Thus I devote thee to the infernal gods Shouting.* Exultation. The Exclamations of Tell, on his Escape.- Knowles. To show they still are free! "Ye guards of liberty, I'm with you once again! — I call to you Calling.† [As in the case of the greatest distance between the speaker and the hearers.] Command. The Herald's Message.- Shakspeare, "Rejoice ye men of Angiers! Ring your bells! EXERCISES IN "STRESS." "Stress" may be briefly defined as the term used in elocution to designate the mode and the place of forming as an *This form of voice, although seldom exemplified in actual oratory, unless in vehement address in the open air, is of immense value, as exercise for invigorating the organs and strengthening the voice, in orotund quality. Its effects, when practiced a few times daily, for even a few weeks, are such as to impart great volume and power of utterance to persons who commence the exercise with weak organs and imperfect tone. † The effect of this exercise is to give compactness, and clearness, and purity of tone, to the utmost extent of voice. The call, although rising to a high note, with great loudness, should always be kept perfectly vocal or musical in its sound, resembling the easy, smooth effect of the loudest singing, in its gradual and skilful swell. It is nothing else than the maximum of "pure" or "head tone." the maximum of force in a single sound. Thus, in the appropriate utterance of some emotions, the force of the voice bursts out suddenly, with a percussive explosion; as in angry command, in which vocal sound is intended to vent the passion of the speaker, and to startle and terrify the hearer. An example occurs in the burst of fierceness and wrath with which Death replies to Satan: "Back to thy punishment, false fugitive!" We may contrast with this form of stress the gentle swell of reverence and adoration, in the devotional language of Adam and Eve in their morning hymn, in paradise: "Hail! universal Lord!" The utterance of the word "Back," in the former instance, éxemplifies “explosive" "radical" (initial) "stress," which bursts out, with percussive abruptness, on the initial or first part of the sound; that of the word "Hail," in the latter, “median,” (middle,) as gently swelling out to its maximum on the middle of the sound, whence it diminishes to the end or "vanish." Another mode of stress, termed "vanishing," withholds the abrupt explosion till the last particle (so to speak) of the empassioned sound, and then throws it out with a wrenching and jerking violence on the very "vanish," or last audible point of voice. This form of stress occurs in the tones of ungovernable impatience, deep, determined will, and excessive or inconsolable grief. Of the first of these emotions we have an example in the mad impatience of Queen Constance, when protesting against the peace between France and England, which was to sacrifice the rights of her son. “War! war! — no peace! Peace is to me a war!" Of the second we have an instance in the reply of the Swiss deputy to Charles the Bold, when he is announcing to the Duke the final determination of the cantons to resist, to the last, the invasion of their rights. Sooner than submit we will starve in the icy wastes of the glaciers!" Of the third, in the Psalmist's exclamation, "My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?" "A fourth mode of stress unites the "radical and the vanishing" on the same syllable, by an abrupt jerk of force on the first and last portions of the empassioned sound. This is the natural expression of astonishment, and is displayed with peculiar vividness, when the speaker reiterates the words of another person. An example occurs in the exclamation of Queen Constance, when she hears, for the first time, of the conditions of the peace between France and England, and repeats the words of the messenger. "Gone to be married! —gone to swear a peace!" A fifth form of stress, -peculiar to intense emotions, -throws out the voice, with the utmost force, on all the points of a sound which admit of being rendered conspicuous or prominent, — the beginning, the middle, and the end. This mode of utterance in emphatic syllables, is, from its pervading effect, termed "thorough" stress. It is exemplified in the shout of defiance, with which FitzJames addresses the band of Roderic Dhu, "Come one, come all! This rock shall fly Empassioned" Radical Stress." Bold, angry, and threatening Command. Satan's Address to Death. - - Milton. "Whence, and what art thou? execrable shape! To yonder gates? Through them I mean to pass, Retire, or taste thy folly, and learn by proof, Hell-born! not to contend with spirits of heaven!" * The explanations and examples given in the text, will, it is thought, serve to render the requisite distinctions plain. But fuller statements may be referred to in Dr. Rush's Philosophy of the Voice, or in the manual of Orthophony. Courageous Sentiment and Eloquent Address. Supposed Speech of John Adams. - Webster. Read the declaration of our independence at the head of the army, — every sword will be drawn from its scabbard, and the solemn vow uttered, to maintain it, or to perish on the bed of honor. Publish it from the pulpit, religion will approve it; and the love of religious liberty will cling round it, resolved to stand with it, or fall with it. Send it to the public halls, - proclaim it there, — let them hear it, who heard the first roar of the enemy's cannon, - let them see it, who saw their brothers and their sons fall on the field of Bunker Hill, and in the streets of Lexington and Concord; - and the very walls will cry out in its support!" Are the properties of matter all discovered? all found out? all detected? the uses to which they may be applied, I cannot believe it. The progress which has been made in art and science, is, indeed, vast. We are ready to think that a pause must follow, that the goal must be at hand. But there is no goal, and there can be no pause; for art and science are in themselves progressivé. They are moving powers, animated principles: they are instinct with life; they are themselves the intellectual life of man. Nothing can arrest them, which * A vivid initial force, without abruptness or violence. This style, though utterly free from empassioned vehemence, preserves the abrupt explosive opening of sound, to the extent required by distinct articulation, for vivid intellectual impression. The effect to the ear is like that, comparatively, of the clear tinkle of the falling icicle, or of the drop of rain, — a moderate, but remarkably clear sound, does not plunge the entire order of society into barbarism. There is no end to truth, no bound to its discovery and application; and a man might as well think to build a tower, from the top of which he could grasp Sirius in his hand, as prescribe a limit to discovery and invention.” Median Stress." Solemnity and Reverence. Adoration offered by the Angels.— Milton. "Thee, Father, first they sung, omnipotent, Immutable, immortal, infinite, Eternal King; thee, Author of all being, Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sitt'st, Pathos. Extract from Psalm CIII. V. 13. "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. 14. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust. 15. As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field so he flourisheth. 16. For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more." Tranquility. V. 1. The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want. 2. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. 3. He restoreth my |