all interfere with the spiritual tendency of the exercise, by causing the natural law of sympathy with given signs and effects, to transcend the speaker's power of raising and exalting the soul; so that a pervading dullness and apathy, instead of a vivid emotion, shall be the predominating mood of the audience. The error, however, lies, in some cases, at the opposite extreme: the mere ardor of the speaker is suffered to carry him into vehement contortions of body, and, sometimes, even into violent gestures, in the act of prayer. A most impressive rebuke to this animal turbulence, might be derived from the touching Scripture representation of the seraphim, in the act of adoration, veiling their faces with their wings. The stillness of awe is one of the most obvious traits of tendency in expression. The submissive mien of reverence; the erect attitude of praise, the uplifted hands of gratitude, blessing, adoration, joy, and ardent aspiration; the humble posture of penitence and contrition; the clasped hands of supplication and entreaty; the folded hands of resignation and submission; the imploring outstretched arms; — all speak a natural language, and have their meaning in the heart of man. Devotion, destitute of these, may be pronounced decorous and chaste, and well-bred; but it is false to the great law of the Creator, that man's soul should find a language in his frame. PRINCIPLES OF ELOCUTION. THE preceding brief remarks on manner, were designed to lead the reader to the study and practice of the prominent rules and principles of elocution.. These will be found laid down, in detail, in the two volumes formerly mentioned, the manual of Orthophony and the American Elocutionist, the former designed to furnish the modes and means of cultivating the voice, on the system of Dr. James Rush; and the latter, the rules and principles of elocution, in connection with orthoëpy, rhetoric, and prosody, and the practice of gesture. To these works, therefore, the reader is referred for the full systematic study of elocution, as a science, and as an art. The design of the following synopsis, is to present those principles of elocution, which are immediately applicable to the purposes of the pulpit. Persons who had not paid attention, previously, to the art of reading, will thus be furnished with an outline of its most useful parts; and those who have become versed in its theory, will be provided with a special course of practice for professional purposes. THE CULTIVATION OF THE VOICE. Capability. The voice, like every other endowment or capacity of man, is a gift which bespeaks, at once, the power, the wisdom, and the beneficence of the Creator. It is an organ of wondrous power, of exquisite flexibility, of vast compass, of the most extensive range, of inexhaustible expression. Its capability of intense force is such as to render it clearly audible, at a distance, on some occasions, of several miles.* It is capable, also, of executing the "sound so fine, that nothing lives 'twixt it and silence.” It traverses, with ease, from notes allied, in depth, to the mutterings of distant thunder, up to those which pierce the ear with the shrillness of the horn. Its mellow tones, its softened breathings, and gentle undulations, are the charm of power to melt the heart to love: its yell of rage strikes terror into the fiercest of the brutes. Its plaintive wailings cause the arm of the warrior to fall powerless: its rousing and thrilling tone of courage, impels "the mass of living valor" to the cannon's mouth. Its moral and spiritual effect varies from the soul-subduing reverence of the strain of devotion, to the revolting violence of the curse of vindictive wrath. It passes, in a moment, perhaps, from the whisper of fear to the shriek of terror, or from the groan of despair to the ecstatic shout of joy. The natural powers, and capacities of the voice, are scarcely more wonderful than its susceptibility of cultivation by the processes of human art. It becomes, even in the humble culture which it receives, under the training of maternal care, capable of executing all the varied functions of speech, which are demanded by the daily communications of life. It attains, thus, to the power of giving utterance to every form of thought or mood of feeling, as prompting the language of seriousness and gravity, or of fancy, humor, and wit. The conventional forms of speech, embodied in articulate utterance, enable it, to a certain extent, to keep up with the innumerable and ever shifting movements of the mind. * The literal exactness of the above statement, can probably be avouched, as having been personally verified by other elocutionists as well as the author. Strong and clear voices, exerted in the form of a well-vocalized or perfectly musical call, may be easily heard, at a distance of from one to three miles, over water, or other level surfaces. The systematic and regulated culture which the voice receives, under adequate training, empowers the orator to sway the minds of men, at will, by the consummate mastery of eloquence. It enables the actor to enchain the attention, and entrance the imagination and feelings of his fellow-men, in a mental illusion which, for the moment, catches the very hue of reality. Such is man's vocal progress, from the helpless wailings of his infancy, to the triumphs which artistic genius enables him to achieve by the disciplined utterance of his maturity. That wisdom of the ancient world, which was derived from the faithful observation of nature, led to the assiduous cultivation of the vocal powers. The Greeks considered elocution as a part of the proper education of man as an expressive being; but they regarded it as an indispensable preparation for the functions of the orator. The Athenian mode of discipline for the formation of the voice, was so extensive as to comprehend a range of practice requiring the professional superintendence of three different classes of instructors, enumerated, by Roman writers, under the designation of "phonasci," "vociferarii," and "vocales." The office of the first named class, seems to have been that of moulding the voice as to "quality," the effect of vocal sound, as true, full, and agreeable, or otherwise, that of the second, to impart force and compass by rigorous practical training in set exercises, that of the third, to regulate the vocal habits in regard to intonation and inflection. To the effect of this strictly vocal discipline was added that of special athletic and gymnastic exercises, which were likewise arranged and classified in separate schools, established for the purpose of securing health and vigor, each by a form of muscular practice peculiar to itself. Five such schools have been distinctly enumerated by writers curious on such subjects; and to all of these it was deemed the duty of the rhetorician to recommend his pupils. The slight regard paid, in modern times, to the devel opment, either of the physical or the expressive powers of the human being, disposes us to look with an eye of suspicion and distrust, equally, on the athletic and the rhetorical discipline adopted by the ancient Greeks. We are prone to ascribe the one to their passionate love of external beauty, and the other to their fastidious regard to intellectual grace and polish: we condemn the whole process of their culture, as artificial and fantastic; or we refer their rigor of preparatory training to the necessity of the case, in the fact that their orators were accustomed to speak in the open air, and hence required a species of voice as little applicable to our purposes of speech, as would be that of a public crier. The stern character of Demosthenes, the most diligent and indefatigable in training, of all the orators of antiquity, forbids, (as was mentioned before,) the very idea of his submitting to a discipline artificial or fanciful in its prescriptions; and Cicero himself has borne eloquent testimony to the value of the vocal training to which he subjected himself, when in Greece. The cultivation of the voice is required on grounds. quite distinct from those of anticipated professional duties. The vocal muscles and the nerves of expression, (the great instruments of utterance,) are not only susceptible of cultivation to an equal degree with the other portions of the muscular and nervous systems of the human body, but to a much higher. The spiritual vividness of their action, - so important to their power of rendering instant obedience to the ever-varying requisitions of the mind, — renders these portions of the human frame the most plastic and the most docile of all. There is no form of muscular or of nervous action in which so entire a revolution can be speedily effected, as that which is exemplified in the production of vocal sound. A few weeks' daily practice are, usually, sufficient to produce an utter change of circumstances, as regards the ability to execute the prominent effects of voice, in "force" and "pitch,” - - the main |
