ing conversation and illustrative anecdote to bring the learner's mind into the right mood of emotion, for the full expression of sentiment; and this is peculiarly important when pieces have been previously and repeatedly read, as a matter of routine, till the attention has become dull and the feelings indifferent.

The pupil's own attentive study of the meaning of what he reads, however, is the best security for natural force and variation of tone. Little improvement can be made in intonation, till the learner has acquired the power of abstracting his attention from a mechanical enunciation of the words he is reading, and can fix his mind with such force on the thoughts as to make them his own. He must get rid of the idea of words and phrases, clauses and sentences, and fasten on the mental objects presented to him; so that he may express these as if they rose before him at the moment of utterance: Sameness of tone arises from too exclusive attention to words. In the mechanical and monotonous exercise of adding syllable to syllable, and word to word, the free play of the mind is lost, and its power over the voice consequently diminished. This effect is a very natural result of the usual method of instruction in the elements of reading; and to shake off the habits caused by such influence, is the first step towards improvement.

Mono

The teacher may, by his selection of exercises in. reading, do much to favour the acquisition of easy and natural tones of voice; if care is only taken that no piece be read which is above the comprehension of young readers, or not adapted to their taste. tonous dulness and forced variety of tone, are equally caused by promiscuous and inappropriate reading. Where the mind has not the command of thought and feeling, it will naturally flow into a mechanical attention to words; and in reading or speaking, the tones of the voice, (as they are always a true echo to the actual state of feeling,) will indicate the fact by formal and unmeaning utterance.

In practising on particular passages which are found difficult, the teacher must show the pupil the nature of the tone or of the variation required-by practical illus

tration; guarding, however, against the pupil's imitating or rather mimicking his teacher's tone, instead of acquiring one of his own; since a natural manner, though tame, is preferable to one which borrows its liveliness from affectation.

A great advantage may be derived from illustrations drawn from the tones of music, when pupils possess a sufficient knowledge of that art;-its terms being more definite and exact than those of elocution.

Exercises in dialogue and in dramatic pieces, if judiciously selected, are of great practical utility, as means of imparting animation and variety of tone.

EXERCISES.

SINGLE TONES.

Force or loudness:

1. Again to the battle, Achaians!
Our hearts bid the tyrants defiance.

*** we've sworn, by our country's assaulters,
By the virgins they've dragg'd from our altars,
By our massacred patriots, our children in chains,
By our heroes of old, and their blood in our veins,
That living, we will be victorious,

Or that dying, our deaths shall be glorious.

A breath of submission we breathe not,

The sword that we've drawn we will sheath not; Its scabbard is left where our martyrs are laid, And the vengeance of ages has whetted its blade. Earth may hide-waves ingulph-fire consume us, But they shall not to slavery doom us:If they rule, it shall be o'er our ashes and graves; But we've smote them already with fire on the waves, And new triumphs on land are before us:To the charge! Heaven's banner is o'er us.

2. Scots, who have with Wallace bled, Scots, whom Bruce has often led, Welcome to your gory bed

Or to victory!

Now's the day and now's the hour;
See the front of battle lower,
See approach proud Edward's power,
Chains and slavery!

Who would be a traitor knave?
Who would fill a coward's grave?
Who so base as be a slave?
Let him turn and flee!

Who for Scotland's king and law
Freedom's sword will strongly draw,—
Freeman stand or freeman fall?
Let him on with me!

By oppression's woes and pains,
By your sons in servile chains,-
"We will drain our dearest veins
But they shall be free."

Lay the proud usurpers low;
Tyrants fall in every foe,
Liberty's in every blow,-

"Let us do-or die."

Softness or faintness of utterance:

The heavens are all blue; and the billow's bright verge

Is frothily laved by a whispering surge,
That heaves incessant a tranquil dirge,
To lull the pale forms that sleep below:-
Forms that rock as the waters flow.

That bright lake is still as a liquid sky:
And when o'er its bosom the swift clouds fly,
They pass like thoughts o'er a clear, blue eye.
The fringe of thin foam that their sepulchre binds,
Is as light as the clouds that are borne by the winds.
Soft over its bosom the dim vapours hover
In morning's first light: and the snowy-wing'd
plover,

That skims o'er the deep

Where my loved ones sleep,

No note of joy on this solitude flings;

Nor shakes the mist from its drooping wings.

Low pitch of utterance:

1. The curfew tolls,-the knell of parting day, The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea, The ploughman homeward plods his weary way, And leaves the world to darkness and to me. Now fades the glimmering landscape from the sight,

And all the air a solemn stillness holds,

Save where the beetle wheels his drony flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

2. An everlasting hill was torn

From its primeval base, and borne,
In gold and crimson vapours drest,
To where a people are at rest.-
Slowly it came in its mountain wrath;
And the forests vanish'd before its path;

And the rude cliffs bowed; and the waters fled;
And the living were buried, while over their head
They heard the full march of their foe as he sped;-
And the valley of life was the tomb of the dead,
The mountain sepulchre of all I lov'd!
The village sank; and the giant trees

Lean'd back from the encountering breeze,
As this tremendous pageant mov'd.

The mountain forsook his perpetual throne,
And came down in his pomp: and his path is shown
In barrenness and ruin;-there

His ancient mysteries lie bare;
His rocks in nakedness arise;
His desolations mock the skies.

High pitch:

1. Come forth, O ye children of gladness, come!
Where the violets lie, may be now your home.
Ye of the rose lip, and the dew-bright eye,
And the bounding footstep, to meet me fly!
With the lyre, and the wreath, and the joyous lay,
Come forth to the sunshine!-I may not stay.

2. Come hither, hither, my litle page;
Why dost thou weep and wail?
Or dost thou dread the billow's rage,
Or tremble at the gale?

But dash the tear-drop from thine eye;
. Our ship is swift and strong:
Our fleetest falcon scarce can fly
More merrily along.

3. Stay, lady-stay, for mercy's sake,
And hear a helpless orphan's tale:
Ah! sure my looks must pity wake-
"Tis want that makes my cheek so pale!
Yet I was once a mother's pride,

And my brave father's hope and joy:
But in the Nile's proud fight he died-
And I am now an orphan boy.

Poor, foolish child; how pleased was I,
When news of Nelson's victory came,
Along the crowded streets to fly,

To see the-lighted windows flame!
To force me home my mother sought-
She could not bear to see my joy!
For with my father's life 'twas bought-
And made me a poor orphan boy!

Slow rate of utterance:

1. Here rests his head, upon the lap of earth,

A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;Fair science frown'd not on his humble birth; And melancholy mark'd him for her own. Large was his bounty and his soul sincere; Heaven did a recompense as largely send; He gave to misery all he had—a tear;

He gain'd from heaven-'twas all he wished,a friend.

No further seek his merits to disclose,

Or draw his frailties from their dread abode;There they alike in trembling hope repose,

The bosom of his Father and his God.

2. O Thou that rollest above, round as the shield of my fathers! whence are thy beams, O Sun! thy everlasting light? Thou comest forth in thy awful beauty; the stars hide themselves in the sky; the