocution, is used as a convenient designation for the change of expression,' which occurs in passing from the utterance of one emotion to that of another, in successive reading or speaking. It is, in reality, nothing else than true expression, adapted to the variations of feeling, in consecutive passages. The term ' modulation' is in popular language, often employed, though incorrectly, as regards musical nomenclature, to designate the changes of voice which arise from change of feeling.

The actual variation, however, by whatever name it may be called, is felt, by all hearers, to be an essential point in elocution, as the only means of rendering sentiment natural or impressive to the ear. An unvaried voice, as contrasted with one which gives a change of effect to every new turn of thought or feeling, is, relatively, as the dead body contrasted with the living man. The student cannot be too careful to repeat exercises such as the following, till his voice has ac

quired perfect flexibility, and the full power of instant change of effect, from the style of one emotion to that of another. Some passages require frequent and entire changes of every trait of voice, to keep up with the perpetually shifting effect of sentiment and expression, in the language of the composition. The following are but a few specimens of the requisite exercises in this department of elocution; but they may suffice to suggest the mode in which practice should be conducted.

INVOCATION OF LIGHT.-Milton.

Sublimity.

'Orotund Quality,' Full Force, Median Stress,' 'Low' Pitch, Prevalent 'Falling Inflection,' and 'Monotone,' Slow Movement,' Long Pauses, Moderate Emphasis, Powerful' Expression.'

'Hail holy Light! offspring of Heaven first-born,

Or of the Eternal co-eternal beam

May I express thee unblamed? Since God is Light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity; dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate!
Or hear❜st thou, rather, pure ethereal stream
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun
Before the heavens thou wert, and, at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle didst invest

The rising world of waters, dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite.

Thee I revisit now with bolder wing,

Escaped the Stygian pool, though long detained
In that obscure sojourn, while on my flight

Through utter and through middle darkness borne,
With other notes than to the Orphean lyre

I

sung

of chaos and eternal night,

Taught by the heavenly Muse to venture down
The dark descent, and up to re-ascend,

Though hard and rare.-Thee I revisit safe,

And feel thy sovereign vital lamp.

Deep Pathos.

6

'Quality' as before, Force' Subdued,' 'Stress' as before, 'Lowest' Pitch, 'Semitone' and plaintive effect of 'minor' intervals, Slowest Movement,' Pauses as before, Tender and subdued 'Expression.'

'But thou

Revisit'st not these eyes, that roll in vain

To find thy piercing ray, and find no dawn ;
So thick a drop serene hath quenched their orbs,
Or dim suffusion veiled.

Tranquillity, Solemnity, and Sublimity.

'Quality' as before, Force 'Moderate,'' Stress' as before, 'Middle' Pitch, 'Inflection' varied, 'Movement' and Pauses 'Moderate,' 'Expression' moderate.

'Yet not the more

Cease I to wander where the muses haunt
Clear spring, or shady grove, or sunny hill;
Smit with the love of sacred song. But chief
Thee Zion, and the flowery brooks beneath,
That wash thy hallowed feet, and warbling flow,
Nightly I visit; nor sometimes forget
Those other two, equalled with me in fate,
(So were I equalled with them in renown,)
Blind Thamyris and blind Mæonides,
And Tiresias and Phineus, prophets old;

Beauty, added to the preceding emotions.

'Quality' as before, Force softened,‘Stress' as before, Pitch deepened, Prevalent Monotone,' ' Movement' slower, Pauses longer, 'Expression' ardent but gentle.

'Then feed on thoughts that voluntary move

Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird

Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid

Tunes her nocturnal note. Thus with the year
Seasons return.