Woos to her odorous haunts the western wind!
While circling round and upward from the boughs,
Golden with fruits that lure the joyous birds,
Mclody, like a happy soul released,

Hangs in the air, and from invisible plumes

Shakes sweetness down!

16. Dear brothers, who sit at this bountiful board,

With excellent viands so lavishly stored

That, in newspaper phrase, 'twould undoubtedly groan,
If groaning were but a convivial tone,

(Which it isn't, and therefore by sympathy led)

The table, no doubt, is rejoicing instead

Dear brothers, I rise, and it won't be surprising

If you find me, like bread, all the better for rising,

I rise, to express my exceeding delight,

In our cordial reunion this glorious night.

17. "We touch heaven when we lay our hands on a human body!" This sounds much like a mere flourish of rhetoric; but it is not so. If well meditated it will turn out to be a scientific fact; the expression, in such words as can be had, of the actual truth of the thing. We are the miracle of miracles, the great inscrutable mystery of God. We cannot understand it, we know not how to speak of it; but we may feel and know, if we like, that it is verily so.-Carlyle.

18. OUTWARD EXPRESSION OF TRUE LIFE.

A clear bright eye,

That can pierce the sky

With the strength of an eagle's vision;

A steady brain

That can bear the strain

And shock of the world's collision.

A well-built frame,

With the ruddy flame

Aglow, with the pulses leaping

With the measured time

Of a dulcet rhyme

Their beautiful record keeping.

19.

A rounded cheek
Where the roses speak
Of a home with seraph wardens,
And a chest so grand

That the lungs expand
Exultant beneath their burdens.

A breath like morn

Where the crimson dawn
Is fresh in its dewy sweetness,
A manner bright

And a spirit light

With joy at its full completeness.
Ah! give me these,
Nature's harmonies,

And keep all your golden treasures,
For what is wealth

To the boon of health

And its sweet attendant pleasures!

How beautiful this night! The balmiest sigh,
Which vernal zephyrs breathe in evening's ear,

Were discord to the speaking quietude

That wraps this moveless scene. Heaven's ebon vault,
Studded with stars unutterably bright,

Through which the moon's unclouded grandeur rolls,
Seems like a canopy which love has spread

To curtain her sleeping world. Yon gentle hills,
Robed in a garment of untrodden snow;
Yon darksome rocks, whence icicles depend-
So stainless, that their white and glittering spires
Tinge not the moon's pure beam; yon castled steep,
Whose banner hangeth o'er the time-worn tower
So idly, that rapt fancy deemeth it

A metaphor of peace-all form a scene
Where musing solitude might love to lift
Her soul above this sphere of earthliness;
Where silence, undisturbed, might watch alone,
So cold, so bright, so still.

20. It is not possible to satisfactorily explain this curious fact. But it may now be accepted as certain that every intellectual act becomes the source of an increase of heat and of different productions coming from the wear of the brain, which have to be eliminated from the system. The glands of the skin that secrete the perspiration act as safety valves for these phosphoric and electric elements that are set free in the human system by the action of the brain when thinking. This discovery is of the highest importance, and it is easy to see what practical benefits medical science will be enabled to derive from it. In the first place, its use in alleviating diseases caused by overworking the brain can scarcely be exaggerated. Then, again, it shows the importance for men who have great intellectual work to do to keep the skin in a perfectly healthy state.

21. "Man, thou shalt never die!" Celestial voices

Hymn it unto our souls; according harps,

By angel fingers touched when the mild stars

Of morning sang together, sound forth still

The song of our great immortality;

Thick clustering orbs, and this our fair domain,
The tall, dark mountains, and the deep-toned seas,
Join in this solemn, universal song.

Oh, listen, ye, our spirits; drink it in

From all the air! "Tis in the gentle moonlight;
'Tis floating 'midst day's setting glories; Night,
Wrapped in her sable robe, with silent step
Comes to our bed, and breathes it in our ears.

Night, and the dawn, bright day, and thoughtful eve,
All time, all bounds, the limitless expanse,

As one vast mystic instrument, are touched

By an unseen, living Hand, and conscious chords

Quiver with joy in this great jubilee.

The dying hear it; and as sounds of earth

Grow dull and distant, wake their passing souls

To mingle in this heavenly harmony.

MODULATION.

Modulation is a variation of the key or pitch of the voice in reading or speaking.

Its general divisions, Key, Force, Time, and Quality, are properly the elements of expression, as by the continuation of the different forms and varieties of these, emphasis, slur, monotone and other divisions of expression are produced.

The importance of the cultivation of the voice in modulation is fully appreciated by all who have been obliged to listen to those who read or speak without variation of tone or manner.

Key or Pitch refers to the degree of elevation or depression of the voice in reading or speaking.

For practice, Key is divided into Low, Middle and High, although there are as many keys as there are half-tones and even quarter-tones of the voice; any one of which may be made, at pleasure, the predominating tone of reading or speaking.

The Low Key is generally used in expressing awe, amazement, reverence, sublimity, deep solemnity and tender emotions.

EXAMPLES.

1. 'Tis midnight's holy hour, and silence now

Is brooding, like a gentle spirit, o'er

The still and pulseless world. Hark! on the winds

The bells' deep tones are swelling; 'tis the knell

Give the next exercise first in a whisper, then in a low tone:

Softly woo away her breath,
Gentle Death!

Let her leave thee with no strife,
Tender, mournful, murmuring Life!
She hath seen her happy day;
She hath had her bud and blossom;
Now she pales and sinks away,
Earth, into thy gentle bosom !

4. He covered up his face, and bowed himself
A moment on his child; then, giving him
A look of melting tenderness, he clasped
His hands convulsively, as if in prayer;
And, as if strength were given him of God,
He rose up calmly, and composed the pall
Firmly and decently, and left him there,
As if his rest had been a breathing sleep.

-N. P. Willis.

5. THE DEATH-BED.

We watched her breathing through the night—

Her breathing soft and low,

As in her breast the wave of life
Kept heaving to and fro.

So silently we seemed to speak,

So slowly moved about,

As we had lent her half our powers,

To eke her living out.

Our very hopes belied our fears,

Our fears our hopes belied,—

We thought her dying when she slept,
And sleeping when she died.

For when the morn came, dim and sad,

And chill with early showers,

Her quiet eyelids closed; she had

Another morn than ours.

-Thomas Hood.