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thority for indulging in such practices. The case is similar, as regards the tear and wear of vocal exertion: if not counteracted by rational preventives, it cuts off, silently but surely, its annual multitudes of victims. The seasonable precautions which a proper early education would prescribe, might obviate all such evils. But, as matters are, this result is left to the choice of the adult student, at a stage when the remedy, if not speedily applied, may prove too late.

"Inflection."

The systematic cultivation of the voice, is in no respect more important to true and effective expression, than in its proper inflection, or, in other words, its transits upward and downward on the scale, in accommodation to the variations of thought and feeling, whether in emphatic words, or the successive clauses of a sentence. The utterance of unpractised and unskilful readers, is usually marked by the absence of inflection, and, consequently, a prevailing monotony; or by mechanical inflections, which never rise or fall beyond a certain note, and which necessarily give a measured correspondence of parts to all sentences, alike; gliding up at one clause and down at another, in a regularly alternating see-saw of sound, which destroys the natural variety of thought and emotion. This uniformly recurring verbal melody, resembles, in effect, the singing of all the hymns in a book to the same tune. Another common fault in inflection, is that of overdoing it; so that the upward and downward slides are rendered mechanically and disagreeable prominent, projecting themselves upon the ear, as the jagged rocks of wild scenery upon the eye; or that of exaggerating every inflection into a double form, comprising both slides in every distinctive or emphatic accent. This style destroys all repose and dignity of voice, by its jerking turns and reduplications, and its over anxious emphasis. Anoth

er error, still, converts all poetry into prose by substituting the pointed and marked inflections of common discourse, for the reduced and melodious ones of verse. This fault

seems to extract the appropriate feeling from a hymn, and to bring it down from devotional elevation to mere practical associations of utility, such as are appreciated by the understanding, rather than felt in the heart. But the most prevalent of all faults in inflection, is that of varying the voice by a certain personal melody of tone, habitual to the reader alone; sliding upward or downward or waving and undulating, at the dictate of a false ear, without any regard to the expression of thought or feeling, and in obedience to no law but the accustomed gait of the individual's peculiar style of utterance, contracted at school. This fault constitutes what is termed, in popular language, "a tone." It marks the man, but does not express his meaning. Its effect resembles that of singing "out of tune," and adding to false intonation a vitiated melody. Whatever may be the sentiment which such a speaker utters, its effect is neutralized, more or less, by this trick of habit. Yet it is a fault from which few speakers comparatively are exempt. Some exemplify it more conspicuously; others, less so: but it is an error in elocution which holds possession of the pulpit, to the ex clusion of the genuine expressive utterance that nature prompts, and which alone can elicit a true personal sym, pathy.

A degree of attention, no greater than is usually given, in the cultivation of vocal music, to the mastering of the gamut, would cure all the faults which usually disfigure the inflections of pulpit clocution, and would enable the preacher to speak with effect both to head and heart, in the appropriate language of inflection. The simple and complex slides of the voice upward and downward on the scale, are the only proper means of drawing intellec

*The complex or double slide of the voice, Dr. Rush terms the "wave."

tual distinctions, of indicating the constituent and relative parts of a sentiment, as these are subdivided and arranged in the consecutive clauses of a sentence, or of conveying those emotions which predominate in the heart of the speaker, and which he wishes to transfer to those of his audience.

