i 1 INTRODUCTION. xi 3. You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog, And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine, And all for that which is mine own. I've watched, suspending e'en my breath, in fear Delivery is the expression of thought by means of words and actions. Perfect delivery, then, is the result of a mastery of every principle and art of elocution:- enunciation, emphasis, tone, earnestness, expression, action. Gestures must depend mainly upon the earnestness of the speaker's conception of what he is to utter. No one can portray character unless he can realize it, and he can realize it only by making it his own for the time, and by expressing himself exactly as a person would do in the supposed situation, and so “suit the action to the word, the word to the action.” Action has been defined as the beginning, the middle, and the end of oratory. It is shown chiefly by the expression and the management of the eye, and by the motions of the hand, although thought may be expressed or enforced by various movements of the body. “When all the powers of elocution are brought into requisition, - the voice, with all its thrilling tones; the eye, through which, a window, the soul darts forth its light; the whole glowing countenance; the whole breathing frame: - when every motion speaks, every muscle swells with the inspiration of high thoughts:— what instrument of music, what glories of the canvas can equal it? It is beauty, genius, power, sublimity, in their most glorious exercise." “So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading." Nehemiah viii. 8. GONTENTS PAGE Abou Ben Adhem........... ..........Leigh Hunt. 26 A Defence of Poetry. ...Rev. Charles Wolfe. 198 After the Battle........ 346 America's Contributions to the World..... .G. C. Verplanck. 192 American Laborers.......... C. C. Naylor. 165 An Appeal for our Country ..... .Judge 335 Antony's Address to the Romans... ....... Shakspeare 151 Apostrophe to Water ......... Jno. B. Gough. 111 A Psalm of Life ................ H. W. Longfellow. 234 Arnold Winkelried.. .James Montgomery. 187 Barbara Frietchie....... Jno. G. Whittier. 38 Battle Hymn....... Theodore Komer. 202 Beautiful Snow.... ..James W. Watson. 53 Bernardo Del Carpio. Mrs. F. Hemans. 159 Bill and Joe........ 0. W. Holmes. 246 Bingen on the Rhine . Mrs. Norton. 58 Bright Water...... E. Johnson. 184 Bring Flowers.... Mrs. Hemans. 76 Brutus on the Death of Cæsar. Shakspeare. 199 Catiline's Defiance...... . Rev. Geo. Croly. 217 Cato's Soliloquy on Immortality ..Addison. 375 Chamouny... .S. T. Coleridge. 207 Charge of the Light Brigade... . Alfred Tennyson. 22 Charity ...... Bible. 236 Chills and Fever .Rev. T. De Witt Talmage. 392 Christ in the Tempest.... .Jno. G. Whittier. 77 Count Candespina's Standard... Geo. H. Boker. 29 David's Lament over Absalom... .N. P. Willis. 148 Daniel Webster and Henry Clay... Wm. H. Allen. 176 Death of Little Nell........ Charles Dickens. 289 Death of Paul Dombey 352 ...... PAGE Thomas De Celano. 253 Dirge for a Sailor.... Geo. H. Boker. 345 E Pluribus Unum ...... ..Geo. W. Cutter. 185 ..Geo. W. Young. 369 Evangeline......... H. W. Longfellow. 263 Mrs. Hemans. 349 ... H. W. Longfellow. 65 Extract from Sermon on Death of. Extract from Thanatopsis...... Fitz James and Roderic Dhu......... God Everywhere....... .IIugh Hutton. 239 182 ....J. T. Trowbridge. 321 Guilt cannot Keep its own Secret...... Hagar in the Wilderness.... .N. P. Willis. 230 .Shakspeare. 161 154 ........Robt. Browning. 285 .Rev. E. H. Chapin. 278 · Macaulay. 119 How they Brought the Good News.. . Mrs. Browning. 110 ..Mrs. S, J. Hale. 281 Justice to the Whole Country.. Keep it Before the People .A. J. 11. Duganne. 330 Landing of the Pilgrim Fathers... Laus Deo......... ..Jno. G Whittier. 312 Lincoln's Address at Gettysburg Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address.. Lint........... 333 157 66 PAGE 66 Look Aloft...................... Milton on the Loss of his Sight...... ... E. Lloyd. 227 ...Joel B. Sutherland. 181 .Douglas Jerrold. 387 385 389 ......... 390 My Mother's Bible....... Geo. P. Morris. 295 Napoleon Bonaparte...... Charles Phillips. 68 New England's Dead.... ...Isaac McLellan. 80 Nobility of Labor..... .......... Rev. Orville Dewey. 189 Oh! why should the Spirit of Mortal be Proud........ Wm. Knox. 49 Old... .Ralph Hoyt. 249 Old Ironsides ...... 0. W. Holmes. 58 Old Tubal Cain ......... Charles Mackay. 229 Omnipotence of Jehovah ......... .Bible. 238 Oration against Catiline..... .Cicero. 202 Our Defenders ............. T. Buchanan Read. 32 Our Duty to our Country. ......... Judge Story. 193 Our Heroes shall Live..... ..Rev. Henry Ward Beecher. 311 Outward Bound...... .Mrs. Emily C. Judson. 305 Over the River.... Miss Priest. 158 Parson Turell's Legacy 0. W. Holmes. 381 Passing under the Rod.. .Mrs. S. B. Dana. 265 Praise ye the Lord..... .Bible. 237 Rienzi's Address ...... Miss Mitford. 95 Ring Out, Wild Bells ..Alfred Tennyson 248 Robespierre's Last Speech ..... Robespierre. 204 Robert Bruce and the Spider... ....... Bernard Barton. 150 Rum's Maniac............. .T. W. Nott. 140 Scenes of Childhood.... ...... 293 Scott and the Veteran Bayard Taylor. 66 Shamus O'Brien..... Lefanor. 96 Sheridan's Ride...... T. Buchanan Read. 47 Shylock to Antonio.. .Shakspeare. 267 Softly Murmur.... Philip Lawrence. 257 Sorrow for the Dead........... Washington Irving. 288 South Carolina and Massachusetts... Daniel Webster. 168 Spartacus to the Gladiators at Capua..... .E. Kellogg. 101 Speech in Defence of America ....... ..Lord Chatham. 205 |