"Inflection," whether it is exemplified in the form of the "slide" or the "wave," may be analyzed scientifically, in the manner exhibited in Dr. Rush's work on the voice, by the application of the musical scale; or it may be studied practically, by attentive observation of the actual turns of voice, in the exercises of reading and speaking. But, in either case, it requires a close and penetrating application of the attention to nice and exact distinctions of sound. It cannot be mastered by ordinary inspection or transient notice. But the due study and practice of this part of elocution will be richly rewarded, in the acquisition of a skilful and effective control over the true "melody" of speech and reading, and, consequently, over that music of the voice which plays, at the will of the orator, the tune of thought or that of feeling. Inflections are, always, the vocal exposition of a sentence: they are the interpreters of speech and enforce its meaning; without them, reading is but the senseless syllabication of the juvenile learner, in his unpractised steps, when the spirit of a passage is merged in the mere sound of words as such. The voice of the skillful reader, aided by appropriate inflections, strikes a thought home to both head and heart, and awakes in the soul every kindred association. Inflection is, in all cases, one of the most useful and effectual instruments of true eloquence. It is the purest and most brilliant of all the ornaments which a consummate elocution confers on the voice. It is the appropriate language of a cultivated intellect and a discerning spirit; and it is, not less distinctively, the melody into which emotion breathes the life and power of expression.

*The various forms of inflection will be found scientifically arranged

"Movement."

Another distinguishing trait of a cultivated voice, and one which is of the utmost moment to the preacher, is the complete control which it ensures over the " movement," or rate of time observed in utterance, as adapted to different emotions. A slight observation is sufficient to enable any ear to detect the common faults, in this particular, which are exhibited in the pulpit. Some preachers, desiring to secure a plain, familiar style of expression, resembling that of conversation, run into the error of too great rapidity. A similar result is produced by the constitutional vivacity of others. In either case, dignity and impressiveness, and even distinctness, are, more or less, sacrificed to impulse and velocity.

The audience which the minister of religion usually addresses, is of a mixed character, as to intellectual discipline and ability, and is largely made up of persons who are daily engaged in the practical pursuits of active business. Minds addicted to habits of this description, do not usually prove rapid in the formation of strictly in tellectual associations: they need a comparatively full allowance of time to aid the development of a train of thought. An audience formed of students and professional men, accustomed to facility and rapidity of mental action, can more easily keep up with the succession of ideas created by a reader whose gait of voice inclines to velocity. The habit of silent reading enables the prac tised student to follow the succession of thought with the utmost rapidity; and his discipline of intellect renders him competent even to foresee a speaker's drift of thought, and anticipate his train of argument. But the man of and designated in Dr. Rush's Philosophy of the Voice. They are ex. emplified in technical detail, in the volume on Orthophony, formerly mentioned, and practically applied to an appropriate selection of passages in the American Elocutionist.

merely operative and practical habit, must move deliberately, and follow, rather than accompany, a speaker. The aged hearer, who has little intellectual facility, often complains of the preacher's rapidity and confusion of utterance. Complaints such as this, are not always well grounded; and the waning faculties of age are, too often in these cases, the chief source of apparent feebleness and indistinctness in the voice of the preacher. No speaker, however, who addresses a mixed audience, should suffer himself to fall into the rapidity of utterance which leaves any passage unintelligible to any individual among his hearers.

Deliberateness of manner is not only an indispensable requisite to intelligible address, but a powerful and natural aid to impressive utterance. Without a moderate rate of "movement” in the voice, there can be no association of grave or grand effect on the ear: the style of utterance is, in such instances, unavoidably rendered light and trivial. Solemnity, in particular, demands the utmost slowness of utterance. The uncultivated reader is always prone to clerity of enunciation, and thus hinders repose and reverence, and every other form of deep and tranquil, impression. A style like this, is peculiarly ill-suited to the purposes of reading and speaking, as connected with the duties of the sacred office.

The cultivated reader is taught to appreciate the becoming effect and moral beauty of due slowness, as an attribute of sacred eloquence. He gives, accordingly, ample scope to sound, lengthens the duration of every prominent vowel, and thus makes it the fit vehicle of deep and full emotion: he avoids a crowded utterance as the very bane of serious and grave feeling; he cultivates the habit of moderation in the succession of sounds; and his pauses all naturally receive a proportioned length, by which they become deeply impressive to the ear. These traits of utterance are indispensable to the majesty of style prevalent in all the sublime descriptions of the Old

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